Karen Senki

OMG! There’s an anime about those demanding and entitled white western women waging a war! FOR REAL???!!! You mean Japan made a series about those obnoxious b*tches who use their privilege to demand what they want?! And they did this back in 2014 already?! Oh yeah. If Karens had their way, it’s definitely war! Wait… What do you mean that Karen Senki is not all about that???!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT!!! Oh… I see. War against humans and machines, huh? Oh well. I guess this is what after watching Ex-Arm referred me to. Judging from the promotional poster and the synopsis, looks like I’m going to get ready my laughing bags once more. Oh yeah. This is sure going to be explosive. I mean, better than watching angry Karens on YouTube bully ordinary people, right?

Episode 1
We see Karen and her little sister, Touka playing in the flower fields. Then this horror Baymax robot, SEEK explains to them about flowers. They become friends. Didn’t mom tell you not to talk to strangers? Oh, robots aren’t technically people… And then suddenly! Scene changes to that of a dystopian future! OMFG! Karen is now some Chinese pirate chick mowing down robots with her guns! Uh huh. She tells us that 5 years ago, robots started rising up and sifted through humans, deciding those who will live and killing those who don’t. Unfortunately, Touka was killed by those machines. We see Karen buying stuffs downtown. Suddenly a robot shows up to kill her! Of course she destroys it. And just like that everybody doesn’t give a f*ck and returns to their normal lives. WTF?! We take a detour to see this shady dude, Junkshop trying to make out with a robot call girl in lingerie. Personally, this feels creepy than horny. Karen can’t catch some rest because back home, robots storm in and try to kill her! Yeah, they make a mess of her place but Karen kills them all. How the f*ck can they miss her when they’re raining bullets like that?! Then she calls Junkshop and interrupts his robot sex. Get your ass here or I’ll kill you! This dude does some robot recycling and clean up job so he has to take away all the robot scrap lying about in Karen’s home. Of course he also has a job for her. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Then he calls Eleanor so as to let her know he has got replacement parts for the Regeneration Device. He also cautions her about Karen…

Episode 2
Typical villainous looking robot leader. Takes interest in Karen. Get her, no matter what. More Karen action as we see her ride a badass vehicle that puts the Batmobile or Blasseriter to shame. Not sure if she is chasing or escaping robots. Everything to chaotic to make out. Not even sure if she destroys them or escapes. Then we see her live her normal life and then kill more robots and then scavenge for parts. What the f*ck is going on!? Too confusing! Fanservice time as we see Karen in her undies trying to kill a robot mosquito stalking her. Eventually she got so annoyed that she fires her gun for an overkill. Yeah, whole in the wall, toilet needs repairs now. And here, have some sexy Karen shower scene as she tells us more of this twisted history. According to Dr Shasiem, the first machine to have its own intelligence, X11 was one of Xaxa’s products. X11 was a robot designed for parents who lost their children. But then on Christmas day 5 years ago, robots attacked and destroyed humanity. Now they dominate the world. Shasiem wanted the machines destroyed but nobody listened. Yeah, they deserved to be killed. Later, Shasiem founded a resistance group, Eleven. Psycho horror reference as a robot tries to kill Karen but thankfully she keeps her gun in the shower. We see Xiaogang who is part of Eleven talking with that villainous robot leader. It seems they have some deal. Xiaogang accuses him for letting his robots to attack humans in the reserve area. No attacks on human should happen there. He also blames the resistance for gunning down his robots. It seems all this is part of their bigger plan for evolution. Xiaogang believes to restore nature, humans must be trimmed but he never intended for humanity to go extinct. This is provided if robots evolve correctly. And what’s this about robots and humans may evolve the wrong way? You better watch out. We see Karen doing her butcher job. The butcher gives her a salmon suit (?!) and takes her to Eleven’s underground base because he believes they want her to join. She meets with Xiaogang.

