Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection

 (TV) (2011)

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and great audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Infinite Stratos (IS), a weaponized exoskeleton system, has become the dominant tool of warfare and conflict. Unfortunately for the men in society, only women are able to operate Infinite Stratos... with very few exceptions. One of those exceptions is ORIMURA Ichika, an orphan raised by his older sister who is herself a famous IS pilot. When his compatibility with IS is discovered after he accidentally touches an IS at the age of 15, he's given a scholarship and enrolled in a school that specializes in training IS pilots. Which of course means an... intersting life surrounded by girls for this shy, unassuming boy.

For more about Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection and the Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray release, see the Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray Review

Starring: Josh Grelle, Monica Rial, Brittney Karbowski, Hilary Haag, Tiffany Grant, Luci Christian

» See full cast & crew

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray Review

Infinite might be stretching it just a little. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, March 23, 2012

Infinite Stratos gets off to a literal bang, with an incredibly noisy and visually impressive mecha battle spilling out across pink hued clouds. Screams, punches, lasers and all assortment of sonic bombast greets this opening battle, and one might think the series was a traditional battle outing with kids piloting huge robotic "skins". Well, that's part of the story with Infinite Stratos, but rather surprisingly, it's not the whole story, and even the battle element turns out to have a couple of surprising twists. Infinite Stratos actually combines two standard operating tropes in the world of anime, the harem show with the mecha show, to variously entertaining results. Our hero is one Ichika Orimura, a shy young man who is the only known male who has been shown to be competent in mecha piloting, a skill which in the universe of Infinite Stratos is a female-centric career. That posits Ichika in an all-female (save for him) academy for mecha training, hence the harem aspect of the show. What's kind of interesting from the battle side of things is these young operators are not in fact fighting bad guys or aliens, and indeed wartime uses of the mechas has been outlawed. No, these battles are solely for sport, a sort of athletic contest that pits the best against the best to see who will come out on top. The title of the series refers to the mechas, here referred to as exoskeletons with the name Infinite Stratos (or IS). The series plays out with the expected "battle of the week" showdowns between various characters, while the harem aspect plays out with regard to several of Ichika's classmates (all of them females, obviously) who have romantic feelings for the young man, feelings about which he is, in typical anime harem fashion, largely unaware.



Though I'm absolutely loathe to admit it, I started to wonder if Infinite Stratos's creative team had perhaps caught a midnight television airing of the hugely lamentable Boeing, Boeing, the tired and kind of smarmy 1965 "comedy" starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis as womanizers involved with a coterie of international stewardesses. Much as in that film, Infinite Stratos features a handful of supporting female characters who all come from different countries. Charlotte is French, Cecilia is English, Huang is Chinese, Laura is German and Ichika's childhood friend, now like Ichika all grown up, is the Japanese woman Houki. Unlike the nationalistic ciphers that populate Boeing, Boeing, however, the girls of Infinite Stratos actually have backstories and at least a couple of them tie into Ichika's story in sometimes unexpected ways.

There's a grating inconsistency at the heart of Infinite Stratos that goes beyond the weird mash up of mecha and harem idioms. The series posits a world of female superiority, where only women are deemed qualified to operate the IS exoskeletons, and yet what does Infinite Stratos also involve? A gaggle of girls who are crazy in love with one insanely shy young man, and crazy enough to fight each other over him. If this is future "girl power", it's strangely archaic. But that is one of the clichés of the harem genre, and it points out one of the overall weakenesses of Infinite Stratos: despite its attempts to blend disparate elements, it too often exploits well worn ruts of those very elements, whether they be the fighting scenes of the mecha angle or the interpersonal shenanigans of the harem angle.

The schizoid quality of Infinite Stratos has both pluses and minuses for the average anime fan. Having both mecha and harem elements means that fans of either genre will find at least something to like about parts of the series. But of course the flip side of that equation is that when the series veers from their preferred idiom, they'll find an equal (and opposite) amount to dislike. The harem aspect also has its own schizoid issues, where characters are introduced and then disappear just as quickly as they've arrived, meaning that when the entire season is looked at as a whole, it has a weird kind of lurching quality as it stumbles from mini-plot arc to mini-plot arc.

