I am honestly unsure as to what I meant when I said I would be discussing the hardsuits. Past Me can be inscrutable. I mean, for those who don’t know, the hardsuits are basically one anime’s answer to Iron Man? But you can tell they’re for girls because high heels (hardcore eyeroll here).

But here’s the thing: the second Nene says something about how the suits can’t hide her measurements (ugh, so much eyeroll), the leader of the Japanese military (or one branch of it, I suppose) comments on how advanced the hardsuits are in comparison to their own hardware and especially to that of the AD Police, the ones who are supposed to be protecting the populace from the Boomers. I suppose you could look at this as a capitalist argument – that innovation came from a private entity – but I feel like that is probably more reductive, especially since that innovation came as both a response to personal trauma and an act of desperation once the truth was discovered. Sylia lost her father because of the creation of Boomers, and because she does not want that to happen to another small child, she fights alongside others who feel like she does.

Part of the what makes the suits so special is that they were designed for individuals: Sylia’s suit is multifunctional, while Priss’ and Nene’s are more specialized to their roles in the group, aggressive offense and tech backup respectively. Linna’s suit, on the other hand, is adapted to her agile dancer-like fighting style. In comparison, the K-suits for the AD Police are ill-equipped to handle even the most basic of Boomers, almost like Genom wants them to be ineffective (I’m being coy, they definitely want them to be ineffective). Like I was saying above, this is not necessarily corporate innovation; this is more small business, survivalist thinking, in that you never see someone who lives on their own with something standardized. And what’s even more significant in light of all that was changed for the reboot, the designs for the hardsuits were pretty much untouched. They might have been a bit more streamlined and cleaned up for the new series, but even the tech involved was identical.

I really wish I remembered what I had wanted to talk about regarding the hardsuits, but I think I’ve covered everything I could? I know that I’m a little behind on today’s actual challenge, but I’m hoping to get it done tonight before I go to bed.

Art Credit: FanPop