It would be easy to dismiss this whole series as simply just some kind of harem rom com, after all Ichika is the only boy in a school full of girls and female teachers as that is the gender of the vast bulk of people at the IS Academy. An unheard-of phenomenon as I mentioned IS can only respond to women, at least as far as anyone knew until the arrival of Ichika Orimura. When taking an exam to get into the next level of school, namely high school, he came across an IS unit sitting in a room in the examination hall and simply by touching it he was able to activate it and make it move. You see the main protagonist of this series is Ichika Orimura, a guy, and not just any old guy but one who can somehow use an IS. The first twist is that the IS can only effectively be used by those of the female gender, it is a powered combat armour that can only be actively deployed by women…or is it? Originally the IS was intended to be used in space, no doubt as part of a construction program, though that idea was shelved and instead the IS became used predominantly in sports events. Infinite Stratos as well as being the name of the series is also the name given to the various forms of powered combat armour used by the protagonists and antagonists of the show. At least in terms of this particular season. We’ve seen all the weird and wonderful twists that could possibly occur, ah yes that is what you might be thinking but with Infinite Stratos the twists in this plot are somewhat complex and yet to be fully resolved so to speak.

Double twist I hear you say…oh come come Green Lantern you cannot be serious. These things are as I said earlier a major mainstay.Įnter Infinite Stratos, an anime series based upon the light novel series of the same name, which is a mecha series with a double twist. A variation on this theme is the suit of armour, just like the kind usually worn by knights or samurai, but capable of flight, packing considerable firepower (usually) and responding only to a certain individual.

Usually the armour or mecha in question is large and cumbersome and essentially combines the concept of mobile artillery with some variation on bipedal or multipedal forms. Powered combat armour has always been a major mainstay of not only anime but manga and western comics for so long I cannot remember when it all started…probably back in the fifties or sixties if not earlier.

Infinite stratos season 1