De:Vadasy seems quite promising at first; it features
good character designs (not your typical AIC design, but nevertheless pleasant
to look at) as well as good mecha designs. However, the mecha designs are extremely
reminiscent of Evangelion with its organic construction. When the mecha
starts roaring like an Eva you know someone's been oggling too many Evangelion
artbooks. The plot has children being trained to pilot a strange mecha called
De:Vadasy. It needs 2 people to operate: a male and a female. Why? Well, it apparently
needs sexual energy. Uhm, okay, it'd be a fine plot for a hentai title; AIC scored
well with its hentai outings Masquerade and Spaceship Agga Ruter.
Unfortunately, while there is some nudity and suggested sex, it's not hentai (though
strict Japanese law forced AIC to restrict the sales to adults only). What we've
got here is a show with interesting possibilities, with Kei, the main character,
showing signs of instability (instead of wallowing in self-pity like Shinji from
Evangelion, Kei seems to have an insane streak in him); Amala, a strange
and quiet girl; and Naoki, Kei's friend, jealous of Kei's interest in Amala. Sadly,
the characters don't get explored sufficiently, questions remain unanswered, the
sci-fi is shaky, and the battles lack the intensity of Evangelion. There's
quite a bit of nice and juicy blood and gore as well (the alien nanomachines causes
humans to melt away), though that still doesn't score De:Vadasy enough
points as a horror action show. If I tell you the show is based on a dating sim
game, I think it becomes even more clear that this show just doesn't know what
it wants to be, and ends up being a complete mess instead.
(2.5)
