Ore Aku Ep 1-3 Review: A Decent Start

This season we have Gundam – which is obviously the biggest thing – but aside from that, we also have *inhales*
“Ore wa Seikan Kokka no Akutoku Ryoushu!“, which roughly translates to I am the Villainous Lord of an Interstellar Nation. As usual with modern Light Novel adaptations, the title basically tells you what the series is about. But what does this series have to do with mecha, you ask? Well, it’s basically power fantasy aristocrat but with spaceship and mecha combat.

With 3 episodes already released, the show established its premise, settings, and backstory, with a sprinkle of mecha action. And to be honest, it is not that bad…for an Isekai Mecha series.

Episode 1 basically establishes Liam’s, the main character, past life in our modern world. And oh boy the Japanese really know how to write a miserable story. The past life of Liam has got every misfortune under the sun – he’s overworked, being used as a scapegoat by others, no hobbies, his wife cheats on him with a dirty old man, and his daughter “loves” the dirty old man more than him. He basically went from having “some” things to nothing. He got framed for a huge pile of debt, and has to work laborious job that destroyed his health. Well, what has to come will come. He is on the verge of death due to his health failing…when he encounter a strange men…

Now when you encounter someone with the same voice as Takehito Koyasu, I’d recommend not trusting him 9 times out of 10. But I guess when you’re on the verge of death, nothing really matters anymore. And if the supernatural Koyasu-voiced dude is offering you a chance to become a powerful character in a mecha world, anyone would take that in a heartbeat. And so our poor protagonist pick his new world to be reincarnated in – a world with mecha knights and magic. (now where have I heard that before?)

What bugs me at the end of season 1 is the guy never got a chance to get “revenge” on the cheating couple. I know that the Guide punished them but yeah it’d be nice if Liam saw that.

And now to the power fantasy part! You know how it goes, Liam is the son of a Duke who runs an entire planet! So dude has a lot of power over a lot of people. But still, he’s just a normal man – he’s never even a manager before but now he’s given an entire Planet to run. So of course he needs help. The first level power fantasy kick in when he got a customized android maid who is basically a mini super computer that can do lots of things for him – including tax (probably)! And the 2nd level is the Matrix Download whatchamacallit! Dude just went into a pod for 2 years and learn an insane amount of knowledge + enhance strength as well. Basically a free upgrade to his RPG char!

And then we get to some isekai shenanigans. His planet is actually doing pretty poor due to corrupted officials and stupid management. His parents basically left him a giant mountain of debt and screwed off, forcing him to take on the burden. Still, we see a lot of moment where he goes “Damn it, I am going to be soooo evil in this life. Everyone’s gonna suffer!” or “Only I can oppress my own people” etc… But this is one of those series where the protagonist is actually doing good for the people in the long term, and only do those “bad things” to the evil ones. I’m sure later as he conquer more systems, he’ll rule over them, but they will live a better life than before in exchange for their “sovereignty”.

We’re also introduced to the princess knight Christiana – who in the beginning was seen working under Liam. In episode 2 and 3 she was depicted as a very courageous but inexperience and brass princess where she literally walked straight into a giant enemy trap – which resulted in her homeland getting the Zentradi Macross treament where hundreds of space battleships just scorched the surface of her planet. So afterwards Liam will probably rescue her from the pirates or something. But yes, we are getting another aggressive princess knight type in the club.

In terms of production quality, I really like the mecha battles and the CGI space combat in the series so far. The mechs design looks great, the choreography is cool – at least for the Avid. The others are pretty much cannon fodder. The space combat is just like Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu minus the competent enemy part – where Liam’s fleet just steam rolled the entire other side’s fleet. Now that’s the 3rd power fantasy for ya! So basically they will introduce some challenges for Liam, but his maid will help him come up with the solution, and then he just whack everyone thanks to his Hyperbolic Time Chamber training. There’s a lot more to discuss, but the series is just starting, and there’s a lot of time for the series to explain and develop characters and plot, so let’s wait and see. At least for this one, the action is leagues above Mobuseka – which is a huge plus.

=Aaron=

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