Chrome Shelled Regios - Series Review

It's been a nice couple weeks of anime and video games. There is one in particular I just finished watching that just blew me completely away. I pretty much stopped in my tracks of gaming, writing and reading. The series I am referring to is none other than Chrome Shelled Regios.

The animation quality by Zexcs is simply amazing. The world that Regios is set in maybe be simplistic in thought but is realized with breathtaking detail. An apocalyptic world in which mobile domed cities travel through. This in mere thought could almost never be realized in live action, it would be very expensive. Everything from beautiful scenery within the city, architecture of the buildings and design of the dite's (weapons) to the desolate frontier traveled by the domes.... very well done for something I see as an ambitious subject to tackle. The character designs and models are beautiful and not so cookie cutter. I felt like I was truly watching something new and fresh.

The audio, despite being 2.0 for my viewing, was very powerful. I can only imagine that 5.1 would rock my home theater. Fortunately my computer and streaming meant 2.0 was my only choice. The combination of hard and soft music through the series made the atmosphere of the show complete and even more intricate. The voice acting on this series is another outstanding aspect of the series. Handling the seriousness and the comedic elements to lighten an other dreary world is required and they performed admirably. The subtitles were sufficient and very informative. I don't recall who did them but they atleast took the time to provide definitions to words and terms. Not to mention the timing was perfect, to this day any anime streamed usually is off just a little or rushed. I could follow the action on the screen and read knowing what was happening. I won't usually remark about subs like this but I couldn't help but notice how well it was done.

I covered pretty much everything that was very good about this series... thanks for reading... oh, damn...wait a second... that was just the very good aspects. The best aspect of this series is not the animation, it's not the music, it's not the action... it is in the writing that I found Chrome Shelled Regios truly excelled in. A show can look and sound beautiful, but if the writing is weak then all of that means nothing. What I fell in love with was not just the world, but with each of the charactes. All have a tremendous background and dichotomy between each other. Ofcourse we follow Layfon's story as well as Nina's, but from Felli to Haia. Despite what you initially think of certain characters you find that there are reasons for being the way they are. In an anime with a large amount of secondary cast that is something that could be easily pushed aside in order to focus on the main plot. If you want to know about the plot, you'll be happy to know that Regios doesn't lack. It's complex without being so convoluted that you get lost watching the series. It's dark without being depressing. It's fast paced but never leaves you wondering what the hell just happened.

You might be asking yourself, "ok, but is there anything wrong or lacking in this series?" or "where's the shoe that drops with almost all series?" I'd say you'd find it with wanting another season. It's an open ended finale, you won't feel cheated but I can almost promise you'll be saying one thing. "That was awesome but there's another season right? right?" This is a no-lose situation. Chrome Shelled Regios is a one of a kind series. It's the best series I have watched this year...

Chrome Shelled Regios would be a great show brought over to Region 1 land. It's not a series that would need a dub, but would be nice if it did. I'd recommend New Gen or Bang Zoom, and ideally TRSI to release but for a dub... we'd be looking at Funimation, since they are the only company continuing consistent dubs of series. I haven't fallen in love with a show like this since Shakugan no Shana. I thought 07-Ghost was great, but it doesn't hit this level of awesome and wicked fun. I give Chrome Shelled Regios 5 out of 5 Felli shin kicks, which also comes with 5 kisses.