Gen: LOCK is the name of the new series of Rooster Teeth, American animation house born with the famous amateur project on Halo "Red vs Blue”, Which saw its first two episodes be released this Saturday. The animated series is perhaps the first true high-budget project by Rooster Teeth, within which to enclose what has been learned in all these years of work. Recall that their penultimate creation "RWBY”Has had such success that it has led to the creation of dedicated video games and manga.

Excluding the incredible quality achieved by the animation department, the most surprising thing about this new series are its voice actors, who let you imagine a budget with numerous zeros. In the cast we can recognize: Dakota Fanning; Michael B. Jordan; Koichi Yamadera; Monica Rial; David Tennant and Maisie Williams. These are only the best known faces, to which is added a truly impressive number of voice actors.

Synopsis

Julian Chase, pilot of the Polity army, decides both the day to introduce his girlfriend Miranda Worth, also a soldier, to the family. Not being able to leave the base, the two opt for a hologram call service. The first episode opens with Chase's mother intent on telling an embarrassing episode to the kind host. Not far from the table where poor Julian would like to disappear and change the subject, his sister is dedicated to the live stream of a singing video game. It will be the mother who brings everyone back to order when going to the table. After a few minutes, Miranda suggests that it is time to remove the curtains and leave the girls to eat in peace. Once the holographic call is over, which allows people to move within the spaces and perceive with hearing and sight what surrounds them, the two return to their body at the Polity base. Once left alone, Chase's mother devotes herself to the news. The NY 5 channel is broadcasting a speech of courage and hope against the worrying Union from the Polity headquarters. The broadcast is interrupted when New York is attacked by the same forces as the mysterious nation, which launches a large-scale assault across the east coast of the United States.

In the meantime, Chase and Miranda find themselves talking to Polity base about how the meeting with Julian's family went, who points out that next time it is better that Miranda's parents tell embarrassing episodes. The two reunite with friends, who joke that Chase may have been released after the meeting. We learn in this circumstance that Miranda has attracted the attention of other soldiers and that Julian is a lover of the Siege video game. Once a match is refused to be with his girlfriend, the couple is interrupted by a red alert. Despite Chase's wishes, it is not an exercise and all teams must immediately go to the fighting posts.

As troops fly to New York, Colonel Raquel Marin makes the situation clear: it is not a single attack or a terrorist attack, it is the beginning of the war. Once he understood the destination, Chase immediately called his family, without anyone answering the phone. This worries him to such an extent as to make him break training. Once in New York, the teams are immediately hired by teams of drones and Union techno swarms. While citizens run away on the streets and panic spreads, it is possible to see on an advertising billboard (we don't know whether hacked or not) the writing “We can guide the world without compromise. #UnionoftheFourth ". The invading soldiers do not scruple to shoot evacuation vehicles and shoot the crowd. A family manages to avoid capture only by showing that they are part of the Union, letting them understand that there were traitors and spies already inside the city. A mother is forced to leave her son in the hands of an evacuation policeman, because unfortunately she would not have been on the transport. On these war scenarios, Polity's troops finally arrive in Ney York and engage the invaders.

The use of military nanotechnology and a self-propelled colossus, capable of crossing the oceans, allow the Union to easily get the better of the troops defending the city. The headquarters is forced to call the retreat but Chase, thinking again about his family and loved ones, decides to contravene orders and keep the enemy busy to allow time for the evacuation to take place. Singing "You only live once" and saying goodbye to Miranda, Chase launches himself against the colossus with a giant EMP. All systems are blocked and nanotechs are destroyed. However, Chase's jet pilot's ejection function fails and he cannot get out of the cockpit before the crash. Despite the time gained, Ney York is lost.

4 years later Miranda is still crying on the memorial plaque of Chase, where we discover that the year of the battle was 2068. The young woman, with a few more scars on her face, receives an urgent notice to go to the hangar to escort guests as soon as joints. The dr. Weller, the Caliban robot and the Madrani pilot arrive at the Anvil with several trucks of equipment and an urgent meeting with the colonel.

During the briefing, the Coyote mission is explained, which consists of intercepting and engaging enemy troops to allow refugees to reach a safe area and be extracted. The operation proves more complicated than expected, due to the Union's superior war power, and the extraction team suffers extensive damage and loss. To avoid all this being useless, Miranda prepares to sacrifice herself. Just then a different mech arrives from those used up to that moment. Anthropomorphic in shape, it easily manages to get the better of enemy troops. The most unusual thing is that that mech has Chase's own voice.

Returning to Anvil, mission members ask questions about strange mechs and their potential. The colonel believes it is a good time to introduce the facility's guest doctor, Weller, and the Vanguard Experimental Science Unit. Before starting with the explanations, Julian Chase's hologram appears on stage. As if nothing had happened, he asked his ex-comrades what was lost. On Miranda's gaze full of surprise and love, the episode ends.

And the abbreviation is revealed

Comment

As mentioned in the introduction to the review, this series promises to be explosive for both the high budget and the exceptional actors involved. Rooster Teeth's growth in writing and fighting-based series production is glaring and wonderful. Obviously the first episode, the pilot of the series, aims to raise as many questions as possible in the viewer. We still don't know anything about the Union of the Fourth and how they managed to achieve unprecedented war power, so much so that they gained an almost undisturbed advance in the United States. We don't even know anything about Polity, the state or the international organization that opposes the Union.

As for the rhythm of the series, despite the half hour duration, the scenes follow one another quickly and the fights have choreographies studied to the millimeter to give us a real feeling of war scenario.

The theme song, put at the end of the pilot episode like some TV series and anime, is perfect for transmitting the rhythm of the series and introducing the main characters and their skills.

THU the link to the episode