Quick Thoughts–Unbreakable Machine-Doll

I know what you’re thinking. Why the heck is he watching Unbreakable Machine-Doll? I swear I had a good reason, but after watching this first episode, it probably wasn’t good enough.

Some time ago, I started reading the manga adaptation of the light novel this was based on. And honestly, it wasn’t that bad. The plot follows Raishin Akabane is a student puppeteer from Japan, who has come to the Walpurgis Royal Academy of Machine Arts in England to study the emerging field of Machinart. He is joined by his Automaton Yaya: a living machine doll powered by magical circuits that specializes in hand-to-hand combat. In the Academy, there is a combat tournament exclusive to the Top 100 students and their automata, to decide who shall be bestowed with the title of “Wiseman”, the greatest puppeteer. It has it’s faults, but nothing as bad as this first episode.

So, because I’m not going to give this show much time, let’s just make a bullet list:

• The featureless faces just rub me the wrong way. It feels like one of those bad eroge adaptations. People have noses dammit!
• The animation wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.
• They really play up Yaya being as much of a sex doll as she is a combat weapon. Not really digging that.
• Not enough back story, at least for now, for me to give two shits about the characters. I remember the manga giving us an explanation for his rage. That was completely lost here.

Take this for what you will. After that first episode, I’ll be hard pressed to go much further.