Episode 3
Xiaogang gets rough with her and of course she fights back. He apologizes and tries to explain himself but she finds it hard that if they’re allies, why the f*ck would he attack her. So he goes berserk when people talk down on him, huh? Whatever. Xiaogang introduces himself and is some sort of negotiator. With machines? Then he gives Karen a jamming device he made. Can it win the war against machines? He doesn’t even think so! In some shanty cowboy town, we see Eleanor fight against an army of robots! Eventually she gets a head shot! Dead. Oh, what’s this? Eleanor putting her dead body in a bag and then throw it into the incinerator? In her room, we see a machine producing another Eleanor. The next her. So this is how she becomes an immortal? Back to more Karen action as she flies about through the destroyed city looking for something. When she finds it, she gets zapped and realizes too late this is a trap. Next thing we know, we see her bored and waiting in a room filled with weird robots. This is an interview. They want to understand humans better. Robots want to know what love is. Seriously?! No wonder Karen is so bemused and will play along. She brushes off that concept because humans themselves don’t know what love is. They ask if she believes in love. That look on her face, you think so?! Then they play a hologram of that emotional moment Touka died in her arms. Is this love? Are they trying to get psychological with her? Karen tries to keep her cool and brushes that incident off. She just likes to say I love you sometimes. Eventually she gets annoyed and snaps. She summons Touka out from her and destroys everything! OMFG! When Karen say Touka died but continues to live inside her, I DIDN’T REALLY THINK IT WAS THIS LITERAL!!! So is Touka some sort of weapon inside her? Oh well, looks like Karen left this interview early. Room is in a mess but thanks for the food. What… The… F*ck?

Episode 4
Karen is escaping the robots. Do we need to see the flashback of how she got brought here in the first place? Uneventful. Some Matrix spoof action as she guns down the machines. However she gets careless and gets zapped by one. But don’t worry, the butcher is here to save her. Yup, he is part of Eleven. I guess the robots only hit their target when they want to kill off a character. Poor butcher guy. Gets butchered by the hail of bullets. Why are you screaming, Karen?! RUN!!! He sacrificed his life for you!!! But wait… When the action dies down, we see the butcher’s real body. He is a tranny midget controlling the butcher’s body from inside?! He returns to his base and just ‘wears’ a new body. Cool or creepy? So that villainous robot leader is SEEK?! Seems he has faith that humans in the reserve area will evolve properly. Just need to beat them up a little. However his ‘son’, Jay is not pleased that SEEK is being soft with them, especially Karen. He thinks of eliminating all humans and everything is solved. World ruled by machines. Flawless victory. But SEEK believes they still need humans. Because machines don’t understand love and that is what they need to rebuild a beautiful world. Because humans have love, they evolve better (unfortunately as he points out later, the true meaning of love is unknown! Oh the irony!). Someday, humans and machines will work together and build an ideal society. Oh f*ck, I’m confused because now SEEK says humans are meant to serve humans! Jay is still not happy and will go kill that Karen he loves so much. Karen goes to get her guns repair. It’ll take a day. As she leaves, she notices robots stalking her. Don’t have to wait long before another shoot out action. Oh right, Karen has no guns. Run! She realizes these aren’t robots but human bounty hunters! Okay then, I can forgive the Stormtrooper shooting.

Episode 5
Karen takes down a bounty hunter with her CQC. Bounty hunter claims humans and robots are the same but Karen disagrees and knocks her out. The irony as Karen notes her dog tag, Certification of Artificial Organ… The old dude who is supposed to repair Karen’s guns… Oh f*ck! He turned into some Shinto maniac and starts chanting some crazy ritual to bless the guns?! AND I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SCIENCE!!! Don’t laugh. It works!!! OMFG… And just as good as new. After collecting her gun and returning home, Karen can tell someone is in her place. Turns out to be Xiaogang. WTF he sitting in the dark? So he came to apologize about the wrong info, huh? But he is here to warn her about Jay, a high ranking military machine who has set his eyes on her. Can she trust him on this one? He also warns her he has a special gun but doesn’t know what it is. WTF???!!! YOU TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE?! We hear Eleanor talk about her love for singing. She’d rather sing to machines than not sing at all. She notes how machines copy everything humans do. Hence they also need to fear as well. But Eleanor doesn’t fear death because doing so makes her feel alive. Well, she’s technically an immortal so she can say that. Turns out Eleanor is part of Eleven and not sure if Karen coming to see her for advice or something. Eleanor claims the resistance despite made up of humans, they’re all monsters. Karen refuses to acknowledge herself as one. Eleanor then quotes Darwin’s evolution theory that the species who survives is the one who adapts. And then another riddle quote about life isn’t about holding good cards but about playing those you hold well. Uh huh. Karen doesn’t want to hear this philosophical crap and leaves. Yeah, we too.

