Nowadays, Japanese animation has ushered in the adaptation trend of being jokingly called "Renaissance" by domestic netizens, and many old works from more than ten years ago have been revived, such as "Magic Card Girl Sakura", "Fengshen Yanyi", "Rebel Lulu Xiu", and the protagonist of this article, "All Metal Frenzy", have launched new animations.
From the beginning of the "All-Metal Frenzy" novel written by writer He Dongzhao in 1998 to the official end of 2011, 13 years is enough time for a junior high school student to enter the society and start working. The first season of the anime also began airing in 2002, followed by the second and third seasons in 2003 and 2005. While fans were eagerly awaiting the fourth season, it chose silence, and even when the novel ended in 2011, the fourth season was still missing. Fans have been waiting for 13 years. In 2018, fans waited until the fourth season.
In the 20-year-long "long run" from the novel series to the fourth season, what is the charm of "All Metal Frenzy" that makes many fans who have changed from children to parents still insist and persevere?
<h4>The first season of the hit and the poorly run Gonzo</h4>
The story of "All Metal Frenzy" takes place in an alternate world set in the Cold War, the Confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, there is no large-scale war, but local friction and espionage wars between the two sides are continuous. In this context, the scientific and technological tree of weapons on both sides is also growing rapidly. The Armored mobile master-Slave system, or Arm Slave (AS), became the main weapon in combat. Sosuke Sagara, who is affiliated with the mithril military organization, was given a protection mission to Japan for a Japanese female high school student named Chidori. In the context of robot combat, boy Meets Girl's story has also officially come to an end.
When chidori is mentioned, it has to be said that "Whispered" (listener). The listener's brain stores a lot of advanced and cutting-edge military technology knowledge (called "black technology" in the setting), but many listeners are not aware of what they have. All its knowledge can change almost the entire course of battle, so it is the parties that take action to compete for the listener. This is also the reason why the two seemingly different things of professional soldiers and schoolgirls are connected.
The background of "All Metal Frenzy" can be said to be very interesting, and it is enough to reflect the talent of the original author He Dongzhaoji. On the one hand, the science fiction background that is not divorced from reality makes the appearance of human weapons seem reasonable; on the other hand, the military-born Sosuke Sagara enters the high school campus, and the jokes caused by it also dilute the cruelty of the Cold War theme and lower the reading threshold of the work. The combination of the two makes the story burn when it should burn, and the time when it should be easy. This also almost sets the narrative tone of many light novels - semi-orthodox drama.
However, there are many light novels about science fiction, and funny content abounds, and the reason why "All Metal Frenzy" is outstanding is because "All Metal Frenzy" is almost extreme in these two aspects.
In terms of science fiction, the AS set of All Metal Frenzy is excellent. In this regard, the greatest contribution is naturally in the now famous machine set up division Hai Lao Chuan Kantake. Whether it is the M9 of Mithril in the square camp, the crossbow, the Flaming Magic Sword, or the hell king and fallen angel of the villain camp Amalgam, Kaiogawa Kanmu has shown a variety of machine abilities through them. These excellent mechanics also made him famous, and later became the main architect of the two TV animations of Gundam. On the basis of the AS machine design, He Dongzhao II added the "λ-driver system", which is a slightly bit "god stick" system setting. Simply put, this system uses the driver's mental power to greatly improve ass combat ability, so that the story can show some of the blood elements of traditional robot works.
On the other hand, there is the background setting, including the listeners and the enemy camp mentioned above. As our Mithril is the "world police", not affiliated with either side of the United States and the Soviet Union, but the military is super strong, dedicated to fighting terrorist threats; Amalgam was originally a righteous organization, but with the increasing number of people and the continuous change of members, it has become a large and threatening military organization. The two lineups did not choose a big country like the United States and the Soviet Union, but took the side of the sword and set it as an organization outside the two major powers, such a design pattern seems to be small, but in fact, it fits more closely with the seemingly incompatible background of the campus, and there is no sense of violation.
And about the funny, you will definitely see it in the next part of the article.
