Greetings fellow Busou Shinki fans! Today is Thursday meaning that there are no more Busou Shinki episodes to watch. We only received 12 and I shall review the show as a whole now. We still have an OVA but I shall save that for later.
(Spoiler Warning! Images from episode 1-12 are present! You’ve been warned!)
Busou Shinki is a 15 cm tall (toy) robot line created by Konami JP first started by the Battle Rondo MMO, which is now dead since October 31st 2011. The MMO allowed you to raise your Shinki, or many of them, to fight other Masters. Your battles and interactions would determine how they behaved. There are also two PSP games only only for the Japanese audience called – Battle Masters & Battle masters MK. II which both add a handful of Busou Shinkis. The game allowed you to play as your Shinkis using a “Ride-On!” system which merged your thoughts with theirs. The better synced both of you were the better you would do.
There was also an ONA series called – Moon Angel – which was exclusive only to those in Japan using Sony’s Playstation Network while watching it on the BattleMasters MK. II game. They gave you episode shorts and Tempesta armor for your game.
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– Busou Shinki TV – Episode Review:
– 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 –
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– Busou Shinki Story Summary:
Busou Shinki TV takes place in the near future – around 2036 – with Rihito and his three non-combat Shinkis – Ann, Lene, and Ines. While Rihito spends his drone-like existence in school and work his Shinkis do all his chores along with cooking. They go on various adventures until Hina joins in on the fun who…escalates their adventures in numerous fun and positive ways. All four Shinkis go on a merry slice-of-life type adventure with a few combat related happenings occurring in certain scenes.
– Ann (Arnval – Type Angel) was the main Shinki Rihito obtained who also acts as the “elder sister” in the whole Shinki story. She keeps every Shinki in line while also day-dreaming of cute & fluffy things.
– Ines (Altine – Type Valkyrie) is one of the more serious and more intelligent out of the bunch that acts all tombyish. She constantly keeps pointing things out to the gang only to sigh in disbelief.
– Lene (Altlene – Type Valkyrie) is the air-headed and the comedy Shinki of the show. She constantly stumbles and does the silliest of things. However! She knows how to sew clothing that is labeled as “armor” for the other Shinki.
– Hina (Strarf – Type Devil) is a monitor Shinki Rihito obtained from his dad. She was supposed to push Rihito into combat while also thirsting for combat. She constantly wants to fight and is a bit on the naive side. She is constantly serious only to end up doing cute things later in the show.
– Rihito – (A.K.A Master) – He is a High School student who is treated as a background character. He is Ann, Ines, Lene, and Hina’s Master, though doesn’t seem to act like it. He is only known as Master with no real introduction of being called such in the show. He is simply a humanoid robot and a drone of society with no real positive points.
– Hamster – He is simply a comical background character constantly nibbling on a sunflower seed. He doesn’t have a cage nor does he do anything useful. He is there simply to be “cute”.
-> Thoughts on Character:
They’re all fine, except for Rihito who acts more robotic than the Shinki. 8-Bit studio pissed me off with treating him like a drone or a lemming of society. He has no real use other than to pretend he is a Master for the Shinkis. The ‘Rich Collector’ boss at the end does a better job of being human than Rihito himself.
They didn’t do anything in the show to hint at his name, only calling him Master by both his Shinkis and on the Shinki holo-phone.
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– My Thoughts – Story:
After playing the three games loosely and watching the Moon Angel anime I was expecting a more serious story, something similar to Angelic Layer yet more…tragic. I was expecting Rihito and his Shinkis to go on adventures that would escalate into more serious matters as the story went on, that wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t a loss, as most people would put it. It was simply taking a route that Shinki fans would enjoy, in the manner of doing their chores, shopping, mail delivery fetching, and etc. 8-Bit Studios & Konami apparently wanted the show to be aimed at those wanting to co-exist with their Shinkis on a daily basis while speculating what they might possibly do in between battles and similar. Ann and the gang would constantly find themselves in highly comical and silly situations while also going on rushed adventures, sometimes spawning quick combat scenarios. They would rescue other Shinkis, assist one another in a pinch, as well as even….going on awkward romantic dates. They are basically children in a 15 robotic body constantly getting themselves in trouble.
Similar to how Ann, Hina, Lene, and Ines interact with the world is how we Shinki fans constantly dream our Shinkis would interact with us. I constantly imagine my Shinki Renge helping me out while also stirring up fox spirit-esque trouble here and there. This show helps fuel that.
