![[Review] Jinki: Extend](http://www.anime3000.com/images/front_page/jinki02.png)
Jinki: Extend
Jinki: Extend is like a model sitting on an otaku’s shelf with junk parts as superfluous details to its exterior. The junk parts aren’t needed, but they were added in hopes of creating something fresh and gloss over its failures. However, it’s not just the junk parts that bog it down. It just so happens that the frame of the anime is also made out of low-grade plastic.
The story itself follows Aoba Tsuzaki, a female model builder whose life changes when her grandmother passes away. When she is subsequently taken in by her estranged mother, her dreams come alive as she sees Morbito-2, a man-made Jinki (read: mecha). Aoba is immediately attracted to the giant robot, but her excitement to pilot it is quickly subsided She wasn’t brought to the base to be re-united with her mother. Aoba has a power within her that utilizes Morbito-2’s latent abilities, which everyone wants to exploit for their own purposes.
It’s not the story that makes Jinki: Extend a D-ranked anime. There are too many parts of Jinki: Extend that don’t fit together. The above synopsis only explains the first half of the series, while other sub-plots appear without warning throughout the entire series. The story jumps from different time periods, making everything negligible and confusing. With so many questions going unanswered—what happens to this character? Didn’t she die?— it leaves too many gaps to be patched up with cute girls and interesting mecha.
The character development seems to end at Aoba’s design. Everyone else in Jinki: Extend is thin as cardboard packaging. Minami Kousaka is the dreamer who can pilot. while Rui is an emoticon with purple hair. Ryohei Ogawara is the son of Genta Ogawara, a veteran Jinki pilot whose past leaves colossal gaps in the storyline. Though some of the characters are what drive the main plot, all of the characters seem to blend into the other.
Furthermore, the anime just doesn’t seem to understand how machine and man work together in persuading the audience of the situation. It’s a common trope in mecha anime to explore how the machine is an extension of the pilot or the machine has a humanoid mind that becomes one with its pilot. Jinki: Extend tries to play with that concept, but it just isn’t convincing. With this concept lost amongst the story jumps and gaps, there is nothing for the audience to connect to.
In the end, Jinki: Extend doesn’t measure up to much of anything except yet another anime about girls piloting mecha. For all of the time and effort it requires, this model is better left in the box.
Rating: D+
Review by: Jd Banks
Directed by: Murata Masahiko
Licensed by: FUNimation Entertainment
