So, just finished off the BattleTech cartoon, and it was a decent show.
The premise for the show is that, in the middle of the 31st century, humanity has been in a galactic civil war with itself for the past 300 years, with the favored weapons in this war being BattleMechs, gigantic bipedal machines that are essentially walking tanks. However, in the middle of this war, all of the galaxy is invaded by a new enemy called "the Clans", who aim to reunite the galaxy under their tribal rule. As a result of this Adam Steiner, as well as a ragtag band of mech pilots and technicians begin a self-declared crusade against these invaders, all the while reuniting the different factions across the galaxy so that they can fend off the Clans. Going into this series, you're not really required to be aware of any of the knowledge relevant to the greater BattleTech franchise, as it skims across the surface as much as it can. However, it does end up compromising a lot of details that does make the series lore so great and worth getting into. But, it's decent for what amounts to a childrens cartoon of a property who's sole focus is upon a galaxy at war with itself, fighting with giant robots.
The animation for the series takes some getting used to. Saban decided to go with the novel idea of combining CGI with traditional animation, however I feel like it doesn't pull it together. Unlike with something far later like Code Lyoko , which the different styles are used for different worlds, the CGI in the series exists for the purposes of displaying a new "enhanced imagining" tech that's introduced and alters how a BattleMech pilot (A Mech Warrior) sees the battlefield. In practice, the transition comes across as a little jarring, especially when battles unfold using both the CGI and traditional animation rather than one or the other. And, as the series unfolds, the CGI actually does look for better for the purposes of the battles. As for the traditional animation. It's decent, but it comes across as a little stilted and off as well. Ignoring the scaling and perspective issues often present, it comes across like the series is trying to stay true to it's violent origins, but not TOO violent as to offend the station managers (This aired on Fox Kids during the same time as Spider-Man ). In same ways, the best episode, when it comes to the animation is the last episode to the series, where it seems like much of the budget was spent.
The audio I cannot really comment on because the only way to watch this series is through pisspoor VHS recordings, but it does have a lot of the same mech sound effects that you hear in the MechWarrior video games.
Overall, it's an okay series, but it's a hard recommendation from me. Personally, I'd rather see the series remade, with either completely 2D or 3D animation. There is some great stories to be told in the BattleTech universe, but it just feels like there's so much else dragging this show down.
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