medhurst.aditya - 2016-04-10 15:47:30

                  Black Marks

Black marks also known as(Muv-Luv Alternative : Schwarzesmarken) is the new cow to milk out of thisfranchise. First let me clarify that this is a Light Novel adaption, just liketotal eclipse, written by YET ANOTHER author. Now, when you adapt somethinglike that into anime you’d expect the script writer and the director to botherfixing the issues that total eclipse’s adaption had, but nope, they did not.They not only managed to make it even worse, they also decided it’d be a smartidea to have LIDEN FILMS animate it, now they managed to pull of Arsan Senkifine, even with issues here and there, but as I said in my TE review, you donot give a studio that doesn’t have enough money to produce a 2-cour mecha showwithout resorting to CG mechs. Considering80% of what is on screen are mechs and giant aliens, if you have them cg not only does this kill the animation, but the entire fun of the show. Even a poorly doneshow like A/Z was more interesting, and that was done by A-1 & Troyca witheven worse CG.

So, getting my main 2complaints out of the way let me discuss the show now.

- SECTION 1 ART &ANIMATION -   

As mentioned above, theanimation mostly consists of CG mechs, regardless how fluent it is, it feelsout of the place and unnecessary, even the action scenes feel weak incomparison to Total Eclipse, which was way worse in terms of production budget.Actual drawn scenes have okay animation as in they don’t do any drasticmovements, lazy, but nicely covered.
The art designs and character design is decades better than TE, but then againit suffers from the exact same issues as the previous title did. Dull andrepeating backgrounds that offer little variety and mostly covered in whitebecause of the snow, which at this point pretty much shows that they weretrying to save as much budget as they can from this so they can produce ArslanS2 with minimum production issues, which is sad to see as they could’vehandled it much better. Character designs look almost identical, just changethe hair color and you’re done.

- SECTION 2 DIRECTING &SCRIPT –

The directing in this show isall over the place, the guy thought it would be a smart idea to have thecharacters take their setting and outcomes so seriously that that it makes attack on titan look like the littlebaby in comparison, there’s usually a level of how much the voice actors haveto get immersed to make you feel like you’re really there, like you understandthem. However, if you have them take it WAY to seriously, they’ll come outruining the moment or being too noisy. For example Attack on Titan was a nicelyanimated drama, it had top tier direction and immersion, but the voice actorstried too hard to make it sound like its life or death, which led to the mostanticlimactic outcome for me. However, for short stories it worked, like Levi’sova’s, so you’d expect it to work here as well, no chance bud.

Script writing is almostaverage… As in, they managed to get it to the setting properly, but still feelsuneasy to read through, there are very weird moments example where she sleepswith her brother because she felt depressed because no one trusted her, likeWHAT?! During action scenes and crucial moments it’s below to average at best,having melodramatic characters and ideals that seem extremely out of place forwhat this is, it’s even a political drama as well as an alien war drama becauseNATIONALISM! And REASONING! Corruption and such, so when he tries to make thescript for one scene it comes out even worse in the next, so you’d expect thedirector to even it out, but no it didn’t happen. He was over blowing thescenes with characters trying to make it seem like hell when you can’t evenrelate to them.

- SECTION 3 PRODUCTION VALUES& MUSIC –

Production values aren’t evenon the norm to be considered decent. As 80% of the show is CG, and theanimation is at a minimum the voice acting over done and script thrown out ofthe window, there is almost no satisfaction in terms of watching it, the designsare forgettable and basic; uniforms are standard with no unique touch to them.

The music is even moreforgettable, it’s better than Total Eclipse that’s for sure, but I cannotrecall any specific track, maybe the one that played during episode eleven, butdamn, it seems to be very difficult to hit the proper score for this, I mean,the Visual Novel adaption of the Alternative Light Novels had 30 tracks, butmostly used 5 of them on certain sections, the others were so played for lessthan a minute so you’d forget them, what I aim to say with this is that, it hadalmost no music being played, and yet. Was more memorable and better directedand presented than this misery, if you so want to see Schwarzesmarken foryourself, I’d suggest you turn off your brain if you want to get past episode4. Or read the Novels it is based off, as they are most definitely better.

