LaGrange - The Flower of Rin-ne [Anime Review]

This is an anime I had no idea really about when I put it in the player. I remembered liking the preview before ordering it, but that was really it. I had to make sure I liked it before ordering season two, and so it went to the top of the watch list.

I'm glad I bought it.

The world look completely downside-up.

It was better than I was expecting. It was very well done, and I'm really looking forward to season two.

4.0 Stars

Woof.

This is a mecha anime, and yet it is very very character driven. The machines are more of a platform for the mysteries of the series, the plot is driven by the characters and their interactions with the war that has come to earth. 

So here's how the story goes.

Not really... it is more of a character driven drama. But still...

It's an average day in the cozy simple beach-side city of Kamogawa. Madoka Kyono, the only member of Kamogawa Girls' High School Jersey Club. The Jersey Club is a different type of club, their only purpose - to help others. The Jersey club will assist with any task that needs doing, from pinch hitting in baseball to getting cats out of trees.

On her way to school Madoka saves a child from drowning in the ocean, conveniently she wears a swimsuit under her school clothes. After saving the child she can not find her her uniform, so she sprints off to school in just a swimsuit. Thankfully there she has her Jersey and wears that for the school day.

After school Madoka runs into a girl she's never met before named Fin E Ld Si Laffinty, or Lan. This girl strips off her school uniform and returns it to Madoka.

That's not exactly what she said.

Lan is looking for comrades to help her. Lucky for her she met Madoka of the Jersey club. Rather quickly the two girls are off across the ocean to a massive floating military facility where Madoka is asked to pilot a giant robot called a Vox.

I'm going to stop there.

That's not even the first episode in full, I think all of that occurs before the first add break. So once again, a very full series for only twelve episodes.

But that's not my favorite thing. The whole series is driven by these three girls; a lonely girl who wants to help others but has deep worries about her own motivations, a demure girl trapped by her world's past and her heritage, and a girl born on a prison world and haunted by her past. Those are actually rather inadequate descriptions, they are bad tag lines. Why? Because these are actually very well crafted characters with lots of depth and multiple dimensions to their personalities. What's even better is it is not just the main characters that have depth, there are even some of the secondary characters are much more fleshed out than I was expecting, but not all of them.

Three male characters, despite appearances.

Of course, as with so many anime there is a level of humor here. It's not a driving element, but it has its moments. Several were very funny. 

I feel like I'm not making a case for how good the series actually was. Perhaps that is because there is not one single specific thing that stands out as the reason it is so much fun. Instead there are many things that all add together to make it a fun series.

Watch it. I do not think you will be disappointing.

I'm looking forward to to the second series which is coming sometime in January.

Why won't it read the user agreement?!