Tenchou's review- Infinite Stratos IS 5

The Iron Law of Anime#1: If a guy falls on a girl, his hand(s) always finds her chest

Let me start off by calling myself a complete tool and an idiot- I have mixed up the Italian and French flag. The last time I took geography was Gr.10, a long time ago, but still that should not excuse me from remember that the French flag is Blue-White-Red and Italian is Green-White-Red. I am truly sorry for my mistake and embarrassed by my ignorance.

With that out of the way, this week we were treated to the French girl guy Charles (Charlotte) who really did not serve much of a role in this episode, other than showcasing the dense nature of Ichika, which by now we are painfully familiar with. One major problem I have with Charles is her voice, it's one thing to be subtle about the cross-dress voice but another to completely fail to sound remotely male. Kana Hanazawa really dropped the ball here, her Charles doesn't even sound like a guy, more like something straight out of a high school play- very unprofessional. I really do like Kana's voice-acting as a girl but this role really showed her glaring weakness as a seiyuu.

Most of this episode was pretty lighthearted peppered with moe scenes like Houki's reaction to the 'legendary princess cradle', or her proposal to a date, and of course, the lunch scene. Poor Cecilia really doesn't have a shot at this harem, being constantly pushed aside by Houki and Rin already, now her food also tasted like crap, to a guy that really thinks of nothing by eating, I really do feel for her. Also, anyone else noticed that Rin's sweet & sour pork was basically completely ignored in favor of Houki's fried 'chicken'? It seemed to me that she opened her bento, got shoved aside by Cecilia, then Houki, and finally she had to force-feed it to Ichika...if only I can get my hands on that bento, damn Ichika doesn't deserve such luxury! (Q_Q)

The more I watch this anime, the more I feel Ichika has the 'Axe Effect'. It seems like every girl he's in contact with somehow falls for him, even his friend's sister. However, aside from Houki and maybe Rin, none of them really has a 'real' reason to fall in love with him aside from him being Ichika. I don't know about the rest of you, but the 'Axe Effect' isn't really my kind of thing because 1) it is unrealistic 2) it takes a lot away from the female characters, because it makes them much more 'shallow' and predictable. I feel that it really is a pity since the characters are relatively well designed, it's sad that the author will let it go to waste.

Next week we'll know why Laura pimpslap the pimp of the story, and also the shocking discovery of Charles' real gender! (lol)


Again, thanks to Random Curiosity for screencaps.