Reviewed by Kenae Category: TV Series
Genre(s): Neo Space Opera/Comedy/Ecchi
Released: 2000
Studio:Geneon Publisher:GONZO
"Women are monsters, and men were once their playthings. Taking our forefathers' innards and sucking them dry of all life. Over the centuries they have plundered our cities, they have crudely oppressed our people with forced labor and that unspeakable horror is about to strike our empire once again. This is the shape of our most blood thirsty enemy. The symbol of our sacrifice, even those who are fortunate enough to survive are left horribly scarred after their encounters with women, but the time has finally come to erase the memories of those unbearable years of humiliation and degradation..."
This little segment is a great example of how a male dominated military would act to an unknown enemy. And in this case even if the enemy is female... True brilliance on GONZO's part.
When I first heard about Vandread my thoughts and expectations were very low, I had thought of it as just a cheap copy of the 80's anime Gall Force, my low expectations were surpassed after watching the first few episodes. I had thought this would be just another "battle of the sexes," the story of men versus women, which has been somewhat common in animes... well somewhat common. Vandread greatly surpassed all of my expectations, the animation, the CG for the battle scenes, and the music were all amazingly well done. In this review I shall give a brief synopsis, a description of the characters, my opinions and a mini-review for the 4 DVDs' extras.
Synopsis
On Earth, the advance of technology and human growth led to the expansion of humanity into the cosmos, Vandread is a story focusing of one of those many colonies. Tarak and Mejear were originally part of the same colony group sent from earth, but after, for some unknown reason they separated into two different groups. One group was comprised solely of women, these women colonized the planet Mejaer; the other group was comprised solely of the opposite sex, men, they colonized the planet Tarak. And even now, Tarak and Mejaer are still at war, a war which has been waged between the two planets for three generations... The story follows a third class citizen of Tarka named Hibiki Tokai. Being a third class citizen can be very boring, and doing the same thing every day can get boring, Hibiki wanted to get away from this so badly that he did something that would change his life forever.
After promising to his fellow third class citizens, to steal a Van-Guard, the standard Tarak mecha which most third class citizens worked on parts for but never were able to see the completed mecha in action. Hibiki manages to smuggle himself aboard the battleship Ikazuchi and just as he is about to complete his goal, his carefully laid out plans are shattered… After the Kazuchi’s rushed departure, the battleship was attacked and infiltrated by a group of pirates from Mejear, during this time the former residents of the Ikazuchi (excluding two crewmembers and one stowaway) managed to be captured and set loose in numerous escape pods, the female pirates’ way of showing mercy. The men felt this act of "humiliation" should not go unpunished, the men of Tarak, in a bold move decide to destroy the Ikazuchi in order to rid themselves of the pirates. For some unexplainable reason (or at least not explained in the series) the female pirates and the three men were all warped halfway across the galaxy, and they soon discover that a new enemy, greater than either sex. In order to survive, men and women must work together, to fight a common foe and to help save the rest of humanity...
Characters
Hibiki Tokai Originally just a parts mechanic of Tarak, but after making his little "adventure" aboard the Ikazuchi he became one of the pirates' crewmembers, he is the pilot of one of the few remaining Van Guards. His Van Guard was somehow changed when the Pirates' ship and the Ikazuchi were warped halfway across the galaxy and now it has the ability to combine with three other ships.
Dita Liebely A pilot of one of Mejear's spacecrafts known as Dreads. She is the resident Alien-otaku who follows Hibiki obsessively. Her Dread has the ability to combine with Hibiki's Van Guard to make something very powerful.
Meia Gisborn Leader of the Dread squads. Due to her tragic past she is unwilling to accept help from anyone, but maybe Hibiki can change that. Her Dread can combine with Hibiki's Van Guard to make something powerfully fast.
Jura Basil Elden Second in command of the Dread fleets. She is a perfectionist obsessed with beauty, elegance, and grace and often this "passion" of hers gets her into some bad situations. Her Dread can combine with Hibiki's Van Guard to create something powerfully defensive.
Duero McFile One of three male crew members aboard the spaceship Nirvana, his job is the ship's doctor. He is considered to be one of the elite men of Tarak but, even so, he seemed to find life rather boring, that is, until he met up with the pirates of Mejear.
Bart Garsus Another one of three male crew members aboard the spaceship Nirvana, his job is the ship's helmsman. On Tarak, his family supplied the military with most of its food. His greatest contribution to the Nirvana is the speed at which he can run away from battle.
Magno Viven Captain of the pirates and the Nirvana. She is one of the original colonists and of the first generation, and because of her age she is quite wise a about both Tarak and Mejear. But there could be something that she is hiding from the crew about the original colonization voyage of the Ikazuchi…
Opinions
**disclaimer** This section is completely devoted to MY opinions and could possible conflict with other people's, do keep this in mind while reading this.**
"Vandread the 1st Stage was easily one of the best space type anime of all time, and it's no wonder that it ranked number six in NewTypeUSA's fans' top ten anime of all time."* But even so, the ending of Vandread leaves at a very critical moment, and also before the crew of the Nirvana finishes their ultimate goal, but hey, that's what Vandread 2nd Stage is for. (now on with the review) I loved almost everything about this OVA, and I too would consider it one of the greatest anime series of all time.
The animation was quite astounding, GONZO did a spectacular job combining CGI with animation, the combat scenes blended both animation and CGI together to where there wasn't really a feeling of separation of the two, unlike GONZO's previous attempt at this in Blue Sub. 6, this shows true mastery of hybrid anime/CGI.
Vandread 1st Stage's music was also a plus, although it consisted mostly of techno, each song fit perfectly and conveyed the right moods for certain situations throughout the series. The Character development in the series is also very noticeable, each character goes through their own trials and changes as the story progresses, and for such a large cast of main characters makes this kind of development hard, so they did a great job with only thirteen episodes. And kudos goes out to the Geneon dubbing crew and voice actors/actresses; they did an excellent job dubbing the series.
As for my qualms towards the series, I have only one. Many questions were left unanswered in the first season, some of them were quite important to the plot, the entire Pegsus Progma, and the "race back to home" part is a bit of a stretch of this possible reality, but even so, most of the questions were answered in Vandread 2nd Stage.
*Pg. 81; NewTypeUSA June 2003 Issue
Extras (1/5)
Why is it that one of the greatest mecha anime had to have such horrible extras? Perhaps this was Pioneer Animation's way of showing Vandread's greatness... I was sorely disappointed in the four DVD’s extras. The first three DVDs extras included concept art, non-credit openings for every episode, and the original Japanese promos, and even the promos weren’t translated which made watching them practically pointless. The first three DVDs didn’t even include previews, and I Kenae, live for good anime previews.
The fourth DVD, like almost all final DVDs, contained more than the previous three DVDs, it consisted of several non-credit openings, a non-credit closing, a character cover-art gallery, a mecha cover-art gallery, and four not so good previews. And these four previews were far from enough to appease my anger for the first three DVDs lack there of. Geneon could have added a lot more to the four DVDs extras than they did. C’mon no previews, isn’t that bad for promotion of other anime series? Well, in retaliation to the lack of previews I almost feel obligated to send hateful e-mail... but in my opinion, since the series was first released over a year ago it be kind of pointless, and then you have to mention the fact that I'm LAZY.
-- Kenae
Buy Vandread 1st Stage at the FA Store >
