In the middle of the 21st century, mankind is embroiled in a conflict with alien invaders, and this seems of little importance to college student Takuto Kaneshiro, who cares mostly for his research and his girlfriend, the shy and contemplative Maki Agata. Vexed by her silent tendencies, Takuto pokes about Maki’s laboratory and finds one of her reasons for introversion: she’s part of Morgue, a research group in possession of the bizarre, bio-mechanical remains of an enormous alien being, presumably like those now warring with the human race.

Morgue's project leader, the over-enthusiastic Dr. Noguchi, recruits Takuto, who decides to join the team largely for Maki’s sake. His first task has him assisting Noguchi and Maki as they attach the final piece of the dormant alien, nicknamed “Frank,” and attempt to revive him through a process involving arcs of electricity and the good doctor’s mad shriek of “It’s ALIVE!” (This must be a tribute to Dracula, right?) Frank awakens and inexplicably flies off, collapsing the entire complex and leaving a badly injured Takuto to pick through the ruins in his search for Maki. It doesn’t end happily.

The Frankenstein parallel continues as Frank lands in rural Montana, where he’s discovered by a blithely childlike 13-year-old named Harriet Bartholemew. In a development closer to The Iron Giant than Mary Shelley’s novel, Harriet befriends the huge, misshapen extraterrestrial golem, thinking that he’s an elf. “Mister Elf” not only provides a refuge for Harriet when a creepy sheriff and a doughy bureaucrat try to take her away from her grandfather (an edgy man who, in rural parlance, should not be riled), but he also helps the girl when a lithe, yellow-skinned alien lands in the forest and lays waste to everything in sight. In the aftermath, Frank and Harriet are collected by a military group with the intimidating title of Funeral.

Takuto, meanwhile, languishes in a hospital, recalling his days with Maki and thirsting to destroy Frank. While there, he’s visited by a theatrical man who offers him some unclear opportunity for vengeance. Upon accepting, Takuto awakens the next morning with a new face, new eyes, a shock of spiked gray hair, the name of Ryu Soma, and an appointment as a member of Funeral. The organization, as the reborn Takuto learns, is an anti-alien force that uses transforming mecha-planes and other technology to combat the invaders. Frank, directed by the innocent and unassuming Harriet, is their newest weapon.

Argentosoma’s helpings of conspiracies, mysterious humanoid entities, and episode titles such as “Rebirth and Death” are at first reminiscent of Evangelion, or at least the genre's worth of inspiration that crystallized there. However, the show that eventually emerges, with its Frankenstein echoes and intriguing turns, bears little resemblance to Eva. Argentosoma plays with an audience’s expectations as it works internal character struggles and global plots into a somewhat piecemeal vision of a war against extraterrestrials. The story tears through tones and settings recklessly, only to rest in a fairly routine mecha-versus-monster style that’s engrossing mostly because of the chaotic developments beneath its surface.

Even the stock moments of Argentosoma are enjoyable, though, as director Kazuyoshi Katayama lends it the same grand-scale action that he used so well in The Big O. While things never reach the glorious pulp heights of that series (or the psychological depths of Evangelion, for that matter), Argentosoma doesn’t need to stretch that far. Despite its rampant borrowing, it has enough purpose to stand on its own and develop some memorable characters. Ryu Soma/Takuto is a detached jerk who elicits little sympathy in either incarnation, yet he somehow remains a compelling lead. His troubled relationship with Maki is cleverly detailed through flashbacks, and his latent vendetta with Frank begs the question of whether he’ll go through with a revenge that seems less and less justified as the series goes on. Harriet is nearly the opposite; she's cute and likable on account of her juvenile faith in Frank, yet her naivete makes her a bit too uncomplicated.

Standing between Soma and Harriet are the men of women of Funeral, scantly developed archetypes that include the good-natured commander Michael Hartland, bratty white-haired pilot Sue Harris, reserved and gorgeous Guinevere (Guenevere? Gwenevere?) Green, androgynous Commander Lana Ines, and hotheaded British flyboy Dan Simmons, who's assumed to be no relation to the author of Phases of Gravity and Hyperion.They’re minimal variations on clichés, but there’s something endearing about each of them, and it’s comforting that the series doesn’t trade them in as quickly as it did Dr. Noguchi.

It’s of no detriment that, like other mecha shows from the Sunrise aegis, Argentosoma looks quite good for Japanese TV. Kimitoshi Yamane, designer of the beautiful Escaflowne guymelefs, the Cowboy Bebop ships, and many a Gundam, does a great job on Funeral’s SARG jet-bots and the shambling Frank, whose lopsided, pseudo-human look recalls something from the Panzer Dragoon games. The character designs of Shukou Murase (Gasaraki, Gundam Wing) aren’t quite as palatable, as they’re oddly drawn and even appear noseless when viewed straight on. And for one final bit of strangeness, the closing credits pair a corny classic-rock number with visuals that would be at home in some equally hokey space-exploration newsreel called “The Moon Belongs to Japan.”

In spite of decent performances elsewhere, the Japanese version here loses out to the English one on account of Harriet. Houko Kuwashima is just as annoying here as she was as Yurika in Nadesico, while in the dub, Sandy Fox squeaks her way through the role with a candor that fits Harriet and her prolonged innocence quite well. In other parts, Steve Staley is just as good a Ryu Soma/Takuto as Soichiro Hoshi, and Crispin Freeman (Touga in Utena, Albedo in Xenosaga) is almost a better Dan than Takehito Koyasu, just because of Freeman’s rather amusing British accent.

I’m impressed with Argentosoma so far. Though the show’s jumps of perspective make it confusing and kind of incoherent, there’s a capable story within the morass of multiple identities and aliens and mad doctors and morbidly named shadow organizations. Argentosoma may not turn out to be a brilliant, groundbreaking series, but within its first volume, it at least promises to be an interesting one.

B