Sôkô no Strain

As something of a fan of mecha anime, I have long planned to watch this series but only recently found the opportunity. Though quite brief, only a dozen or so episodes, Soukou manages to present some nifty implications of time dilation as well as some strange concepts (like Emily and her people). Unfortunately, its short length leaves little time to explain the setting in detail and by the end many questions remain unanswered. We never learn much of anything about the Union and the Deague, for example, and many of the technologies and ideas introduced get little explanation. Some of the comedic antics also hinder the show at times, as they seem rather out of place in such a grave situation.

Up until a few days ago I'd never even heard of this anime, but came across it while looking at which shows can be watched legally on line at Funimation's site. When I started to watch the first episode I quickly thought that I wasn't going to bother finishing but by the end of that episode I was enjoying it and after a couple more I was gripped and enjoyed every subsequent instalment. As this is the first write-up for this series I'll try to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum.

The film opens with Sara Werec saying good bye to her brother Ralph who is going off to fight in a long running civil war. As one might expect he is the greatest pilot in the Union and she is inspired to follow his lead and become a mecha pilot as well. While she is in training her school is attacked by the enemy and she is devastated to learn that it was her brother leading the attack. She then joins another training academy under the name Sara Cruz. Here she is a loner who is bullied by the other cadets, as the episodes progress she manages to make friends however. Over the course of the series there are more battles to be fought; both against her brother and the enemy forces and more personal battles against those colleagues who dislike her.

After the disappointing opening the action is fairly gripping and I found myself wanting to watch the next episode as soon as the previous one had finished. The animation was in a cute style but looked good and the many space battles were all done in an exciting way. While a few of the characters were perhaps a little over the top they were fun. Not all of the characters survive till the end of the series, including one or two who I was sure would make it leading to a greater sense of danger whenever they went into battle as the viewer knows there is a chance that a favourite character might not make it out alive. Some viewers might not like the fact that there is some fan service, including a few scenes in the showers and a rather embarrassing moment when one of the girls finds herself naked in the corridor. If you like anime with plenty of action I'd give this ago, the fact that it is only thirteen episodes long and can be watched legally on line means one can watch it all in a day or two with a clear conscience. That said if it gets a UK DVD release at a decent price I'll consider adding it to my collection.

These comments were based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles, for people who prefer to watch anime in English there is also a dubbed version available on the Funimation site.

The problems: needless gratuitous naked girl shower scenes and, particularly, needlessly gratuitous lesbian unrequited love situation. The ending is somewhat abrupt (failing to indicate the outcome of the major enemy offensive).

The good: good action, fairly excellent storyline (except for the whole lesbian soap-opera thing), excellent combat animation throughout most of the series.

Overall: this is an action scifi with manned space combat robots ("gunden") - much better than any similar I have seen. The robots are graceful. The plot is intelligent. I liked that the problems of time dilation is near light speed travel are taken into account.

I rate this a 7 because it definitely should be watched - but doesn't need to be watched more than once.