- FINAL SECTION ENJOYMENT –

Having liked the AlternativeVN, I wanted to give this a go to see if it’ll be as interesting as I expectedit to be, but was disappointed severely with it’s production and presentation,it seems these kinds of stories need at least 20 episodes to be something moreor a long running 10-15 novels (50 hour if it’d be a VN) to flesh out andfinish it the story. However, with the budget it got and timeslot it had to runthrough, it couldn’t be more than a mere distraction. I disliked the seriesafter the 2^nd episode and it started getting on my nerves towardsthe end. I highly suggest you look elsewhere if you want a war drama; it’sslightly better in terms of production than TE, but worse in terms of scriptand direction, so it fails to deliver the expectations and would leave youwanting this to be much better. 

hoppe.isai - 2016-03-28 06:15:47

DISCLAIMER: This show was my first exposure to the Muv-Luv franchise. Please don't purge me for anything I may get wrong :(

As a slightly ashamed 20th century history and military otaku, this show caught my eye early-on this season. East-West tensions across the Berlin Wall? Mechs patterned after Cold War era fighter jets duking it out with aliens from the moon? It's not often (if at all) you see an anime that attempts to handle the realities of living in a Stasi-monitored police state even semi-seriously. And I'll be damned if Schwarzesmarken doesn't give it a good try. The show starts off as a pretty trope-y harem mecha show, with our MC, one token older guy, and a handful of girls to round out the titular squadron's headcount. It wasn't until the bodies started piling up that the show started to pull me in - when you're saluting your screen for characters you barely even know, you know the show's doing something right. 

My gripes with this show are two-fold: the first is that I don't feel like the main characters were used to their full potential. For example, one of the off-cast is Polish - given her country's unfortunate past with both Germany and the Soviets, and the fact that in this universe, Poland is about six feet deep in alien flesh, you'd expect her to have an axe to grind with just about everybody. Indeed, she's expectedly cold and unpleasant, but there are hints of something else under there. It's even hinted that there's romantic involvement with another squadron member, but due to that blasted 12-episode count, there's never enough time to show it. Secondly is that the BETA don't seem like enough of a threat. Yeah, sure, they eat faces and are ugly as sin, but they aren't really made out to be an unstoppable, apocalyptic force: life goes on as usual behind the walls and guns of the frontline. Maybe it's because life in East Germany was already pretty grim to begin with, but I never found myself worrying about the BETA as much as I did about the Stasi brutalizing one of the cast members. There's probably a lot more suffering and wholesale loss of life elsewhere in the Muv-Luv universe, but I'd have to go do some more reading some other time. 

That aside, however, I found myself enjoying this show far more than I thought I would. I had low expectations for what I thought would be a military-themed fanservice vehicle, but came out pleasantly surprised. Action scenes are on point, and the story was passable, if not great. Not the best show this season, but certainly worth checking out if you like Cold War-era intrigue or if you just enjoy watching giant robots mashing faces. 

phammes - 2016-03-28 02:42:40

This is one of those anime that will go unnotice unless you are already a fan of the MUV LUV series and that i am not. Schwarzesmarken was very enjoyeble  for me I like how it foucus more on the events of what was happening in Germany around the 80's  and less on the monster.  While there are a few characters that are less than good this series overall is worth a look at.

dale99 - 2016-03-09 02:41:16

So basically my mates and I decided to do a showing of a show this season and we chose Schwarzesmarken. 
It turned out to be a pretty interesting and exciting masterpiece about human behaviours studies and complicated human relationships.

Non-spoilerino summary: In an alternate version of the 1980s, the Cold War rages on even amidst an invasion of alien creatures. Set in communist East Germany, Schwarzesmarken tells the heroic tales of the country’s strongest mecha unit, The 666th TSF Squadron Schwarzesmarken (Black Marks), as it fights against the dreadful and looks-like-shit aliens, BETAs, and shows the West the superiority of communist doctrine and technology. 

Story 10/10:
No perfect story exists without plotwists. People likes Urobuchi’s works/masterpieces/craps for this particular reason. While it appears on the surface to be just generic mecha+harem anime, Schwarzesmarken stands out from the crowd thanks to its setting.
It’s as much about the hell of living within a totalitarian communist state as it is breathing under immense war-stress as they are on to fight deadly aliens with giant robots. The people live in the fear of secret police, STASI, that a wrong word can send them to prison and get tortured as traitors. Thanks to this, you’re never sure which characters are trustworthy and which are informants, and this is the source of all the dramas later on. 
Above that, Schwarzesmarken simulates the wartime psychology of military combatants during the Cold War Era with East German precision. Characters in this show are more prone to act out of control and without normal common sense, which is this show’s true beauty. The way the story is told is revolutionary as well. Focus of the show is always shifting from one to another thus a large amount of information is able to be conveyed to the viewers. Schwarzesmarken manages to take the viewers by surprise everytime as it displays hidden symbolisms in every singular frames. 
On the other hand it shows a slight hint on the structural weakness of a non-democracy ruling institution. The secret police is fighting with the military and the politicians in front of a survival crisis—the invasion of BETAs. It just show communism won’t last and freedom to people is the ultimate solution to rule.

