Jinki: Extend - The Complete Series Review

Review

As a fan of any Genre entertainment, you learn to accept, if not fully embrace, a set of well-worn, even clichéd, tropes. And so it is with Mecha Anime. Giant robot lovers come to expect certain things. There will be a wide-eyed, pre-pubescent naïf who is destined to become an unlikely mech pilot, by dint of hard work, a positive attitude (against all odds), and some unique, inherent, semi-magical talent. This pilot will have parent issues, two potential love interests, a true friend disguised as a rival, and so on. The best examples either take this formula in a radically new direction, or create such an engrossing world within these confines that you can’t help but immerse yourself in it.

Does Jinki Extend do either of these things? No. So it isn’t one of the best. But is it worth watching? Sure, as long as you know what to expect, and I imagine you do.

Jinki Extend’s (hereafter abbreviated JE) primary innovation is to cast the wide-eyed naïf pilot as a young girl, Aoba.

Aoba's single unique character trait is her love of gunpla, which is a nice nod to fans. The joy she feels in piloting the mecha from the perspective of a mecha fan is an exciting concept, but one ultimately left untapped. Her well-trodden insecurities are given far more room in her characterization. The modeling thing is pretty tacked on.

So our otaku protagonist, "orphaned" by the death of her grandmother, is kidnapped into a Venezuelan military outfit called Angel, dedicated to battling the mysterious Jinki (used as a catchall term for the series mecha, translates roughly as 'man machine') operating under the command of the evil Kyomu organization. The locale of Venezuela is totally arbitrary, except for a few vaguely "jungly" set-pieces. Later, some action will take place in a heavily damaged Tokyo.

It turns out that Aoba's long lost mother, Shiva is, in fact, alive and well, in thrall to Kyomu's mastermind, a creepy little purple fellow called Kokushou.

The mother/daughter conflict has the potential to create a wholly different nuance to the proceedings, different from, say, Evangelion, whose underlying narrative heavily influences Jinki: Extend. Unfortunately, it does not. You could switch the genders of every character in JE, or make them all South African hermaphrodites, without losing a speck of insight.

Aoba’s pilot peers are also young girls, but their interactions are pretty pat. There are seemingly dozens of young girl pilots, each essentially interchangeable, with one exception, which I'll get to in a moment.

The first half of the thirteen-episode series concerns itself with the coming-of-age and training of Aoba, complete with the obligatory mecha sporting sequences, this time in the form of Robot Soccer.

In the second half, the action really gets going. Aoba's role recedes, while another pilot, the mysterious amnesiac Akao, becomes the central protagonist. The relationships between Akao, Aoba, Shiva, Kokushou, and a dozen other characters are explored by throwing cloning, murder, revenge, and possession in a blender with flashbacks, flash forwards, visions, and so forth, until the plot is nearly incomprehensible.

I am trying to avoid spoilers, but even after watching this show twice, I'm not entirely sure what's happening. There's a lot going on, and it doesn't help that the many, many women are all bathed in identical blue light.

So while the second half is technically interesting, it feels like it's too much for the constraints of six episodes. If you find yourself engaged, multiple viewings are probably mandatory.

What about the Mecha?

JE’s signature Mech is the Moribito. Designed by the undistinguished Katsuyuki Tamura, the Moribito is serviceable but middling. It’s blocky proportions fall somewhere between the Legioss Alpha and Katomi's work on Virtual On.

The mecha flavor throughout JE is more derivation than inspiration. The support mech are perfectly fine, but nothing screams out "cool" to me. It's all very workmanlike.

The robot battles are pretty straightforward, with little in the way of upgrades and special attacks.

The final battle between the Moribito and the Final Boss, the imaginatively named Red Jinki, is the best of the action sequences, set against a moody, rainy backdrop.

Rereading this review, I started with a muted recommendation, then proceeded to say almost nothing good about the show. In my final analysis, I'd recommend this for hugely omnivorous anime and mecha fans, but not casual consumers (I consider myself the latter). There's simply nothing particularly compelling going on here.

Jinki Extend is available from Funimation at a MSRP of $39.99

Technical Notes

I turn on subtitles whether I need to or not. JE’s subtitles are awful, at least in their fidelity to the spoken words, or maybe the audio is awful in its fidelity to the subs. The subs are actually better written. I wouldn’t recommend watching with both on, it’s too distracting. Additionally, you can’t adjust the settings mid-episode and return to where you left off. You have to start the episode over, which is dumb.

Special Features are minimal, and consist of an inessential, unaired thirteenth episode, trailers, and a clean opening.

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