Revisions is a "youthful disaster ensemble drama (juvenile panic ensemble)" that sees the center of Shibuya time travel over 300 years into the future, where they battle the enemy known as "Revisions" and engage in a panic movie-like ensemble action. The film is directed by Taniguchi Goro, who has worked on works such as Code Geass and Infinite Ryvius, and some of the content is reminiscent of the latter. In this article, we'll be introducing the "String Puppets," the powered suits that give the protagonists their fighting power.
【revisions】String Puppet Overview
String puppets are humanoid mobile weapons developed by the Arve to combat Revisions. Pilots are called "Puppet Masters," and to unleash their full potential, they must wear a "neurosuit" with a familiar color scheme. The white mech, designed for close combat, is primarily used exclusively by Daisuke, while the other four pilots take turns piloting the two other mechs: the yellow for medium-range combat and the red for long-range combat.
[Revisions] String Puppet Mechanism Introduction
String Puppet (White)
This puppet is primarily piloted by Daisuke Dojima. It's equipped with weapons primarily suited for close-quarters combat, including the Explosive Recoil Katana (ERK), a melee weapon that increases striking power by exploding the blade, and a dedicated handgun (with four bullet types to choose from: normal, guided, shotgun, and burst).
String Puppet (Yellow)
This yellow-colored robot is equipped with an assault rifle and is designed for mid-range combat. In the story, the four characters (excluding Daisuke) take turns piloting it, but it disappears midway through the story.
String Puppet (Red)
This long-range combat aircraft is armed with a large sniper rifle and missile pods on both shoulders. This aircraft is also piloted by the four members other than Daisuke, who take turns piloting it.
【revisions】Why can only five high school students use puppets?
String puppets are weapons created by the Arve to combat the Revisions. To prevent them from being used by the Revisions, they are dedicated to five individuals. The Arve predicted that the Revisions would cause a Shibuya teleportation, and selected five high school students to use the Shibuya teleportation to collect data on the String Puppets.
What are string puppets made of?
In the future after Shibuya, there are few resources, and the only usable items are the remains of the Revisions' combat weapons and the Civilians. Most of the Puppet's parts are made from Civilians. And since Civilians were originally human, the raw material for the Puppet is also human. If the Puppet is damaged, the remains of the Civilians can be broken down to the nano level and used as materials.
[Revisions] Why Are There Only Three String Puppets?
There are five main characters, but only three string puppets were provided by the Arve. While it seems like five puppets would normally be needed for five characters in an anime, I'd like to consider why there were only three puppets.
Consideration 1: Lack of budget
It's a cruel reason, but one possible explanation is that in the future, there are only about 100,000 Arves, and with limited resources and facilities, three puppets would have been the limit. Also, the power required to operate the puppets is finite, and considering the need to ensure the minimum power required for the adrift Shibuya to function, the power required would only increase. This likely contributed to the inability to pay the electricity bill.
Consideration 2: Three test units are enough
The String Puppets were used to protect the drifting Shibuya, but it appears the Arves used the Shibuya drift to test whether they would be an effective weapon against the Revisions. It's possible they considered the risk of failure in such a situation. It may also have been based on a prediction based on future predictions that three units would be enough to avert a crisis.
Consideration 3: Because there were only supposed to be three usable pilots
The Arve's
According to the Arve's future predictions, the first person to appear with a string puppet was originally supposed to be Keisaku Asano, with Daisuke Dojima's lack of aptitude and his planned role of rear support. In other words, Keisaku, Gai, and Ruu were originally supposed to pilot the puppets, with Daisuke and Marimari serving as backup and reservoirs, which is why only three puppets were prepared.
[Revisions] Why did the Arve give string puppets to the people of Shibuya?
What is the Arve's purpose?
The string puppets are designed to be operated only by five high school students to prevent them from being seized and used by the enemy. However, frankly, the Arves have no obligation or reason to save the people they've transported to Shibuya. In fact, if they had such a weapon, they could have used it themselves. Despite this, the Arves give the string puppets to the people of Shibuya.
Used for operational testing
One of the reasons for Shibuya's transfer was the Revisions' constant need for normal human cells. However, despite knowing about the Shibuya transfer plan (Revision Plan), the Arves ignored it. They believed that if the people of Shibuya were forced to fight, they could test the performance of their prototype string puppets. Even if the puppet pilot were killed, there would be no casualties among the Arves. The Revisions were naturally an unavoidable enemy, but the Arves were also quite evil. It can't be helped, since they were fighting to survive.
True Intentions
Since Revisions needs normal human cells, Arve anticipates their incompatibility and indirectly offers, "I'll help you if you cooperate with the performance testing of the String Puppets." However, it's possible that thwarting Revisions' plan would have had a low success rate and would have resulted in significant casualties, so it's hard to say for sure.
【revisions】String Puppet Summary
This time, we introduced the String Puppets, a fighting force exclusively wielded by the protagonists. Rather than using mobile weapons to defeat enemies with gunfire, this work places emphasis on the conflicts between organizations and the intersecting intentions of different groups. Still, the final battle scene is spectacular, so it's a work that you should definitely watch from start to finish. I highly recommend watching it all the way to the end!
