Listen up guys and gals ! We always wondered who would be the Grinch in the next review but it never was intended for EVERYBODY to be a Grinch ! xD
ANN even calls it very good (Vandread 1 : 7.445/10 - 2277 votes and Vandread 2 : 7.481/10 - 1845 votes)
MAL is almost the same (Vandread 1 : 7.44/10 -20397 votes and Vandread 2 : 7.63/10 - 15858 votes)
So it can’t be all THAT bad (facepalm)
To balance all those Grinches, here’s The Santa Claws review of Vandread
First of all, let me tell you what Vandread isn’t :
Ecchi : hardly – the fan-service is moderate, no panty-shots at all and the boob-grope in the first episode wasn’t the cliché in 2000 that it is now. ANN doesn’t even mention ‘ecchi’ or ‘fan-service’ in the description. The fan-service is pretty much limited to the cleavages of some of the ‘better endowed’ crew members.
Harem : not at all – there are 4 love interests going on :
Dita and Hibiki, who of course is too baka to get it until the very last. Only Misty becomes an interloper but only for a short while. (Dita and Hibiki get married and have a baby in the ‘Vandread Extra Stage’ light novel.)
Parfet and the Doctor Duero who get along like a house on fire
The sub-captain B.C. and the pilot Bart whose unrequited love was doomed to failure from the word go for a reason that becomes clear at the end of the series
Jura and Barnette, the only Mejere type couple on board (that we know of)
Mecha : yes and no – the Vanguards are mechas indeed but the Dreads are fighter craft much like the jet fighters launched from aircraft carriers. Only the Dita+Hibiki Vandread and the Super Vandread look like the mechas we know.
What Vandread IS : pretty good science fiction touching on astrophysics, sociology/psychology, naval tactics, etc.
The Paksis Pragma : an energy entity from a different universe/dimension that somehow got divided (mitosis ?) into the blue living core of the old colony ship and the red core of the World Destroyer end-of-level baddy. When its existence is threatened by the torpedo fired at the pirates’ ship in the first episode, the Paksis creates a wormhole to the other side of the Galaxy to escape and transmogrifies the old colony ship and the pirates’ vessel into the Nirvana. They have to fight their way back to the home planets to warn them about the Harvest. (See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager)
The Terrans : a theme that has been used in other SciFi novels (see ‘The marching Morons’ by C.M. Kornbluth). The bright, brave, extravert and adventurous leave Earth on colony ships while the xenophobic, timid (and paranoid) stay behind. They managed to pollute the Earth so badly they have to live on orbital rings. They have become weak and poisoned and decide to harvest the colony worlds for ‘spare parts’ to keep alive, preferably forever.
The Harvest Fleet : artificial intelligence with learning capability and self-replicating robots. Only the World Destroyer is under command of an Earth human and powered by the ‘bad’ Paksis corrupted by the Terrans.
Segregation of men and women : also used in several SciFi novels. Mejere and Taraak were colonized by one colony ship; most colonists are still in cryo-sleep. The original colony leaders decided to clone the sleeping colonists and split them up in men on one planet and women on the other. From then on, while the men had to rely on in vitro cloning for the next generation, the women could use the much easier gene-splicing and natural births. That way, those clones would be harvested by Terra and the worlds could be resettled afterwards with the passengers still in cryo-sleep. This is a pretty brutal solution in my opinion. Hibiki turns out to be an original colonist (child of Grand Pa and Grand Ma) who was awakened by accident.
These are the most important themes; there are some smaller ones too, like
Igniting a gas giant and turning it in a proto-star : that sure took care of a bunch of enemies.
Re-armament and re-supplying during action : this is a new idea as far as I know. Ms. Gascoigne and her supply craft supported by the ‘stage hands’ can keep the Dreads and Vandreads up and running without them having to return to the Nirvana.
Vandread, to me, is a fun series with the right combination of adventure and humor, quirky but lovable characters and a good SciFi plot. The character progression of the main protagonists is well done (Hibiki needing a lot more time than the others but then he’s the proverbial baka). The battle CG is very good (no Lego blocks like in a series I refuse to even mention :D), the overall animation was state-of-the-art in 2000. (No problem if you love vintage series).
The score of 7.5/10 on average on ANN and MAL is fair. My personal appreciation is somewhat higher : 8.5/10.
If you like Science Fiction, Vandread is a very good watch.
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