Episode 6
Eleanor prepares to perform as her partner, X22 reports that the hall is filled. Flashback shows X22 was a top general in the machine army but defected. Jay admitted he was an old model but he can still do stuffs. He tried to persuade him to come back but X22 made up his mind. Woah! X22 slashed Jay’s face and he BLEEDS RED BLOOD???!!! Oh damn, why Jay just watch him run away? Now he is a member of Eleven and a good friend of Eleanor. We see Xiaogang holding X22 at gun point and can’t understand why this general who killed thousands of humans in wars, defect. Now he is wanted by both sides. Xiaogang is not interested in claiming the bounty on his head but wants to know why he still didn’t kill him. You know his gun can’t do jack sh*t on X22. WTF he is asking how many humans he can kill in a minute? 375 his top score!!! Xiaogang even teases X22 loves Eleanor. WTF this malfunction, is this how robot flusters?! They thought the other called to meet. Soon they realize it’s a trap as robots descend on them. Okay, time to mow them down like video games. During a blast, Xiaogang falls off. But he activates his suit and turns into some weird superhero beast thingy. He becomes very violent and feral-like as he mercilessly destroys all the robots. He also turns on X22 but then his whatever symbiotic possessing becomes unstable and returns to the suitcase. Xiaogang regains consciousness but has no memories of what happened. X22 asks all that happened but if he wants to know, join Eleven. Now we see Karen facing off with Jay. So his special gun is his bullet is like a homing missile? How? Summon Touka! Yeah, hit it away like baseball! Oh sh*t! Touka faster than Jay?! I guess it is legit, in terms of speed, spirit > robot. Jay had to improvise just to escape. Karen wonders why X22 defected. His best answer: I don’t know. Heck, he doesn’t know what is going on his head sometimes. Are you sure he is really machine? Or a really evolved machine? All X22 cares is that Eleanor is her friend and her friends are his friends. And then he tries to sing like her. Oh f*ck, I think this is to convince us we’d rather hear the sexy Eleanor sing!!!

Episode 7
Time for a whole flashback episode. SEEK looked like a happy robot whose job was to just dispose of human waste. I mean, all those electrical junk they don’t need. If it’s thrown away, it means to be disposed of, right? He is glad to help the human race. Until he couldn’t dispose of a poor kitten. This has him think deep that he might be disobeying orders, would it be wrong to disobey wrong orders, who decides wrong orders and can wrong orders help the human race? Yeah, I’m confused as you are. SEEK then observes the pollination of dandelions. It leads him to a dandelion field as he notices the beauty of life. However humans overproduce a lot of things and throws them away. Have they stopped evolving? That’s where he met Karen and Touka. Next scene shows some mafiaso government threatening Junkshop to hand over some altered chips since it is illegal to do so. They give him the ultimatum tomorrow or they’ll tear down the shop with him inside. After they leave, Xiaogang arrives. So they’re brothers?! Xiaogang needs to borrow his tools to do some tinkering with this discount Baymax model. Junkshop being the smartass decides to insert some chip. Malfunctions! Oh sh*t. SEEK now awakens with evil in his eyes. So his tone of disposing human waste just sounded a lot more evil. Next thing you know, holy sh*t, war between humans and machines! Everywhere destroyed! So these 2 started the whole goddamn war???!!! Brothers blame each other. Xiaogang blaming him for putting in something funny while Junkshop accusing him for fixing up something he shouldn’t. But oh well, Junkshop is happy that this means the government’s power is broken and Xiaogang can get his dreams to come true with a mechanized society.

