Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

*A war between overly chatty AI.* I know I have been saying this a lot lately and I have come to believe this personally too. One must endure the "hardship" of anime to ripe its fruit. By this I mean the often boring, below-your-expectation type first few episodes of an anime series. One must remember that if the anime is 24 or so episodes long, taking 4 to 6 episodes to get the necessary background out of the way is reasonable. Dropping the show when it is not even a quarter done is very disrespectful to the series. So with all that said, what does ithave to do with Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo? First of all, everything I have said above applies to this show. It does not have catchy starting episodes and the story seemed to be going nowhere at first. In addition, there is a great big WTF episode shortly after the story seem to get going (seriously…that was the greatest WTF episode I have ever encounter from a series, but it was still entertaining). But all in all, the utterly absurd idea of space colonies actually having “hand-to-hand” combat is enough for anyone to give this a try, or at least watch the WTF filler episode (personal recommendation; no background is necessary though you will have to discover the exact episode yourself). The show is not built around pure absurdity; there is in fact a heavy metaphor in this show. The show depicts modern day teenagers (and young adults) as human trapped in “boxes” (literally). There is everything one will ever need in the box, thus allowing everyone to be comfortable just by staying inside. This is analogues to how an ever increasing portion of the younger population are now satisfied by simply sitting in front of their computer or gaming console all day without the urge of going outside or having “physical” interactions with friends. The show has a good message behind it, unfortunately it is a bit ironic that the more successful they become, the more people will be glued to the TV screen or monitor. The crew responsible for this series is the same people who did the Mai series a few years back (Mai HiME, Mai-Otome, the OVAs, etc). So it should come as no surprise that some story elements may sound familiar and that some characters may exhibit similar characteristics in terms of their personality traits. The story does indeed sound a bit generic with three girls saving mankind from destruction. However, given the setting is in a futuristic space environment with self-realizing AI controlling space colonies, many fun and amazing events can happen. Animation-wise, Sunrise is trying to give the viewers some clean new looks. While it may look awkward at first, the animation is quite easy to get used to, and the unique character looks and potato-shaped robots are pleasant to look at. The colonies design varies dramatically. Some look like a fearsome battle fortress, while others look like a fish with a long waggy tail. But other than these unusual looking characters and colonies, the production value is solid, and the animation quality is consistent throughout the series. In terms of the music in this series, let’s just say it is average. The first OP was bad, unless you are an ALI Project fan, I doubt you’ll enjoy it much. Noting too spectacular for the first ED either (a bit to kiddy if you ask me). Perhaps due to how poorly made the first OP and ED was, the second OP and ED seemed exceptionally well made. The difference between them can truly be described as night and day. Much to my surprise, some of the sound effects (especially during battles) are recycled from the Gundam SEED series. Putting the music aside, the seiyu in Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is nothing but big names. Some of these talented seiyu include: Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch from Code Geass, Watanuki from xxxHOLIC), Ami Koshimizu (Horo from Spice and Wolf), Mai Nakahara (Nagisa from Clannad), Rie Tanaka (Lacus from Gundam SEED), Akira Ishida (Athrun from Gundam SEED), just to name a few. There are many occasions from Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo and its spin off manga series that will remind us of Code Geass, one of the most successful series that Sunrise recently produced. While the parallelism may not be obvious to some at first (beside the undeniable evil Lelouch/Leopard’s laugh), it was hilarious to see Leopard stated that if he is a human he would look like Lelouch. Check it out here. http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc354/KaminaKun/lelopard.jpg It is from the official manga, not a fanart, although there are plenty of cute looking GIF with a Lelouch/Leopard mix all over the net right now.