A stunning opening sequence follows on the heels of a weak, info-dumpy opening scene that’s there to let us know that in 2045 WWIII began and was fought exclusively by android Tactical Dolls that are indistinguishable from young human women. Seventeen years later, the T-dolls are still duking it out, Griffin (good guys) vs Sangvis (baddies). Our girls, four Griffins who are not like the others, are infiltrating enemy territory to retrieve some data off an old-fashioned piece of technological hardware known as a desktop computer. They must foil the enemy’s traps along the way, and then use their keen tactical abilities to outmaneuver a superior force that lays siege to them as they transfer the data with painstaking slowness — must be USB 2.0. The enemy sends in a High-End Agent model whose sinister personality and considerable brute force factor are clearly conveyed by her maid outfit. Successfully surviving the siege, the team is fleeing Sangvis territory when they stop at a church where the entire congregation has died, judging by the density of gravestones in the front yard. Here, they are set upon by not one, but two enemy maids! This is a dire situation because—sorry for not saying this before—beneath their skirts, the maids sport not one, not two, not even just three, but four machine guns. That’s eight machine guns. Our girls are doomed! Except that they have superior tactical skills (did I mention that?) and enough experience working together that they do not rely on the matrix, er, the Zener Protocol system that I think links their thoughts but can be (and was) hacked. Woot! Take that, machine gun maids! Now the girls must split up in order to complete their mission. Death flags???
This was a hoot and a half! The marketing visuals for this series, an adaptation of a mobile game, caught my eye months ago, and although the actual episode is not up to those standards, there were some pretty striking backgrounds here and there, and the OP animation style popped. There’s quite a lot of gobbledegook dialogue, throwing around complex serial code-like designations, lots of munitions details and so on, though it still remains comprehensible. Think Gun Gale Online, but with futuristic semi-fantasy weapons. In fact, think Gun Gale Online for the focus on tactics and strategy too—though so far the girls on the frontline are not quite up to Llenn’s standards. The costuming is probably the most intriguing part of the world-building to me though, as we can see a clear hierarchy reflected in the clothing worn by the different groups of AIs. Your basic model baddie sports a high leg black swimsuit with cutout, because who doesn’t want to always be prepared to make a quick water getaway in the heat of battle and still look sexy while doing it? The basic level good guys wear more clothing, uniforms to be exact: school uniforms, nurses outfits, and military cadet wear, albeit in their short-skirted anime iterations. The more autonomous bots, like the Agents and our girls, are more fully clothed, while the good guys even lose the uniform element, each of the four having her own distinctive mc-worthy outfit to go along with their diverse hairstyles, eye color and weaponry. Are they perhaps the closest of all the AI to being human? It certainly seems so, as they emote in a variety of ways, experiencing doubt, hesitation, compassion, and so forth. Though they are all named after makes of gun, so they’ll need to get some real names at some point. Anyhow, I’m interested enough to give this series the standard 3-episode trial to prove itself to be more than just a marketing ploy for the game. Also, the ending credit song is super fun.