Gonzo's anime adaptation also inherits these advantages from the original. The robot fights in the anime are very enjoyable, the painting is quite elaborate, the funny part is also well completed, and the character development led by Sosuke Sagara is also excellent. As for the relationship between the characters, Sosuke Sagara and Chidori want to find out about Tessa's love triangle.
However, Gonzo, as an independent animation company from Gainax (founder Shinji Higuchi was originally the backbone of Gainax), also inherited the glorious tradition of Gainax's famous "EVA" and had problems in budget allocation. The drawing of the second half of the animation has a certain degree of problems, which damages the overall degree of completion. At the same time, the original plot is also lackluster, which eventually led to the fact that the cash cow, which could have been quite important to Gonzo, changed hands under the balance of the copyright owner Kadokawa Group. Later in the story, we also know that with the commercial performance of works such as "Final Exile", Gonzo fell into a financial crisis.
For the animation of All Metal Frenzy, Gonzo is more like an interlude. I do not deny the quality of the first season of animation, but I have to admit that the work of "All Metal Frenzy" is well known to more Chinese people, and it is more due to the second season of "All Metal Frenzy" that focuses on funny and campus elements - "All Metal Frenzy Campus Chapter".
<h4>Anti-guest-oriented campus chapters and fledgling Kyoto animations</h4>
As mentioned earlier, there are two essences of the work "All Metal Frenzy", one is its science fiction setting, and the other is the honest and military sosuke Sagara Sosuke who is honest and full of military temperament in the campus. The former may not be very friendly to audiences who are indifferent to science fiction, but the latter is really suitable for all ages. Although there are corresponding bridge sections in the first season, due to different emphases, those funny bridges are more like adjustments. And "All Metal Frenzy Campus Chapter", which is changed from the novel of the same name, is seriously funny, which makes many people have enough to laugh.
The copyright holder Kadokawa Group was very bold in handing over "All Metal Frenzy Campus Chapter" to Kyoto Animation, which had only done "munto" before, which was a surprise at the time. After all, the fledgling Kyoto Animation was far less well-known then than it is now, and far inferior to "pure-blooded" upstarts like Gonza and established animation production companies. But in retrospect, Kadokawa made the right choice.
In "Campus Chapter", Sosuke Sagara can be said to have fully exerted his funny talents, blurting out cold jokes, using weapons on campus in a serious way, and his own small anti-riot type AS - Buntaijun, the humor cell is simply bursting. The most typical is that when teaching a school football club, a lot of dirty words blurt out. Personally, I think the most interesting thing about Sosuke Akara is that he is so funny but he doesn't know it, which always reminds me of the "comedian" of the NBA Golden State Warriors, Klay Thompson.
Supervisor Yasuhiro Takemoto and Kyoto Animation fully exerted their super strength in the face of campus funny themes in "Campus Chapter", and became a hit. In Kyoto Animation's subsequent works, such "talent" has also been well played and continued, whether it is "The Melancholy of Haruhi Ryogu", "Light Girl" with "Natural Stay" Hirazawa, or "Lucky Star" and "Everyday", which are also focused on funny. In Kyoto Animation's works, whether it is a serious theme or a daily animation, there are always funny sections that are so bright that the audience is bright and makes Kyoto Animation known to more people.
Kyoto Animation was recognized by the Tokyo Animation circle, led by the Kadokawa Group, and was commissioned to Kyoto Animation for the kadokawa-based light novel "Melancholy of Haruhi Ryogu" and "Light Girl" by Yoshibunsha, which was also based on the Kadokawa family. Kyoto Animation also lived up to expectations, completed the task of adaptation well, and made itself famous.
The success of "Campus Chapter" also made it logical that the third season of "All Metal Frenzy" was handed over to Kyoto for adaptation. But this adaptation is obviously not as popular as "Campus". The original adaptation of the novel of the third season is relatively dull, Kyoto Animation has no highlights in the adaptation, and the animation of robot battles is also lackluster, and personal feelings are not as good as the first season. Kyoto Animation also did not touch the theme of robot animation after the third season of "All Metal Frenzy".
