HomeAnimeChrome Shelled Regios - Collection 1 Review

Chrome Shelled Regios – Collection 1 Review

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Chrome Shelled Regios - Collection 1 Review 1Title: Chrome Shelled Regios – Collection 01
Published by: Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand / Funimation Entertainment in the US
Based on: A light novel series of the same name, developed by Shusuke Amagi
Audio: English and Japanese dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)
Runtime: 300 minutes
Cost: $59.95
Classification: This title is classified M for Animated Violence.
Blurb: “This series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone lives in safe cities known as Regios. This series surrounds a group of characters in the 17th Platoon of Zuellni with many interesting characters, plot-lines and battle sequences. Featuring a moderate standard of graphics and music, this is definitely a series to consider adding to your collection.
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to Madman Entertainment for providing me with a review sample of this title.

Most probably the final Madman title I am reviewing for May, Chrome Shelled Regios was the last title on my list for a specific reason….. all of my friends encouraged me to review this one over the others. Chrome Shelled Regios is a series that passes itself off as Post-apocalyptic, however for the most part you will find yourself in a very modern Western Environment, with lots of battle scenes thrown into it. Interested? Seen this on your local anime suppliers shelf and thought this might be another generic fighting anime? Well read on to find out that it is different from your normal series, in my review on Chrome Shelled Regios Collection 1. 

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The world of tomorrow is an arid wasteland; a forsaken place where nomadic communities ake shelter within mobile domed cities. Massive, mutant Contaminoid monsters swarm the planet’s desolate surface, and the lack of resources fuels constant conflict between cities. In this bleak future, mysterious young Layfon struggles to escape his violent past.

Unfortunately, his former life might be impossible to hide after he’s forced to enroll at the military academy – his special powers are clearly stronger than those of his comrades. As he joins his fellow student soldiers in the desperate battle against this Contaminoid scourge, Layton must fight to keep the origins of his enhanced abilities a secret, because the truth may tear them apart.

The storyline is nothing special at first glance, it is a post-apocalyptic world that is not one, there is a character with a deep and mysterious past and it involves a lot of fighting. So therefore, it would have to be done very well to achieve my applause. Thankfully, this series actually exceeds my standards in a genre which is usually hit or miss for me. The series does not rely on a single component to pass the battle sequences (In this case, Layfon’s super powers seem more of an after thought), it has some fast paced battle sequences that do not feel generic and has enough side plots, super powers and mysteries to keep me hooked for the first twelve episodes of this 24-episode series.

This is a post-apocalyptic world, however unlike other series of a variety of mediums and genres, ranging from Casshern Sins to Fallout, you are not forced to endure uninspired environments each more desolate then the others. Seems like the humans in this world had enough common sense to build giant domes to keep the populace and ecosystem in, so for most of the episodes you may even forget a few steps away that there is a barren landscape with monsters roaming through it. The majority of the first episodes take place at the Zuellni Military Academy, where the protagonist, Layfon, is forced to attend instead of his will to attend the academy as a Liberal Arts student. This is the one unique aspect in comparison to most series based around an academy, that they do have students of other interest areas such as Journalism and Police work, so you won’t see every character on the battlefield.

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For those who are leaning towards the more action oriented characters, almost every episode has some sort of battle sequence varying from the small, to the all out mock war or fight with a Contaminoid. Whilst some of the battles seemed to be thrown in for the purpose of a battle, others felt meaningful and had some component of character development. In the first twelve episodes, alongside the normal introduction to different concepts in the series, the main focus was on the characters “Belief in a Successful Battle” and “Their desire to achieve”. The one issue I did have with that for character development to really occur in this series, the characters required some fight to occur to encourage them to reveal a trait of themselves or reveal a part of their past, which got annoying considering how much time they spent outside of battle doing other things.

The main characters are those of the Seventeenth Platoon, and also slightly unique is the fact that only half the team are able to fight. Nina is the leader character of the group and during these twelve episodes, most probably the one with the most volatile personality which constantly switches between the kind and compassionate girl to the generic yandere girl. There is also Felli who honestly, plays more of a protagonist role then Nina, and for those who have played the Persona games before, takes more of a Fuuka role in that she assists her teammates instead out of taking part in battles, and whilst not having much character development so far, has more personal development with her little quirks and habits. Whilst the three main characters are above, there are also two male “extra” characters, the Sharnid the gun expert who has some character development late into this collection, and Harley, who like Felli, has no active role in battle and acts as the teams engineer, with very little character development as of yet. For Layfon, his past and his history as being the owner of one of the twelve Heaven’s Blades were of main focus, and people from and related to his past do appear in the series.

