Summary: >

Infinite Stratos are a technological breakthrough that allow people to assume an exoskeleton that gives them immense power. The inventor decides to distribute the 400 or so IS cores equally to the nations of the world, who agree not to use it for combat. IS technology is unusual in that only women can pilot the things. Until now. Ichika Orimura is found to be the only man in existence (so far) who can control an IS, and is compelled to attend the all girls IS piloting school. Needless to say Ichika becomes popular.

Thoughts: >

Infinite Stratos is a title which abandons character development, has an idiotic premise and has no meaningful plot. What kind of revolutionary idea does Infinite Stratos have in store for us that it would forsake everything considered essential to a good series? A harem anime. Yeah, it basically trips all over itself like a blubbering idiot to deliver yet another formula harem, and doesn't even do it very well. Infinite Stratos moves past the harem concept being distilled to a formula, and basically assembles itself like Lego pieces from a bucket of generic anime stuff. Even by that description, I would have expected something better constructed than this.

It starts off with the these mecha power suits called Infinite Stratos (IS). For reasons unexplained they can only be controlled by women. There's a treaty which states that IS suits are to be distributed equally among nations of the world. Are you buying that? Yeah me neither. They also agreed to only use the IS for "sports". Seriously. This supposedly overwhelmingly powerful technology is then handed to teenagers. Only females can pilot the IS because ... that's what the story says, except for this ONE guy because ... that's what the story says. My theory is that this guy isn't a guy at all, or he's most certainly gay.

And this is where the main character Ichika Orimura comes in. It's one thing where the guy gets female attention despite his lack of redeeming qualities. It's another thing entirely when he gets this attention because the females have no other option. If we're talking about fantasy fulfillment of being surrounded by nothing but cute girls (who apparently take a liking to their only choice) then there is some merit to that. I just find it hard to root for a guy who's at odds with being a male, and seems totally disinterested in the girls who are drooling over him. Another really annoying trait of Ichika, is that he's miraculously a fantastic IS pilot. Everyone else has to work at it, study, and practice, but he's just gifted with this ability.

The female cast is a tired array of stock anime girls that have been done before, and done better. They perform the expected harem anime tropes, but are mainly preoccupied with fighting over the only man they can. This is pretty much all that Infinite Stratos is really offers, and the action is just glitzy filler. The end sequence shows the girls who have currently been introduced, running with Ichika. I couldn't help but think that was similar to a trophy collection...

The story is as poorly thought out as the premise. There's a bunch of fighting where Ichika play some pivotal role, leading to strengthen the bonds with the hearts he's conquered or is about to. Not that they put up much resistence.

To be fair Infinite Stratos is a fairly attractive show. The character designs are pretty nice, environment is well rendered and the giant robots are... giant robots. The animation is impressive during action scenes, even if most of the action is basically stuff moving fast as opposed to doing anything inventive. The soundtrack is pretty good as well. It's a pity that these attributes couldn't be put towards an anime which is original, but despite being nothing more than a tired anime rehash, this is what (Japanese) anime fans demand, and what studios have to make to survive. This is why I don't harbor any ill will towards this anime, which should considered be a slap in the face to any long time anime fan, as it's the equivalent of serving us stale leftovers - we've already seen this stuff so many times before.

So to sum it up, Infinite Stratos is pretty bad... but at least it looks nice. It retreads the typical harem antics, but mostly consists of the girls squabbling over the clueless guy. For some I guess that may be enough to carry the title. With the lack of any compelling story, poorly thought out concepts, and characters that aren't particularly likable I found it more like watching a train wreck (still fascinating but in a bad way), so I really can't recommend this one.