Muv-Luv Alternative is the only real new show I'm picking up for the summer 2012 season. Based on a series of visual novels, Total Eclipse is about humanity (particularly young pretty girls) using mechas to fight back against brutal invading aliens that are taking over the Earth. It looks like I just can't stray far from mech/sci-fi action shows. The first two episodes served as a prologue of the main story, and below are my thoughts. Rather nasty looking things, these BETAs. Maybe that's why they are not called ALPHAs. These aliens just don't want to get off the girls. Summary of first two episodes: Earth is invaded by monstrous aliens called BETAs that have a taste for human flesh. Humanity fights back with mechas called Tactical Surface Fighters, but after 30 years of war the aliens have taken over most of Eurasia. Japan becomes the front line of humanity's war for survival. Kyoto is attacked by the aliens, and trainee TSF pilot Yui Takamura and her friends have their lives pulled upside down and are sent out into battle. As the BETAs overrun Kyoto's defenses, Yui and friends try to survive and retreat but one by one they are killed in battle against the BETAs. Yui and two remaining friends crash lands among some buildings, and her two friends are ripped apart and eaten by BETAs. Yui almost gets eaten herself but she is saved by an arriving TSF. The experience has a major impact on Yui, but she chooses to stay in the military and help defend humanity against the BETAs. The censoring here is probably justified. The aliens are disgusting, but they have surprisingly neat and white teeth. Stomp, slice and shoot are the keys to victory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first two episodes of Total Eclipse provide a pretty good prologue to the upcoming main story. The threat of the BETAs are introduced and the prologue, especially the second episode, does a decent job of conveying the impressions that the humans are fighting a valiant but losing battle. The first episode is not too exciting on its own, but it gives the basic information, introduces some important characters such as Yui and a bunch of other characters that get killed off immediately in the next episode. The last two deaths were particularly bloody and gory, although the scenes are heavily censored. Total Eclipse sure isn't shy about killing people off in this prologue, and we'll see if this continues into main story. Production quality-wise, the animation looks fine. The mechas and aliens are all animated with CG, and they look good enough. The designs and quality aren't great, but it's not the awful CG we see in some series. The battles are enjoyable with decent pacing, lots of blood and some explosions. The only thing that bothered me a little is that the BETAs didn't seem as overwhelming as I thought. The BETAs are big, disgusting-looking, and powerful foes, but they don't use tactics, they have no technological advantage other than the laser aliens, and human weapons are effective on these monsters. I'm guessing the main reason that the BETAs are winning is because of their sheer numbers. The only type of BETAs that really pose a problem to the human military are the laser firing ones since they are a threat to air power. However, the laser types aren't that numerous, and they can be taken out with long range weapons. Once they are gone, the other BETA types seem easy targets for bombardment from the air, or the sea as shown in episode 2. This is only based on what we saw in the prologue, and so there might be more to the aliens than bull rushing with large numbers. From what I've see so far, Total Eclipse looks like it has potential to be a good show. I won't be blogging the show though since I think I spend too much time on this blog lol. From the feed of A Product of Wasted Time

read more: Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse 01-02 - First Impressions