Sol Bianca

This was a pretty good two OVA series. It had a lot of really well-executed points and a good number of flaws, and I'll try to list some of them without spoiling anything. It's strengths are in its rich artwork and worldbuilding, its presciently-executed sci-fi for its time, and the overall badassery. The artwork is pretty phenomenal throughout whenever it's not a character model. If it's a ship, or a robot, or a docking bay, it looks incredible. They go fairly well into their world without overexplaining anything considering the small span of time the series uses. After spending a lot of thepast few years watching new shows whose action sequences always seem a little rehashed, every perspective they used looked fresh and unused when dealing with space combat. The Sci-fi concepts are very well-executed and today might seem pretty par for the course, but at the time were pretty advanced. The main one I saw consistently at play was the idea of people resigning and not continuing to try useless stuff when things were out of their control, something which is something which is realistic to any venture involving a large or widely-skilled crew doing any task, and the only other series I've seen the mentality showcased is Legend of the Galactic Heroes. But while it executes the treatment of the situations well, it doesn't overexplain itself and lets the sci-fi do its job of providing the impossible. Finally, the badassery. The story doesn't really shy away from being a simple action story, but it avoids many cliches. Each character is depicted as strong in their own right, and they aren't ever stuck in cliche situations. Each has a developed personality and for a 90's anime about an all-female space pirate crew, it manages to avoid many of the "Men Writing Women" tropes (although when they do strike it hurts), and mainly ends up being a fairly decent representation of strong women in action roles. While a little OP-ish and plot armory, the characters all represent their own set of awesome skills and the action is fun and often awe-inspiring. The Flaws. The mentionable problems of this anime are the character art, the shallowness of the plot, and the unexpected and pointless nudity. The character art is a juxtaposition with the non-character art in that it's just bad. Granted this is about normal for early 90's anime, but the voices and mouth motions are extremely off-sync, and the scenes with any character motion which aren't full-action scenes are usually very poorly done. But generally speaking I don't think that's a very strong criticism at all; the non-character art and action animations are so mindblowing they more than make up for this. The plot was also not nearly as deep as it needed to be. I suspect there's a lot more written to this world which could have been included if more material had been made, but with the space we had there could have been more done. Again though, this criticism isn't so important due to the fact that it's very good at filling out the role of a simple action series. Not everything HAS to have the kind of metaphorical depth some media carries with it, but this could have worked more with the space it had and didn't, which I think is somewhat of a negative mark. Finally, the random and unnecessary nudity in what could otherwise be a very pro-feminist type series. The first time it happened it seemed just sort of forced and weird, especially juxtaposed with the general lack of ero fanservice in camera angles or plotline. The second time it was just gratuitous and had me really wondering what the hell they were thinking putting it there. Very strong mark against the series. All in all, this is a really enjoyable two OVAs and is a good watch for fun, but nothing mind-blowing on an intellectual level. Watch it for badass space pirates rendered in that beautiful early-90's hand animation.

“Sol Bianca” is a 2-episode sci-fi action OVA that has a cool aesthetic, interesting characters and a plot with a lot of potential, but it unfortunately ends up going nowhere. The episodes feature separate stories that revolve around the all-female pirate crew of the Sol Bianca, a mysterious, massive and seemingly invincible spaceship. In the first episode, due to an unforeseen turn of events during a routine attack on a smuggling vessel, the ladies end up going to a dictator-led planet in search of a legendary treasure, while helping a young boy out in the process. The second episode has them sneak aboard another ship lookingfor an all-powerful mineral called pasha secretly stored somewhere within, but as one would expect, things don’t go that easily. Meanwhile, one of the pirates is revealed to have a strange connection to the Sol Bianca’s computer system, and there is a mysterious man going after them. The story lines in the two episodes are confusing and sloppily put together. The direction is all over the place, so it’s difficult to tell what’s going on at times or even where the characters are. Many key plot elements are left unexplained (i.e., why is X there, why is Y doing that, etc.). In the first episode, the antagonists aren't given any motivations besides that they want to work people to the bone in mines (what are they mining?) and are anti-freedom. The second episode is filled with foreshadowing, a cliffhanger and the introduction of a main antagonist, but there’s no payoff for these since this is the last episode, and there is no original source material. There’s another OVA that came out a few years later, but it’s a prequel. They had planned a sequel to this, apparently, but due to various reasons, it never got made. So we will likely never know what the deal with the bad guy is, or the secrets of the ship and its crew. The five main characters themselves are unique and surprisingly memorable for a 2-episode show. Named after months of the year (which I’m sure is related to some plot point that never got visited), they each have distinct personalities and appearances. Frustratingly, however, they often act like they don’t care about the various life-threatening situations they’re in. Some of them treat the fact that they’re about to get executed as a matter of mild inconvenience, for instance. I guess when you have a super powerful spaceship, there’s never anything to worry about… Which brings me to the spaceship, which has a complex design and an interior that stimulates the imagination. The ladies often hang out in a spacious lounge with large, round, white sofas, trees and even a pool. There’s also a scene where they’re shown lazing around in the wilderness next to a waterfall. The bedroom of one of the characters is also huge, with wide windows. All of these are somehow within the spaceship. We learn a few more interesting facts about the spaceship during the show that contribute to its intrigue, as well. Suffice it to say, I really liked the spaceship and wanted to see more of it. As for other technical aspects, the animation is not bad, although it is a little rough and could use more detail. Character designs are great. Voice acting is okay, but the gray-haired pirate sounds too much like Conan (same voice actor). Some scenes had no background music and really needed it because they felt too quiet in the first episode, but overall the music was acceptable. Similarly, both ending themes were okay, but they didn’t fit the series well and weren’t all that memorable. Regarding objectionable content, there is a lot of violence and killing in both episodes, and some nudity in the second episode. The nudity feels extremely forced to the point of ridiculousness. The reason for the nudity doesn’t make any sense, and it seems like it was just an excuse to get one of the characters topless for a few scenes. Overall, I wanted to like “Sol Bianca” more, because of the great character designs, the fun interactions between the characters and the cool ship. But the story is too messy and incomplete for me to give this a higher rating. I still recommend watching this for the aesthetic atmosphere it exudes, but don’t go in expecting a coherent or conclusive story.

