Cluster Edge 01-04

I'd put pictures right now, but I make crappy screenshots at 1.47 in the morning. So wait for them :D

See, this is what I get for not being up to date with the current anime scene. I'm behind by a month. I don't have a PC with a bajillion gigabytes to store raws and my brain cannot comprehend complex Japanese, so I wait for Fansubs to watch the recent shows.

Just recently, while being bored out of my mind, wondering why the hell Shi-Fa has not released Meine Liebe 13 yet, I stumble upon Cluster Edge. I saw a screenshot with this cool looking Black-haired dude and I thought, Ooooh, what a cute guy. I wonder if there's shounen ai in this? So I go ahead and download the current releases from Baka-Updates. Four episodes out by Ayu, Two by Shi-Fa. Not bad. So, while there's a party going on behind me, I watched Cluster Edge.

I'd be lying if I said there aren't hints of shounen ai in this one. See, in the first Episode [A Boy Named Agate], we meet the black-haired dude I was talking about earlier. He looks like this normal country kid who's got a lot of luck. Sort of. Anyway, the train he's on is taking him to his new school of sorts, but his ticket says that he's only part of the cargo and won't be allowed food. He argues and tries to sneak in to the dining compartment with the conductor persons.. Then cue what I dubbed the "Hatsukoi Scene" (Hatsukoi means first love). Pink backgrounds, swirly twirly shiny happy bubbly scene between Agate(black-haired dude) and the blonde rich kid, Beryl (who is voiced by Fukuyama Jun <3 ). Agate is all smiles and declares that Beryl would soon be his. Friend, I mean. *ahem ahem* This episode also leaves us hanging. In the first few scenes, we're given the image that the setting of Cluster Edge's story is somewhat based on post-World War I England. Take note, I said somewhat. Anyway, the first scenes involve two brothers who are in the middle of a battle. The elder brother leaves the younger brother and his team of.. er, well, they looked like knights in not-so-shining armor... As I was saying, the older brother, whose name is Chalcedony, who everyone calls Chalce, takes off in these bird-looking planes, leaving his brother, Chrome and his team, saying that Chrome needs to live longer. Or something along those lines. After the Hatsukoi Scene, we get to see Chalce again, this time escaping the evil military people after him. Agate, who happens to have brought with him this spiffy plane with him on the trane, rescues him. Or attempts to, anyway. Their planes get shot down and Agate wonders why the Chalce gave up the fight easily. Agate's plane ends up in the sea as well. Anyway, Agate manages to save Chalce as we see him carrying Chalce on shore. End of episode.

Second episode begins with Fon, cute kid that reminds me of Wolfram, steaming that he's not supposed to be doing the greeting thing, whatever you call it, with the other school. Agate manages to get his plane back with the help of the old man he rescued and he's on his way to the school he'd mentioned earlier. Once they reached the bridge going to the said school, Agate tells teh old man to let the boat pass first. And then bam! Fon's car, due to him not paying attention, gets thrown off the road, skids on top of the boat and lands on the other side of the river safe and sound. Huzzah. How the crap that happened is beyond me. Agate probably has something to do with it, but we're not so sure. *ahem* Anyway, cut to school where Fon's car has been taken without permission by the military dudes he had to greet earlier who turns out to know him from the past, who also turns out to be bullies, who also ruins Fon's car which makes Fon very furious and angry and... stuff. Agate helps Fon fix his car and voila. Instant friends. Yeah. Oh, and there was some stuff about Beryl and fencing and his right shoulder miraculously healing after Agate throws him a fencing sword. This tiny bit is why the episode was called [Beryl's Sword] (But in reality, it spanned around twelve, thirteen minutes of the show, so yeah, it was short).

[Cold Bullet], the third episode, introduces another interesting character. He looks like an older Agate, really. His name's Hematite. They have GOT to do something about naming their characters after stones >__> Anyway, Hema dearest apparenly has a connection to the pretty boy, Chalce, who apparently DIED in the first episode. Bloody hell! DIED?! Agate bloody saved him! How can he possibly DIE?! Blargh! Anyway, continuing. Hema gets a visitor who turns out to be Chalce's rival for Hema's love and Hema's friend, Vesuvia, who is now part of the military. Vesuvia's purpose for visiting Hema is that the military has gotten information that a student of the school, Cluster EA, was the one who attempted to rescue Chalce and that he's there to exterminate the said student. Hema volunteers to be the one to look for the student and narrows it down to two: Beryl and Agate. Hema, unfortunately, turns out to be a disappointment since he only looks cool on the outside, but in reality, gives up before he even tries anything. Meine gott, there was even this one part, when he learns that Chalce's gone(I REFUSE TO SAY THAT CHALCE IS DEAD!), Hema goes all angsty and shaky like he's lost a lover. Bwahaha. *cough* Anyway. Vesuvia notes that if they target Beryl, there would be lots of scandals, decides that they should arrest Beryl because he's twisted like that. So he opens fire to Beryl. Not really. Hema attempts to protect his student, gets grazed on the cheek by Vesuvia's bullet, Hema goes all shaky again, and then Agate appears to save the day! ...Not really. Fon told him that Hema was looking for him. And then we learn that Vesuvia was the one who shot Chalce down, laughing as he did. Agate gets angry and destroys Vesuvia's fleet thingy and ends up floating in a river to god knows where. Er. Yeah.

