COPPELION
Nuclear Christmas
There's a song mentioning Jesus, another about angels, and there's a child born who nobody was expecting. All of this took place in the middle of a nuclear fallout Tokyo against a giant robo spider, but it's still Christmas... sort of. I know this anime has a bit of a troubled production history, and that alone made it something I wanted to check out. Plus, Tomatsu and Hanazawa together again.
The idea of genetically modified schoolgirl soldiers is such a Japanese take on a sci-fi concept. Yet, I watch anime precisely because they fit together like that. Ibara, Taeko and Aoi, as a lead trio, had a decent amount of chemistry with each other. Aoi's exaggerated reactions were fine with me most of the time, but I can also understand how some may want her to snap out of her funk quicker than she did.
The opening episodes were okay in their world building, nothing standout, and while the word "nuclear" was never explicitly used, some things can work better once they're implied. The second arc with Ibuki was more exciting to watch, having a more defined set of stakes from all parties. Not that there weren't a few odd moments in there. The battle in the swan boats was goofy, and having the characters trying to run away from the wind, of all things, made me wonder when Mark Wahlberg was going to show up. Yet the emotional stakes were present. The Ozu sisters did lean on the side of cartoon supervillainy at times. The tone could be kind of all over the place.
The filters are something I'm on the fence about. It became clear why they'd been used when the characters breached through the capital and into the world outside, the color palette suddenly became much more vibrant. It's just that the majority of the show was cast in these various shades of brown. I didn't mind the thick outlines because, with the color filters in effect, they felt necessary to actually see what was going on at times.
It wasn't a perfect show by any means, but "To miss a high aim is to fail without shame". The decisions made had a reason for being so, and the effects of the fallout on the government, the civilians and the Coppelion themselves were all explored fairly decently in the runtime they were given. I've always liked angela's music, so the OP and EDs were both pretty neat.
Final Thoughts: Disjointed tone and color filters there may be, but the show certainly doesn't fail for lack of trying. The second arc is actually pretty compelling, with a constant, action-movie like pace that keeps escalating the stakes all the way up to "giant spider robot". It was interesting and raised some questions, but the kind that could lead to a discussion about technology and the effects on our world. If a sci-fi series can do that, then it has, to some degree, succeeded.
Happy Holidays and Merry Coppelimas!