Characters 10/10:
The MC, Theodor Eberbach, is not the generic MC you can see in every show or justice-wannabe Shirou. He’s a normal dude like you and me who wants to go away from troubles. Though for sake of the plot he must save the world and get all the booties. He’s the most normal beings yet the most boring person in the show. 

*Spoiler*
-------------------------------------------------------------
Except he bangs his sister.
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Spoiler*

The loli on the front cover, Katia, is nothing but a plot device. A defector from the West, believes that everyone can get along if they just sit down and talk, just your generic naïve character and moe trope. Annoying as hell as she starts speaking thanks to her VA, she literally does nothing and react to nothing. The female version of Raku from Nichijou, she is oblivious not to feelings but betrayal that will cost her life. She just exists because the story needs her to.

Irisdina is the Shirou and the punching bag of the show. Full of justice and regrets of killing her own brother when he was accused of treason to continue her living, she decided to fight the ugly BETAs. As the leader of the 666th TSF Schwarzesmarken, she owns great booty and convinced the MC to save the world. Should be the OTP with the MC. 

And here comes the miracle that saves and carries the show, Lise. As Theodor’s step-sister, she joined the show before the climax. Because she is the climax of the show. Later revealed as a spy from the STASI, she ,as all other anime little sister, adores his onii-chan to a obsessive degree. She later shows her true colour and sell out the captain, Irisdina due to her jealousy. The rollercoaster she brings doesn’t stop here as she is the main force to stop her precious onii-chan to rescue his love. Lise also carries a heavy role as the leader of the divided fraction within STASI. Basically she is just a cute sister that wants to dominate the country and live with her precious onii-chan happily ever after. For that she paid a heavy price including selling out her friends and her body to STASI.

*Spoiler*
-------------------------------------------------------------
-----Of course she offers her body to her precious onii-chan. Every 2D imouto’s ultimate tactical weapon it is.----
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Spoiler*

Lise shows a conflicted and complicated personality that perfectly symbolise the twitched soul under communism supremacy. She performs numerous treacherous acts just to be with her precious onii-chan. She even sacrificed her purity so that she can secure a better future, just to be with her onii-chan.
Then she displays a truly brutal and violent behaviour that suits her yandere-imouto character seasmlessly. At the end she is just a tragedic little sister whose one-and-only wish is her onii-chan’s affection and love.

Art 6/10:
Looks miles better than that crap from Studio DEEN so it means Schwarzesmarken is a OK looking anime. Nothing to write home about it. Although the BETAs looks like utter craps, there is a scene where aliens that looks like balllsacks with eyelashes. Truly indecent yet not scary. RIP the mecha design, it’s just tin boxes moving around in this show.

Music 7/10:
Schwarzesmarken got Fripside to do a pretty decent opening song. It sounds like Black Bullet’s OP. The ending fits the show pretty well too. The sounds effects in the show that emphasizes on “Mai Fatherland” and “Go and Die you Capitalist Pigs” enhances the show’s viewing experience.

Overall 8/10:
Plotwist and marvellous storytelling with an emphasize on wartime PTSD that happens along with a forbidden incest love, what can you ask for more?
Schwarzesmarken may not be the most “hard-mecha” such as Gundam or “silly-romance mecha” such as Macross, but it is a mindbending show that involves viewers to rethink the possibility of communism and most of it, the weight of a little sister’s love.

raleigh.bechtelar - 2016-02-12 20:05:40

(In Progress review)To be honest I dropped this series after episode 3, but my friend told me to keep watching it. The story gets a bit interesting later on :)

lesly.hand - 2016-02-04 04:14:42

So much potential with the East Germany setting, and yet we stuck with an unlikable one-dimensional cast and heavy-handed plot.

Story: BETA(aliens) invade Earth while the tension's rising between the Eastern and Western Bloc. 666th Tactical Surface Fighter (TSF) Squadron "Schwarzesmarken" (Black Marks) is THE mech-driven front-liner of the East German Arm, and we follow them as they try to fight back the invasion while dealing with the calculating higher-up and secretly dreaming of a scenario where humanity united against the invader. Sounds okay on paper, but is executed poorly.

Animation: ugly costume design and human proportion, CG ranges from meh (alien) to good (mech). At least acceptable, beside the atrocious flashback in ep 3. Blood and alien meats flying abound, but that's not my thing.

Sound: serviceable.

Character: flat, boring characters with dark pasts conveyed badly with flashback after flashback. People injure or die here and there, but there isn't enough attachment to care about any of them. Naming sucks.

Enjoyment: Dropping with each episode. Fan of Muv-Luv would probably like them more, or so I've heard.