Well, well, lookie here. Another “Girls Who Save the World” show. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.

Although one can compare it to the “Symphogear” series or even “Yuuni Yuki”, it is still a bunch of high school girls taking on implacable foes.

It is the year 2045 (Still no hoverboards. Are those things ever going to show up?) The world has been contaminated by Irōsu, a strange and mysterious group of invaders who suddenly appeared. Well, they do the usual junk: lay waste to the population, kill everyone they can and leave the seat up on the toilet. Really nasty types. Humans find themselves restricted and contained, unable to do much of anything. However, standing boldly against these invaders are ordinary girls everywhere, girls who can give the what-for to these who-dats. The Shinjugamine Girls Academy is a school for these “Hoshimori” (Star Guardians), destined to fight the Irōsu. Welcome one and all to “Battle Girl High School “(“Batorugāru Haisukūru”). Cue the jets flying overhead with the colored contrails.

It is a rather capacious cast to the point where I don’t even want to run them down. This is one of those shows where they kind of blend together into a pudding of sameness. There are, however, problems. The girls are good, but they seem to be slacking off. The foes are the foes that they meet and we have gotten into a war of attrition, so the zest and zeal into dispatching the enemy is lacking. What should take a minute to do now take two or three. So, the Powers That Be decide to bring in an outsider, to not only challenge their skills, but to make them work harder and better. The concern is that this newcomer is a loose cannon and does not play well with others, so there is a ton of friction abounding.

If I seem kind of tepid on this show, it is because the show IS tepid. There is no real concern or conflict her, except how we can make the new girl feel more at home. The fighting sequences are dull and drab and their personal lives are equally dull and drab. Where did they want to go with this tale? I mean, the two aforementioned animes had a clear idea where they wanted to go, even when “Symphogear” went off the tracks. This is an issue when you have such an enormous cast: how do you give people enough time for them to sing an aria and still propel the plot forward?

A show usually goes as such: the ladies are in class and the call goes out. They spring into action and land on the battlefield, where they take on the foe, only to have the New Girl arrive fashionably late and dispatch all them enemies in one fell swoop. There is grumbling and mumbling and fumbling by all the other ladies and we go back to how it was. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I stuck it out as I did, as I was hoping something might come up, my infamous 4-4-4 approach to anime. But even when the Irosu came up with a ‘better’ foe, it really wasn’t all that better. And even with an idol show plunked into it, who really cares. It just came off as a confusing mess, but it does betray its roots, as this did start off life as a video game, so the fight sequences are the fight sequences and personality development comes at a price. It’s when we got to the end of things, nothing was really resolved. The fight goes on and you are never going to get to the mall again for some nice flirty outfit.

I do not think that binging will help this show at all. Sure, you do see the dynamic tension between the players play out a bit better, but to what point or purpose? You fall into the sameness rut pretty darn fast with little or nothing done to try and escape it. I have already given this show low marks; it’s on you if you wish to continue as a binge.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (Typical approach to things)
Plot                  5 (Nothing done with a standard tale)
Pacing              6 (Dull fight sequences)
Effectiveness   5 (It succeeds in being flat)
Conclusion       7 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service      2 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)
Bingeability     3 (Survey says…..no)

Overall            5 (Would it be that bad to get destroyed?)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. We can be friends.