Final Review Rating for Sym-bionic TItan on a scale of 1 to 5 Tashies.
Characters, Heroic
So, let’s discuss this. The characters start out as stereotypes. The loner, the princess, and the robot who doesn’t understand humanity. But they all get so much added to that base that they become amazing.
Lance: Lance is a soldier, born from a scared little boy. He partially overcame the terror of his father’s disappearance, and took everything the military school threw at him, and spun it back around to become a strong man.
Ilana: You expect Ilana to be this clueless princess type, because that’s what she is. But there’s a deeper side to her persona. She knows how to handle social situations and diplomacy, but she can cast those aside in a moment’s notice to help her friends, or the people who aren’t her friends yet.
Octus: Here’s a robot, specially designed to keep Ilana safe. He develops a dual personality of father figure to Ilana, and lovable nerd to Kimmie and the football player Meat. The episodes that add the most to his personality are Tashy-497, I am Octus, and Family Crisis. He is capable of strong emotions, and is definitely family to the others by the mid-point.
Rating: 5 Tashies
Characters, villainous
Modula: I love his design, and I love that he is basically a mustache-twirling villain. However, the scenes we get of him in flashback, whether they’re at the funeral or the presentation of the academy students suggest a deeper humanity that he feels was betrayed. I’d personally love to see exactly what happened that made him turn on his king, but it’s not critical.
Mutraddi: These monsters are very well designed. I like their unique alien forms and abilities. And when they start engaging in psychological warfare, it’s genuinely scary.
Rating: 4.8 Tashies
Characters, supporting
The King: We see him in three episodes, but we know that he loves his daughter, treats Lance like a son, and is intelligent enough to construct Octus. He’s also strong-willed, to the point that it requires someone physically entering his mind to get information out of him. I like him!
Solomon: First off, his outfit is awesome. He and G3 are a fun visual component to the show. But he’s also doing his job, protecting the Earth from alien threats. And he eventually realizes what Titan really is. I like him.
General Steele: If it’s possible, this guy is a caricature of a caricature of gung-ho militaria. Yet he’s always fun to watch, especially as he reacts to alien threats.
Meat/Kimmie/Jason/Lance’s crush: They’re all stereotypical characters, but they all get their own moments of greatness just from being around the main three. I enjoy watching them.
Rating: 4.5 Tashies
Story
The story is amazing. Refugees from a ruined world come to Earth, ala Superman. However, unlike Superman, they have their morals from the world they left behind. As Tali says in Mass Effect “Kee’lah selai.” The Homeworld I will return to one day. And though they bring calamity upon the Earth, they do everything they can to defeat that calamity.
It’s also impressive that they can tell a solid story about one character getting his driver’s license. That’s really difficult to do without being trite, but between the street racers, the sassy proctor, and the Mutraddi attack, it’s brilliant.
I would have prefered closure. I would have liked to see them go back to Galaluna and defeat Modula. I can’t believe that the story ended with Octus’ resurrection.
Rating: 4.1 Tashies
Worldbuilding
There’s an amazing thing they do here. Monsters are not completely obliterated by Titan. The cyber-hydra’s legs were left behind, creating a new monument. The bodies of every Mutraddi they killed still exist in some form, even Tashy-497 in the most spectacular way possible.
There’s also nods to other works. The Courage the Cowardly Dog house where they take the sick Tashy. The Ender’s game riffs in Shadows of Youth, and the riff on teen horror movies in the Ballad of Scary Mary. It’s fantastic.
Rating: 4.8 Tashies
Animation Quality: There’s so much detail in here. In the flashbacks, you can see every little point of light, and it makes you feel like you live on Galaluna. They also show every blemish of living on Earth, every bit of property damage. It’s fantastic.
Rating 5 Tashies
Music: The music is fantastic. No complaints here.
Rating 5 Tashies
Final Rating: 4.75 Tashies.
Recommendation: WATCH THIS SHOW. If you’ve already watched it, watch it again.
