Back to KayaTC's Profile KayaTC's Profile Retired Moderator

Rocket Girls is an exciting departure from the sci-fi depictions of space which many other series tend to favor.


Story:
The plot of Rocket Girls is fairly straight-forward. The Solomon Space Agency finds itself incapable of building a rocket which can transport an adult male into space. What they can build is a smaller tried-and-tested rocket which can get a high school girl into space. After some convincing, our main protagonist Morita Yukari joins the SSA as the first high schooler to become an astronaut.

The series examines some of the foundational principles of space flight in a very entertaining manner. For instance, Morita becomes rather concerned when ... she learns that a new fuel type is being developed for use in the rocket and tends to blow it up rather than push it into space.

Throughout the entirety of the story spaceflight mechanics are closely adhered to. So closely, in fact, that at one point during one of Morita's lectures on orbital mechanics the board is shown with a number of actual equations regarding the Hohmann Transfer maneuver.

There are numerous such instances of 'Did the Research.' The suits used are well understood concepts known to the professional world as Space Activity Suits. The capsule used has a Delta V capacity befitting something of its shape and size. The lifter has an appropriate size and payload capacity.


Art:
The colors and atmosphere of the series are very warm, resulting in a fun show about schoolgirls in space. There are a number of CG elements in the series which are smoothly blended into the animation which add a futuristic, clean touch to the spacecraft shown.


Sound:
I will admit that I do not usually notice the music in a series unless it's 10/10 or unless it's quite jarring. Since I didn't notice the music in this series I can only assume that it's about an 8/10 :)


Characters:
The three main characters are introduced over the course of the first half of the series and, while they don't break ground in character exploration/depth, have believable personalities and mix well with one another.

Morita Yukari is energetic and stubborn. She's argumentative but can be persuaded with some effort. Matsuri, Morita's half-sister, is entirely technologically illiterate at the beginning of the series. She makes up for her lack of knowledge with a cheerful personality and solid moral character. Miura Akane is the resident geek whose emphasis is biology. She's quiet, incapable of strenuous physical labor, and very determined.


Enjoyment:
As someone who is well-versed in the mechanics of spaceflight at the formal level I was flabbergasted by the attention to detail which this series possesses. As such, I had an amazing time watching the show and could not help but grin every time a physical principle was accurately referenced.

It bears mentioning that this series was made in conjunction with JAXA (The Japanese NASA), and it shows.

Even ignoring the technical sophistication of the show, the story and character development is something which I enjoyed thoroughly. It was fun, interesting, and constantly entertaining from the beginning of the first episode to the credits of the last.


Overall:
Put all the previously mentioned items together and one gets a meticulously accurate, highly entertaining show worthy of consideration even by those whose interests do not include spaceflight.

ef - a tale of memories takes a departure from many core themes in anime.

The cast is composed of full characters who each have goals and act in such a way as to achieve them leaving the viewer with the satisfaction that they are watching believable individuals and not the more standard cookie-cutter fair found in most other series.

For this reason a tale of memories is almost entirely character driven, with the average episode revolving around the stories of both the main protagonists while expanding upon the overall story-arc of the series. The story itself is best described as 'true slice-of-life' in that it presents ... the viewer with the day to day lives of two characters placed in unique circumstances. One has just met an amnesic girl and the other is an aspiring mangaka.

This series is not for those expecting the same general story told in a different fashion and is instead meant for viewers looking for an entirely different style of story-telling. It's meticulously written plot and well-rounded characters combine to become a truly unique series for those willing to take a step back from their presumptions on what an anime series should be.