Episode 8
Junkshop sexing up that sexy robot call girl lingerie chick again. It’s going to get good until Karen calls. Oh f*ck… Not again. Then we see him head down to some robot gangster store to buy bike parts. Since he doesn’t have enough cash, he tries to haggle. He pulls off a pretty neat move as he buys the cheaper part and then sells it back with his remaining cash to get the more expensive part he needs. Oh f*ck! Robot is so confused!!! HOW CAN A HUMAN OUTSMART A ROBOT???!!! Once he realizes he has been conned, Junkshop drops his cigarettes in the box of dynamites! BOOM! OMFG!!! Hilarious but too cool!!! Junkshop then fixes those parts in Karen’s pseudo Batmobile. In exchange, he is hoping she could introduce a hot robot chick to him. The bike works like a charm and as Junkshop eagerly rants on the chick he will be introduced, Karen leaves him in the dust. He realizes he forgot to fix a part. Oh well, she’ll be alright. It’s Karen we’re talking about. In town, you bet such a hot bike will get the robots’ attention. Cue for your hot Karen action. On a bike now! As the bike takes damage, Karen vows to get replacement parts. Oh sh*t, Karen can fly???!!! We see Karen gunning down robots in outside some snowy facility. She notes she is moving faster than before. Her body is changing. Wow. A human getting to be faster than robots? With more robots reinforcement popping up, Touka wants to come out and play. Karen doesn’t want her to but stubborn Touka bursts out and decimates them all. See what happens when you let a loli coop up inside you? Sometimes you gotta let them out to play. And now Touka wants to come out and play whenever she wishes even if Karen doesn’t order her to. Going through that rebellious phase already, huh?

Episode 9
Pinky Phakchi is a magical girl who saves the world with her vegetables by taking down those greasy fatty unhealthy fast food monsters! WTF???!!! I guess she is Touka’s favourite magical girl because she’s bugging Karen to buy a magical wand at the toy store. Suddenly… Robots attack! Boy, that escalated quickly. An evolved SEEK seeks to correct the wrong orders given by humans and will create an ideal society. As the city is in tatters, Touka thinks Karen is crying. Hence to cheer her up, Touka takes her magical wand and will stop those bad robots! Well, gotta give her credit for having guts. Guess what? The drone shoots her! Hah! How’s those vegetables saving the world now! Okay, stop it with the bad jokes. SEEK who identified Touka earlier on, was too late to stop the drone and all he could do is just squish the bad drone? OMFG. How can a robot be so ‘slow’ to stop another robot! Damn, SEEK in despair! Killing a friend is not what he wants! Holy sh*t. This robot really evolved! The rest of the humans are rounded up and finished off via firing squad. F*CK, IS THIS THE HOLOCAUST???!!! As time passed, Xiaogang encounters a strange door with a sign (Eleven) that its paint has peeled off. The moment he touches it, that mark burns into his palm. The same for Eleanor but she got it on her thighs. Oooh, sexy. As for Karen, it’s in her right eye. Ouch. And with that, Karen becomes a vengeful qipao wearing, revenge seeking chick as she guns down all the robots mercilessly with magical Touka aiding her. There’s a quick draw incident in which Karen won. No sh*t when the robot is in shock and surprised that a human is faster than them robots! I kid you not! This episode ends on a strange note, probably to explain how Touka ended up as a magical girl. Basically after she died, she is in some strange colourful place. She is delighted to see Pinky in the flesh who then gives her the wand to help others. Weird. Still doesn’t explain how she ended up inside Karen, though.

