Ginga Hyouryuu Vifam

This is a quick review to let people know that this anime is terribly underrated. Not a lot of people have watched it so I guess it’s only recently been subbed. But I seriously recommend it. For a 1983 mecha, it features the best animation and characterization of the genre for years to come. In that decade, the flowing animation and clear character designs were rivaled only by OVA's and movies. I kept googling it and double-checking just to see if I wasn’t watching a 90’s/00’s remake by accident. You’ll watch this and wonder how Macross (slightly earlier) and Zeta Gundam (two years later) managedto look so unappealing. More so considering this is apparently also Tomino’s brainchild, though he didn’t seem to be involved in production. The premise doesn’t sound that original at first. A group of kids are stuck on a spaceship, somehow managing to survive constant alien attacks. The spaceship getting hounded by aliens thing has been around since Space Battleship Yamato, but the new thing is that the main group of characters are really just teenagers and mostly very small children. Suddenly your parental instinct kicks in and the stakes are alot higher. They wouldn't kill off a 6 year old main character right? Right...??? The other new thing is that it works. It’s light hearted, fun but exciting and suspenseful, very consistenly so, for 46 episodes. If you like the first couple of episodes, you’ll like all of them. Even my favorite genre series so far had boring filler episodes or flaws that stuck out like a flamingo at a funeral. At the very least it wins the prize for least flawed mecha series of the early 80’s.

Being an obscure title from the 80s, I didn't have high hopes for this series, however, I found myself pleasantly surprised. Story In the future, Humanity has reached out into space and colonised two other planets. The story begins on the most recently colonised planet, as it falls under attack by alien forces. The civilian population proceeds to evactuate and amidst the chaos of battle, the training ship Janus takes flight across the galaxy. It's crew number just over a dozen, most of whom are children. Essentially, this is a story about 13 children, their travels across the galaxy, and the effect they have on the war. It'sa fairly light-hearted tale, watching the characters learning to cope in space, and learning to defend themselves, while they grow together as a group. There is a fair helping of humour in the way the characters go about there task, but the series is generally a serious one. The scenario is also well crafted, with lots of little details as to how and why. I didn't really notice any loose threads. The series weighs in at a hefty 46 episodes, but there's plenty of story to tell, and it keeps going at a fairly nice pace. Character From the worried leader, to the excitable-military-nut, to the laid-back-jokester, the characters are solid, if perhaps a little simple, with a good variety of personalities. Art For an 80s anime, the art is well done. The characters have lots of personality, and the battles are decent, with little noticable re-use of clips. Sound No complaints. The characters seem well-voiced. Hearing the little ones ask when they'll meet their parents will likely tug at a few people's heartstrings. Overall In short, it's a good series that doesn't really deserve to be overlooked as much as it seems to be. Sure, being from the 80s, the art is a bit dated, and scenes are paced a bit slower, but it's still a well-made series. I'll recommend this to people who like sci-fi, and think the characters should be more important than the mecha. PS. It probably deserves an 8, but my bias against 80s anime says only 7 :P

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