Did You See That? GEN:LOCK Season 1 Episode 1
It’s finally here! The first episode of gen:LOCK is available for free on Rooster Teeth, and I loved it. It felt very much like a mix of Gundam and Zoids and other mech anime, but with the Rooster Teeth touch. I enjoyed the characters, and it took me a bit to get used to the aesthetics, but after watching all the clips and trailers I got used to it. Then, when I actually watched the show, I was surprised by how much I actually liked it. I’ll probably be subscribing to Rooster Teeth First (or VRV) so that I can watch the rest of the series. Go below the spoiler warning to see my commentary on the actual episode. Please don’t post about future episodes.
We start off with Julian Chase introducing his family to his girlfriend Miranda Worth. It turns out that it’s hologram technology, and it made me so happy for some reason. We then get a bit of a feel for the military life that Chase and Worth lead as they are brought into a conflict with The Union, who look freaking dope. It looked to me like it was a blend of humans with some robots, but they can totally hijack The Vanguard’s tech which leads to their defeat. The interesting part to me was simply that they didn’t make Chase this character who can do anything and make it out alive. He actually faces consequences as he disobeys orders in an attempt to buy civilians some time. Those consequences are that he seemingly dies. This was a big shocker to me who just expected Chase to make it through everything with maybe a couple of scratches. Another interesting bit, though, was when we see a man during the invasion of The Union show the Union insignia and then he was safe throughout the conflict. It really made me wonder who these two factions are and what this conflict is.
After the initial conflict, we flash forward about four years, and Worth seems to have become a little hardened after the loss of her boyfriend. Enter Dr. Rufus Weller, though, and he is exactly the kind of character you’d expect after watching the trailers. He seems to be a very wacky and enigmatic type of scientist. It doesn’t hurt that he’s voiced by David Tennant, though. Mechs are deployed to help some people move from Union territory to Vanguard territory, and it looks like the Vanguard is in deep trouble when two new mechs show up and one of them is acting like Chase. These new mechs are awesome and able to fight off the Union. However, once we know that Chase is somehow connected to the mechs, my theory was that he connected with Dr. Weller and helped begin piloting these new mechs. That gets a little tricky though. After the people are brought into Vanguard territory, Worth and a couple of other troops start wanting answers as they know somehow Chase was there even though he supposedly died. This leads to a hologram of Chase being projected where he says, “Hi,” to close the episode.
I have two theories. Either, my first theory is correct, or a modified version of my theory is correct. Maybe Dr. Weller was only able to save Chase’s consciousness for example. Did you enjoy the first episode? What are some of your theories?