Episode 10
We see from first person view through a camera recording, some robot interviewing people about what they know about Karen. Some Karen action footage too. And yeah, the most damning one when a dying robot says Karen is someone whom they cannot predict because she is fast and strong! I bet your processors are still stuck in Pentium 1! HAHAHA!!! And of course Karen blasts the camera because she is ‘embarrassed’ by all those ‘praises’. We see Eleanor singing in front of the robots. And then she pulls out her big mother machine gun and guns them all down! Holy f*ck! The irony of robots dying this way! And they’re bleeding oil?! Flashback shows Eleanor loved her boyfriend and would do anything for him. However he was gunned down by robots. Before you could pity her, there’s more to the story. You see, one day she came home and found him cheating on her with another woman in bed. He tried to get her back and reconcile but Eleanor wasn’t budging. In fact, she called the robots to say he is part of the resistance. Mad, he slapped her. Feel better? Well, the robots are here now and gun both of them down!!! Of course we know Eleanor still lives via clone. She wonders how Karen got that special gun of hers. Flashback 4 years ago when Karen was mysteriously shot out from the sky. Left to bleed to death, that old gun repair dude took her to his base and treated her. Be in for some pain because no anaesthetics were used. After that, he asks who shot her. Don’t know. Because this bullet is cursed. However Karen wasn’t cursed because she is still alive. Is it a sign that the bullet chose her? Since she is still a clipped bird, he gives her some guns to help fight back. Then he does some crazy ass chanting ritual on the bullet. Oh sh*t! WTF this stormy apparition?! Did the bullet and gun get imbued by some dragon or something?! He gives it to her and wants her to release the power sealed in this cursed bullet as it is her fate to live as an abomination from hell. Are you sure this grandpa didn’t escape from some mental facility?!

Episode 11
We see the small gathering of Eleven members. Oh, the usual suspects. Karen, Eleanor, X22, Xiaogang, Junkshop, the butcher dude and the gun repair dude. That’s all there is. Thanks to their mark, it gives them some superhuman powers. Junkshop blaming Karen that because she destroys machines excessively, they are now so pissed off. Eleanor suggests if Karen is the cause, then let’s hand her over to the machines. Suddenly everyone whips out their guns pointing at each other! Holy sh*t?! Civil war time?! But that won’t happen because as humans they can calm down and rationalize, right? But here’s the real mission. Looks like the robots are going to bomb the hell out of the entire Sector 17 just to kill Karen. Oh damn, is that where Junkshop lives? Death to all machines then! Since this expedition is led by Jay, you bet they’re really serious this time. They’re going to use some pipeline to drop the bomb. So how? Nothing extraordinary. Karen is just going there to kick ass. So now we see the high octane action as Eleven human monsters vs metal scrap trashes. Basically, trash vs trash. Hahaha! Of course the big focus is Karen’s fight with Jay himself. Best quote from Karen: If humans are trash and robots try to become them, then robots are trash too! Why do I feel there’s some politically incorrect motive in that line somewhere if I replace certain words… Anyway, Karen gets the better of Jay but the latter thinks he has the last laugh with the detonator in hand. He dares her to shoot him and despite she calling him a coward, blowing up the entire sector just to kill her, don’t worry, Jay assures he’ll annihilate all humans eventually. But the detonator doesn’t work. Jay realizes SEEK sabotaged it. A short skirmish before Karen emerges victorious. Jay got decapitated and his body explodes. Just to make it safe in case they can detach his head, no? Karen falls with a golden glow? And SEEK narrating evolution is the process of selection for humans and machines. Oh boy. Are we done yet?

Karenator: Rise Of The (Dark Fake) Mess-chines
Uhm… Can I speak to the manager of this production?! Because, I don’t really like how the way things ended and the whole series feels kinda unsatisfactory. So can I see and talk to the bugger who created this mess and left everything hanging? And why only the odd number of 11 episodes? Why not 12 or 13? Being an ONA is no excuse. What do you mean the manager is no longer around?! Who the f*ck can I complain to about this atrocity?! Who the f*ck will be there to satiate my dissatisfaction about how this series went and just about everything about it?! Oh well, I guess that’s fine. Time to move on then. Hey, I’m not a professional Karen so I don’t know how to be one, okay?! Can we just move along?

Oh boy. Where to start from this mess. Yup, to call this series garbage and trash isn’t wrong to begin with. But I have to admit, it is not the worst series ever (whether it is for the season, for the year or in my entire life) although it is still one of the badly made ones. Also because I had a fun time enjoying all the silly stuffs as well as the excessive and exaggerated violence and because of that, this show doesn’t entirely sucks. Yes people, I am still the very same simpleton that I was 10 years ago so you bet I didn’t change much. Heh. My evolution sucks. Or it stood still ever since.

