Welcome to this week’s article of The Good, Bad, and What The?, where we took a good, long look at characters in movies, video games, anime, and books and put them on the judgement table to see if they are worthy to be in their respective stories. I strongly believe that well developed characters are more important than anything else in a good story, so I always judge them hard. At the end of every character’s evaluation I will give them one of four ratings: Good for those characters that are developed and deserve their place in the story, Bad for those characters that have no place being made or interacting with anyone else in the story, What The for the characters I just can’t figure out, and then the characters who are dull as dishwasher will get the rating of Sack of Potatoes. Today on the judgement table: Adolf Reinhard, one of the captains of the Annex 1 team from “Terra Formars.”
My previous article article was also about “Terra Formars” and the cockroaches so I won’t talk a lot about them, but here’s the story synopsis as usual. The team Annex 1, a group a human with scientifically implanted powers based on animals, has been sent to Mars to find a cure for the AE virus. This virus is coming to Earth and killing with a 100% mortality rate with no known cure. The Annex 1 team must battle and capture the Terra Formars on Mars in an effort to learn about them and hopefully gain information on the AE virus. When they get to Mars, they are immediately meet with many deaths and tough battles and the superhuman gigantic cockroaches who kill with no remorse. Adolf is one of the several captains to lead squads to battle these Terra Formars.
This whole article can be considered a spoiler, unfortunately, but it is only spoilers for one specific character so it won’t ruin everything. That’s the warning, so ahead we go now.
Upon first seeing Adolf, he looks rather sketchy and hard to approach. Adolf is a rather tall man with sharp looking blonde hair who covers his face with a large jacket collar. He speaks softly and with little care in his voice and calls one of his subordinates “that” when passing her off to another captain. Your first impression is a very negative one. He seems like a cold mean angry German fellow,yes a German man, named Adolf, I know. He doesn’t seem like someone who will be very likable. I assumed he would be a rather calm cool badass kind of archetype. Rather simple and cool, but not the kind of guy you would really get along with or relate with. I seemed pretty right at first, as his “I don’t care” attitude tends to hold out in the beginning. When things get ugly and his squad gets into great danger, Adolf shows his true colors.
His squad finds themselves stuck in some kind of big pit on the Mars surface with their vehicle not working. One of the stronger squad members Isabella R. Leon is killing several Terra Formars but more keep coming. Adolf decides to step into the battle and shows off his powers. Adolf’s Mosaic Organ was an electric eel, meaning he can conduct and fire electricity much like Hei in “Darker Than Black.” A huge muscular Terra Formar shows up and Isabella goes to fight him. The Terra Formar delivers a swift uppercut to Isabella so hard that her upper body literally shreds apart and she dies instantly. Adolf upon seeing this becomes determined to protect the rest of his squad. He begins throwing out the kunai he carries under his jacket and electrocuting a huge number of Terra Formars. He keeps making them drop like flies faster than the crew can even see. You also see at this point that the reason he covers his face is to hide the horrendous scars that cover his jaw and neck. As Adolf is fighting, the show begins playing flashbacks of Adolf’s life before. Experimented on at the age of 7, Adolf has been a weapon used by others his entire life. He was constantly lonely and kept to himself and had to hide his face for fear of his hideous facial scars bothering people. He is a man who wants to protect everyone he can. He volunteered for the torture he was put through to become a weapon so that other kids wouldn’t have to have it done to them. He had no real friends and has always been under watch by the company that made him into the electrical weapon he is.
Eventually he meets a girl named Rosa. This woman begins to show him true love and friendship, something he was devoid of previously. Finally they get married and Adolf feels happy for once in his life. This whole time the flashbacks are going on, Adolf is ripping through Terra Formar after Terra Formar with the determination to protect his crew and let no else die. This were you also learn that Adolf is the second strongest member of the entire Annex 1 team and is proving himself well. As the battle goes on, Adolf begins crying, remembering the times of his past saying, “Why am I thinking about this now?” As it turns out, Adolf’s wife Rosa cheated on him continually and once she was caught begged for forgiveness. Adolf being the kind soul that he was, accepted her apology and didn’t divorce because he didn’t want to see her hurt. Kind to a fault, really. The Terra Formars are still coming and Adolf continues to rip through in an incredibly epic scene. As another punch in the gut, Rosa gives birth to a baby that isn’t related to Adolf at all. This scene continues to pound you with emotion. You see scenes of Adolf being forgiving, the baby and Adolf’s sadness returning, and then the current battle as Adolf fights his hardest for his team. His character went from calm cold man to an incredibly intricate character. It doesn’t stop; it’s like getting punched in the face by a boxing glove over and over.
This character went from someone I totally forgot about to the a guy that is making me feel sad, angry, and pumped all at once. This fight goes on for what feels like forever and I get super emotional the whole time. After Adolf left for Mars, it also happens that Rosa continues to cheat on him, basically ignoring her child. The onslaught doesn’t slow down and neither does Adolf until things come to a violent end. Basically exhausted to the point of death, Adolf stops fighting. One of his team members Eva comes to his side, but is weak and can’t fight the Terra Formars. The Terra Formars then grab rocks and fire them like slingshots at the two. The rock fly like bullets and in a last attempt to protect Eva, Adolf grab onto her and shields her with his body. The rocks shred through his flesh repeatedly until finally one strikes his face and tears his skull in half. Adolf body was also impaled with an explosion without Adolf knowing and the explosion kills him and his whole crew with nothing left. I sat there depressed and speechless.
The verdict on Adolf Reinhard is very obvious. He is more than just Good; he is fantastic. He sits atop the throne with some of my most beloved characters, like Korra and LeLouch Lamperouge. Adolf Reinhard is a character who in two episodes turned my heart in a slushie. I thought he would be generic and plain, the usual kind of “look at how awesome and powerful I am” guy, but that was not the case. He was a character with a great story behind him and a great heart. He wanted to protect everyone and couldn’t see people get hurt. He can bring tears to your eyes and make you feel with him. The struggle of an awful spouse and a life of feeling used and lonely are all things people can actually relate to. He is powerful, likable, relatable, has a great story behind him, and fights for nothing but noble causes. He is the full package of a character and man, I wish he didn’t die but he did go down honorably. I could recommend this whole anime off of just the few episode you see Adolf.
