Plot: A mysterious, soft spoken alien named Lan meets the main heroine, Kyouno Madoka, and enlists her to pilot a powerful robot called the Vox to protect her hometown and the world from enemy invaders. The Vox are associated with a legend that the three Vox machines will bring destruction to the world, which becomes a significant plot point throughout the show. Rinne no Lagrange follows the events of Madoka’s life as she takes on various odd jobs to help her community with her two newfound alien friends Lan and Muginami while they battle to defend Madoka’s hometown and Earth itself from harm. Despite the fact that the show has a pretty basic plot that follows the daily events of a highschool girl’s life while defending the Earth from an alien threat with a giant transforming robot, Rinne no Lagrange does well with its simplicity. By the end of series, the show's plot has potential to rise into something greater after viewers are able to learn more able the foreign aliens that have come to Earth.
Characters: One of the strongest points of Rinne no Lagrange is the characters of the series. Madoka is a strong, dependable, passionate female lead character and has a vibrant personality. She is hearty and is kind of strange with her actions, but that is one of the reasons why Madoka is so likable. Despite what some might say about her awkwardness, this shows that Madoka is confident and not bothered by self-consciousness. In contrast to Madoka’s confidence, Rinne no Lagrange’s second heroine Lan is shown as more easily embarrassed by her actions. Lan is a more quiet and tense character compared to Madoka’s outgoing personality, which is fitting for how Lan is a young princess from her country. Lan’s character also makes her very adorable too, since she can be very rigid yet so easily teased. Muginami, Rinne no Lagrange’s third heroine capitalizes on Lan’s nature with her playful and whimsy attitude, teasing Lan about what embarrasses her. Despite how light hearted Muginami can be, she also has a surprisingly serious side of her personality which adds depth to her character. The side characters of Rinne no Lagrange are also quite unique and receive development that makes some of those characters very likable. After all, there is one character that likes to cross dress in a maid outfit for Trap fans.
Art and Animation: Quite the surprise came out of Rinne no Lagrange’s gorgeously illustrated art and animation. Furthermore, there were no hints of any decrease of quality in animation and it all felt smooth and fluid. The art of Rinne no Lagrange is very detailed and features some great camera movement that made me applaud. One of the things I looked forward to every episode of the show was its opening and ending sequences. They were pretty unique and were interesting to watch. Each of the heroines in the ending sequence had their own style of walking which was a great detail that reflected the personalities the characters had.
Music: Background music is something that makes or breaks scenes in any form of entertainment. However, Rinne no Lagrange boasts a well composed soundtrack ranging from orchestral to a hybrid of electronic and real instrument tracks that really enhance the impact of the scenes throughout the show. A star of Rinne no Lagrange’s music is the opening and ending songs sung by the talented singer Nakajima Megumi. These songs connect to Madoka and the heroines through their lyrics beautifully. The genres of music featured in Rinne no Lagrange’s soundtrack reflects the show significantly. In one aspect, there are the orchestral and less electronic sounding tracks to go along with Madoka’s ordinary life and her triumphs of overcoming her difficulties while the more electronic tracks reflect when it comes to the involvement of anything from the aliens Madoka meets.
Overall: While Rinne no Lagrange does not have the most original plot, it does well with how the characters are developed. Superb artistic direction and music are a plus. It was a show that surprised me and exceeded a lot of my expectations, making it one of the best shows I have watched so far. Anyone in need of a show to watch should definitely try out Rinne no Lagrange. You may come out just as surprised as me if you enjoy the show (psst, there is delicious yuri subtext too!).