Let’s start with the story and plot. Basically, it is crap. Definitely it borrowed heavily the elements from Terminator and The Matrix. Although the plot of man versus machine is nothing new and has been done death in films and series of the genre, I have to admit that some of the underlying plot is interesting. For instance, Seek is trying to create an ideal society for both humans and robots. This feels strange and requires a deep food for thought because of the irony that robots are trying to become like humans. Because robots are already perfect, why are they trying to downgrade themselves into something imperfect? Is there perfection in imperfection? Oh my. I’m already a bit confused. But do you see what I’m trying to get here? So while this underlying scenario seems interesting, the unfortunate part is that they didn’t really flesh it out well. Some parts like as though they were forgotten after briefly mentioned. Remember that Shasiem history thingy? No? So do I. Almost. No follow up after that. That’s why we all forgot because it wasn’t even integral to the story.

Which is why the overall story as well as its pacing sucks. This series had lots of potential even if it had borrowed and clichéd tropes. Provided it did well. Too bad it did not. It could’ve been a legend and perhaps a sequel in the making but alas we heard nothing of it ever since. One of the biggest problems in the pacing is that we don’t know where the series is heading. The first half starts off nicely and while it is not perfect, at least it is still tolerable. This is probably to introduce some stuffs and form a foundation. Okay. Understandable. Then come the second half, everything gets thrown out of the window. It was a mess. Helter-skelter. It’s like they started showing random events here and there and this may confuse us about the timeline. Worse, many of these episodes end in some sort of cliff-hanger way that makes viewers go, “WTF?! Is there all to it for this episode?!”. Yes, seriously. I did that most of the time. And with that final episode scene, what does it supposed to mean? Was it supposed to usher another sequel? Good thing or not, we didn’t get any. Safe to say the fate of this series has been sealed because they evolved the wrong way! HAHAHA!!! The irony is that the creator of this series was the one who created the iconic Sakura Taisen series. Oh well, can’t be writing hits all the time.

Of course the characters too suck. They feel very minimal here and despite they try to flesh out some of their past and stories, most of them fall flat and you’ll be left wondering why. More questions than answers. Just like the story, I feel like the characters and their backgrounds were written on the fly. For example, Karen getting shot by the cursed bullet. I mean, what the heck is this significance for?! All this just to tell us that is how she got those special guns of hers? A gun so special that’s why it could pierce through steel like hot knife through butter?! Why not just save us all that trouble and say she got it from a shady weapons dealer who made that sh*t and sold it to her. Then he got killed off. Hence no other such guns were made. See?! I can write better character backgrounds than this piece of sh*t!

So yeah, Karen as the titular character, I guess we all need to see her as a strong woman who kicks ass. Lots of angst. Lots of badass attitude. You know, the typical stuff. But the other characters, just barely. So why Eleanor? Need a variety of sexy babes? Even her cloning thingy is not very well explained. Oh right, just dump it all to that mark because it gives them special abilities. Anything more about her? You go figure yourself. Junkshop? Resident joker. X22? Need a defector. Because a group with all humans would be boring. Diversity rules! Xiaogang? Grumpy and sleepy dude. His suit that made him berserk isn’t even well explained. Like as though they forgot all about it. Because of so, it felt like plot convenience for his trump card. Butcher guy? Can anybody explain the tranny inside?! Oh right. Special power thingy. Gun repair grandpa? I still believe he is from the mental facility that the doctors are still trying to look for him. Last and not least, Touka. Sighs. Is Touka Karen’s special powers?! I don’t know. Can somebody explain all this to me?! That’s why I want to see the manager!!! Sheesh!

