Infinite Stratos OVA Announced!

After months of waiting for a possible second season of the popular harem/mecha anime, IS: Infinite Stratos, it was recently revealed on the anime's official Twitter account that an IS OVA is planned to be released this November!

Called, IS "Encore Koi ni Kogareru Sextet" (Trans. IS Encore "A Sextet Yearning for Love"), more details about this OVA will be announced on the official website and as of this post, it is confirmed for a November 25th and it was first announced on the IS One-Off Festival. After the event, organizers were already taking pre-orders for the IS Encore BluRay and DVD and those who pre-ordered will get their copies on October 26th.

Pre-orders at the event site for both the IS One-Off Festival and IS Encore releases would include an event art poster with reproduced signatures of Yōko Hikasa, Yukana, Asami Shimoda, Kana Hanazawa, and Marina Inoue. Currently, BluRay volumes of this series is being sold like crazy with an average of 10,000 volumes being sold in each volume release.

Source: MyAnimeList, Moe Ota-News Sokuhō via Anime News Network

UPDATE: Additional info added.

5 Anime BD Titles Sold 10,000+ Units in Same Week!

Five BluRay Disc volumes from different anime series each sold over 10,000 copies on Oricon's sales chart for the May 23-29 week! Puella Magi Madoka Magica's 2nd Limited Edition Volume topped the chart with 54,000 units sold.

Infinite Stratos Volume 2 debuted at number 2 with 23,000 units sold. Below the top two was the sixth volume of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai with about 16,000 units sold, followed by Tiger & Bunny's first volume with about 15,000. Finally, the fourth volume of Toaru Majutsu no Index II sold about 11,000.

Source: Mantan Web via Anime News Network

IS: Infinite Stratos BluRay Vol. 1 Tops Sales Chart!

The first BluRay Disc volume of IS: Infinite Stratos anime series has just sold 22,000 copies to top Oricon's overall weekly sales chart for the March 28-April 3 week!

Because of this it has become the sixth anime series with the first volume reaching the number 1 overall ranking. Other anime titles include Macross Frontier, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, K-ON!, Bakemonogatari, and Angel Beats! Also the first DVD volume of Infinite Stratos also sold 7,794 in its first week of sales as the #5 top-selling DVD of the week overall.

The first volume of the BD contains the show's first and second episodes of the said series along with some extras such as TV spots promo videos, textless opening and ending sequence and a radio show called, Radio IS hosted by Yoko Hikasa and Asami Shimoda.

Source: Mantan Web via Anime News Network

Buy IS <Infinite Stratos> Vol.1 [Blu-ray] / Animation on CDJapan!

IS: Infinite Stratos 11-12 - FINAL

This is it folks, the final episodes of IS and now, the prologue to the events that happened in the early minutes of the first episode has finally happened when Silvario Gospel decided to run amok. At first I thought that all the girls will attack Gospel but, we have Ichika and Houki attacking this machine first.

The first part of the 11th episode was more on the plan that Tabane created in the previous episode now on execution. Like the previous episodes, the aerial fights are really good and finally, we now actually see Houki's fighting style. To sum her fighting style, it is like Ichika's style, with two swords plus she being drunk with the power of her personal machine. She was over confident about the skills of her machine that she was not herself which led to her character development at the second half of this episode.

Ichika was injured thanks to him protecting Houki. Asides from the fights, the flashback scene in which we saw how Houki started wearing the ribbon on her head and her realization on why she acted like that in the first half of the episode makes the half interesting. Now that she realized her mistakes, along with the other girls, they will now face Gospel.

This is it, the climax and it was one heck of a final episode! Seriously, all the girls are at their best in this episode and Ichika being on a trance before unlocking Byakushiki's other mode makes it really fun to watch. Also, the fights in the last episode are fantastic. The only thing that I hate about the final episode is that they throwed a lot of upgrades just for the sake of the final battle. As for how the fight ended, I liked that they actually used a different scene unlike in the opening we had from the first episode, but how Ichika delivered the final blow on Gospel? It was disappointing. But hey, the entire fight was fantastic.