The combat this show did have was fulfilling enough for to enjoy almost every little battle that was presented. They weren’t official battles, simply swift (rushed) ones that would simply move the story further or tease you in wanting to see more (EP 11 official battle). Sadly, we fans crave more in terms of combat because that is how Busou Shinki was advertised and handed to us within the games.
This Anime series did add a boss, just not a serious one as in previous Busou Shinki titles. This one added a “Rich Shinki Collector” who wanted to adopt Hina because she looked beautiful, and not the one at the start of the show – unrelated!
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– Music:
Busou Shinki is actually known for having good music, or at least by me. The BGM in is mostly up-beat and comical in tone, while when it does get serious it does sound awesome. I would place it on the level of the Battle Masters OST’s of quality, but shall still praise it highly. It isn’t the best I heard from Busou Shinki, just good enough that I shall note it as pleasing to my ears.
The Opening and Closing songs of the series is actually listenable. I can listen to both the OP and ED on a whim. Azusa did the ED to the show, which she also did for the Amagami SS show which I also enjoyed. Care was actually placed into the music that I must praise it. All the tracks were used nicely, but suffering a budget PSP game quality – as in it is still good with “minis” or Indie type music quality.
Hearing and sampling the Original Soundtrack has me enjoying it. Not to the fullest, just enough that it keeps up with the quality of the show. The comedy tracks itself aren’t all that annoying (maybe they are in full) that I can casually listen to them without cursing at such. The more serious battle tracks due suffer in game-like quality, yet are still catchy and listenable enough that I could replay those tracks constantly, as I have with Battle Rondo and the Battle masters game.
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– Busou Shinki – Show Accessories:
Busou Shinki robots are quite a device. They can think for themselves, fight for you, think intelligently and rationally (most of the time), and they can even do your chores. They enjoy assisting you and they will do everything in their power to assist you, unless you’re an evil prick who abuses them. They are designed to fight, and they can do so much more in a slice-of-life environment.
Just as the images above show – Busou Shinki TV allowed Shinkis to:
-> Sign Deliveries/Packages: Shinkis may sign your postal deliveries for you when you aren’t around. You might be busy, gone, or something which allows your Shinki to get such for you. Hopefully the package is small enough to carry!
-> Go shopping: Hell ya! This is the future with the majority of the people purchasing things online because they don’t want to deal with line-ups and out-of-stock scenarios locally. They can purchase goods for you, including groceries! They simply pull up a holo web browser and order away.
-> GPS-Map: Shinkis can use an application placed into them to pull up a map to find landmarks or other Shinkis. They can track things just as we can do so with Google Maps and similar. They can even use augmented reality to find out where buses go or what plane is heading where. Just think of the apps you have on your phone and attach them to a Shinki.
-> Able to Win Trips: They can participate in actual Japanese street lotteries spinners. They can walk up, spin the wheel and win prizes just as any kid or adult.
-> Flying: Not every Shinki can do this, only those equipped with some sort of flying unit.
-> Shinki Credit Card: As unsafe as this may sound, Shinkis can behave as credit cards. Shinkis are able to work and earn money for their Master, just like us! However, they can transfer funds from their palm of their hands to another Shinki’s palm -> Yen sign in the eye.
-> Career Shinki & Jobs: Shinkis are allowed to work, and are encouraged to do so. Depending on what Shinki type they are they can specialize in their type role. For example – Kohiru and Merienda could both work in restaurants, Kohiru in a Japanese restaurant while Merienda could work in a European-themed restaurant. Airports in Japan, or only Okinawa, have Arnval units as security and as terrorist training squads. They use Arnvals to plot terrorist scenarios to train other Shinkis to counter-act the threat.
If Ann wanted to she could become a teacher & Lene could open up her own Shinki store to sell her custom made clothing.
Episode 06 of the series goes into a bit of detail of how Shinkis co-exist and interact with our society.
I actually approve with each and every Busou Shinki function in this show. I do however want Konami to seriously look into making an actual functioning Shinki in a similar manner as the Nao Robot.
One thing I dislike is how Shinkis can equip their armor on a whim. That defeats the whole fun of manually customizing your Shinkis. Would of been nice if 8-Bit Studio kept with the whole manually equiping the armor instead of cheating through one scene to the next. They can keep the rest, just not the “another dimension equipment storage” gimmick.
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– Lacking Masters:
The strange thing about this show is how unhuman the Masters were. Every Master, including Rihito, acted all so robotic.
-> Rihito was a drone of society in High School. He would often be seen as clumsy and the worst role-model for Shinkis. He took care of his Shinkis but he was just….a drone. Rihito was seen a lot, and he was respectful to one and all. He did however forget his Shinki when going to Okinawa. YOU DO NOT DO THAT! He wasn’t even referred by name.
