AnimeVision

3 - Junior: Dream Deployment
Junior's dream is to get some real combat in an RB, but the closest he's managed to get to real action is the simulator - so Gram makes him an offer: 200 silver coins, and he'll let Junior pilot his. Now all he has to do is figure out where to get a paying part-time job on a submarine? He also has to deal with Yagumi's attitude - he's convinced that Junior won't ever have the aptitude to pilot an RB in a way that'll ever be of use. Determined to prove himself, he steals an RB - Gram goes after him in a submersible, but a run-in with the military means he'll have to prove his worth sooner than he expected...

4 - Contact! Gram, Vess and the Submarine
Seems the Aurora isn't the only pirate submarine around - although an attack on Adena by a fleet of pirates seems to draw only a 'so what?' kind of response from the military. The Aurora's in Adena as well, although it's holed up for repairs rather than fighting. Given it's possibly his last chance to get ashore for a while, there are a few people he needs to visit. He's not the only one making use of some shore-leave, either - Vestemona is also out about town, visiting her old haunts - which brings her face-to-face with Gram...

5 - Anna's Struggle! Our Dream Fleet
The Captain's still worked up about their submarine 'hit-and-run' incident. There are bigger problems, though - the Aurora's owner (and head of the Martian Inpedendence Movement) is beginning to interfere more in local politics, and is trying to drag the Aurora into it. A case of bad timing also leads to the Aurora being implicated in the kidnap of the grand-daughter of Earth's President. The true culprits are on board the submarine that hit the Aurora earlier, which the Aurora is currently hunting down. Meanwhile, the Martian Government's Director Anna Grace is getting more than a bit fed up with events running outside her control, and takes personal command of a Federation fleet tasked with tracking down the kidnappers...

The more I see of this show, the more I like it - although I can't help but feel that such a large cast is more than a bit unwieldy, making it hard to keep track of who's who. I'm also trying to figure out how Mars' many pirates manage to build all these state-of-the-art submarines without anyone noticing - I guess that's where 'suspension of disbelief' comes in.

These episodes are still basically character introduction pieces, giving a little bit of information on some more of the massive cast, along with one or two pointers to where things may be going in the long run (think: Martian politics - is it just me, or does the independence movement side of things just beg for comparison with Zone of the Enders?). The writers seem determined to make sure that all of the characters here get some depth to them, which is nice to see, although some of the situations they find themselves in do resort to cliché on occasion. Minor criticism, though.

Overall, this is one show where I'm particularly looking forward to seeing more. In a way, I have to curse Bandai for announcing it now & making me wait to see more - but on the basis of the first 5 episodes, I'm going to give this a 'highly recommended'.