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R1 DVD Reviews
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Friday, 03 September 2010 00:00 |
 To the archives, Batman! Although to be fair, I can't see the dark and moody one watching this one. Hailing from way back in 2000, Vandread was one of the first of the new generation of shiny CG-animated shows, and with FUNimation re-releasing the series now, it's a good excuse for me to indulge again. Let's see if time has been kind to Hibiki and Dita...
1 - Boy Meets Girl
The planets of Tarak and Mejale live very different lives - Tarak is a male-only empire, with a pathological hatred of women, while Mejale is a world of women only. On Tarak, lowly engineer Hibiki Tokai is finding himself on the wrong end of a dare - looking to prove that those who create the parts for the Empire's fighting machines can get credit for their work, he's just stowed away on board the Empire's new flagship, the Ikazuchi, the ship that will see men finally conquer the women of Mejale. Unfortunately, an earlier-than-planned launch sees the Hibiki stranded on the ship - and no sooner has it launched than a group of female pirates attack and seize the ship. But the raid doesn't go quite according to plan, as the effects of a missile strike have unexpected results...
2 - And... I've Lost My Way
So much for proving himself - instead, Hibiki finds himself of a ship overrun by female pilots. Worse, the impact of the missiles fired at the Ikazuchi have had a strange effect on the ship's core, merging it with the women's ship to create something new. At least they're all alive - but now the entity that seems to have saved them is questioning Hibiki's reason for living. And the women are threatening to eat him and the other male survivors, physician Duero and rich heir Bart. When the ship comes under attack by unknown aliens, though, the men and women decide it may be for the best for them to work together...
3 - This is the Path I Choose to Live
The merging of the two ships triggered by the Paksis continues, but whatever it's doing it's creating an impressive ship in the process - albeit one that appears to have no weapons of its own. That's not as much of a problem as it sounds, though, as the merger between Hibiki's Van fighter and Dita's Dread seemed to have plenty of firepower to go around. The question now, though, is: who attacked them, and why? Dita and Gascogne are sent to the remains of the attacking ship to try and find some answers - but something's lurking in the wreckage...
4 - I Want to Know More About You
Now that the Paksis seems to have finished its transformation, the captain's looking for a name to use for their new ship. Dita, meanwhile is doing her best to learn about Hibiki - despite his best efforts to keep her away; Duero's quizzing Parfait on the whole concept of having children, something that Tarak has done away with; and BC is trying to get word of the invasion from Earth back to Mejale, without much success. Too much attention fro Dita and Meia, though, leaves Hibiki looking for a change of scenery - but a spell in Reg under Gascogne's command wasn't quite what he had in mind...
The basic premise of Vandread is simple enough: Hibiki wants to prove himself, and stowing away on the Ikazuchi gives him the opportunity to do that; the women are living up to their reputation (although once you get to know them you realise they're not so bloodthirsty after all) while the men aren't as hard as you'd expect, either. That said, the real purpose behind Vandread when it was first released, way back in 2000, was two-fold: to have a series with as many cute girls as possible (to tap into the fanboy market), and to show off the new whizzy CG animation that was then just beginning to take over the anime world. Visual bling is, after all, one of the trademarks of show producers GONZO, and this was one of their earlier forays into the anime market. They scored highly on both points - any female anime archetype you can think of is here, and the CG even now looks pretty good (although I've always held that there was something about movement of the CG models in this series that isn't quite right, and watching it again now hasn't changed my mind). That's fanservice on two fronts, both of which get a thumbs-up from me.
It also means that, by its very nature, the series falls firmly into the "mindless fluff" category for most of its run, and especially the opening episodes here. It's a show that's tailor-designed to be watched when you don't want to have to think too hard about what you're seeing, and while the premise does hold open the possibility of an examination of the roles of men and women in society, or a few other interesting moral subjects later in the series, these ideas are usually only touched upon in the lightest of ways - the series gives you and opportunity to think about some fairly heavy ideas, but doesn't require that you do to get the most out of the series. It's surprisingly well done, especially given GONZO's reputation for fluff.
If there's a downside, it's that there's a huge cast to get to grips with. The three guys are simple enough, as they stand out against the constant stream of women and each have distinct, indentifiable appearances and personalities. The women, though... well, you could be here all day listing them all. Personal favourites of mine are Dita, the rather ditsy young Dread pilot who quickly develops a liking for Hibiki (that he's completely incapable of dealing with); Meia, the reserved but efficient commander of the Dread squadrons who has a very Ruri Hoshino-like lack of emotion; and Barnette, another gung-ho dread pilot who worships the ground that her squad leader, Jura, walks on. There are many more (as I said, someone for every taste), with some for comic relief (like nurse Paiwei and technician Parfait), some there to teach lessons to others (Register chief Gascoinge and the pirate leader), and others just filling space (the bridge bunnies).
Visually, it's held up well in the ten years since it was produced - I've seen plenty of CGI since then that's worse than what's on offer here, and the rest of the animation is generally of a high quality that could easily hold its own now. If you're looking for some light-hearted fluff to pass the time in an enjoyable way, you could do a lot worse - Vandread is still a very enjoyable show, and worth checking out.
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