Gen: Lock

I honestly didn't expect much when I sat down to watch an episode. But boy was I pleasantly surprised. Not only is the story refreshing but you get a chance to understand the characters and what motivates them. The action sequences are beautiful and well done and so is the overall story for the show. 3 episodes in and I'm hooked and can't wait for the 4th episode to drop. Easily one of the best animations right now IMO

I'm just 2 episodes in the serie, and i felt compelled to write a review. Gen: Lock filled a void which was present in animated sci-fi genre. It has emotional depth, intelligent writing, excellent humor (most notably in Dr. Weller and Miguel Garza as comic relief), and likable characters that are wonderfully casted. It feels like a lovechild of Robotech, Ghost In The Shell and XCOM, so what's there not to like?

Before my review I should preface this by saying that this show is not based on anything. Obviously they didn't come up with the idea of giant mechs, but they didn't base the show off of anything in particular. The shows creator (Gray Haddock) said in an interview that the show definitely had some inspiration from other anime/cartoons, but it was not based on any previously existing show.

Now that we have that out of the way, I thought that Gen:lock was an amazing creation from the people at roosterteeth productions. They choose (relatively) inexperienced voice actors and they did an amazing job. If you look at another hit show from roosterteeth, RWBY, then you can see that they really stepped up their game for this series. Everything in the show is crisp and clean, it looks like they put a lot of effort into this and it paid off big time.

Plot The plot of the show is a very creative take on the mech-fighting genre of animation. Instead of a show like Neon Genesis Evangelion for example, where they use pilots that are in the mechs, Gen:lock transfers their consciousness from their body to the machine, effectively making the mechs into giant humans. this does cause a lot of limitations for their characters though, like leaving their unconscious bodies vulnerable, a time limit on how long they can use the mechs, and most importantly, their is no eject button. they cant just pull a lever and be out of danger. If they get caught by the enemy, they are stuck in the mech until their time limit runs out and they die, or they get rescued. This is something interesting that they do use in the show.

Characters The characters in this show were less than I was hoping for because of their voice actors, but they still had their own quirks. You had your classic strong man, strong silent female, Joe average-army man and the ,tech savvy one and if you watch the show you immediately know what I'm saying here, and can probably guess who's who. That being said, they all had things that made them "stand out" more or less. Like strong man is from japan and he can only speak Japanese, Strong silent girl used to be in an insurgency in Ukraine, Tech savvy girl really likes bunny's and swearing (its honestly a little weird but in a funny way), and Joe average-army man, well hes pretty average, but everyone else has something different. I do have to say that their was a moment that they really didn't need to be there when they were discussing whether or not one of the characters was male or female. The creator of the show (Gray Haddock) said in an interview that he wanted to be able to talk about gender and stuff without it sounding out of place, but it really was, and nothing became of it and it just made the individual characters (and me) feel awkward and uncomfortably out of sync. That being said I hope that their just leaving some room to grow for the characters in the next season(s)

Overall I think that Gen:lock was a great show. I thoroughly enjoyed every episode. I think that the plot, animation, voice actors, and pacing of the show was excellent and I hope that the characters improve as the show goes on.

Despite my grumbling about this series having enemies which are fighting the protagonists for unknown reasons, I would say that this series is well-done. Apart from the one genderfluid character, all the others are compelling and their lines are strong, as is the story, generally. So, I'd recommend it, although I hope for improvements in the quality in the upcoming season. I would say that this is stronger than some of the other animated series, which is why the current rating is justified.

Great visuals, great voice actors, and decent sci-fi plot. While some of the action and story can be a little hard to follow, it is an exciting series with interesting characters, and impressive action! :-)