Of course, the third season, whether in terms of market performance or overall quality, is definitely not a "failure", but it has not reached the height of "Campus". But unfortunately, the third season of "All Metal Frenzy" has almost become the "masterpiece" of the "All Metal Frenzy" animation, and the reason is that this "cauldron" must be memorized by Kadokawa.
<h4>Kadokawa, a speculator who lightly modified the anime</h4>
The Electric Shock Library, the Fujimi Fontasia Library, and the Kadokawa Sneaker Library, all three light novel libraries known as the "Mizoya", are all controlled by the Kadokawa Group without exception. Therefore, in each season's ban group, a large number of light novel adaptations are controlled by the Kadokawa Group. In light novel animation, we can often see the state of "one-hit disengagement", that is, the broadcast of the animation for one or two seasons, and there is no trace of the new animation, although the adaptation of these animations is still very far from the end of the original work. This is related to the Kadokawa Group's positioning of light animation.
Since the Kadokawa Group is a group with publishing as its core business, although the copyright owner of the original work has absolute control over the production committee system, the disc is ultimately divided with the company of the production committee. Once the light novel adaptation animation is played, it will have a great stimulating effect on the original work, and the sales profit of the bunko book is really enjoyed by the publishing house. Such a system determines that light novel animation has become a "advertising film" of the original to a certain extent, although the broadcast rights and discs of the animation can be sold for money, unfortunately, it is obvious that the money of the bunko is more important and pure in the eyes of the publishing house.
Therefore, we rarely see light novel animations that can "end well" or "continuous output" in the market, and there are only top works such as "Sword Art Online", and there are works like "The Cultivation Method of Passerby Heroines" that have a close ending to the animation broadcast time. As strong as the "Magical Forbidden Books Catalog", only two animations have been produced, because under the stimulation of animation, the sales of novels tend to be stable, and the further production of sequel animation is a bit "laborious and unflattering", and the stimulation of the sales of bunko is very limited. And the works of "eunuchs" are innumerable, "Inferior Students of Magic Colleges", "Pet Girl of Sakura Village", "Part-time Work!" Lord Demon King", "Dating Battle", "Horizon on the Realm Line" and so on are all.
"All Metal Frenzy" is naturally one of them. After the third season aired in 2005, its library sales were stable until the end of the novel in 2011. The Kadokawa Group no longer needs to stimulate the sales of its bunko books, so naturally there is no plan for animation, after all, businessmen are profit-seeking.
The third season of the anime received a mediocre response, which also broke the idea of Kyoto Animation to do robot animation, and the relaxed system and the "waste cute" animation (no pejorative) have gradually become an important part of the animation market under the leadership of Kyoto Animation, and Kyoto Animation does not need to do this not necessarily successful "All Metal Frenzy 4". Because of the above-mentioned light novel business model, Kyoto Animation has established its own light novel library, the KA ESUMA Library, and the company's business strategy has changed from "handouts" in the capital animation circle to self-sufficiency. This also became the last straw that crushed the fourth season of the anime.
But coincidentally, in recent years, Kyoto Animation's light novel adaptations that are not strictly its own library are the "Gancheng Glorious Amusement Park" that is the same as "All Metal Frenzy" by He Dongzhao, which is also the best consolation for the fourth season of that year. ("Blow It!") "Upper Bass Horn" is not strictly a light novel. ）
There are a lot of spoofs in "Gancheng Radiance Amusement Park", many of which are references to "All Metal Frenzy". For example, one of the mascots, Mofu Road, can be seen at a glance as a "tribute" to The Bunting Taijun. There are also many lines that are spoofs of "All Metal Frenzy", such as a sentence by Moflu:
<h4>The fourth season and the final chapter of "Many Years of Daughter-in-law Becoming a Wife"</h4>
The final turnaround was precisely on the "Renaissance" mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Due to the expansion of Japanese animation broadcasts, the replacement of new works can no longer satisfy the Japanese animation industry with increasing appetite, and the "mass production", "modularization" and "database", light novels have excessively consumed the reputation of light novels, so the re-animation and sequels of old works have gradually been put on the agenda.
