And I'm sure that others would do a much better job of doing something like this, but dammit I like this series so far, and having watched the first episode again, I'd like to examine it in some detail.
How do these things normally go? Usually an opening monologue, wherein the setting is info dumped onto us, accompanied by sweeping shots of the blue sky and glamorous city settings, usually a Tokyo-like modern metropolis. Alas, all we have is Perth. Even in the future, Perth is still Perth. The first thing we see is sand. Sand trailing off an airborne vehicle, but sand nonetheless. From this vehicle emerges our protagonist...
[Insert picture of first shot of our protagonist covered in a dusty haze]
There is no narrative monologue. There isn't even any music. Almost everything is muted. The only sound we get is a news report talking about an 'Alaskan Offensive', 'Valkyrie Units', and 'Antagonists'. Nothing is explicitly stated, everything is merely implied. This implication is extended to the visuals as well. On Koujirou's (who at this point is unidentified) shoulder the patch implies that he is part of these 'Valkyries' or at least involved with them in some fashion. Showing the stares of the all female background characters implies that his gender makes him a rarity in this place. His datapad gives us a relative tech level, and his path to his room gives us a good overview of the facility that will be our setting. What this sequence lacks in audio is made up for in visuals. People talk about the absurd amount spent on the action scenes, but the detail in the background is staggering.
[Insert pic of big foyer with the map from the opening post displayed on the wall.]
When we get to Kouji's room, and he starts looking at the news in his datapad, we see second-hand more about the world setting. We see the aftermath of a battle, as well as a wide selection of Valkyries, again all female.
Then the report is interrupted quite suddenly by us hearing the door open. We see Kouji react in obvious surprise, and we hear the door slam shut.
Roll opening credits.
[Pic of Anime Title]
So, what does this opening sequence do? It tells us, the audience, a lot about the setting without the usual monologue.
What doesn't it do? Well, we only see one main character (Edit: Apart from a small cameo. See if you can spot it!) and we have yet to hear a single word. Apart from seeming a bit awkward, we don't really see much of his character, really.
But then again, this is all before the first opening credits. We'll see the character of our characters afterwards.
And I might examine that later. If this sort of thing isn't too pretentious or worse, outright wrong.