You wonder why the resistance is called Eleven when they have hardly even 11 members! I don’t know about those other dead comrades hinted but what the heck. Ocean’s Eleven this isn’t. For those who don’t know Chinese, the number 11 is written as (十 一). It was hinted in an episode that the original word was (志) which means hope. So when the paint for the bottom part of the word (心 which means heart) faded over time, all that is left is the top part and you know, Chinese reads from top to bottom. Weirdly, I don’t know why it wasn’t read as (士) which means warrior (although technically it could also mean scholar). Still, it doesn’t explain how and why the f*cking sign was there and what its significance was. And how the f*ck could part of the word just have an effect entirety. So to say if the entire word faded away, nobody is going to get that special mark imprinted on their body, huh? On a trivial note, I wonder if this number supposedly corresponds with the number of episodes here. Or just purely coincidental…

If I had to pick the most intriguing character, it would be SEEK. Damn, this dude evolved from a meek trash recycler into an adjuster of species! Oh damn, how did he look like an oversized wuss Baymax into a discount Megatron terror?! I don’t know if this is his final evolution form yet. As a robot, he is just very contradictory. He is painted as the villain but if you think further than that, he is not. But then again, he might be. Because to serve his ultimate cause to bring an ideal society to humanity and machines, he lets this silly post-apocalypse war thingy go on. Yeah, I guess he read and understood the Darwin’s evolution and survival of the fittest theory. Like how Ultron spent 5 minutes on the internet and decided humanity is to be annihilated!!!

That is why SEEK doesn’t stop his robots or Jay when they go into battle and get killed. He just watches slowly and hopes evolution will bring out the best from both sides. Oh well, if you ask me, when a robot tries to become a human, it is only because they are acting and thinking so just because they were created in the image of their creators. Sure, their intelligence might evolve but their thinking and vision will still be that of humans. So does this make them humans despite not being made out of flesh and bones? And remember, SEEK and Xiaogang are secretly cooperating on this so this whole war thingy might be a farce. Imagine if other Eleven members find out, I can imagine Karen gunning off their heads. Another point to ponder: Seeing a robot and a human are targeting evolution towards a greater society, so where is God in all this?! They don’t believe in God, huh? Ah yes, don’t want to go there and open a can of worms further, do we?

Even more so when SEEK is trying to seek (pun intended) out the meaning of love because somehow he too thinks that this is what will evolve both sides into better beings. Oh yeah. If not the power of friendship, it has got to be the power of love. The irony that we humans don’t even really understand it and robots are trying to seek a meaning just to understand it. Like I said, robots are only as smart as their programmers programme them to be. Isn’t that how they arrived at the conclusion that love will save the day? Humans only think so, right? Can evolution help them understand love? My guess is only when they become humans, they might have a chance. But becoming humans is somewhat a downgrade, right? Can they understand love at such a low level of form? Oh yeah. Throw in love works in mysterious ways just to ride out of this mess. There. Solved.

Next to talk about is the art style and animation. As you can see, it is completely in CGI. Generally and to put a long story short, it is bad. However! Compared to Ex-Arm, this one is way better looking! Yes, you heard that right! Even back in 2014 where the CGI technology may not be as advanced as today but it sure makes this series look way better and much more stylish than the atrocity that is Ex-Arm! Because the characters here have better facial expression than that said failure! OMG! Even if some character designs are funny (X22 wears grenades on his trench coat like medals?! And don’t get me started on that tranny butcher!) and some downright creepy (is it me or does Touka actually look more like a creepy doll?), at least this had better emotional expression than Ex-Arm! I kid you not! So that’s why I can’t say that the art style and animation here are totally bad. After my experience with Ex-Arm, this one look heavenly in comparison! Even if it is at times jerky and low quality! Boy, I do have really seen some of the worst in my life to say this, huh?

The studio behind this series is Next Media Animation. Basically the creator of this series decided to collaborate with this Taiwanese company to produce this almost awful crap. However they haven’t been on the scene ever since releasing this series. A quick check shows they have a few anime produced under their belt but mostly unheard of that will fly by everyone’s radar. Their other ‘famous’ production is Spy Penguin but I doubt any normal anime junkie heard anything of that. So did this series sealed their doom and prevented them from evolving any further? I tried to Google their official website but it looks outdated (and slow). Yeah, Wikipedia says they got involved in some video incident thingy and things haven’t been the same ever since. Therefore, not too sure if this company is dormant, closed down or still active doing other projects. I guess nobody cares at this point, huh?