This was a pleasant surprise, in that it kind of hits (or slaps) like 'Outlaw Star' The world building here perhaps takes a back seat in favor of the dynamics of the crew and how they handle various situations. This type of angle can be highly effective. Other loose parallels could be made with things like 'Black Lagoon' or the most obvious 'Cowboy Bebop' The characters are reasonably well defined, and if this was in a longer format, I would expect some interesting back stories/character development. Some people may take issue with the all female crew, but I would suggest that these people have '_other' issues. The artworkon the spacecraft(s) is really quite impressive. The story is far from perfect - the interplanetary conflict needed some love, and the emperor was not interesting at all. I found that these shortfalls did not significantly impact my overall enjoyment of the OVA.

This is another one of those sci-fi b-movie OVAs with an all-girl squad, meaning it basically doubles as a choose-your-waifu simulator (I'm not revealing which one I picked ^_~), seeing as this is the kind of show with an almost all-male audience. Isn't it funny how all-girl shows are usually marketed to females in the west and probably everywhere else, but in Japan, all-girl anime are usually for men? I actually once thought K-On was mostly for girls... silly me... Sol Bianca is following the same kind of episodic formula found in other bad all-girl shows like the similarly mediocre Silent Mobius. I always thoughtthe all-girl squad was a silly trope, seeing as these girls would probably be too busy catfighting or gossiping to lead such an allegedly successful venture. I can buy it when we're talking magical girls, as I'm usually light-headed from all the nosebleeds I get during the transformation sequences, but I'm not as convinced by the more "realistic" series like Sol Bianca and its femdom bloodshed (I'm positive the only people who actively seek out girls with guns and all-girl b-movie shows are men with a femdom fetish who like to have women step on them with high heels). Has anyone ever heard of an all-girl pirate crew? Like how does this kind of thing even form? No boys-allowed girls club leads to highly successful pirate operation, I guess. Of course, their ship is so big, it would probably take a much larger crew to woman it. The character art is nice, the mechanical design is second priority, and the backdrops aren't very noteworthy. There's plenty of decent character acting and effects animation, but nothing particularly exceptional. There's not much to find here other than boring action scenes lacking in tension and thick with plot armor. The music isn't noticeable, and these are some of the most stripped-down bargain bin plots you'll find. No time for character development or anything to generate investment in the world or characters. The story for the first episode is a generic stowaway event after a raid on a ship by our pirate crew, then they help some brat topple an empire. There's a resistance, but they don't do anything. It's a terrible episode that offers nothing of worth after the opening sequence. I will say that this might be the first time I've seen a sci-fi where a sniper on an orbiting space ship is picking people off on the planet below. Far-fetched but cool, I guess. The second one is more entertaining and less predictable, but still pretty standard action/adventure. The focus is on some kind of energy device, and the baddies here can phase through walls with flying suits like you'd see in some crappy Saturday morning cartoon. An overarching plot begins in the second half, but there isn't enough time for it to amount to anything, and the series was left unfinished, thankfully so. This is too generic to bother with when there are so many better shows out there. It's unlikely the later OVA is worth checking out either, and I believe it's an alternate take on the same source material rather than a sequel. This is another canned dog food entry.

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