On July 18, 2013 Rooster Teeth released the first episode of RWBY, which became an instant hit and has spanned over 6 volumes. Yet this success has cast doubt on Rooster Teeth of being a one hit wonder company as they have not produced any other series that has reached the same success. In response to these criticisms, on January 26, 2019 Rooster Teeth released their latest series, gen: LOCK in association with Michael B. Jordan’s production company Outlier Society Productions.
Summary:
Prior to the start of the series a war occurred between The Polity, an international coalition, and The Union, an autocratic expanding empire. The war between these groups has been going on for years. The Union has been successful in capturing territories and forcing The Polity to defend and retreat.
In 2068 The Union attacked New York, and The Polity’s vanguard was deployed to stop them. As the battle waged on it became evident that The Union was going to capture New York. As a result, The Polity ordered the vanguard to retreat along with as many citizens that could be evacuated before the city was captured. Rather than obeying this order Julian Chase, a vanguard pilot, choose to ignore it and drop a bomb that would disable The Union’s nanotech swarm weapon. While he was successful in disabling The Union’s nanotech his plane crashed and he was announced to be Killed in Action.
The war between The Polity and The Union has been non-stop. Miranda, Chase’s former-girlfriend, a battle-hardened vanguard tank pilot, out on a mission to pick up refugees is ambushed by Union forces. Right as she is about to give up hope two humanoid mechs, one with Chase’s voice, swiftly defeat the Union forces. Upon returning to base Chase reveals himself and begins to explain what happened and how he is alive. Before Chase can get to an explanation Dr. Rufus Weller takes over and explains how Chase is part of the Experimental Science Unit (ESU) along with Yasamin Madrani as the pilots of the humanoid mechs (Holons). The technology used to pilot these Holons is called gen: Lock which allows for certain pilots to be able to move Holons as if they were an extension of their own body. Under Dr. Weller’s jurisdiction he has recruited four other pilots who are gen: LOCK compatible to join the ESU. Out of these four pilots Cammie McCloud, Kazu lida, and Valentina Romanyszyn choose to join the team, while Robert Sinclair turns out to be a traitor and is killed upon attempting to hook up with the interface of gen: LOCK.
After witnessing what gen: Lock can do Cammie, Kazu, and Valentina agree to try the gen: LOCK program under the ESU. After several weeks of training, they are deployed on their first mission which is to secure a data center. The mission goes smoothly, until a mysterious Holon unit from The Union (Nemesis) attacks Cammie. In this attack Cammie’s Holon is almost destroyed, but is saved as the four other Holons work together to force Nemesis to retreat. Due to Nemesis attack Cammie cannot see and to address this Yasamin mind-shares, an ability to share skills through gen: LOCK. This begins to foster teamwork between the five members of team gen: LOCK. With the success of the first mission the gen: Lock team is deployed again this time to help destroy a Union factory. Upon scoping out the factory they discover that Polity scientists are being housed at the facility changing the mission to a rescue and destroy mission. With the improved skills, weapons, and communications of the gen: Lock team the scientists are rescued and the base destroyed. Upon leaving, Nemesis once again appears destroy Chase and the other Holons. With the teamwork of all five members of gen: Lock they force Nemesis to retreat.
Back at the base Chase questions Dr. Weller about Nemesis who explains how there was a backup brain for Chase in case anything went wrong with the gen: Lock program. After several missions, The Union found out about gen: LOCK and set up an ambush for Chase and captured his brain, and Dr. Weller, in order to continue the program, connected the backup brain to Chase’s body. As he is explaining this, Nemesis appears at the Anvil with several Union troops and confirms that Chase is a copy of him, thus kicking off another battle between The Polity and The Union. As the battle wears on it becomes clear that the gen: Lock team needs to retreat and the base experiences a nanotech swarm attack. While avoiding The Union the gen: LOCK team discovers that they are being tracked by Nemesis through the use of their Holons. They agree that their best option is to go to the Rouge Technology Aeronautics and Space Administration (RTASA). Once there they strike a deal with Marc Holcroft, an investor in the ESU and RTASA, where he will allow them to use the facility if they destroy Nemesis. Cammie begins to repair and upgrade each of the Holons to match the team member personally and prepare them to track down and fight Nemesis.
As repairs are complete the Gen: LOCK team receives word from the Anvil that The Union is planning a move in Chicago. Once in Chicago Nemesis appears and easily over powers the five Holons individually, thus forcing them to engage in mind-shares with one another to equalize the fight. This strategy proves to be effective, but is consuming upload time forcing everyone but Chase to download and then re-upload. In order to give his teammates enough time to do this Chase decides to skip his downloading time, which would prevent him from ever downloading back into his body again. Ultimately, Nemesis over powers Chase and is going to kill his teammates, but is stopped by Leon who is in the sixth Holon, thus giving team gen: Lock enough time to re-upload. All of team gen: LOCK engage in a five-way mindshare to utilize each other’s skills to defeat and destroy Nemesis for good. This is the first major offensive victory for The Polity, yet it is a pyrrhic victory as Chase will not be able to return to his body, Leon is in a coma and might never wake up, and Nemesis hinted at the fact that there are many copies of Chase’s brain within The Union.
Significance:
Gen: Lock provides an alternative to how a mecha anime should look. Gen: LOCK introduces a new style of animation that is a hybrid, similar to RWBY, of 2D and 3D animation to create a fast paced, techy, bright, futuristic feel towards the show. This style of animation lends itself effectively to the show, introducing several futuristic elements including the Holons fights, the nanotech swarms, Chase’s Holograph, and The Union’s troops. All these looks feel like they are from the future, and bring the viewer into that time. The show is extremely progressive and reflects the current climate of promoting diversity. This is done through several of the characters as Chase is an African-American, Yasamin is a former Union civilian who turned her parents in, Cammie is a hacker from Australia, Kazu is a demoted soldier from Japan, and Valentina is a gender fluid non-binary character. The diversity of the five main characters touches on several groups that are typically not represented in the anime world and highlights them in positive ways. This is a significant change to the current anime world that tends to have a more homogenous approach to storytelling. Finally, Gen: LOCK, despite being progressive, does not pull any punches as people have to make life and death decisions for that have consequences. It is nice to see a show that makes it clear from episode one that this is an adult show and not meant for the faint of heart. This in many ways shows that Rooster Teeth is not a one hit wonder animation company as they have answered several of their critics with a show that provides an alternative to mecha shows of the past.
RWBY Volume 5 can be picked up here.
