Schwarzesmarken

Adapting the “シュヴァルツェスマーケン” light novels written by Hiroki Uchida into anime form, “Schwarzesmarken” takes place in the same universe as the “Muv-Luv” franchise, a reality where mankind is threatened into extinction by aliens.

Was interested in “Schwarzesmarken” because it combines the typical science-fiction and mecha elements of mankind desperately battling an alien invasion using advanced robots, mixed with political intrigue and oppression of the populace as the story takes place in communist East Germany during the early 1980’s.

“Schwarzesmarken” has been an entertaining show with lots of action, plenty of drama and political intrigue as one would expect from its setting. Granted, the series doesn’t really offer anything special, the characters are fairly shallow, generic templates and plot events are near laughably predictable. Nonetheless, “Schwarzesmarken” is still fun to watch.

Glad to see that the studio stayed close to the typical design style of Carnelian, the artist who created the original character designs and illustrated the visual novels with her signature style.

Overall production values by studio by studios ixtl and Liden Films are decent to good, with most attention going to close-up scenes of the main characters and mecha. The aliens are more obviously CGI generated, but this is never bothersome due to the fast pace of the battle scenes they are featured in.

If you’re looking for an unpretentious, entertaining mecha anime set in a dark and oppressive world, then you should definitely give “Schwarzesmarken” a try.
You can watch “Schwarzesmarken” on Crunchyroll.