Asides from the final fight, the revelation at the end of the episode on how Ichika ended up in the academy was a big surprise. Oh Tabane, you are my second favorite anime mad scientist. First is Lloyd from Code Geass. The last scene in the series was something expected and same goes for the chase! Overall, the last two episodes of the series was good, animation-wise the studio did a good job with the aerial fights and the fact that they didn't recycle much scenes from the opening from the show's first episode. Full review for this series later once I will review the last two episodes of Level E, Bakuman, Wolverine and surprisingly, Star Driver.

Images from Random Curiosity, too lazy to get screencaps.

IS: Infinite Stratos 10 – Tabane has Arrived

Yes, she has made an appearance and it seems that after this, it would lead us to the opening scene back in episode 1. But before that, it seems that Cecilia thinks that she is ahead of the rest of the girls.

First on Cecilia, finally, she is starting to make her move! Anyways, her scenes are just fun to watch, nothing that special asides that we know later on that Ichika is knows a lot of things such as cooking, cleaning and doing massages! More on this first half of the episode, it seems that Laura is back as the Laura from the day she was first introduced, serious and not that “passionate” compared to the previous episode.

On the second half, Tabane Shinonono aka that chick who made the IS System makes an appearance. My first impression about her is that she is a mad scientist! So mad that she fell from the sky inside a giant carrot! More on her, she is the complete opposite of her sister, she is eccentric and a bit immature and sort of had a liking on Chifuyu. I like Tabane.

Asides from that, we finally saw Houki’s personal IS, Akatsubaki which is the first fourth generation Knightmare Frame IS and is the evolved version of Ichika’s sword, Yukimaru Type-2. Now I have high hopes about this IS considering its specs and the like. But before we see it in an actual fight, we saw some of its skills, all I can say is, it is… fine. Not that impressive in my opinion.

FIYAAAAA!!!

Overall, it is a good episode. Asides from the introduction of the one responsible behind the IS, Tabane we saw more flashbacks regarding the development of the said mecha system. In the next episode, the opening scene in the first episode is finally happening! Finally!

IS: Infinite Startos 09 – Fan Service~!

Char~!

Yes, this pretty much sums up the entire episode and asides from a beach episode, we have more Laura service along with it, her character derailment, more babes… and Ichika doesn’t notice that a lot of half naked ladies trying to get him notice!

First up, what’s disappointing in this episode, the animation. To be honest, it felt like everything is rushed, there are inconsistencies in some frames and yes, the cartoonish reactions looked a bit bad especially with Rin’s case. However, they have no problems in doing animation related to service scenes! They are really relying on fan service in this episode.

On to Laura in this episode, after her being officially part of the main girls who fell for Ichika, she starts to act less of the menacing commando back from Germany, but more of a loli that is worst than Rin’s yandere attitude. Even though Chifuyu advised Laura to become more of her, but in this short span of time that she sleep besides Ichika without Ichika knowing it and she is naked? What’s wrong with her?! The reason why I love watching Laura at the first place is because of her cold and calculative attitude, now she acts like she is some clueless chick who doesn’t have any idea about relationships and what not. Some find it cute, but for me, I find it irritating.

Even if the episode banks a lot on fan service in this episode, namely a beach volleyball game, Cecilia asking Ichika to rub tan oil on her back and lastly, the girls in bikini and it depends which girl you like in the bikini, Tabane finally made her appearance! First impression about her is this; she is the complete opposite of her younger sister. She is aloof and fun! Also, it is revealed that she already made her sister’s personal IS with the highest specs that it can beat that “white” machine, I guess that is Ichika’s Byakushiki.

Overall, it was a fun episode that the topic of the episode about a beach study session was forgotten due to the amount of beach fun, Laura not being Laura in the early episodes and lastly, more Charlotte love… and Ichika is now calling her Char! YEAAH! The only thing that lacks is she wearing a mask and pilot a pink/light red/red IS!

Because of them banking much on fan service, I smell that more doujins based on those scenes will be made by the Japanese. I will not be surprised if I will saw it circulate around the net.

IS: Infinite Stratos 08 – Find Out My Mind

In this episode, finally, the most awaited duel between Houki and Laura vs. Ichika and Charles (err, Charlotte) will finally happen! And it seems that we will now find out more about Laura and Houki’s abilities as a pilot!

To be honest, I was in complete awe when the battle happens. Ichika and Charles are in complete synch with each other while as for Houki and Laura, Laura thinks that Houki is in her way, and thus we can’t see Houki’s performance as an IS pilot. Too bad. As for the animation during the battle, it was amazing, like I said, I was in awe and cause me to get a lot of screen captures and some of it I might not use in this review!

