I went into RideBack fairly hesitantly because I could sort of foresee what was coming. I mean, robot bike with arms and civil rights? Really? But, given the generally positive things that were mentioned on the various boards I frequent, I decided to give it a shot.

And for the first few episodes, I was pleasantly surprised. Rin was kind of interesting, what with being an injured ballet prodigy who takes a liking to this weird bike with arms. The racing part and Rin discovering her new hobby were also pretty cool.

And then the real story started.

The real story is hard to take seriously. This is a problem when they want you to take it seriously. I’m pretty sure that when they made Rin bust through the military blockade and save Shouko, they wanted us to focus on how awesome Rin is. Instead, I was thinking about how retarded Rin must be to think about plowing through armed soldiers and how retarded the soldiers must be for them to shoot at and miss her while charged straight at them and flipped through the air right above them.

And then we have the obviously evil government oppressing the people by being excessively violent against a bunch of delinquents. Am I supposed to feel sorry for these guys? They’re going around wrecking stuff, and sure, the government whacked the hell out of them, but they’re not exactly the target that gets the most sympathy. I hear that something happened recently that made it clear that the government was harsh and oppressive, in case we missed the first time they decided to violently quell dissent.

And finally, there’s this stupid symbolism associated with the RideBack. Apparently, bikes with arms are the most devastating weapon that man’s come up with. Also, RideBacks are like horses and magical mecha and the best of them choose their riders. And it glows with the light of GN particles and light orbs. Maybe that’s where RideBack is going. RideBacks grant Rin’s wishes and unites humanity.

If I were loafing around, I’d probably stick with it until the end. But, well, I have stuff to do, and RideBack is a lot less interesting than my schoolwork. That’s right, bikes with arms are less exciting than debugging file operations.

100% fewer sequels this week, 100% more comparing shows with expectation.

Kurokami: The Animation

The only information I went into Kurokami with was that the main character was not in high school and was a game programmer and that at some point, there would be a violent depiction of a girl getting hit by a truck. Unfortunately, the former did not come true. However, the fight sequence was very well animated and the violence in this episode is fairly brutal. Right now, that’s all it has going for it, because the plot details do not seem intriguing at all.

RideBack

RideBack is about motorcycle-mechs and civil rights. Right now, the plot is an unknown to me, but my biggest fear was with the CG. Thankfully, the episode was really well animated, and the CG sequences (the OP and the “chase” in the second half) turned out to be really, really cool. The main character seems interesting, with her affinity with the robot and whatever ambitions or motivations she might be harbouring. I’m looking forward to this one.