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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1071#1552] |
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If you go into this series thinking you have another typical mecha/ alien action series, then either you will get latched on things after the first episode or you might find yourself tempted to drop the show beyond that point. Gunparade March is mostly focused on how high schoolers mix around normalcy in their lives with the life-risking challenges of fighting a war against aliens. The show features a cast of characters with diverse personalities to get latched on as they interact with one another as friends and comrades. Essentially, the show is more fixated on its focus of the characters than exploring how the alien threat from the Genjyu came about and the technology used to combat them. The characters clearly try to retain some sense of normalcy in their lives while aware of the reality they face as they put their lives at risk to combat the Genjyu threat. In particular, the series mostly focused on the awkward relationship developing between Atsushi and Mai. While the relationship buildup does play out as your typical "opposites attract" storyline, both of Atsushi and Mai's characters are fleshed out enough where you get enough sense of their backgrounds and desires, as well as seeing changes in their characters as they interact with one another throughout the series. It is this element to the storyline that is the best to check out throughout the series. Beyond the budding relationship however, nearly all the other characters are underdeveloped as they mostly serve as supportive characters for Atsushi and Mai to either direct them in battles or to help push along their relationship. A number of them are tacked on with a character archetype that they follow (the flirt, clutzy meganekko, energetic girl, etc...) throughout much of the series and the lack of development left me caring less about them. In particular, there was one other character relationship that the series was teasing with two supporting characters. Yet with much of the show focused on Atsushi/ Mai, there is no resolution to this element to the story. And that is a shame as I would have welcomed the focus of how the various characters got by dealing with normalcy and conflict in their lives if not for the large focus on the romantic development between Atsushi and Mai who if you dig enough, you could see a typical nice guy/ tsundere pairup as a result of their archetypes. As it is, Gunparade March is a decent title that does well enough at exploring how Atsushi and Mai juggle their relationship developments while fighting a war with humanity's survival at risk. However beyond that, the underdeveloped characters leave you with very little to get out of this series if you aren't a fan of the main pairing. Last updated Monday, July 25 2011. Created Sunday, July 24 2011. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:1071#967] | ||||||
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GunMarch Parade appears to be very much un-reviewed (and perhaps overlooked) at other anime websites. (Humm, wonder why?) This series is vaguely similar to Gate Keepers, in which a team of teenagers are having to fight against strange alien monsters that threaten to take over Japan (but this type of story line might apply to about a quarter of the anime series out there). The monsters are the classic bug-eyed beastie type that appear in Blue Gender or the movie release of Heinlein’s classic ‘Starship Trooper’, but they really don’t play too much of a part in the story, other than to offer an explanation as to why this group of high school students are chosen to operate the large HWT mecha units into very dangerous situations. But the stress of the team having to face repeated brushes with death every time they are deployed does play a significant role in how they act and interact with each other, and plays well into the story. Most of the story line over the thirteen episodes (of the first season) really focuses in dynamics of a group of a dozen teenage students of the combat unit 5121, who attend high school together under the supervision of their military commanders, (who also double as their teachers and parents.) While they are a combat strike team who spend a lot of time training together and relying on each other when in battle, the teenagers spend their off hours worrying about high school and trying to pick up girls, or gossiping about who are the cutest guys, or guessing who has a crush on whom? This series is more of a high school romance and friendship tale, set against a backdrop of a science fiction and mecha robot story. The first half of the series pays attention to the battle with the bugs and the tech toys of the team. The second half of series drifts towards the students as they deal with high school events and romance interests. Unit 5121 consists of four pilots who are the HWT mecha combat team, and a pack of female high school students who are the HWT support techs. The story starts with the arrival a new pilot, at a time of change within the group. The current three male HWT pilots will have to make room to accept a new member into their team. The main character of the series is Atsushi Hayami, who while being a good pilot, is a very shy and terminally optimistic teenager. The other two pilots are a pretty-boy ladies-man (who is always trying to pick up on any cute girl) and a short, but sharp-tongued wise-guy, who will always has something to say on everything. The new HWT pilot team is Mai Shibawara, who arrives with a very serious attitude problem. Coming from a wealthy family (which would normally exempt her from service), she volunteered to be a pilot with the intent on seriously kicking some bug-butt. While the pilots keep the focus of the story on battle with the bugs, it is the gaggle of gossiping and meddling HWT support (female) techs/students that remind us that everyone on the team is a teenager and they are all still in high school. Shortly after Mai’s arrival, she get paired off with Atsushi to pilot a tandem (two-seater) HWT unit. The pairing starts off like oil and water (happy-easy-going versus angry-no-patience), but they learn from each other and make a good team. They share a romantic interest, but they have to figure out their feelings and be honest with other before anything can start. There are a several of other romantic pairings in the story, but they are not as important with Mai and Atsushi. I have to thank Forbin for calling this series to my attention (as he did with another great high school/science fiction/romance series - Gakuen Senki MURYOU ). If one can accept that every story know to humanity has already been told (at least once), so nothing is really new. But a good series will retell a story in a very fun and entertaining way, and GunParade March does just that. While Anime Works has rated this series as being PG13+, it does have all of the elements to keep everyone happy: mecha action, bad bugs, high school friendship and teen romance, all told with a good amount a humor and whimsy, but tinged with concerns about the war.. I would rate this series some where between a (rent+) and (buy), but since Forbin and I appear to share similar tastes in stories, you should not be surprised at how we both rated this series. Last updated Thursday, January 01 2009. Created Wednesday, October 26 2005. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Forbin
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[series:1071#1573] | ||||||
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Drama : High Comedy : Low/Med Action : Med SciFi : High Ecchi : Low Lets see how to describe this. It's a serious Mecha / Love Story. I got it, it's  Macross in a school.Most people will concentrate on the Ginju. How they got there, how do you get rid of them, why is Nonomi only 10 years old, but is a high school student. Don't, this is a soap opera with Mecha. While not as powerful as say  KGNE, it really reminded me of the Christmas episode of Love Hina because most of the series takes place during Winter. People live, people die, others fall in love, others are just plain dumb. The other mysteries are just plot setting, they aren't meant to be fully explained (Though they give them their 5 minute snippets), because it really is about Mai and Hayami.It's not heavy on the Comedy, it's high on the Romance, and the mystery that surrounds Mai isn't fully explained until literally 10 minutes before the end. So if you like Romance and can watch Mecha, this is a good fit, but if you are the  Gravion sort of guy, this isn't for you.
Last updated Wednesday, June 01 2005. Created Wednesday, June 01 2005. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Official (JC Staff) Series Web Site | http://www.jcstaff.co.jp/sho-sai/gpm-shokai/gpm-index.htm |
| Official Japanese Language Web Site | |
