So, been browsing some of the shows on Crunchyroll to see if I find anything else to watch there while I subscribe, and am wondering about how some like these shows?
Schwarzes Marken
Total Eclipse (are these two shows related? Description makes it sound like it)
Black Clover
Space Brothers
Schwarzesmarken and Total Eclipse are both spinoffs from the Muv Luv visual novel. Neither is especially great, though Schwarzesmarken is probably the better entry of the two. Long story short, both are terrible at their job of presenting Muv Luv's core military conceit that despite every nasty trick that mankind can pull out, humanity is being rolled back by an invasion from an alien species known as the BETA by dint of sheer numbers. Making things generally worse, the BETA also possess advanced organic laser technology precise enough to intercept incoming artillery, which has effectively culled human air superiority. As a result, the Tactical Surface Fighter represents something of a human wunderwaffe, being combat mecha resilient and maneuverable enough to provide some resistance to the BETA advance.
Schwarzesmarken starts with an interesting enough premise - it focuses on a Warsaw Pact TSF Squadron in an 80's Europe still mired in Cold War politics facing down a massive alien invasion. It sort of holds together shakily until the end and was overall a decent 'Mecha outing and an okay-ish prequel to Muv Luv as a whole.
Total Eclipse, on the other hand just couldn't find a consistent tone, fluctuating wildly between gore completely at home in a slasher film and ha-ha-harem antics. It basically happens as a side story to the visual novel, occurring at about roughly the same time though an entire continent away and two decades or so after Schwarzesmarken.
Also, with the Muv Luv franchise (which is itself a stealth sequel to the romance drama Rumbling Hearts/Kimi ga Nozomu Eien) originating from an eroge visual novel, expect skin tight flight suits and bouncy assets.
Space Brothers, on the other hand was excellent in my opinion, being a hard detailed look at the profession of being an astronaut, cloaked in the veneer of a sibling rivalry comedy about chasing your dreams. In my opinion, the best show on the list.
I didn't enjoy Black Clover very much since it felt like default Shōnen 101. Not great, not an absolute trainwreck like Total Eclipse (which was so bad I ended up watching just to see how low it could sink), just so middle of the road and by the numbers that I got bored and went to watch something else.
Overall, I rank Space Brothers as good and Schwarzesmarken as watchable. These are my personal 2 cents on the series mentioned: I expect some degree of disagreement.