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There are a few storyline aspects that could have been done a little better or been excluded overall in my opinion. In around Episode 2 or 3, a character appears to Layfon and Nina, who appears to have some significance to the storyline, however after a brief moment, seems to disappear from the series entirely, not even becoming a recurring character. This is just me, but usually characters who appear like this, have some sort of small recurring role until they have their time to shine, but this guy seems to just vanish. As well as that, there are three other characters that have more of a role in what I would deem filler episodes, these characters being Mayshen (A girl who Layfon rescues and follows up with a seemingly pointless crush on), Mifi (A journalist who I think has been added to annoy me personally) and Naruki (Actually… I take that back, she seems to have some purpose in the storyline). A few episodes are dedicated to those three as a group which gives the impression of lackluster filler content, however individually they are not as bad.

So how to conclude the storyline and character development? There is some filler content, there is some backstory, there is some interesting fighting and there are some interesting characters…. however the storyline never really reaches its full potential, however it does get much more interesting towards the last few episodes which may indicate more interesting episodes to come. They also use a few nice concepts, such as the weapons stored inside containers (DITES) that solve any questions about how characters lug around their weapons.

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The inspiration for both character and design choices are comprised of a mix of Eastern and Western designs, with characters learning a bit more eastern designed whilst the environments are definitely more western in design (If you were to stereotype appearances of environments and characters). Looking at character designs first, they are overall, good but not great. The military style uniforms worn are uninspirational but do the job well, however at points where they have to wear oxygen suits for example, it is near impossible to differentiate one character from the other. Facial design and body compositions range from the normal loli design (Felli) to the normal looking human in design that hold lots of power (Nina and Layfon) to more heavily built characters such as Gorneo (Introduced later in on the episodes). Hell, for a bit of variety, one of the characters, Shante, despite being the same age as the rest of them has a child like appearance, a tail and a helmet with cat ears on them, in other words, they have twisted the design of the characters a bit to cater to a wider demographic. Overall though, the character designs are good, if not a bit bland. The animation of the battle sequences employs some CGI techniques and does vary in quality and the facial expressions are occasionally wonky during them, however is overall smooth.

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As with the character designs, the environment designs are good, but nothing stellar. The environments are fairly well detailed I will give them that, however fail to give them the thing that makes you go (Oooooh! Ahhhhh!) when you look at them. You will find yourself most of the time forgetting that other areas of the world are ravaged and destroyed due to how peaceful the environment looks. As I said earlier, the designs of the environment seem to be more Americanized then Japanese style, featuring less of the buildings you would see in a normal Japanese anime. I will complement however, the use of the outside of dome environments to suit the Contaminoid monsters, who are creepy in their own right. The one big issue I did have with the environment design was the use of CGI to give the environments a 3D effect. As the series started off with that style of design, I was originally repulsed by it, however the normal design is good.

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Opening Theme
Brave your truth” by Daisy × Daisy

Overall, this opening theme is very enjoyable, being a fast paced song with fast paced animation to match, alongside some appropriate lyrics for a series such as this.

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Ending Theme
Yasashii Uso by Chrome Shelled

This ending theme is different in that there is one standard theme, however every few episodes, a different Japanese voice actress takes a leading role in singing it. Personally though, I do not care since this is a song I skipped over after the first time listening to it. It is a generic and bland ending theme that could have been a lot better, considering the epic opening theme.

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The soundtrack of this series is average, and contains a number of modern techno genre tracks that are more then suitable for the battles that take place in the series, however the diversity of songs is very poor and could have done with many more tracks. There is also a lyrical song sung by Brittney Karbowski (Mifi) was rather decent, however was cut off very quickly and did not match the lip-syncing…. at all. The English voice acting fares a bit better, with a solid cast of voice actors. Todd Haberkorn does a solid job of voicing Leyfon and Brina Palencia also does a good job at voicing Nina. However, the standouts would have to be the other three members of the platoon, with Monica Rial doing a good job at being less childlike with Felli, Eric Vale as Sharnid and Greg Ayres as Harley. However, Greg Ayres would have benefited more from sounding less like Youhei from Clannad, as the voices between the two characters were more or less alike.

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Like extras? We all like extra content with our anime right? Sadly, there isn’t anything special on this disk at all, which considering what there could have been (Say, commentary or some other special features), is very disappointing. The bonus content included in this collection includes:

  • Textless Opening Song
  • Textless Closing Songs (All the versions)
  • Trailers for Phantom, Sengoku Basara Season 1 Collection and Summer Wars

Uh…. yeah… moving on then.

Personally, I feel I may have been a bit picky on this series, and whilst there are many areas in which this series could have improved upon, I actually found myself enjoying the series. If you are not so picky about any one area, you will most probably find this to be one of the more enjoyable action anime series that have been released in English in the last year or two. I eagerly await the second part of this collection!

Final Score

Storyline: B-
Character Development: C+
Design: B
OP/ED Themes: B-
Music: C
Voice Acting: B
Extras: D
Personal Opinion: B+

Overall Score: B-

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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