Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Finally watched Flag. I was pretty much looking forward to it, having heard it contains elements of all my favourites of media - war, partisan crowds, gritty civil war, transforming yet realistic non-uberpowered mecha, gatling guns, cameras, unique character designs and cosmopolitan team of crack warriors.

Ok, the story of Flag goes like this - Shiras Saeko (VA: Tanaka Rena, debut seiyuu role it seems. Actress. Hawt 26-year old. Special skills are Sado aka Tea Ceremony, Mandarin. Very hot.) is a photojournalist. The first episode shows her in different time frames, her as a rookie, in the midst of covering a civil war and finally, her as a celebrity photographer ready for her biggest assignment yet. Shirasu captured the most popular photo of all time, one that has come to symbolise peace (see below). The picture is of a jubilant local crowd waving their flag together with UN peacekeepers, while two women pray with the sun in the background.

The setting is Uddiyana, a third world country ravaged by civil war between many armed factions. The UN have been struggling to lead the country to peace but with the help and inspiration of Shirasu’s picture, titled Flag, they make inroads to resolving the crisis. However, radicals steal the flag shown in the picture and fearing the collapse of the people’s belief of attainable freedom, the UN organise a team to recover the flag.

Shirasu, being intricately linked with the flag, is asked to cover the team’s recovery mission, to show the world how the road to peace is attained. She’s given a top secret data disk containing detailed videos and specs of the team’s main weapon, the High Agility Versatile Weapons Carrier (HAVWC). Feeling uneasy about the awesome firepower of this revolutionary new weapon, she nevertheless sets forth to join the team.

The team’s made up of a wide range of nationalities. Most are support staff like pilots, Intelligence officers and mechanics, though there are two pilots, Chris Eversalt (VA: Hidaka Narumi) and Ichiyanagi Shin.

The story’s not too unusual. What is, is the presentation. The show is entirely made up of four kinds of shots. Still photographs, first-person views (mostly through the viewfinder of video camera/ camera), videos the characters are viewing and finally, reflections off shiny surfaces EDIT: it is a webcam There is a TOTAL lack of background music during key scenes shot in first person which serves to increase the sense of realism even more.

The first, still photographs, capture the mood of the warzone very well. With fitting voiceovers, it’s just like real life.

First-person views are the more common shots. Some are from Shirasu, while others are from her mentor focusing on Shirasu. The former lets you see exactly what she sees, and you’ll naturally come to the same conclusions and have the same feelings as her. Mentor’s videos document Shirasu’s growth from a rookie to a directionless veteran.

The viewfinder details are pretty clear too. It’s a bit like Kaminagi Ryoko of Zegapain using her videocam to view the world. I mentioned a few posts ago that I would like to see first person anime. Flag fulfills those desires.

She’s famous now.

Rookie Shirasu.

Cosmopolitan teammates.

Through Shirasu’s lens, we see the awe-inspiring size of the mecha. There is an added sense of scale not possible when viewed normally.

The third type of view would be data. Both Shirasu and her mentor access their computers, viewing pictures, film clips and other files and we see what they see, plus the memories these invoke in them. The HAVWC is possibly one of the coolest mecha in the past three years, thanks to its speediness, transformability and military appearance. Super Robots are teh gay. HAVWC can go from vehicle mode to bipedal mode, and we are shown its transformation sequence, which is slow but steady. I’m reminded of the PEGASUS mobile transforming artillery which the local army here uses.

This mecha is by default armed with a tri-barrelled gatling cannon and its fire demonstration was pretty badass. But what are the arms for then?

Vehicle mode.

It’s reminiscent of the MS Igloo mobile artillery.

HANDS!

  
I like Battle-tech and the fuselage reminds me of it.

I don’t have caps of the fourth type of shot. But it’s basically reflections off monitor screens etc of herself, which shows Shirasu’s reactions when viewing the above videos. EDIT: Torpy correctly said that it was a webcam. Damn I did not notice her adjusting the webcam, and the very obvious slow frame rate when she moved. AHH PERFECT ANIMATION.

The motion blur used here is a nice animation effect showing the turmoil and confusion of the battlefield

I really like how FLAG is presented so different from most anime. Not sure if it’s going to stay this way but I hope it does. The animation quality is great as well. 

The ED is Lights, but I didn’t find it anything special.

So in short, this is a must-watch.