Valvrave the Liberator - ep01

This series bares a striking resemblance to Gundam Seed, although it will probable move at a far fast pace than Gundam Seed did since it only has about 13 episodes to do it in. While the entirety of Gundam Seed spanned a hundred episodes. There are a couple key point that it focus in on to draw this resemblance. The first is the arrival of a team of five teenage soldiers where their job is to steal a prototype weapon that far exceeded anything that currently exists. Then you have the only peaceful nation that is doing it best to stay neutral, this results in thing being too peaceful which leads to poor security. Then once war does come it doesn't take long before peace and security that they did have to be shattered.

However it is very similar to Gundam in many ways, it is also very different in it's own right. In the beginning there is a high focus in on the relationship between Haruto and Shoko. That it is very clear that our protagonist is in love with Shoko, where it seems all of his other friends know of his feeling but the person in question. Which is kind of an interesting twist because it is typical the man that is the dense one not the other way around. What make it a bit saddening is that the peace is shatter just as he is about to confess. Then as they are escaping Shoko see someone in need of help but gets killed shortly after.

This tragedy is the motivation for Haruto to get in the mech that arrives moments later to exact his revenge on for the unjust murder of his love, and his inability to ever be able to convey his feelings. This leads him into crushing the tie-fighter knock-off mechs. Although there is another reason they probably had to kill off Shoko was that one of the requirement by the machine is the cast off your humanity. The question is what does that really mean, all thought towards the end of the episode we see to a degree what it means when he is stabbed to death and then shot by on of the invaders. Although to our attackers surprise he is reanimated as a zombie. That is one twist combination zombies and mechs, the question is where will they go next.