The best part of the series is the flashy and bombastic action. I guess if you want to watch this series, you better set your mind to just enjoy the exaggerated action of Karen versus the machines. I know it doesn’t make much sense but seeing a hot chick in sexy traditional Chinese dress and gunning around robots like as though this is some video game, sure made my day from the disappointing story and characters. The only problem is that the action might be too fast for you to catch anything. Hey, slow down! We don’t have eyes and processing mind of a robot! But yeah, I won’t get bored seeing Karen in her battle action mode because this is what she does best and is fated to do. And those robot clones, sometimes I wonder if they are humans dressed up as robot because they move and talk like humans. Sure, evolution thingy. But it really feels so. Even wasted to give such soldier robots high thinking and emotional capabilities because aren’t those liabilities in battle? They should be mindless drones like those giant Illuminati drone types. Just think about it. Why the heck do ordinary robots need such abilities? So as to tell us how Karen is freaking faster and stronger than them?! I tell you, this series has so much nonsense and irony that it’s not only baffling but funny as hell! Making it worse is that the robots have Stormtrooper aiming skills. So many bullets shot and none basically hit Karen! Sure, she’s faster than freaking Superman who is faster than any speeding bullet. And to think that Karen is a better killing machine than the real machines. Damn, those robots do have some flaw in their programming. Can we blame evolution? Yeah, it downgraded them so to speak.

Obviously there are some fanservice elements too. When you have such a hot 3D chick like Karen and put her in a bright red traditional Chinese dress, it would be a waste not to take advantage and showcase her awesome curves. That’s why that mind boggling scene of Karen in her undies fighting against the pervy mosquito. Weird because everything is so distracting from the fanservice to the mind boggling action. Too bad this series doesn’t have much pantsu shots most probably because like I’ve said, the action scenes are too fast and with the low quality CGI, your eyes and brains aren’t fast enough to process. Then there’s that robot call girl. They do put in the effort to detail her lingerie but unless you’re into robots, this feels creepy more than anything. And she doesn’t even look like those life-like sex dolls. It’s that loophole to have that steamy scene. Imagine if this character was human. Definitely would not have passed.

For the voice acting, I wonder if Sayuri Hara (Rhythm in Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream) who is the voice of Karen (as well as Touka) read her script without context. Because I noticed that certain scenes, her voice acting doesn’t really match up. Reminds me of the laughable, cheesy and worst recorded lines for the retro horror video game, Resident Evil. Not to say that it is similar or close to it but it sure made me remember that. Oh well, perhaps the animation was bad enough, she couldn’t make head or tail of the context. I’m speculating that of course. The other voice acting to point out is Nyudou Nishimura as X22. This guy sounds very raw in his lines but because of that, he sounds refreshing. There’s this slacker and dreamy voice in his character so he sounds kinda cool. Too bad this is the only role this dude has ever voiced. The other casts are mainly unknowns like Ei Mochizuki as Xiaogang, Yuuki Tai as Junkshop (Juunichi in Da Capo), Urara Takano as Eleanor (Maria in Sakura Taisen), Kazumasa Nakamura as SEEK and Kouji Kawakami as Jay. The ending theme is Ai Wo Sagahshite: In Search Of Lost Love by Onibara. An edgy rock piece that goes well with the fast action pace of this series. If only everything else didn’t suck.

Overall, this series is really low quality and disappointing. But because I have seen much worst stuffs, my personal point of view is that this series isn’t so bad. Hey, I had a good time laughing and that’s good enough for a simpleton at me. Everything is in a mess and even though the frantic action scenes stand out and are most enjoyable, it is still an absolute mess. Even the fanservice is just bait to try to keep you in and watch to see if Karen will fight in her undies in future episodes. Sorry folks. Nope. That’s the only sexy Karen action scene we’ll ever get. Thank goodness each episode only lasts about 11 minutes (there’s that number again) so you can binge watch this in one sitting, have a good time, be awed and laugh your ass off at all the silliness, then move on with your life. Hey, be grateful. There could be other things in life that are much worse than this. Like, today’s Karens! What if, a time traveller didn’t kill a certain mosquito and then the timeline changes to have rude, obnoxious and demanding white Karen bullies instead?!

On a trivial note, the only famous Karens I know are Karen Carpenter and Karen Mok…