Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 17, 2015

1967 saw the so-called Summer of Love, where hordes of long haired hippie freaks (hey, that’s what they called themselves) descended upon Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco to carve out their own drug infused west coast brand of Nirvana and/or Shangri-La. One might consider the alternate timeline depicted in this recent anime a “summer of luv” or perhaps muv luv, though the situation in Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse can probably only be labeled as something of a bad trip, for the anime, based on a visual novel series, deals with that age old problem of an alien invasion. In 1967 Man discovers an alien race on the Moon they call BETA (a rather cumbersome acronym supposedly standing for Beings of Extra Terrestial Origin who are Adversaries of Humans, which in my estimation would make the acronym actually be more like BETOWAH). An initial skirmish on the lunar surface only reveals how outgunned humans really are, and by 1973 the BETA have begun a whole scale incursion onto Earth. Of course those plucky Japanese aren’t going to idly sit by and watch nasty aliens take over their country (not to mention their planet), and so a defensive force consisting of mecha piloted by young students is developed.

Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse is front loaded with a lot of information, not to mention a timeframe that coasts forward several decades over the course of just a few minutes of episode time, a gambit that admittedly plops the viewer down in whatever comes after in media res, but which also tends to leave some questions unanswered and some characters just appearing “fully formed” all of a sudden rather than with any serious amount of backstory or development offered up instead.

One of the more peculiar outcomes of that approach is that even when the story ultimately settles down in 1997, well after the aliens have been around for a while, there’s a curiously sanguine quality to life as detailed through the eyes of young schoolgirl Yui Takamura. Yui comes from a vaunted family, as her father was responsible for helping to create the mecha in this series, which go by the acronym TSF (for Tactical Surface Fighter). (Like a lot of dystopian future anime, Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse is filled to the brim with arcane verbiage and lots of acronyms, though to the series’ credits, all of these elements are juggled fairly successfully, and it’s not ever very difficult to follow what’s going on or being talked about.)

In fact Kyoto, Yui’s hometown, seems completely unfazed by a threatened alien incursion, and the skies are an impossible blue, water flows peacefully through the shimmering downtown core, and Yui and her friends only really think about the aliens in terms of their training as future fighters with their own TSF to pilot. It’s a rather odd beginning to the series, but soon enough (one more episode, in fact), and this unexpectedly peaceful beginning is turned on its head, with the first of what turns out to be rather regular journeys through rather graphic violence and whole scale slaughter of even ostensibly main characters.

That in turn cartwheels the story ahead a few more years, with Yui now completely ensconced in a military career, having moved to the wilds of Alaska as part of a UN force tasked with defeating the aliens. That ultimately brings her into contact with the series’ main male character, Yuuya Bridges, a Japanese-American who is a member of a stateside program that is attempting to develop TSFs along with their Japanese counterparts.

There’s a somewhat gruesome aspect to some of the violence in Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse that brings to mind another show that sought to detail the disconnect between a supposedly insular society and an external insurgent force, Attack on Titan Part 1 Limited Edition. While Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse plays with audience expectations, even preconceptions, rather smartly early on, unlike Attack on Titan it can’t quite sustain that level of ingenuity and soon tends to fall within rather set parameters. The show drifts through a couple of genre bushing elements that tend to introduce other niches like harem outings, but Muv Luve Alternative Total Eclipse really is in essence “just another” mecha show, albeit with some pretty nasty looking aliens, baddies that come in different forms and/or classes, but which tend to have large gaping mouths which are only too eager to chew through humankind.

That serious core to the proceedings tends to be at least partially deflated by that sanguine quality mentioned before, something that continues to be part and parcel of the more shōnen-esque aspects of life in and around the various pilot squadrons. On the one hand, the contrast between a still relatively normal existence and the horrors of battle on the other hand provide most of the dramatic dialectic in this show, but there’s not an especially organic bridge built between the two aspects.

These “alternate history” anime can tend to push the limits of their premises to the breaking point at times, but Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse is really rather smartly done, at least from the political side of things. Nation states are still recognizable here, but they’re kind of caught in a Cold War mentality where the Soviet Union is still a threat and even Japan seems to be more Imperial than a modern day consumer driven entity. As with the disconnect between the "everyday" lives of Yui and her cohorts and the war weary exploits that frequently intrude, this quasi-realistic political aspect resides rather uneasily with the more provocative, fan service laden, elements of Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse. The series probably would have been better served with a more straightforward, albeit narrow, approach. Adapting a visual novel series is always a challenge, but one has to wonder if what seems to have been a dating sims aspect of the original is simply unneeded here.

Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There are both traditional cel elements as well as CGI in this series, and for the most part the two are blended very organically. The mecha, while fairly rote looking, are fun in battle sequences, and the entire series benefits from some really sharp and fluid looking visuals, elements that tend to spill into even the quieter, non action sequences. The series is awash in shades of blue, all of which pop really well. Character designs are a bit on the generic side, but Yui and Yuuya both benefit from distinct line detail and precise animation. As with so many other recent anime, Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse plays with things like flashbacks with boosted brightness and contrast, often lending a kind of pasty, milky overlay to certain scenes, something that tends to make the proceedings look a little soft at times. There are some minor issues of banding (again), but overall this is a solid and very enjoyable high definition presentation.

Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's at least a little disappointing that a show with so many opportunities to exploit a surround mix only offers DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks, in both the original Japanese and an English dub. For once, it's the Japanese mix that sounds slightly brighter, though it's at best an incremental difference. Stereo separation is relatively wide, but the series' emphasis on booming sound effects never really is provided the fulsome soundstage it might have enjoyed with a discrete low frequency channel being available. Nonetheless, fidelity is top notch and dynamic range very wide. Dialogue is cleanly presented and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animations (1080p; 1:32 and 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080p; 1:53 and 1:32)

Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anime fans have a glut of mecha outings to choose from, which may then raise the question of what exactly Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse has to offer as—well, an alternative. The answer is an unflinching look at the horrors of a large scale (and potentially unwinnable) battle, replete with friends getting slaughtered and general mayhem among the fighting ranks. That's contrasted with a weirdly calm reaction by those not actually in the fight, something that tends to sit rather uneasily with the gruesome violence that is otherwise on display. The two main characters are quite interesting and actually do develop as the series goes along. This may not be the ultimate in mecha anime (and I'll leave it to others to determine what is the ultimate), but Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse, despite a rather odd combination of elements, manages to be both compelling and disturbing at times, and it comes Recommended.