Infinite Stratos - General Discussion

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by asaqe

Okiura drew another artpiece for IS. Would this be in the official art of the next volume I wonder.

Spoiler for Potential NSFW:

"Insert perverted joke here"

Oh ! I see areola on the bottom right of this image.

[zephyr325]

Novel Vol.6 release date (scheduled) announced!!




December 24th... wait, on Christmas Eve?

[kuroishinigami]

lol XD. Maybe to boost sale? Anyway, glad that it don't get pushed back again.

[zephyr325]

Originally Posted by kuroishinigami

lol XD. Maybe to boost sale? Anyway, glad that it don't get pushed back again.

Nah~ It's just the way they release novels.

MF Bunko J does batch release on every 25th of month.

In this case, I think they are doing it a day earlier because 25th is holiday,

I believe most light novel publishers do that way.

[tsunade666]

so is the author fine again? because the book is finally been released.

[asaqe]

Yep, he is pretty much fine now and Okiura is working on more I.S artwork as with that sexy art of Lin Yin with her shirt open

[tsunade666]

-_- I don't see any possible perverted stuff on the image.... maybe I should wash my face. And it's a good news to know the author is fine again.

[OkamiNoKaze]

Cool show, Haven't seen any Mecha/Harem anime since Dual: Parallel Trouble Adventure, kind of similar in that women are the only mech pilots, except the main character.

[asaqe]

And a guy who doesn't look like Tenchi, I somehow don't like that hairstyle.

[Kleeyook]

The world where female dominate is hell for me. I'd prefer the world in Fallout series much more.

[asaqe]

Originally Posted by Kleeyook

The world where female dominate is hell for me. I'd prefer the world in Fallout series much more.

That is how LNs work nowadays, we are already quite lucky to get some more mecha musume this season and as a light novel. The whole Dual Parallel inspiration was icing on the cake.

And if you got a problem, just drop Noblesse Oblige into I.S. universe and watch as Gerald Gendlin outalphas Ichika.

[Kleeyook]

Originally Posted by asaqe

That is how LNs work nowadays, we are already quite lucky to get some more mecha musume this season and as a light novel. The whole Dual Parallel inspiration was icing on the cake.

And if you got a problem, just drop Noblesse Oblige into I.S. universe and watch as Gerald Gendlin outalphas Ichika.

Seems like most mecha fans hate male casts, well, we're annoyed of the rotten yaoi fangirls in Gundam anime where they want to pair up male x male. But this time it'll be girl x girl instead. Luckily it's a harem anime.

But dude, the world where female really dominate, I can't imagine living in a hell like that.

I'm not a fan of Armored Core series btw. I want to play Another Century Episode R though. But I doubt those series will ever reach EU.

[Arbitres]

December 24th... wait, on Christmas Eve?

I suppose so. I can imagine people that have taking a liking to I.S will get it for a present. Marketing, methinks.


Also I've been meaning to ask this: Has the list of seiyuus been confirmed?

[MeganeShounen]

According to the PV and ANN's cast list...

Kouki Uchiyama as Ichika Orimura
Yōko Hikasa as Houki Shinonono

Asami Shimoda as Rinin Fan
Kana Hanazawa as Charles Dunois
Marina Inoue as Laura Bodevihhi
Yukana as Cecila Olcott

So, in order, that's...

Banagher Links from Gundam UC
Mio from K-ON

Ameri from Tayutama
Nadeko from Bakemonogatari
Alicia Melchiott from Valkyria Chronicles
CC from Code Geass

... Personally, I'm not against this set up at all. Getting Kana Hanazawa and Yukana's already a plus in my book.

[RRW]

Spoiler for Question:

i read JP wikipedia a bit and have some quetion about it

how many Mondo Grosso we have until now?

What is Kigyo?

what significant of America and their IS "Silver Gospel"?

[zephyr325]

Originally Posted by rrw

Spoiler for Question:

i read JP wikipedia a bit and have some quetion about it

how many Mondo Grosso we have until now?

What is Kigyo?

what significant of America and their IS "Silver Gospel"?

Here are the answers for your questions.

Warning!!
The answers contain some spoiler from novel for the obvious reason, so read them on your discretion.

Spoiler for The answer for those questions contains spoiler from novel.:

A1.
According to the information from the novel, Mondo Gross is held once every 3 years. Considering the fact that 10 years have passed since the announcement of IS, if the first Mondo Gross was held the very same year IS was announced, I'd guess there have been 3 of them so far.



A2.
Kigyo as in 企業 or 機業? (they both have same pronunciation)

Both of them basically mean same thing - a company or corporation.
The latter word is sometimes used to mean textile industry specifically.

But Boukoku Kigyo (亡国機業 - literal translation is Fallen Nation Corp. AKA FNC) mentioned in the novel (first revealed in vol.5) is a name of supposedly evil, secert organization that wield IS (basically stolen from various countries)



A3.
Silverior Gospel is a military-grade IS, jointly developed by USA/Isreal. The IS is optimized for mid-range high-speed combat, equipped with numerous energy-based burst cannons mounted on the surface of its wing which is attached to its head.

