After watching two generic fantasy shows, I really need a change of pace. Enter VERTEX FORCE, which opens with a mysterious woman in a black leotard sending a satellite crashing down to Earth, triggering a worldwide phenomenon. Welp, at least there aren’t demon lords.

When I first took a glance at this show in my preview post, I had this to say:

VERTEX FORCE has a brother-sister duo commanding the power of robots to do battle. They are joined by other cute girls. I guess this is technically a mecha anime? I dunno, though. If you’re not inside the mecha, does it count? After all, one of the more interesting aspects of mecha anime is the merging of machine and human. In Eva, the pilots essentially return to the womb. You can see the LCL as a stand-in for amniotic fluid. Patlabor 2 argues, however, that fighting in a mecha is a form of proxy warfare. We try to hide our complicity behind the various screens and monitors that serve to abstract or reduce the actual fighting to mere representations. The robots in VERTEX FORCE are different. You don’t really become one with the machine.

If you’ve already seen the episode, then you might have some objections. Hold on, we’ll get there. The premise is pretty simple. Daddy dearest is (or was) an alien. He and his people got their asses kicked by a robot known only as EDVA, so he fled to Earth, met a woman, and had Akira and Haruka. Unfortunately, EDVA came after them, and he presumably died defending his new home and family. I mean, he never came back from the fight, so there’s no body… eeeehhh, you can’t say for certain he’s dead! But let’s put that aside for now. It seems as though the mysterious woman at the start of the episode might be from dad’s planet, and she’s here in search of anyone who can use Engine, i.e., the mecha-like power up that runs in the family. The thing is, older sis Haruka got her dad’s powers, but Akira has yet to come into his own. He desperately wants to be stronger, but all he has is the typical shounen sense of justice. Well, as cliche as it is, you can’t blame a kid for wanting to protect innocent animals from bullies.

When Haruka has to invoke her Engine power to protect Akira from a plane — a plane from a nearby US base, I must add — the mysterious woman quickly notices even though she’s all the way in America. Damn, why does America keep coming up? Might be something to track as the story unfolds. After a bit of exposition, which I’ve already briefly summarized above, a scary-looking robot comes a-knockin’. At first, Haruka has the upper hand, but phase two of the boss fight overwhelms her. As a result, little bro gets himself in trouble, but we all need to be near death to get our powers. As a result, he not only gets his own Engine, it manifests directly attached to his arms. He partly becomes the mecha. So… where’s the rest of it?

The preview for next week’s episode suggests that it’ll probably be arriving soon, but still, the dichotomy is interesting, isn’t it? Haruka’s Engine is like a Stand that she calls forth. It mimics her actions, but it isn’t her and she isn’t it. Meanwhile, Akira harkens back to the mechas of old where he becomes one and the same with the machine. Will Haruka and the other cast members get traditional mechas of their own? I don’t think they will. I think this privilege exclusively belongs to Akira, and if that ends up being the case, what would it mean or imply? Does this series have something to say about the evolution of the genre or is this just a neat, little gimmick to help it stand out? My biggest (and perhaps cynical) worry is that Akira is the strongest because he’s more traditional. We’ll see, though. Plus, does a mecha anime really need a gimmick to stand out? I mean, mecha anime isn’t exactly rare these days, but they’re not exactly flourishing either. It’s all about reincarnating and/or getting kicked out of the hero’s party. Simply being a mecha anime in the sea of isekai slop is enough to garner some attention, I would think.

There are a few other things I have to note. This anime utilized 3D animation, and while we’ve come a long way from the jarring animation in, say, Knights of Sidonia, it still isn’t quite seamless. There are moments where the 3D is kind of an eyesore. The “Power Down” incident brought down the internet, which has Haruka in despair. I’m reminded of a somewhat viral tweet where an AI bro thinks we couldn’t possibly cope if ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, et al were to disappear tomorrow. But we made it this far without it. I’m sure we’d be fine. Our internal email replies might finally sound human for once. But don’t get me wrong. I’d be seriously annoyed without the internet. But we’d still adapt. It’d just take a while longer. Anyway, Akira will soon be flanked by a bunch of girls. What’s up with that? His dad was an Engine user, so why is everyone in the future team a girl? He’s too young to have a harem. Last but not least, what’s with some of these angles? C’mon, Haruka’s a minor. We don’t need constant ass and crotch shots of a little girl, do we?

There are parts of VERTEX FORCE that are potentially intriguing, but I’m not convinced that it’s more than an Everything Else show.