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Pilot Candidate
Episodes Reviewed: Various "Adult Swim" Episodes
... and then it was cancelled. I think I only saw 4 or 5 different episodes.
Overall Grade: C
While it's true that I got interested in the nature of the powers of the pilots, the war they were fighting, and just what Zero's motivation is for being a pilot... it was too all over the place for me to be able to get into.
Storyline: 5
Zero is the name of this series's hero. He, along with a group of other young boys are candidates to become pilots of giant mechs called Goddesses (if my memory serves me correctly). Why? Well, for one thing there's a war going on against aliens... I think. Zero (whose real name is Rei, which basically means the same thing, except that it's usually a girls's name) appears to have a special power that increases his abilities in a pinch, but that power isn't exactly a secret, and he's restricted from using them during the tests; he has to be able to handle the job without relying on his EX power (is that what it was called, or am I thinking of something else?). If you think about it, all of this stuff is overused, ripped off, etc.
Type: I dunno
There's action, a little comedy, and a little bit of the obligatory ambiguous romance. In short, this anime rips off used ideas.
Ch. Development: 3
Truth be told, I don't think any of the characters changed much during the episodes I watched. But what do you expect when the focus changes far too often, and the action progresses slowly while the main character spends too much time wondering what's happening to him? Of course, I haven't watched every single episode, so I can't judge it very well at this point.
Sexuality: 4
I think there was some decent fan service, but nothing out of the ordinary anime fare.
Romance: 4
See above.
Drama: ??
Truth be told, I don't recall ever having any emotional response to this anime at all.
Action: 5
Space battles with mechs and alien mechs being blown up. Nothing really.
Comedy: 4
While not the basis of this series, the comedy is certainly present, but not noteworthy.
Dub
Dub Voices: 7
They sounded about right.
Dub Music: Nonexistent
Dub Lines: 8
As always, I use 8 as a high number that gives me a little leeway.
Censorship: ??
I wish I could say something about Pilot Candidates. I know that when I watched it, I sorta liked it, but I didn't feel too dedicated to it. I'm still not sure what the main plot is, and I got tired of the all the comedy gags and stuff that appear when the mood and main character are serious most of the time. If this series committed itself to either the path of comedy or the path of seriousness, either way would have made this series easier to watch, but somewhere in the middle is not acceptable. In short, Pilot Candidates was definitely interesting, but suffered from an identity crisis and turns out to be amazingly mediocre. Check it out if you've already bought all the "good" anime, you rich jerk* (*note: not all rich otaku are jerks, and you may not necessarily be a rich otaku; likewise, poor otaku can also be jerks).
That's my Story and I'm Sticking to it!