In vol.3, it went out of control during field trial in Hawaii, and the students from IS were ordered to intercept it when it came close to their current location.

Ichika and 5 girls(Cecilia, Rin, Laura, Charlotte and Houki with her newly received AkaTsubaki) intercepted it but the first battle ended in defeat with Ichika heavily injured. During the second fight, 5 girls(without Ichika, who was in a forced coma state) engaged Silverior Gospel and overwhelmed it with coordinated attacks, but it went through 2nd shift and turned the tide of battle again. Right before the defeat, however, Ichika recovered from the coma and rescued the girls, fighting Silverior Gospel with his IS in the 2nd Form - Setura, finally defeating it.

The reason for the accident is unknown, but it is strongly suspected that Sinonono Tabane, the creator of IS who was delivering newly developed AkaTsubaki for Houki at the time, deliberately managed to foul the system of Silverior Gospel, creating a perfect opportunity for real field-test of new AkiTsubaki (and to help Houki gain combat experience)

There are not much mentioned about USA(America) and its IS force, but since all ISs (467 of them in total) were distributed more or less evenly throughout the world, USA doesn't appear as a superpower as it once was before.
The fact that it is doing a joint 3rd Gen. IS R&D with Isreal might suggest that it is on more or less equal status in terms of IS technology and research, maybe a little more advanced than European nations, but not the leading nation since at least China and Russia appears to have developed 3rd Gen. IS independently.

It is later mentioned that USA also developed 2nd Gen. IS code-named Arachne, a IS featuring 8 multi-joint legs mounted on its back - with each leg equipped with both conventional ammo-type rapid firing gun for ranged combat and blade for CQC - hence the origin for its name.
It was used by an agent from FNC, and it appears that FNC somehow stole the IS from USA in the past.

[zephyr325]

Originally Posted by Kleeyook

The world where female dominate is hell for me. I'd prefer the world in Fallout series much more.

Spoiler for answer for you:

Well, the novel says the social status for women is far greater than that of men, but actually, men still manage quite a bit of upper echelon of society.

For an example, the IS Academy, perhaps the most prestigious facility in the world, is run by a woman (chairman of board, wait, chairwoman?) on the surface, but it is her husband who is actually running it. The wife is just a cover to comply with current social trend.

The novel also says that the social value of men falls to the point of being a convenient pet for women, but this is a very rare case (such as being news-worthy), and the actual social status of men is not in such jeopardy.
I admit exaggerating the point somewhat in my past postings.

Considering the fact that most of the female characters appearing in the novel are students of IS Academy - the school for the most elite aristocrats from all over the world - I believe it is quite acceptable that many girls (or women) in the novel appear arrogant and discriminating.


Come on, many of so called aristocrats(or elite) generally act that way in many other fictional works.

[RRW]

Spoiler for Another question (sorry if i am curious):

Why only female (an a boy) able to use IS?

what happens in Summer Kidnapped accident?

German involvement (according to wikipedia they hold strongest military and have special IS force)?

About "live and cherry?" (not sure about this name 暮桜) IS, Russian IS, and Nobody IS?

what Striper and IS/VS system?

if you don't want to spoiled other you can PM me

[asaqe]

Originally Posted by Kleeyook

Seems like most mecha fans hate male casts, well, we're annoyed of the rotten yaoi fangirls in Gundam anime where they want to pair up male x male. But this time it'll be girl x girl instead. Luckily it's a harem anime.

You mean female casts? And female dominant mecha anime has been produced a couple of times, Dangaizer 3, Idolmaster Xenoglossia, Soukou No Strain, Sky Girls and "shudder" Strike Witches, hell we tried making a female lead for an esstablished Super Robot Series. There was only one problem: Obscurity

They are not very "popular" or well known, jokingly some people talked about how Dancouga Nova has zero rule 34. And most of them are made by Obari, which puts them in even further obscurity.

The reason why IS is getting anticipation by many fans is because MF Light Novels pretty much is nothing but harem/Visual Novel style storylines. Infinite Stratos is an attempt to see if you can combine two mostly contrasting genres in a mostly untested genre (Mecha-Harem, which honestly, had only Vandread and the two series was done by Kajishima) in a LN publisher which mostly does romance/harem-esque settings.

[zephyr325]

Originally Posted by rrw

Spoiler for Another question (sorry if i am curious):

Why only female (an a boy) able to use IS?

what happens in Summer Kidnapped accident?

German involvement (according to wikipedia they hold strongest military and have special IS force)?

About "live and cherry?" (not sure about this name 暮桜) IS, Russian IS, and Nobody IS?

what Striper and IS/VS system?

Here's the answer.

Spoiler for Warning!! contains spoiler from novel.:

A1.
The reason why only female can activate IS (and why Ichika is the only male who can activate IS) is currently unknown.

But it is hinted in the novel that Sinonono Tabane, the creator of IS, did not deliberately configure IS to be female-only platform.
She mentions that it was a accidental side-effect, and since she didn't really care about that factor, she didn't see any reason to bother with it.




