FLAG wasn’t really among the anime I’ve waited for this summer (in Japan) to watch, but I was willing to give it a try given the well-made poster IMO. After watching the trailer, however, I think that it only takes a backseat to Honey and Clover II as the anime to watch. Wait, scratch that: I don’t even think it worthy to watch at all, honestly.
From what I’ve seen, FLAG is an anime about mecha and war photography. War photography in itself is a barely delved into topic in anime, and that was what made me look into this series in the first place. Seeing the predominance of the mecha, however, in the closing seconds of the trailer, I still think it focuses quite a big percentage of its airtime on mecha. I didn’t like the designs at all, because I thought they were unoriginal: honestly speaking, they reminded me of Joe’s mecha in Bakuretsu Tenshi.
Why do I seem so caustic when most of the first part was about photography and realistic explosions? I’ve read from a book on psychology dealing especially with memory that the first thing one remembers is the end (of an event, a novel, everything), then the beginning, and the middle is the one least remembered and mostly blurred at the end, when one tries to ‘remember.’ Subliminally, that meant that they put more emphasis on mecha than on the war photography itself, and it tells the viewer to watch the series unconsciously because of its cool mecha designs. (The last image, if you’ve noticed, is that of a mecha, the mecha that they’ve featured.)
As usual, Bandai concentrates on their mecha, from what I’ve seen. (Does Bandai concentrate on mecha?) Then again, there’s always Honey and Clover II. Thus, and unless there’s going to be someone subbing them, I probably won’t pick up this series until much later, or maybe even not at all.
anime|otaku 
July 28, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Please get off the ‘Honey and Clover II’ praise in every single preview/review you do! It is getting annoying.
August 11, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Indeed. Now don’t get me wrong, Honey and Clover is a great anime when it comes to characters (albiet not character development) and quality, but it really isn’t appropriate to group it or compare it to an anime like FLAG. And also, as a devoted H&C fan, I can tell that there is some loyality bias – let’s face it, the character’s are awesome. But there is zero plot development in terms of their relations, and they really don’t change.
And H&C II has been abysmal so far, both in living up to their characters and sheer animation quality. Voice acting is noticabely poorer as well.
Sorry, I really got off on a tanget there. Anyway, the two animes are really too different too compare. I would feel far more comfortable reading “FLAG only takes a backseat to than ‘Flag only takes a backseat to (in my opinion)->[a primarly drama-based anime with little action or character development, but with amazingly well done inital personalities].
So, to summurize, always remember apples and oranges, and how they don’t compare. Let’s hope that H&C starts doing better though!
August 11, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Ugh, sorry about the grammer. Some superfluous apostrophes blasded html tags (I used less than and greater thans) totally cut out a part, here’s a correction: “I would feel far more comfortable reading “FLAG only takes a backseat to [insert a sci-fi ish anime with mechs and character development here] than ‘Flag only takes a backseat to (in my opinion)->[a primarly drama-based anime with little action or character development, but with amazingly well done inital personalities].