Directed
by: Takeshi Mori
Produced
by: GONZO
Robots and harems: that’s what Vandread is all about and it has no false pretences either. The “girls and gears” premise is played to the max throughout the first volume, [Episodes 1-3] giving the viewer a nice indication of what’s to follow. The basic story is this, both the sexes were divided and both are at war with one another. In order to fend off the feminine menace man has built giant robots called Vanguards. While trying to steal a Vanguard Hibiki [a mechanic] is captured and locked up, then the prison ship is attacked, proceeding the attack he gets chased around by Dita [a girl] for a few minutes and finally he gets sucked into a giant green hole with Dita and the rest of the invading band of women.
Visually, Vandread is resplendent with good-looking backgrounds and humorous character designs as well as some fancy 3d effects throughout. The CG is particularly notable in the combat sections lending the show a certain level of fluidity and flair. The general grace and smoothness of combat is also aided by the mechanical designs – sleek looking ships and retro mech design help Vandread to achieve an odd air of nostalgia that beckons the viewer back to Macross or Mazinger Z.
Aurally, the show does not disappoint either the initially disjointed sounding opening theme soon becomes quite catchy and the voice acting is very funny.
It is also good to see a harem style anime that does not resort to “hentai” jokes and the like to gain laughs [at least for a little while.] This is not to say that the humour is highbrow, there’s still the obligatory “hand on breast” gag. Also it is worth noting that the girls are still put in fan service positions and made to look sexual. This grates with me, after seeing Evangelion and witnessing countless fan service, I don’t want to have to do it again and I’m sure you don’t either. Speaking of Eva there’s also hints to a Shinji-esque searching for oneself plot line in the first volume. However, it remains to be seen if the director will take this plotline to the catastrophic heights of Evangelion. Hopefully he won’t but then again, you never can be too sure with anime.
To fault this volume there are signs that the characters could become very annoying, and very predictable, very quickly due to their clichéd nature. Already the girls are showing distinct stereotypes – the smart one, the brash one, the ditsy one etc. Also the animation can appear to be jerky at times when characters are running or performing other actions.
In
drawing this review to a close I would like to say this.
See Vandread: Volume 1it’s an impressive opening to what will
hopefully be an impressive series. The
designs are nice, the action flows well and the gags are well executed.
To sum it up in one word: distinguished.
6
out of 10