A2.
I think you are talking about the incident where Ichika was kidnapped.
(the Chinese character for Ichika contains 夏, which also means summer)

He was kidnapped by a unknown organization during the last phase of 2nd Mondo Grosso.
(It is later revealed that the 'unknown organization' was actually 'Fallen Nation Corps'.)

Since Chihuyu was the champion of 1st Mondo Grosso, she was a very high profile personnel.
Chihuyu earned the title 'The strongest woman in the world' by winning 1st Mondo Grosso, so any direct attack on her would have been suicidal.
So, Ichika(who was just an ordinary boy back then), being the only blood-relative of Chihuyu, would have been her only weakness and thus a natural target to harm Chihuyu.

He was kidnapped just before the final match of 2nd Mondo Grosso, and Chihuyu was one of the finalist. With her previous record, almost everyone betted on her victory.

Since she was such high-profile figure, her every movement(including that of her family) was being monitored by various military/intelligence agencies, and the German military happened to be the first to discover the kidnapping of Ichika, so they immediately notified Chihuyu of the incident.

Chihuyu ended up forfeiting the match and went to rescue Ichika, literally flying(by using IS) to where he was being held, and succeeded in rescuing him.

In that way, she ended up being in debt to Germans, so she worked as IS instructor for German military for a year.




A3.
Germany possess strong IS force, but not so much to threaten the balance in Europe.
German itself is lagging behind in 3rd Gen. IS development, experiencing some difficulty with pushing 3rd Gen. test-type IS (Schwarz Regen) into production phase.

The part about 'strongest military' is not about Germany as a nation, but it's special force unit, Schwarz Hase (Black Rabbit)
If I'm not mistaken, Gemany has total of 10 ISs, and 3 of them are assigned to this unit. That basically means Schwarz Hase has 30% of the total national military power, making it the most powerful single-unit entity in Germany.




A4
First, correction here.
Live and Cherry -> Kurezakura
Russian IS -> Mysterious Lady
Nobody IS -> Unmanned IS

Kurezakura is Chihuyu's 2nd personal IS.
(The 1st personal IS for Chihuyu was the legendary White Knight)
Since the White Knight was used up as R&D material according to Alaska Treaty, she needed a new IS, and Sinonono Tabane provided a new IS for Chihuyu.

She used Kurezakura for quite a long time, winning the 1st Mondo Grosso and probably until becoming the finalist in 2nd Mondo Grosso.
The current whereabout of Kurezakura (both the frame and the core) is unknown.


Mysterious Lady is a Russian made IS, probably 3rd Gen. type.
It is the personal IS for Sarashiki Tatenashi, the student council president for IS Academy
(In IS Academy, the strongest student earns the title of student council president, so that means she is the strongest among the current students)
It features nanomachine-controlled water molecule stored in various part of fuselage, which allows the IS to practically control any nearby water.
Externally, it has small coverage by physical armor, but the IS can project layers of water and wrap itself around to form effective shield.

In a confined environment, the IS could project the water as thin mist and trigger steam explosion on target that comes in contact with the mist.


Unmanned IS is first show in the last part of vol.1 in novel, appearing as a hostile IS that attacks Ichika.

By its principle, IS must have a human pilot to be active. So the existence of unmanned IS is quite new. It is speculated that either some organization has the advanced technology to activate IS without pilot input (true automation) or has technology to remotely control IS (with pilot placed elsewhere)
It is speculated that the latter theory is more likely, since the former theory would negate the principal setting of IS - that only female could activate it.




A5.
Stripper -> Remover
IS/VS -> Infinite Stratos - Vast Sky
VT -> Valkyrie Trace System


Remover is either an equipment or a program that extracts IS core from oppenent IS by force.
Obviously, IS is non-functional without its core, so in addition of stealing core, it is also effective method of neutralizing enemy IS.
However, it is not an effective combat tactic since the extraction process requires time. The target IS has to be immobilized first.

Any transfer of ownership involving IS core (either trade or stealing) is strictly banned by Alaska Treaty, so the technology that enables core extraction itself is illegal as well.

It is used by Fallen Nation Corp. - the evil organization - in order to obtain IS cores for their purpose.


Infinite Stratos - Vast Sky is the title of video game released after 2nd Mondo Grosso.
Since IS has world-wide popularity, it is also massively popular.
(It is mentioned that it recorded sales of 20 million copies in just first week or release.)

It emulates the 2nd Mondo Grosso, with 21 IS as participants of 21 countires that entered the tournament.
Since there are 21 playable IS in the game, game fans from each participating countries complained that IS of their respective nationality should be stronger.
This resulted with the developer making 21 different version of the game, just by adjusting the parameter for each respective IS for given nation.
(So that Italian ver. would have Italian IS as the strongest etc etc.)

There were attampts for international match, but they couldn't decide on which version to use for the match, and as a result, it was canceled.



Valkyrie Trace System is a equipment/program that emulates the performance of winners from Mondo Grosso.
Basically, it tries to copy all aspects of previous Mondo Grosso champion, theoretically enabling any IS to fight like the champion - who is basically the world's strongest.

Obviously, the system is flawed that it strains the pilot to extreme level, often threatening her life.
As the result, R&D and emplyment of VT system is strictly banned by Alaska Treaty.