Alternative titles: Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen, Silver Will Argevollen
Anime Original by Xebec
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

The nations of Arandas and Ingelmia have been at war. Ingelmia has made advances and pushed Arandas to the Great Wall, an impregnable fortress that has defended Arandas since its founding. Then it falls, because of course, this is a mecha anime. Tokimune is a mech pilot in the Arandas army and after saving a mysterious girl, he happens upon the mysterious prototype, Argevollen. Yeah.

Gee’s verdict: Lowest Bidder, Standard Issue

I cannot say Argevollen is the worst intro to a mecha anime I’ve ever seen. That would be doing it a disservice even it doesn’t deserve. That’s because it relies on the same tired cliches and plot points that nearly every other boilerplate mecha anime has been relying on since the 1970s. Boy meets girl, boy meets mysterious robot, boy gets in mysterious robot, boy fights bad guy robots. It’s the same old shit and Argevollen does it no better or worse than many entries in this genre. Hell, at least Tokimune, our protagonist, is a military man, even if his utter disregard for the chain of command or following orders has me wondering how he even got past boot camp.

Of course, that doesn’t stop Argevollen from being pretty stupid anyway. Are you really telling me that this wall has never been breached, despite the fact that you guys have giant robots? Have you people ever heard of planes? As Lifesong and I discussed, if they somehow end up revealing in the next episode that planes were never invented in this universe, I’ll cut them some slack. Otherwise, the show reeks of a setting that has giant robots for the sole purpose of having giant robots, without any real thinking put into it. As if to make matters worse, there’s nothing about this war that hasn’t been done before by the dozen Gundams and other mecha shows before it.

And in Argevollen’s favor, the grunt mecha designs are great. They’re bulky, clunky, and feel like utilitarian war machines. No frills on these guys, because fuck frills. Unfortunately, Argevollen itself is one of the ugliest robots I’ve seen in a while. It’s proportions are weird, its color scheme is boring, and nothing about it hints at any personality whatsoever. Overall, Argevollen is so cliche that I can’t even say it’s truly bad. Whether it keeps my attention for more than a couple more episodes though, frankly I can’t see that happening.

Iro’s verdict: This sure is a robot show

There’s nothing in this show that hasn’t been done better and elsewhere. It’s not really bad (barring the Great 10-Foot Wall), but it’s not remotely good either. It’ll probably take a couple more episodes before I can kick it to the curb with a clear conscience, but there’s no indication of anything particularly interesting here.

Marlin’s verdict: Tired

I could not muster the strength to care about this show past the point where the actual Argevollen gets shown. Nothing done or said that a million other mecha haven’t already. The great wall idea is just asinine, but Gee went over that quite enough already. Also, small nitpick i know, but you aren’t a United Kingdom when you’re just one kingdom, that is just called a Kingdom.

Life’s verdict: Cliche Ridden Introduction

I feel pretty neutral about this show so far. The mecha cliches are so strong that I felt like I was reading TVtropes, but that seems to be fairly normal with the first episode of a mecha show. The “real war” theme is interesting, but I wonder how much thought was put into it. This world seems pretty advanced, are there no planes? Planes would make everything that happened in the first episode stupid on a dozen levels. Provided there really aren’t any planes in this world then the combat stuff going on is okay in my book. I will say that I enjoyed the last few minutes of the episodes. Our protagonist is an idiot and the way he stumbles onto his super mech is almost painful to watch. That said, the actual combat that comes of it is exciting on a visceral level. This show needs to either introduce silly theatrics asap, or manage to be intelligent enough to avoid insulting it’s audience. I’m worried that it will be both serious and stupid, but I hope that I’m wrong.