Gunparade Orchestra

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Title:	Gunparade Orchestra ガンパレード・オーケストラ
Overall:	Watch
Keywords:	2005, 2006, Action, Adventure, Coming of Age, Mecha, Sci-Fi, Sequel, TV
Notables:	Animation - Brains Base
Ishida Saryou is assigned to be the new commander of the 4th division in Aomori. This squad is the laziest of the whole army because they are assigned into a remote mountain town far away from civilization and never attacked by the Ginju. Displacing a popular and older Lieutenant Ishida finds herself with a bunch of pampered spoiled crew who hates her. They cause many obstructions such as disobeying orders, sending in falsified reports, and blaming Ishida for all of their problems that result from it. All of a sudden the Ginju attack. This is a different kind of Ginju that is sleek, fast, and extremely intelligent. It also has the ability to generate more of it's kind from the local populace (infecting animals) and has the apparent ability to 'disappear'. Can Ishida whip this crew into fighting shape? Can she stand up to the myriad personalities that have developed in this sleepy town? Why are the Ginju attacking this town? How come they are using a new attack that seems to make the very large creature vanish or even change shape? 3 Separate Arcs (Ishida's is only one of them) that come together at the end. (The following is adapted AnimeNFO) Side Story to GunParade March. In 1945 (during World War II) a race of alien called Ginju appeared. They migrated to the towns and proceeded to annililate the populations. By this time WW2 had sapped most of the ablebodied fighting men and women so a High School Draft act was enabled. Boys and Girls of high school age are required to serve in the military in various positions from Pilot to Mechanic. This story appears to take place many years after GPM because they do not appear to use the PBE weapons and the HWTs and the transports are more advanced and 2 of the crew use a newer version of the 'Tandem' unit in GPM. [TV series, 2005-2006, 24 episodes, 24 min; Animation by Brains Base; see also the prequel: Gunparade March]

Overall	Art	Animation	Character Design	Music	Series Story	Episode Story	Reviewer

Watch 4							Stretch	[series:1200#628]
Gunparade Orchestra (12 episodes watched): The strange thing about this show is that it introduces you to a cast of characters, develops them for a while (I think just the fourth episode was a "Christmas episode", as if the viewer was expected to already have become attached to them), then, without warning, drops them altogether and switches to a completely different cast. These new people are the personnel of another unit based far away from the first (I wonder if the two units will combine eventually?). And whereas the first unit employed big mobile suits to fight the Ginju, the second one finds ordinary rifles and the teeth and claws of their mysterious animals ("Raiden") to be quite adequate. I actually preferred the first crew--it wasn't too difficult to suspend my disbelief about the possibility of there being high school students who double as part-time soldiers (it was kind of amusing, in fact). I found them easier to take seriously than the second arc characters who ride strange, mythical animals, without giving me a clue where they came from (as you might have guessed, I've never seen Gunparade March). Also, Ishida was a likeable character I could root for, so I was frustrated by the sudden change of cast. In either case, nobody ever seems to get killed (the nearest the show has come was when a character met a terminally ill hospital patient), and the Ginju conveniently vaporize once they buy it. And what's the deal with the talking penguin in a trenchcoat? Action scenes are pretty predictable and hard to get genuinely excited about. Maybe it is a problem with the fansub I watched, but the animation seems to have a slightly annoying "grainy" look to it. Nevertheless, some of the characters are amusing and likeable. Gunparade Orchestra could've been worse. Last updated Monday, April 24 2006. Created Sunday, April 23 2006.

Unevaluated 4							Forbin	[series:1200#1573]
Gunparade Orchestra Drama : Med/High Comedy : Med Action : Med/High SciFi : High Ecchi : Low I'm sorta upset at what they did to one of my most favorite series. Take the first anime was a romance with Mecha thrown in. This is a Mecha / Coming of Age type. It's set in the GunParade March universe but it's not GunParade march. My gosh if these people were in the military most of them would be court-martialed and hung by now. And who the heck are Brains Base? Must be some new company. The 2nd arc with Raiden animals is better than the first. Lets hope this avoids an AVOID. Last updated Monday, April 24 2006. Created Monday, January 16 2006.

Other Sites

Name	URL
Official Japanese Series Web Site	http://www.gpo-anime.jp/

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