PREMISE Despite being a very new studio, Go Hands already lost all credibility. They have amazing production values to offer a level of eye candy very few are capable of, and they are always wasting it on subpar titles that offer nothing besides cool premises and lots of fan service (Seitokai Yakuindomo, Mardock Scramble, K Project), of which Coppelion is not an exception. Many were mesmerized by the very good animation and artwork, which was creating a most creepy post-apocalyptic setting and thought it would be a very mature and thought-provoking series. Some were amazed by the voice acting, others considered it Fallout, the animated series. Me? Just reading about the premise was enough to make me laugh my ass off. I mean, SCHOOLGIRLS IN THE ROLE OF RESCUE RANGERS! How much more obvious did it need to be for you to see the BS from ten miles away? What’s that? I am being too biased and rushed to condemn the show immediately just because I don’t like the way the premise sounds? So what if we have schoolgirls instead of properly trained military personnel sent to do these rescue missions? It is just a minor detail.No, it’s not. When you have the military, organizing a military operation, you send military personnel. You don’t send schoolgirls. And if for some reason you need to, you at least have the decency to dress them properly. You don’t send them in their freaking sailor suits. SYMPATHY But it’s not like there is no reason of why they are dressed like that. It’s clearly done, so the audience can emotionally bind with the main characters, right away. I mean, just look at these poor little girls, sent to do such a hard task. Oh, this is so cruel, I feel pity for them! Plus this is a modern anime, of course and it will have cute girls in sailor suits, so the otakus can get their willies up. I mean, what did you honestly expect? Serious military officers, dressed properly? That is not cute, and it takes time to get to like them. It’s much easier if you simply make them frail and victimize them right away. And yes, I have heard of the in-series excuse that they look as such, so the survivors will find them adorable, and approach them, instead of running away upon seeing scary looking soldiers. Yeah, what a lovely reasoning. They are going to see some schoolgirls who are walking just fine in a radioactive area, without any protection whatsoever, and they are totally not gonna freak out. Also, they are going to believe said schoolgirls, that they are here to rescue them. I mean, check how they look, why would you not believe such a thing? STORY As if that wasn’t enough, they keep throwing in more and more bullshit. They couldn’t leave it as a stupid rescue mission, they just had to make the girls use military equipment in completely improbable ways, or face enemies that change their minds for no reason, and then a freaking giant robot appears out of nowhere. They also give the girls a weird background story, where they are the results of a secret biological experiment, that somehow creates humans that are immune to radiation, by cloning mass murderers. Because only if you senselessly kill people your clones can gain immunity to radiation. And I do understand that they did such a thing, so the audience can feel even sadder for the girls, by throwing even more forced drama, as well as building expectations, where we are supposed to await impatiently for them to meet the originals, or avenge the evil organization that used them as weapons. Too bad it had the exact opposite effect, since it just made me waiting impatiently for this travesty of a show to end. You just don’t give a damn because you were never made to take anything seriously, and yet the series keeps trying to make you think it’s not a comedy but a sociopolitical drama. And do you know how all of that are eventually resolved? They don’t! The show ends in the middle of nowhere, without explaining or resolving a single thing. If you want to find answers, go buy the manga. Because that is why the show was made for after all, as a commercial for boosting the sales of the source material. I mean, what did you expect, a complete story that makes sense? CHARACTERS And holy crap, the characters are even worse than the story. What kind of specially bred and trained rescue rangers are these girls? They spend most of the time crying than doing the job they were created for. You can wave the “they are just teenage girls who can’t control their emotions” excuse all you want. You can also try to explain it as being forced to do a mission way sooner than they expected because they were pressured by politicians. They still don’t look or behave as they should, and they increase the chances of failure because of it. There is not even a good explanation for why they sent 3 girls in the rescue mission, when only 1 of them is pretty much doing all the work, while the other 2 are just decoration. Yeah, ok, you need more than one characters present, so the capable one will have someone to talk to, instead of infodumping stuff by talking to herself. But how does that excuse the other two girls being completely worthless? Give them something to do, other than being a hindrance to the mission. There aren’t even any other interesting secondary characters to take notice; most disappear after a single episode, and the rest change their minds out of nowhere all the time. Many of which are not teenagers, and having ridiculous mood swings is not even an excuse. But who cares if it makes sense, it just needs to make things more interesting, right? Wrong! This is exactly what destroyed the show. Keep the hell away from this piece of shit. It’s modern!