Asides from the epic battle, we learned more about Laura that she is once a nameless test subject and an ace in the military, till the IS System came and turned her into a loser, till Chifuyu came. To be honest, I find her reason to hate Ichika too stupid. I mean, having your mentor’s inspiration is his younger brother? What’s wrong with that? Now I am quite bothered with Laura’s way of thinking.

Asides from that, the function of Laura’s special eye has been revealed. It turned out to be a special eye to enhance her abilities in using the IS and not something related to the Geass. But it also turned out to be a way to help her trigger her IS’ Valkyrie Trance System, a system which can cause IS to turn into somewhat a monster and cause her too loose control. To be honest, I find it quite an amazing system, so amazing that I do not know what words to describe this abomination.

Ichika has just used the Force!

Because of this abomination, we saw more Ichika badassery, which is always welcome. In this episode, I find the scene in which he only used his IS’ katana to attack the out of control Laura, epic, especially his motivation on stopping Laura. She is copying his sister’s fighting style!

At the near end of the episode, Charlotte and Ichika have a male bonding, which is a bit awkward considering that Charlotte is a girl pretending to be a boy. Seriously, the scene that happened in the bath tub cause to say that after this, an army of Ichika and Charlotte hentai doujins will be created in Japan and some guy will scan it and translate and some guy will decide to download it and read it during the dark. DON’T LOOK AT ME! And oh, she officially introduced herself as Charlotte to everyone, not Charles.

Overall, this is one heck of a episode. Like the previous episode, which involves a guy legally beating a girl because of their class, this tag match has been cancelled. Like I said earlier, the fights here are amazing and caused my jaw to drop on how well choreographed the IS fights are. At the end of this episode, it is official, Laura is now part of Ichika’s harem and kissed him at the end and declared that Ichika will be Laura’s wife!

IS: Infinite Stratos 07 – Angry German Chick

Lesson learned, don't mess with the Germans.

In this episode of Infinite Stratos, asides that we have Houki’s flashback scene are more girls wanting Ichika to be their date, it seems that our resident Angry German Chick has made decides to piss Rin and Cecilia, which ended up into a handicapped match between the three! Can the two defeat Laura or is it the opposite?

Houki’s flashback was not that remarkable except that we know that they keep on changing addresses thanks to Tabane being the creator of the IS. You know, for national security reasons! And so, I have no reason to talk about it since I didn’t find it interesting.

Prior to the handicapped match between Rin and Cecilia versus Laura, their transformation sequence when equipping their own personal IS reminded me a lot of the magical girl shows that I seen since I was a kid and until now (yes, I seldom watch those kind of shows for the heck of it. I think I should try Suite PreCure since accordingly, it has Kamen Rider Hibiki references in it… asides that the lead is named Hibiki!), heck it even has the infamous “focus on the female’s assets” part!

As for the battle, it was beautiful. Laura totally pawned the two girls single-handedly. Her skills as an IS pilot with a single eye is exceptional that I started to wonder what if she uses both of her eyes in battle. Maybe we will have the same effect coming from one character from Code Geass who is also known as the Knight of One. If that happens, then this show is somewhat unoriginal in the process! Oh, and by the way, Schwarzer Roegen is now one of my favorite IS in this series because of its AIC abilities that sorta nullifies the attacks of its opponent!

Charles, or what those folks in Sankaku Complex (Warning: NSFW!) call her, Charlotte here is slowly showing her feelings for Ichika. Asides that she came immediately to aid Ichika when she broke the barrier to save the two defeated girls, the scene at the near end of the episode gave the perfect conclusion that she has feelings for Ichika.

Overall, this is one good episode. The fights in this episode are amazing, especially how Laura single-handedly defeated two representative candidates in a couple of minutes without breaking a sweat! As for the animation, it still has the same problem in terms of transition between CGI and traditional but I have no problems with it right now considering how good the fights are in this episode.

Also, the cliffhanger at the end makes me want to watch the next episode right now considering that Houki, the girl who wants to date Ichika and Laura, the girl who wants to kill Ichika are in the same team since the next interclass battle is now a tag team match with Ichika and Charlotte in the same team! The suspense is killing me right now!