Review: gen:LOCK “The Best Defense”

Today, on a Very Special Episode of gen:LOCK…

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Cammie is still losing her head over…well, losing her head against the General Grievous-mech from the last episode, so much so that it’s begun to impact her training. To counteract this, she begins futzing with her own mind whilst in the cyberbrain, increasing her confidence, aggression, reflex speed, etc. Basically, anything that will make sure the one-eyed bastard never gets the jump on her again. This helps her at first, but then she goes crazy in a sparring match with Kazu, forcing Weller to undo all of her changes to get her back to normal and give her a scolding.

Later, after some in-fighting about bringing Chase back to the Vanguard, Colonel Marin briefs them on a new mission to take out a Union manufacturing plant and finally begin pushing back. To help their chances, Weller and Migas equip the Holons with new accessories to better fit their pilots’ individual fighting styles: Cammie gets drones to help with her aim because she sucks at shooting, Kazu gets a Big Fucking Sword because Japanese, Val gets a Big Fucking Gun because Widowmaker, and Yaz gets wrist lasers because…don’t think about it. But the biggest addition comes in Chase’s new wings, allowing him to take flight once again.

As the mission gets underway, they notice some captured Polity scientists, meaning this is now also a rescue op. Despite this, things go pretty smoothly. That is until they run into the Cyclops mech from last time who is just…standing there. They manage to fight but the thing mutters something about a “copy” and calls Miranda by name before escaping again.

OUR TAKE

So, turns out there’s actually a lot to talk about this episode!

Focus:

First, this one strangely feels like two episodes crammed into one, the first half being a Cammie-centric story and the other about this new mission/rescue. One of the downsides of having such a short season as this is that there really isn’t time to have specific character-focused episodes, and, as a result, the characters are driven more by the plot and development is very sparsely divided amongst them. This is evidenced by the fact that we are already nearly three-quarters through this first season and we’ve learned maybe one or two new things about most of the pilots, almost none of which are helping to make clear what their goals or motivations or character arcs are going to be. Even RWBY’s first season, shallow and messy as it was, managed to work these things out for most of its main characters AND a supporting character.

Cammie’s Very Own Episode!…sort of.:
But anyway, Cammie’s half. While Being a hacker, it makes sense that, once faced with a stressful situation that she was completely unprepared for, would retreat into herself (figuratively and literally) to begin tinkering with settings and cutting out insecurities in order to better improve her performance. She’s so used to machines and programs and changing things to better suit her will that it’s no wonder she’d try to do that to herself when given the opportunity. But naturally, she doesn’t think through the long term repercussions of these seemingly short term tweaks, turning her into a squeaky green berserker who has to be forcibly stopped to calm down.

These are all fascinating Cammie-specific choices and situations that I think could really fill an entire episode about her coming to terms with how she needs to know herself to begin changing herself, especially since so much of proper Holon piloting seems to come from the mind. There’s probably some good spiritual or meditative lessons that could be implemented in this story through this technology…but I guess being short on time (at least for this season) makes that unfortunately unlikely.

Mid-Season Upgrades:
The other half is another big mission, showing off the new upgrades and a rematch against “Nemesis” (who I’ve been avoiding calling that in the recaps until someone in-universe actually uses that name to refer to it), as well as some very slight Chase and Miranda development. Regarding the upgrades, which seem to be heading to the versions seen in the opening credits, I’m honestly pretty wary of adding so much so soon. Typically, in mech series that I’ve seen (or even shows that just happen to feature mechs like Power Rangers) the upgrades are coupled with a major milestone in a character’s development. They’re becoming a new version of themselves, so now their robot reflects this change, and so should be used sparingly to make each new change feel that much more meaningful. If you add on too much, too fast, the significance is irreparably diluted until they don’t mean much of anything anymore.

This is why I was actually relieved the additions in this episode were so minor. It shows a gradual change for their tools as each of them gradually grows as people and learn to work together while also learning what they are supposed to be in their new bodies. With three episodes left, I can’t imagine giving them the total design overhauls seen in the opening credits will feel earned at this point, so we’ll see how that goes, but this seemed like a good time to explain my reservations here.

Misc. Thoughts:
-“Nemesis” continues to be a mystery, but its little foreshadowing lines are interesting to speculate about
-ProZD is in yet another RT Animated Show as one of the rescued scientists! And I already want him to have fewer lines
-Can we please have the next couple of episodes have a proper ending instead of just cutting right after the action ends? Some of us are here for more than just the fighting, you know
-Last week, I said I was going to stop pulling punches, meaning this series would have to show it was capable of more to keep earning 7’s. Well, now I can say it does seem to have some truly intriguing ideas behind it…that just happen to be utilized rather sloppily, so I’ll be giving it the rating I attribute to that. But hey, they really did earn it this time!