Within roughly five minutes, Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle‘s male lead, Lux Arcadia, accidentally crashes into a girls’ changing room. This may well be some sort of record. Despite such inauspicious beginnings, he is soon enrolled as the lone boy at the otherwise all-female Royal Knights Academy. There, he and his fellow students train to pilot mechanical suits called Drag-Rides.

Yeah, Bahamut Chronicle is one of those shows, where a lone male character is surrounded by a harem of adoring girls. There’s awkward situations aplenty, not to mention trips to the beach and cross-dressing – all of which betrays the story’s origins as a light novel series. So far, so generic; it’s nothing we haven’t seen dozens of times before, with oh-so familiar situations and characters who are little more than archetypes.

Look beyond the well-worn tropes, however, and you’ll discover an action-packed side to the studio Lerche show. The idea of mecha pilots as ‘Knights’ may not be entirely new (*cough* Escaflowne) but it’s a cool one nevertheless. Add some bad-ass looking sword-wielding mechs and a slew of flashy action set-pieces, and proceedings get pretty entertaining. The Knights are also well-designed and brought to life with some neatly integrated CGI, which makes for some spectacular action. The only real problem is that there’s not quite enough of it.

While we’ve seen better mecha shows and better romances than Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle, combining the two is surprisingly effective. A mixed bag certainly, but one that works more often than not. Reviewed by Chris Perkins

INFO
Release: 21 August 2017
From: MVM
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Price (RRP): £29.99 (DVD), £34.99 (Blu-ray)
Age rating: 15