By In 2023, two U.S. military planes transport a Marine Exoframe unit over South America. Team leader Bowman mounts his Toad Exoframe, and the rear hatch opens to deploy his team. The Toads free fall through the sky before deploying their parachutes and landing in the jungle. After securing the landing zone, the team retrieves hydrofoil foot platforms from an equipment container. The team is running several minutes behind schedule and uses its hydrofoils to traverse a river. A small UAV is deployed to monitor the area from above and observes enemy Obambo Exoframes preparing to fire mortars at the Americans. Bowman wants to continue with the operation and calls over the radio to provide coordinates to deliver a “package.” He orders the team to split in two while he infiltrates behind enemy lines. One of the team sneaks up behind an Obambo and jams a tactical torchlight into its torso to take out the pilot. The team engages more enemies while advancing on a hill and wonders if they’re facing the Outcast Brigade. The enemy fires a mortar round that lights up the night sky and allows them to fire on the American position. Elsewhere, Bowman rendezvous with a helicopter that drops off another equipment container. As the Americans advance on the hill, Bowman uses an anti-artillery laser module to ignite the mortar rounds mounted on an Obambo. He then spots an enemy sniper from atop the hill and hides behind the container as cover. The enemy forces ultimately fall back and the Americans take control of the hilltop. In the distance, Bowman spots the members of the Outcast Brigade and the sniper with a custom emblem on his Stranger Executer Exoframe.
This debut episode jumps right into the action and provides little in the way of context. All we know is that in 2023 a team of Marines is piloting mecha and fighting a mysterious enemy somewhere in South America. There isn’t too much story that can be told here given the half-length episodes, but it’s still an interesting watch nonetheless. The Exoframes are definitely presented in a more realistic manner than say Gundam – they’re compact, and all the actions they undertake on the battlefield seem to mirror what human soldiers would do, just scaled up. Makoto Ishiwata’s mechanical designs are also of note, and at one glance the Toad definitely looks like something that could come out of the American military. Although there’s not much going on here, the episode does provide the framing for later episodes to fill in the back story and eventually return to the present.
Comments