Gen:Lock is Off to a Rocky Start but Shows Promise

Rooster Teeth’s new animated series Gen:Lock is a bit of an odd beast. Filled with big-name Hollywood voice talent (including Michael B. Jordan, Dakota Fanning, and David Tennant), this mecha anime-inspired show builds a world where putting human souls in giant robots may change the face of warfare forever.

Set in around 50 years in the future, the story follows ace fighter pilot Julian Chase. After the first battle in a new world war between two superpower states (the Polity and the Union), Chase is left a paraplegic–unable to even leave healing tank that is keeping him alive. Luckily, he is one of the few people with the genetic code to allow “Gen:Lock,” the transferring of a human consciousness into a robotic body. Thus, the military fakes his death and spends the next few years helping advance the program, eventually allowing him to become one with an agile giant robot unlike any the world has seen before.

The bulk of the story follows chase as he helps to train the newest batch of Gen:Lock recruits–even as he is reunited with the friends and loved ones that thought long dead.

When it comes down to it, Chase’s story is the core of the season and carries the show in general despite the several glaring problems the show has. Chase is a, first and foremost, a prisoner in his own broken body. While he is able to transfer into his giant mecha or appear anywhere on the base in hologram form, it is a far cry from what he was able to do before. He can’t eat or drink nor can he physically touch the world around him. And then there is the emotional damage.

To become apart of the Gen:Lock program, Chase was forced to work in total secret. No one could know he was alive–not even, Miranda, the woman who loved him. Emotionally, it’s obvious he hoped that they would simply pick up where they left off. But in the years since his supposed death, Miranda has moved on–or at least tried her best to do so. She is far more serious and seasoned–knowing well the pain that losing deep emotional connections can cause in war.

However, Chase has not moved on–he hasn’t even tried. Throughout the bulk of the season, his avatar wears not the pilot suit of a Gen:Lock pilot, but of a fighter pilot. To him, the Gen:Lock program is a way to get back what he has lost. It’s only after releasing that there is no going back and forming a real bond with the Gen:Lock recruits that he begins to wear the same style of pilot suit as the rest of them.

But even as Chase is dealing with the accepting his present, he has to deal with another revelation: that he may not even be the “real Chase.” Over the course of the season, Chase learns that his original consciousness was captured, tortured, and broken by the Union. Meanwhile, the Chase we’ve been following the backup of the original Chase. What this means for Chase metaphysically is the other major philosophical dilemma of the show: because backup or not, our Chase is true to the originals thoughts and goals while the one captured has betrayed everything he once stood for.    

While Chase spends the season dealing with all that, the other Gen:Lock pilots are all on the same basic character arc: Cammie is a genius but a coward; Kazu is an asshole; Valentina is a tired veteran; and Madrani is a defector from the Union. What they share in common is the fact that are all socially isolated.

Their basic story is learning to let others in–not only emotionally but literally as Gen:Lock pilots can link their minds in battle. Not only can they see through each other’s eyes but gain the other’s skills as well. Thematically, it’s a slightly different take on the classic theme that “we are stronger together than apart.”

While not exactly the most original theme, it is utilized well. It allows for conflict between the heroes. But more than that, it gives us an excuse to learn more about each one’s past, why they are they people they have come, and what it takes for them to open up and become so vulnerable in front of each other.

But while we’re left with a good handle on each of the six pilots by the time the season comes to an end, the same cannot be said for the majority of the supporting cast. Sure, Miranda is somewhat developed as are Dr. Weller and Migas–all three are a major part of Chases backstory, after all.

However, the rest of the cast might as well be nameless, faceless background characters. This is a problem for several reasons. The first is that when the Anvil–Gen:Lock’s temporary base of operations–is seemingly overrun by the enemy, it doesn’t seem to matter much. The loss of life has little weight as the only people on the base we’ve been made to care about are Miranda and Migas–and it’s hard to believe that such important characters to Chase would die off screen.  

Later, in the season’s climax, we are treated to an oddly literal deus ex machina as Leon, a supporting character, is able to Gen:Lock with a spare unit and help out our heroes at a pivotal moment. The problem is by the time this happens, Leon has had little to no screen time and even less development. Thus when he ends the season in a coma for Gen:Locking despite being too old to do so, is has no emotional impact. (In fact, despite watching week to week, I couldn’t remember who he was–I knew he was a non-Gen:Lock mecha pilot but couldn’t remember if he was Miranda’s new squeeze or not.)

Unfortunately, the unremarkable supporting cast is far from the season’s only problems. The most obvious is that fact that enemy, the Union, receives next to nothing in the way of an explanation. It’s known that they are “bad” and oppose our hero–and we see the brutality of their attacks, but what the Union actually is is never explained. What are their ideals? Goals? Political system? What don’t even know what it means for our heroes and the world at large if they lose. Simply put, if you don’t know what’s at stake overall, there’s no tension when it comes to the greater conflict.

Then there is the blatant internal consistency issue caused by the big reveal that our Chase is a backup of the original. As Chase’s original consciousness has been captured and corrupted by The Union, the Union should know everything Chase knows–or at least, everything he knew at the time of his capture. Thus, they would have to know about the basics of Gen:Lock if nothing else– especially the fact that not anyone can use it. Yet, if they have this information, the second episode no longer makes sense in retrospect–why send someone not compatible to try and steal a Gen:Lock robot?

All in all, Gen:Lock has a solid emotional core and a theme that serves as a great way to introduce the main cast. However, the season is plagued by a lackluster supporting cast, under explained enemy, and plot inconsistencies. As a first season, there is more than enough to keep you interested, despite those issues. And with any luck, season 2 is where the show will be able to hit its stride.

Gen:Lock can be seen on Rooster Teeth.

I just wanted to give out a big thanks to Joshua Ott for sponsoring this review with his Patreon donation. (At the $60 a month tier, you are allowed to pick anything up to an including a 13ish episode series to be reviewed–which is released in addition to the one article a week I normally put out here on BiggestinJapan.com.) So thanks again!