In the farthest reaches of space a war is being waged. On the opposing sides of the conflict are people from two once friendly planets, La Garite & De Metrio.  Once more the leaders of these two planets are former friends Dizelmine (Liam O’Brien) & Villagulio (Keith Silverstien) each vying to destroy the other as their planets are on a collision course.

Meanwhile on Earth, light years away from the fighting in a small beach town called Kamogawa, lives a young girl named Madoka Kyouno. Madoka is the sole member of the Jersey Club, a club at her school that specializes in helping anyone that needs it regardless of the task. After saving a child from on the way to school, Madoka meets a mysterious girl named Lan (Michelle Ruff) from whom she learns about the war brewing in space, and how it will envelop her along with the people of Kamogawa.

Through her crash course on the war of the planets, Madoka does meet a bevy of colorful and mostly well rounded characters. There is the Earth Defense force known as Pharos commanded by Shozo Todakoro (Patrick Seitz), the cheerful Muginami (Karen Strassman) who was initially a spy for De Metrio but eventually joins Madoka, the mysterious Moid (Vic Mignogna) a member of La Garite and observer on Pharos, Madoka’s cousin Youko (Wendee Lee), Madoka’s teacher Machiko Iwabuchi (Dorothy Elias-Fahn), Asteria Lizamarie De Roschefall (Stephanie Sheh) grandaughter of the chairman of Novumundus, and Kirius, Izo, & Array (Johnny Yong Bosch, Benjamin Diskin, & Sam Riegel respectively) along with many other people from both La Garite & De Metrio.

The Girls L to R: Lan, Madoka, & Muginami

Lagrange for all intents and purposes is your typical mecha anime, but there it does have some good things going for it. For example, the animation is very crisp and eye catching, and the character designs are pretty good as well. The mech designs are all pretty good especially the main three “Vox” units that the main characters use.

While the environments and the characters are nice to look at, Lagrange (or at least the first season) isn’t all that memorable in the sense that nothing really happens until the last 3 or so episodes. Most of the 9 or so episodes in the 12 episode first season focus on the girl’s relationship with one another as well as the mystery behind the Vox and the planetary war. Now while these elements are explored relatively well for what they are, it’s nothing too new or that we haven’t seen it before. Although there is quite a helping of fanservice to keep most viewers (the male ones anyway) entertained.

L to R: Array, Izo, & Kirius

The voice acting is very well done as each VA does a great job of catching the spirit of their character’s. Whether it’s Kira Buckland’s spirited Madoka, Sophie Robert’s more shy and reserved Lan, or Karen Strassman’s bubbly Muginami, everyone excels at capturing both the ups and downs that their characters experience. If I had to pick any stand outs it would probably have to go to Kira Buckland, besides Blue Exorcist (where she was Izumo Kamiki in another good portrayal) and Accel World (where she portrays Kuroyukihime) this is the only thing I have heard her in and she does pretty well as a lead with nice diction and range.

Not much in the way of extra features, just your standard trailers, textless opening (Lagrange has a pretty upbeat and catching opening in my opinion) & ending, and omake shorts. While I’m slightly disappointed that they weren’t dubbed into english, they’re still entertaining (the one about Moid’s eyes is my favorite.)

So how does Lagrange hold up? Well aside from the somewhat slow start, the characters, art direction, and mech fight scenes will keep you invested long enough to watch the story unfold. Although if I had to make a suggestion I would advise waiting until the second season is released and getting both in one fell swoop (or wait and see if Viz releases a series collection) that way you get the complete story (they are only about 6 or so months apart story wise).

3.5/5