-> Kurara’s Master had her head chopped off in images. She had a beautiful bikini body, but her head was out of the image.
-> MaoChao & Howling’s Master’s face was that of a kid girl either innocent or innocent yet mischievous kind.
-> Fubuki’s Master is that of a shrine princess wearing a red miko outfit. She is mostly seen but with lacking details on her face. She is treated as a spirit, for good reason.
It wouldn’t hurt to show “Masters” enjoying a nice Shinki battle in an arena, or having Rihito hit it up with a girl. It seems to be taboo and needs to be seriously looking into for a possible season 2.
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– Other Images of Interest:
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– Final Thoughts:
It has been a great series from start to finish. It did have its obvious faults but I am treating this as a nice gift and not taking it for granted. The whole slice-of-life vibe was nice, enjoying all the silly child-like silliness from beginning to end. Also did enjoy the background lore of Shinkis being able to work and having careers in the world. Having them treated as figure-formed cellphone was also surprising, yet welcomed. They would be a high target for hackers and information predators. I did make note of how they wanted us to view Shinkis refusing to be reset by fleeing into underground settlements to live there.
The story itself isn’t much to comment on. It was fun. It was mostly an episode contained story only to briefly and lightly look back at the whole situation. There wasn’t much, just Shinkis going on adventures and participating in events. Ann, Hina, Ines, and Lene simply go places and stir up a bit of trouble in an innocent playful kid kind of way.
The bad part of the show are the rushed Shinki battles. They feel rushed or are swiftly interrupted for silly reasons. And when there is a legit fight it is treated poorly with one-sided battles. The worthy ones would be the intro-battle, Fencer girls in the underground, and three-part battle in episode 12 with Ann and Valona, Naked Shinkis, Rosa, and Victoria.
The music itself is noteworthy that I went and purchased the OST. Still waiting for it. Busou Shinki is known for having some awesome music tracks -> Battle Rondo, Battle Masters (MK.II), and the Character Albums. Maybe even Moon Angel.
I also quite enjoyed each and every End Card placed after the episodes. Nice artwork and images!
Lastly, I need to punish 8-Bit Studio for their fear of not adding Masters into the show. Shinkis need their “Guardians” and role-models to lecture them as well as transporting them around. They need to be there to even gear up the Shinkis for battles! There was no way of knowing Rihito’s name except for looking at synopsis on the web. Pathetic. If there is a Season 2 they need to put as much focus into the human side as much as they did with the Shinkis. This show also needed some sort of seriousness – Artemis, Athena, and Mimic.
I’m used to Anime shows carrying both the plot and various scenery objects from one episode to the next, I just didn’t get that vibe from this show. It disappointed me and felt a bit stale. I enjoyed it, just felt a tiny bit empty. Nothing significant carried over, not even the gifts. Alright, maybe the images of Master and trips, but that was about it.
I’m happy with this and shall treat it as a lovely gift by 8-Bit Studio and Konami. I will however disagree with the whole Infinite Stratos comparisons and shall correct people into checking out Angelic Layer. A bit of research will bring you there as well.
I prefer Moon Angel because it had the perfect vibe in its short run. It had that serious fight, awesome fights, and the Master was actually a human! I still love what I got in this Anime, don’t think I’m shitting on it! I’m just saying 8-Bit Studio needed to polish a bit more. Now bring out Season 2!
– My Rating/Score:
I’ll rate this Busou Shinki TV show – 7/10
(-1 for Rihito not being human, boss was more human; -1 for rushed battles; -1 for Censoring Master faces.)
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– Wishful Thinking:
If they do make a Season 2 they need to consider this:
– Actual Master-Shinki interactions, no drones! Don’t cheat!
– Actual lengthy and official battles placed in every few episodes!
– Don’t censor Master faces! Treat them like humans, not as a sexual object.
– Having Renge, Benio, or Kohiru fight in a serious way and win! (My personal wish).
– Having a Second Season because Busou Shinki deserves such!
– Releasing old figure lines as with releasing repaints! The Biker Girls and the Garganguan mecha still need to be released! If you’re marketing figures then do so properly!
Konami, please show some care! We love your Shinkis, just don’t insult us and yourself! If someone isn’t caring then get someone who does! Otherwise, thanks for the Anime and the figures! 🙂
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– As for my readers – Thanks for viewing and hope to see you for Season 2! Still have an OVA to review as well so see you then!