Infinite Stratos may indeed leave something to be desired in terms of story and character, but it's also undeniably enjoyable within its own limited ambitions. Ichika is occasionally maddening (okay, maybe more than occasionally), but he's an appealing enough hero, and several of the supporting characters, though stereotypical (especially some of the "national" females), also have their moments. What ultimately saves this series is its really astoundingly beautiful animation, some of the nicest looking in recent memory. Both 2D and 3D CGI are interwoven very well into the overall animation, and the series offers a really sleek appearance that keeps the visual interest high, even if actual storyline interest flags elsewhere.

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Infinite Stratos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentail Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Even those who won't be particularly moved by the story and/or characters in this series may well be won over by the show's really impressive visual presentation, one which seamlessly incorporates quite a bit of 2D and 3D CGI into more traditional hand drawn cel animation. Character designs are sharp and appealing, if not especially innovative, and the futuristic society of the IS Academy offers some great little touches via CGI (little things like the school's logo lifting off the side of a building and rotating in space). Colors are very bold and bright and well saturated, and some of the mecha battles bristle with incredible detail. Line detail is very sharp and precise and the series has so much to offer visually that even those who are nonplussed by the rest of this outing may well forgive those shortcomings and just enjoy the show for the pleasures of its imagery.

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Rather surprisingly, Infinite Stratos only has (lossless) stereo mixes, both DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, one in the original Japanese and the other an English dub. This is a series that certainly could have benefited from a surround mix, at least with regard to the mecha element. As it stands, both of these tracks are just fine, though once again there is an appreciable difference in the low end between the two tracks, with the English dub being much more present and bombastic, something that ups the sonic activity in the battle sequences as well as bringing more presence to the thumping music score. Voice work is fine, as is fidelity, and overall while both of these tracks are obviously pretty narrow, they both offer enough consistent activity to be very enjoyable.

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• Infinite Stratos Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Director Yasuhito Kikuchi (1080i; 10:30) features Kana Hanazawa (voice of Charles Dunois) taking the viewer on a short tour of the production house making Infinite Stratos and interviewing director Kikuchi.


• Radio IS (1080i; 41:19) seems to be video of a radio broadcast featuring Yoko Hisaka (voice of Houki Shinonono) and Asami Shimoda (voice of Rin Fan). Also joining them is Yukana, who voices several characters.


• Clean Opening Animations (HD; 3:04)


• Clean Closing Animations (HD; 10:44)


• Episode 4 Commentary with Yoko Hisaka (Houki) and Asami Shimoda (Rinin)


• Episode 7 Commentary with Yoko Hisaka (Houki) and Kana Hanazawa (Charles)


• Episode 12 Commentary with Yoko Hisaka (Houki) and Yukana (Cecilia)


• Bonus Soundtrack CD


• Trailers for other Sentai Filmworks Releases

Infinite Stratos: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

I actually enjoyed Infinite Stratos more than a cursory reading of this review might indicate. Yes, it's hackneyed a lot of the time and, yes, it also is a not very satisfying combo platter of mecha and harem genres. But there's something at the very least pleasant about this enterprise. It's not earth shattering and it's not innovative by any stretch of the imagination, but it ambles along nicely enough and it does have some fantastic looking mecha sequences. Undoubtedly the best thing about this series is its very sharp and enjoyable imagery, a look that near perfectly creates a futuristic world and nicely integrates a lot of CGI elements. This Blu-ray release looks fantastic and sounds fine (though a surround mix would have been far preferable), and it also includes quite a few supplements. Individual consumers will need to weigh whether or not they want to delve into something that may not have a ton to offer, but based on the animation alone and with the caveats detailed above, my hunch is even those who may end up not loving this series will at least like it a lot and certainly enjoy the visuals.