Review: Chrome Shelled Regios episode 1

My Thoughts
My first thought was: huh? The episode was disjointed, and random--at least on the front of things. My guess is that some of the episode was flash-backs and some weren't.

Above and beyond that, this looks like a promising start to an episode. It reminds me vaguely of Full Metal Alchemist, and I find that despite the less than stellar animation I'm interested in seeing where this leads. So much so, that I went and grabbed the rest of the episodes that I hadn't downloaded yet.

Episode Summary
The episode begins with a bunch of giant insects attacking a domed city. Three fighters, one of whom is in training, attack the thing.

We get a sudden switch, and Layfon Alseif, the main character, leaves his town and rides off to attend the academy in Zerni. Then we flip over to Nina Antalk, the leader of the 17th platoon, and discover that she's loosing one of her members. So of course, she's off to hunt through the incoming students trying to find someone to join her platoon--but isn't having much luck because all the incoming students had already been picked up by the other platoons.

Layfon arrives at the school, and meets a trio of girls, one of whom is taking pictures of him. Then a fight breaks out, and he wanders away, while the girls begin to watch. Somehow, one of the girls gets caught up in the fight, and a portion of a building is about to fall on her, and Layfon recieves a telepathic command to save the girl, which he does, and Nina sees.

This leads to him having to meet the Karian Loss president of the student council. Karian then forces him to enter the military arts section of the school. Nina is chatting with Harley Sutton, one of the other 17th members, and discovers that Layfon is meeting Karian. So, she runs off to request that he be assigned to her platoon.

The next thing we get is Nina and Layfon getting off the bus near the boys dorm. Nina points the way, and then runs off, and Layfon meets Felli Loss. Felli is a member of the 17th, the younger sister of Karian, and the telepath who sent the command that made him save the girl earlier in the episode. They chat for a few moments, before she wanders away, and then Layfon goes to his dorm room and to bed.

Then it's back to the three folks fighting the giant beetle thing. After fighting it for a while (it kept regenerating) they finally defeat it, and it's strongly implied that one of the fighters was Layfon (they had the same eyes), and that all those fight scenes were dream sequences.