Review for Linebarrels Of Iron: Collection

Introduction

It’s hard to imagine now, given that online streaming of anime is the norm, and it seems that Crunchyroll gets the lion’s share of the spoils each season, but when they first started out, they had a whole lot to prove, and a borderline legal reputation to overcome. In the early days, not a lot of anime companies were apt to trust Crunchyroll with their content, but the first company to take a chance on this new technology was Gonzo. Their first batch of shows consisted of The Tower of Druaga, a fantasy show released here by MVM, and Blassreiter, a techno-zombie action sci-fi which surprisingly hasn’t been released here in the UK yet. The next season had three Gonzo shows, and the third show streamed to the world was this, Linebarrels of Iron. There was also Shangri-La, a future eco-sci-fi which MVM are releasing this winter, and Saki, the Mah-jong anime which no Western distributor has yet taken a chance on. After that, the floodgate of legal online anime opened up, but Linebarrels of Iron was one of those proverbial feet in the door.


Kouichi Hayase is a wimp, and always has been. You know the kid; the one who’s always picked on at school and worse, winds up being protected by the girl he likes the most. He would much rather protect Risako than be protected by her, but before he can even work up the gumption to stand up for himself, their best friend Yajima comes in and saves the day. That’s a pattern that has repeated during the years of their friendship, but now that they are in middle school, Kouichi is still labouring under the delusion that he has the inner strength, deep down somewhere that will make him a hero, a champion of justice. That’s even while he’s running errands for the class bullies.


That power isn’t inside; it actually comes from without, as while getting lunch for his tormentors, Kouichi gets hit by a meteorite. Surprisingly, he doesn’t die. He wakes up in a crater, his school uniform blood-soaked, which is bad, but he’s completely unharmed, which is good. But leaning over him is a giant robot, which looks seriously bad, but lying next to him is a hot naked girl, which couldn’t be better. The naked girl is Emi and she was in the robot that just hit Kouichi, and in healing him, he’s become bonded to the robot, and given tremendous strength. It’s good timing too, as the world of 2019 is in a turmoil, a hidden war is being waged between Earth’s defenders, JUDA and the Katou Organisation, a war waged with giant robots from another dimension. JUDA wants the new robot, the Linebarrel, and its new factor Kouichi to join the fight against Katou. The problem is that Kouichi hasn’t brushed up on his Spider-man. He’s got the great power thing down pat, but the responsibility thing will take a whole lot of work.


24 episodes of Linebarrels of Iron are presented across four discs from MVM, while the show’s OVA episodes are presented on a separate fifth disc.

Disc 1
1. The Iron and the Boy
2. Justice Barrelling Along
3. Azure Terror
4. The Price of Justice
5. Guidepost to Tomorrow
6. A Radiant Night

Disc 2
7. The Worst After-School Hours Ever
8. Playful Devils
9. The Black Chamber
10. Over Drive
11. Super Nova
12. From the Tropics With Love


Disc 3
13. The Dark Executioner
14. Shed is Blood, Lost are Tears
15. Victor
16. Judgement at Dusk
17. Mechanical Curse
18. Memento Mori

Disc 4
19. Light Reaches, Shadow is Uncovered
20. Man of Destiny
21. Wings of Madness
22. That Which Devours Demons
23. The Way of Life Determined by the Way of Death
24. Flowers of Steel

Disc 5
25. Pretty Girl Genius Scientist Rachel
26. Shadows of Iron

Picture

Linebarrels of Iron gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It’s a show getting a little long in the tooth DVD-wise, in that it’s been out on DVD for quite a while in the US (It’s already on Funimation’s budget S.A.V.E. label there), and in Australia, and courtesy of Madman Entertainment, we get an old-fashioned NTSC-PAL standards conversion. It’s got the softness of a 480 line source up-scaled to 576 PAL lines of resolution, and it also squeezes 30 NTSC frames per second into 25 PAL frames by means of averaging and interpolation, resulting in ghosting and blended frames. In playback, Linebarrels of Iron is watchable enough, if not up to the standards of modern anime transfers, it’s only when you press pause that you’ll come up against a blended frame or two.


It’s a show of two halves really, with Gonzo’s efforts really focused on the CGI, getting the giant robots to look and move impressively, to get as much bang for the buck as possible from the action sequences. On the other hand, the character designs are decidedly unimpressive and apt to drift off model, and the character animation somewhat average. It does enough to tell the story, but I doubt that the characters of Linebarrels of Iron will grace too many fan forum avatars. But, if Crunchyroll is the only way that you have partaken of this show so far, then be prepared to see the TV broadcast filters removed, as for the home video release, nudity abounds, and boobies bounce with abandon.

