Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (2012)

[マブラヴ オルタネイティヴ トータル・イクリプス]

Director: Masaomi Ando
Studio: ixtl, Satelight
Starring: Daisuke Ono, Mai Nakahara, Hitomi Nabatame
Episodes: 24

Synopsis:
An American test pilot is transferred to a joint American-Japanese project under the auspices of the UN.

Impressions:
What kind of alien invasion scifi is called "Muv Luv"? Well, there's a history to that, rooted in the first game of the series being a bait-and-switch. That bit of research came later. At first, I was just curious about what kind of series this was. The story here is a spinoff of a spinoff of the main series. The opening two-parter sets a grim tone, but then we shift to a fairly tame mil SF with romcom elements. I find the tonal inconsistency to be a bit of a problem, which makes the initial establishment feel a bit wasted. It's also annoying to see how rarely the characters act like military professionals. (Ironically, it was during the beach episode of all places where Yuuya and Yui were at their most plausible... at least for part of it.) Although it's rather hamfisted in its approach, Yuuya's conflict with his Japanese and American halves does have some merit to it, setting up a halfway decent character arc for him.

Much like a lot of zombie fiction where the zombies aren't really the main concern, the BETAs are in the background for much of the series, so you lose the sense of how dire humanity's position is compared to the first two episodes. You can argue it makes some sense as our crew of test pilots aren't going to be in the thick of it. Except for the field test in Kamchatka and the final arc, you don't feel much of the pressure, and perhaps that was partially the point given some of the thematic elements that get introduced.

Production values are generally decent. The CG for the mechas is pretty good and I feel it complements the freakishness of the BETAs. The fanservice factor can undercut the seriousness, which may or may not be an issue for you. (For me it was less the fanservice itself than some of the situations that would've resulted in careers being nuked by EO charges in an actual military.)

Overall, I consider this series to be a mixed bag on many fronts, but there was more that I liked than what I didn't, to the point that I may have to look up the game this was based on to get the rest of the story. Give it a shot. There's definitely worse out there.

Rating:
Watch It