hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
Sunrise has done almost every trick in the book to get improbably young pilots into improbably large and over powered mecha or ships. Accidents, disasters (both natural and man made), wars (very popular), design flaws so only kids can pilot them and that little step in all Gundams which makes people fall into the cockpit. There also have to come up with hundreds of often more improbable reasons why they can actually kick arse with them. This show kicks all that faff into touch as all the crew have been training on the ship for the last few months, and after their government gives up quicker than the south of France in WW2 when invaded they decide to buy the ship and fight on. Since however running is a VERY expensive and a single Macross missile massacre could probably buy a small mansion, they need a financial backer. And how can you get lots of money if you are prepared to sell your soul? Reality TV. The Galaxy Network will fund the crew (now operating as a government in exile) in exchange for total coverage and a certain amount of say in decisions. So off the young crew go to fight the evil empire.
If I was to try and sum up this show in 5 words would probably fail, but could do it in sound though. The sound of a chain saw, or maybe a brush cutter if I was feeling a little more generous. Three reasons for this:
1)Cutting of faff. As I said a lot of the standard series intro is cut. You learn about the characters on the fly between and during battles, and thought some quite blatant exposition. This is more due to the next reason.
2)The series was based off a 6 volume light novel series and I’m guessing a good amount was cut to cram it into the three 13 episodes. While there were no gaping holes in the plot where stuff had obviously been cut out what was missing was all the character interactions. Several characters are introduced for an episode or two before they return to obscurity. A good example was the ‘betrayal’ in the middle of the series. Thought betrayal is difficult to define the betrayer had a only a few lines, before their brief time in the sun greatly deminised he intended imact of the betrayal.
3)The body count would have been the final reason. Though as usual the nameless engineering crew get in the neck more that most, there are a number of named characters that die through out the short course of the series. Problem is that as I mentioned most characters aren't sufficiently developed to make you care if they die or not.
while it manages to tick a lot of the boxes to make it a good space opera, very realistic space battles (taking days rather than minutes), space craft (believable space stealth submarine), Machiavellian politics and a long galactic history behind it. This show is obviously part of something greater, longer, deeper and more involved,
It's a shame that so much was cut to fit it into the 13 episodes. And the name was so dull.
If I was to try and sum up this show in 5 words would probably fail, but could do it in sound though. The sound of a chain saw, or maybe a brush cutter if I was feeling a little more generous. Three reasons for this:
1)Cutting of faff. As I said a lot of the standard series intro is cut. You learn about the characters on the fly between and during battles, and thought some quite blatant exposition. This is more due to the next reason.
2)The series was based off a 6 volume light novel series and I’m guessing a good amount was cut to cram it into the three 13 episodes. While there were no gaping holes in the plot where stuff had obviously been cut out what was missing was all the character interactions. Several characters are introduced for an episode or two before they return to obscurity. A good example was the ‘betrayal’ in the middle of the series. Thought betrayal is difficult to define the betrayer had a only a few lines, before their brief time in the sun greatly deminised he intended imact of the betrayal.
3)The body count would have been the final reason. Though as usual the nameless engineering crew get in the neck more that most, there are a number of named characters that die through out the short course of the series. Problem is that as I mentioned most characters aren't sufficiently developed to make you care if they die or not.
while it manages to tick a lot of the boxes to make it a good space opera, very realistic space battles (taking days rather than minutes), space craft (believable space stealth submarine), Machiavellian politics and a long galactic history behind it. This show is obviously part of something greater, longer, deeper and more involved,
It's a shame that so much was cut to fit it into the 13 episodes. And the name was so dull.
