Snowball Earth – Episode 1

What’s it about? Tetsuo Yabusame is a shy and socially awkward kid who has a difficult time making friends.  He finds solace in his father’s laboratory and eventually ends up befriending a mech named Yukio.  Years later, he’s sent on a mission to destroy the intergalactic monsters attacking Earth, only for his crew and life-long robotic friend to be completely destroyed.  After sacrificing so much, he returns to Earth only to find out the entire planet is going through a new ice age. 

You know things are dire when the fate of the world rests on the hands of a child.  This premiere does a good job setting up that humanity did send out their best soldiers to fight against these monsters only to end up overwhelmed. That setup is rendered a bit anticlimactic by the reveal that Tetsuo is a genius that can instantly pilot the newly built mecha, but my bigger problem with this premiere is the tonal disconnect between the harsh reality of war and the humorous struggles of Tetsuo dealing with his social anxiety. This could’ve worked if the premiere was trying to aim for a dark satirical comedy vibe, but it felt mostly empty.  

As a character, Tetsuo just feels like someone who’s in the wrong story, going through the motions of being a child soldier with the full support of his mad scientist father.  The war is basically treated like a secondary problem or an excuse as to why Tetsuo was never able to make any friends and while that is partly true, the war is mostly seen as a nuisance. Contrasting the personal and the global isn’t new for this kind of story, but the balance is all wrong in Snowball Earth.  A series that better handled an apocalyptic future and trying to live a mundane life in spite of the obstacles is Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction.  In the main timeline, the protagonists tried to stay out of the major conflicts of the story and live normal teenage lives, but the severity of war with an intergalactic species is never undermined. 

The only interesting element in this premiere is the mystery as to why there were so many mechanical failures on the ship that carried Tetsuo and his crew.  The fact that every safety measure on the ship failed to work was clearly not an accident.. The question then becomes: why was it so important for the higher-ups to sabotage this mission? Why is the Earth suddenly going through a new ice age? Is all of humanity dead? These are far more interesting questions than figuring out if Tetsuo will make any friends, and frankly I’m just not interested in following another pathetic dude that cannot socialize for the life of him.  

Don’t get me wrong, social anxiety is hella relatable, but if that becomes the only trait of an otherwise generic wish-fulfillment dude then it’s just mostly annoying rather than endearing.  The animation is decent and while the CG on Tetsuo and the monsters are a bit distracting, nothing will ever truly beat Rusted Armors.  Overall, this is a perfectly watchable premiere that is emotionally void of any feelings.  If our readers like apocalyptic stories then this might be the show for you this season.