Vandread

In Vandread, men are from Mars and women are from Venus! Well, not quite. Technology has allowed mankind to colonize the entire Milky Way galaxy, and in one star system, the men and women live on two different planets, Taraak and Mejere. A bitter and very literal gender war rages, to the point where they don't even see each other as the sames species anymore!

Hibiki Tokai, a male third-class laborer from Taraak, ends up stuck on a battleship after a botched attempt at stealing a robot. When female pirates capture the Taraakian Vanguard, things don't look like they could get any worse for Hibiki. Unfortunately, they do; when the male crew of the Vanguard fire on their captured vessel out of desperation, they created a giant wormhole, which sucks the Vanguard and the Mejeran pirate's ships into itself! Now, stuck far away from their home planets, these men and women must learn to work together if they ever wish to make it back home.

Liebely, Dita Main

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Tokai, Hibiki Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Gisborn, Meia Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Elden, Jura Basil Main

Asakawa, Yuu Japanese

Orangello, Barnette Supporting

Neya, Michiko Japanese

Rheingau, Gascogne Supporting

Asano, Mayumi Japanese

Pyoro Supporting

Iwata, Mitsuo Japanese

McFile, Duelo Supporting

Tasaka, Hideki Japanese

Balblair, Parfet Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Calessa, Buzam A. Supporting

Soumi, Youko Japanese

Nagata, Katsuharu Producer

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Mori, Takeshi Director

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Jul 21, 2007

jet2r0cks

Recommended

While there is a lot of ecchi embedded in the plot (usual panty flashes, touching, talking about reproductive organs) there is something to the story of Vandread. I like the idea of men and women not getting along together, then throughout the series they learn to work with each other and win their battles. There’s also the theme of making a difference to prove you’ve existed, which is Hibiki’s goal throughout the series.

Now that I mentioned battles, I’m really not good when it comes to mecha battles. Intergalactic wars tend to either confuse or bore me, but because of the CG I was a bit ... captivated. The battle scenes did look a bit busy, I wasn’t sure on what was happening all the time. The technical dialogue kind of made it worse, but compared to other mecha series I’ve watched, Vandread wasn’t so bad. I did watch it more than twice.

One of the reasons why I like Vandread is the cast of characters. I was impressed that everyone was able to get a good amount of screen time, even for the supporting characters such as Ezra and Paiway. That’s always difficult to accomplish, especially for an anime with so many characters. Also, Hibiki and Dita probably makes up one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever seen in anime. I think it’s because of their innocence.

Like I said, the CG was quite good. It blended with the hand drawn scenes very well and it wasn’t overwhelming. The color coordination was really good too – there was a myriad of colors that made the visuals of Vandread even more stunning. I have to note that the drawing styles would waver a bit, like for example, the characters’ designs have noticeably changed from the first episode to the second episode. At the middle of the series, I have noticed that the art became more consistent though.

The voice acting was actually good, but I prefer it if Tomokazu Seki was Hibiki instead of Bart. I’m not saying Hiroyuki Yoshino did a terrible job of playing Hibiki, but Tomokazu Seki is one of my favorite seiyuus. I also noticed that a lot of the major voice actors in Vandread also worked on Eureka 7 – another mecha anime I like.

The music was very poppy and upbeat, and it fit the theme of Vandread really well. Both tracks are very contemporary and they both show different aspects of the anime. I like the opening “trust” by Salia as well as “Himegoto” by SiLC. The BGM was equally impressive – I always like it when there are plenty of BGM tracks so that the mood and feel of a certain scene are heightened and conveyed at its best.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not really a huge mecha fan. Vandread, however, is different because it’s got a lot to offer. Whether you’re into comedic anime, a mecha addict, a harem anime enthusiast, or just an ecchi fan, Vandread’s for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 20, 2018

WaifuLoser

Mixed Feelings

Vandread to me is the cover poster of the mediocre early 2000's animation period, the shift between the charming 90's animation to the similar looking but very bland art style that dominated the period. Vandread while not terrible, unfortunately will succumb to being an anime that in the future most people will have no desire to watch.

The biggest issue with Vandread is the fact that it was one of the earliest animes to adopt the use of CGI, to quickly state, I myself do not find Anime CGI to be ever pleasant, to me it looks absolutely awful, even modern shows ... that use CGI leave alot to be desired in the quality department. The CGI in Vandread was already atrocious looking even back when it was released, with the ships looking like they came out of a poorly rendered PS1 FMV, with aliasing issues galore. The CGI clashes with the mostly alright albeit uninspired regular animation. The reason I am making a deal out of this, because while older animation can become outdated, they have a certain level of charm and style that allows them to transcend the bounds of being considered unattractive. Vandread does not, it looks like an outdated tech demo from the early 1990's, this will not bode well for its future watch ability.

The story itself is the typical anime cliches and plot lines that have been infesting anime since the 1980's, the only difference being the premise, the premise here is pretty unique and at least gives the show some original identity in the sea of uninteresting anime from its time period. The plot itself is a rather straightforward affair that has been seen numerous times, to me its fine, it for the most part hits all the notes needed for a coherent story and character development without ever really being excellent at it. Simply put, its an anime with the same average plot but set in a more unique and rather absurd premise, it is up to you to decide if that premise is enough to be interesting to you.

Sound was alright, I didn't personally think very highly of any of the music used in the series. The openings and endings were okay. Overall Vandread is an average show marred by an adaptation of a technology that was too early for them to use, even now they have yet to produce anything decent with it half the time, let alone back when Vandread was made.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 13, 2010

randomvoice

Not Recommended

Vandread is a poor excuse for an anime.

I think the least an anime series should do is have some reason for existing. Vandread doesn't. It doesn't try to be an intelligent sci-fi series; it doesn't try to be a heartwarming, iyashikei slice-of-life one; it's even too weak to be considered a harem romance anime. All you get with Vandread is episode after episode of pointlessness.

(And if you're wondering, I only watched it because it was being screened at an anime society. Oh, hours of my life that I'll never get back.)

Story [2/10]
The men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus premise, while cheesy, could have gone somewhere. In theory. In practice it ... was an excuse to have a harem-style setup in space.

There are unexciting space battles which exist so viewers can giggle about the innuendo involved in combining mechs. There are episodes of ~wacky hijinks~ that just turn out tedious.

Art [6/10]
The art in Vandread, while not hideous, does suffer from character design inconsistency and an obviously low budget - in some cases it's so bad that attempts at fanservice fall pathetically flat.

The use of CGI is also jarring, but I'll be kind and chalk that up to the year of production.

Sound [6/10]
I don't remember anything about the use of sound, but since this was a series without much tension or drama, that seems fair enough. It had pretty good opening and ending songs, though. The voice-acting was serviceable, but again, this is not the type of series which requires the expression of deep emotions.

Character [3/10]
What character? I think that one of the characters (the Ayanami Rei stock type) got a character development arc, and even that was woefully predictable. The rest of the characters were basically stock types (bubbly airheaded girl, comic relief dude) without believable motivations (if any).

Enjoyment [2/10]
Tedious, mind-numbingly stupid, and not even visually engaging enough to make up for that. If you're watching this for the fanservice (and come on, why else would you waste your time on this), then maybe you'd enjoy it more.

I heard that the Vandread: The Second Stage season is much better, in that it actually has some character development and perhaps a plot. It's just a pity the first season had to exist.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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