And then here comes episode four, [The Jet Black Chrome Group Appears]. And they do. But they're not exactly Jet Black. More like, Ninja Knight Warriors. Or some weird Sentai group that decided to look like Ninja Knight Warriors that had different-colored capes to identify them. Ick. They look kinda cool though. It's just that... They're sort of out of place. Anyway, Chrome-dan attacks the port where Chalce was brought down. They trash the place blah blah blah. It seems that Chalce was really really really important to Chrome, else he wouldn't be doing this, reasons Chrome-dan Member number 1. The Chrome-dan members are the only ones without names, it seems. Even on the Cluster Edge Character page they don't have names. Odd. Anyway, so they trash the port and head on to wherever Chalce was heading to. Turns out to be Hema's hometown, which Hema is currently visiting because he didn't want to get the school more involved with the military investigations(not quite sure about that.) so he went on leave to go to his hometown. Turns out that Hema's family business was to create them Artificial Soldiers the world so hates and Chalce loves. Aww. What a complicated love life Hema has. *ahem* Anyway, Chrome-dan attacks the old Artificial Soldiers factory, where Hema is currently having a discussion about what had happened in that particular factory with a religious group leader called Ludwig. Chrome personally goes down to the factory and attacks Ludwig but is stopped by Hema. Chrome says that if Hema wishes him to stop and he will, then takes off with Chrome-dan to.. um.. the sea? Anyway, Ludwig explains that Chrome-dan must be a group of Artificial Soldiers that Chalce took in. Chrome was the Artificial Soldier that he raised, treated as equal, which explains why Chrome calls him 'Brother' (I forgot if Chrome called Chalce Niisan or Niisama.) Apparenly, Chalce did some memory transplant experiments and was successful with it, hence why Chrome knows who Hema is. And then, Hema sees the security footage of the AS Factory. Turns out, that the single Artificial Soldier that was being held in that specific Factory was...(dun dun DUN!) Agate! And then the episode ends.

Honestly speaking, Cluster Edge's story is a bit screwed in some places. It needs to straighten out a few edges, like that part whether Chalce is alive or not. I'd like to believe that he's still alive and that grave Chrome visitied in episode 04 was an empty one because I want to see a Chalce/Hema make out scene. Agate went through SO much just to save him. Plus, Chalce's too pretty to die. Also, I'd like to give the Chrome-dan memberes NAMES, dammit. I don't want to watch the whole series and end up calling them Member 1, Member 2, Member 3 and The Triplets! Plus, that thing about Agate. Explain it further! Or something. Bleah. So far so good. The animation is quite good, as it is being produced by Sunrise and Bandai Visual. And since those two are the ones producing Cluster Edge, expect some extremely cool mecha(not the Gundam types, though. I don't think there'd be some of those in Cluster Edge). I admit the animation isn't top-notch, but it's better than most, and the colors are just right.

The Opening theme, Fligh High is so-so. Catchy, but doesn't quite hit the mark. Opening animation includes some scenes from the first episode. The cracked glass scenes were okay. It seems that, as the opening suggests, our main characters are Agate, Fon, Beryl and Chrome. Awwww, I wanted more Chalce. But I think it's only because Chalce looks like a Chris/Lucas Volks SD13 doll O_o;

The ending theme, Kimi to Iu Na Hikari (The Light Named 'You'), is sung by the four lead characters seiyuu. Remind you of another series? Thought so. I found the song really good and I'm trying to look for a copy of it, rip or no. Starts as a boring ending theme type of song, but it evolves into something really good. Someone get me a copy before i go crazy!

All in all, if I rated Cluster Edge in a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest... I'd give this a 2.5. It's not too interesting and the story has some holes in it, but it's a promising series as far as I can tell. That's just me though. Why don't you check out the series yourself to judge? I find this really entertaining, but maybe it's just the hints of shounen ai or the spiffy ending theme. Who knows ^_^