Sound

Linebarrels of Iron gets the usual Funimation treatment, namely a DD 5.1 up-mix for the English audio, while the Japanese remains in the original DD 2.0 Surround format. I went with the original language audio and was pleased enough with the voice actor performances and the way that the action was represented. The subtitles too are timed accurately and are free of typographical error. I gave the dub a try, and found it to be typical Funimation quality, easy to listen to, and cast well for the most part. The surround audio also gives a little more oomph to the action sequences. Something that you can’t avoid in either language version is another amusingly quirky (or bloody annoying) opening credits theme from Ali Project. I think they only have the one song, and all they do is rearrange the notes for each track. However, you won’t want to skip either of the end themes from Maaya Sakamoto, which are wholly more agreeable.

Extras

The discs all get jacket pictures to look at in compatible players, and present their content with static menu screens, featuring fan service and giant robot images.

Disc 1’s sole extra feature is an audio commentary on episode 6. It features ADR director Caitlin Glass, Alexis Tipton (Emi), and Josh Grelle (Kouichi). Expect the usual mutual Funimation backslapping, and much talk of inconsequence. It’s a typical Funimation commentary.


Disc 2 offers a 4 minute music video of Proud, a 2 minute promo video for the show, just over a minute of original Japanese TV spots, and the first set of textless credits.

Disc 4 offers the second set of textless credits.

Finally disc 5 contains a 90 second Magazine Illustration Art Gallery, textless credits once more, and trailers for Is This a Zombie? Shangri-La, and Waiting in the Summer.

Conclusion

We really have to be grateful for the advent of the half season collection, or even as in this case, the complete series release. Going straight to complete series is the best thing that could have happened for Linebarrels of Iron, as it really does work best as an all-in-one-go experience. I believe that if this show had been released five years ago, back when anime still used to be sold as single volume releases, this show would have flopped badly. Single volumes used to contain four or five episodes at the most, and Linebarrels of Iron starts off with the most annoying, dislikeable, offensive excuse for a main character in many a show. The whole point of the series is seeing Kouichi Hayase’s growth as a person, but to do that, you have to show just who he used to be, before you get to who he becomes, and it’s no wonder that every next episode preview ends with a “You’re despicable!” from Emi in the Japanese version. Those first four episodes alone would make me want to bin this show with great force and violence. Fortunately Linebarrels of Iron gets better than that, or at least Kouichi Hayase gets better than that, and it’s worth sticking it out to the end.


But Linebarrels of Iron isn’t the best show ever made, it isn’t even the best mecha show ever made. When it comes down to it, it’s just another one of those futuristic sci-fi action shows that Gonzo churned out by the dozen during the last decade, it’s got comedy, it’s got drama, it’s got a dark conspiracy at its heart, and its brimming to excess with fan service. It’s got a ‘make it up as we go along’ approach to storytelling, and it’s got the requisite Gonzo ‘throw everything we have at the screen including the kitchen sink CG overload’ ending. I think at the peak of the bubble back there, Gonzo were just throwing random ingredients at a set template, and making these shows on a production line.


What saves Linebarrels from utter mediocrity is that once you get into it, it’s fun to watch. The show has an energy to it, the characters, clichéd though they are, are presented with energy and enthusiasm, and the quality of the mecha action, as much as it jars in contrast with the 2D animation, more than holds the attention. True there is a degree of character overload that makes it hard to keep track of who everyone is, especially the villains, but with most mecha anime in recent years featuring morose, brooding teens, with abandonment issues, it’s fun to see a character actually relish being a hero, even if he is absolutely useless at it at first. Linebarrels of Iron does have its moments of emotional reflection, grief stricken contemplation, and these are key moments to move the character arcs along, but they never get in the way of the action, the comedy, or indeed Kouichi’s ever expanding harem of appreciative teen girls. Your best friend may have just died, but you’re not much of man if you don’t still suffer a nosebleed at the sight of female flesh, followed by a concussion after receiving a beatdown from said female.


For most of the run, Linebarrels is heading for the fun but forgettable pile, the kind of show that you’re happy to own and watch, but won’t ever bring it to mind if asked about exemplars of the medium. But then Gonzo take the story in a direction that is wholly derivative, and one that leaves you incredulous at the whole thing. If you’re reminded of Star Trek’s Borg, and the nu-Cybermen parallel world arc from the modern incarnation of Dr Who, you won’t be alone. But where Linebarrels really falters is in having one character resurrection too many, and asking you to believe a plot twist so daft that you wish you could return it to the orifice from which Gonzo pulled it. The two OVA episodes that I watched for the first time thanks to this collection are small respite from that ending, but this is definitely ‘switch your brain off, remove it, place it in a jar, and leave it outside the door before turning on your TV’ territory. Otherwise Linebarrels is a fun little show.