In the field of fiction alone, "Chino's Journey" was re-adapted, and "Magical Forbidden Books Catalog" finally appeared in the news of the third season (you should let us see PV), and "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" once again appeared on the screen. In the field of manga, "Demon Man", "Magic Card Girl Sakura", and "Fengshen Yanyi" have appeared one after another. In the original animation, the new work of "Rebel Lulu xiu" was also presented to the audience. The fourth season of "All Metal Frenzy" also appeared in line with the expectations of the audience under such a trend.
Time has passed, and the production company of animation has inevitably changed again. The reborn Gonzo has been seriously injured (founder Makoto Higuchi is currently the chief supervisor of Hinoki And Marsodan after making several live-action films such as "True Godzilla" and "Attack on Titan") and is unable to cope with such a heavy burden; Kyoto Animation is increasingly estranged from the capital animation circle. And this time the protagonist is XEBEC.
As a subsidiary of the veteran animation company Production I.G, XEBEC has a wealth of experience in animation production, and in recent years they have also done a lot of robot-themed animation, such as "Reincarnation of Grarange", "Broken Blade", "Silver Will" and so on. Although these works are far less popular and commercially than All Metal Frenzy, the expressiveness of robots in these works can meet the needs of All Metal Frenzy for combat. The 3D modeling of "Broken Blade Sword" and "Silver Will" is also very distinctive, and it can also meet the needs of the robot 3D of "All Metal Frenzy".
The performance of the first three episodes of the fourth season of "All Metal Frenzy", which began airing in April, did not disappoint fans. Character drawing and body modeling are excellent, and the human settings are more in line with today's fashion trends (please let me shout privately: Tessa is more cute!). The strong crossbow, the Flaming Magic Sword, and the M9 that appear in the positive film and op have maintained a fairly high level. It is worth mentioning that in the fourth season of the anime, Eboi Kawa Kentake also found a good friend Ofe Yanase Keiyuki, who is also a machine, as a supplement to mechanical painting, and the lineup is more luxurious.
The most commendable is the robot battle. In the third episode, the M9 of the mithril side with different pilots shows its own unique personality in the battle with the giant beast, and this treatment is very good. The three giant beasts that attacked Merida Island were represented in different colors to make it easier for the audience to distinguish, and such a small innovation also took good care of the audience. After the monster was knocked down, the giant beast that relied on λ-DRIVER to maintain its giant body was also fragmented due to the disappearance of λ-DRIVER, and the setting was super highly restored in the animation. In short, the robot wars of Mithril and Amalgam are blameless in terms of combat expressiveness. This also makes the audience look forward to the appearance and battle of the popular bodies such as the Flame Magic Sword and the Steel Fallen Angel behind.
As the first to fourth seasons of Full Metal Frenzy progressed, we also saw a shift in japanese robot animation from hand-drawn to 3D in its creative form. A trace of time engraved on this work.
Perhaps, fans who have not been exposed to the previous game will be daunted by the number "four" in the fourth season. After all, the content of the previous dozens of words is in the front, and the time cost of making up for it may be a bit high. But the quality of the fourth season is really worth watching. Looking at the 3D robot combat, plump character development, and slightly old-school, but never-out-of-date Boy meets girl story in the entire TV animation, I believe that every audience who has not touched the previous seasons will fall in love with this animation.
Maybe I can recommend this fourth season in a shorter sentence – wondering why so many people have waited 13 or even 20 years, and I will have the answer in my heart.
With the help of the old Japanese work "Renaissance", "All Metal Frenzy" has once again returned to the fans' vision in the form of animation after 13 years. In these 13 years, some people have changed from young people to fathers of children; some people have gone from students to society and into social animals.
Objectively speaking, the "Renaissance" ridicule of domestic forums is actually the commercial behavior of major copyright owners to extract the surplus commercial value of the project, and what they are concerned about is naturally the wallet of the fans.
But I prefer to call it a "love" story. It is precisely because of the fans' waiting and perseverance that these long-dormant works have once again launched a sequel; it is precisely because the fans have not consumed the love that the copyright owner can see the powerful energy contained in these "old works".
This thing, like the Boy meets girl story of "Full Metal Frenzy", which is cloaked in the skin of "military science fiction", is actually the love that the fans have always insisted on under the "commercial behavior".