December 31st, 2005
Okay, my summary of this one-off OVA, a prequel to the Soukyuu no Fafner TV series of 2004, will have to go in an extended entry - it assumes you’ve watched the TV series beforehand, and I don’t want to spoil anyone who’s not yet seen the whole thing (for example, those buying the DVDs) for anything that happens.
In some ways I’m a little surprised that Fafner got an OVA; it was crying out for one (I wasn’t expecting a prequel, but a sequel would be lovely!), but I really didn’t think it was particularly popular. I guess it really must have done a lot better in Japan than it did in the West on the digisub circuit, as Right of Left is really top-notch stuff; you would never believe this was the same Xebec that produced Negima, Erementar Gerad and Mar this year. Production values are top-notch (the background art! Oh my GOD the background art!) and the writing is excellent (as much as I understood of it) - as usual for Fafner, it’s total melodrama and incredibly depressing, but very enjoyable all the same. I’m a little surprised at how well done this is, given that the Fafner TV series seems quite a long time ago given the fast-paced world of anime; I’d forgotten just how effective it could be. I don’t really have any complaints about Right of Left at all, except that I still want to see that sequel OVA get made some day! They even got some nice homages in to the original series; specifically a good old Soushi hair flip. Ah, the good old days of Soushi blow-drying his hair, Soushi being nervous when Kazuki looks round his room, Soushi being horribly prissy all the time… And even though we get narration throughout this episode, we thankfully have no return to the whole “umbrella of smiles” debacle of the first few episodes of Fafner, bless its heart.
So, a vague synopsis. There’s quite a lot of exact details I don’t think I got, and I don’t plan on going through the episode again to check; apologies for any inaccuracies, but at 50 minutes it’s a bit long for me to sit through with the dictionary, plus I’d be miserable at the end of it again and I don’t feel like doing that to myself too much! I’ve missed out a lot of character moments, which is where Fafner shines really; even in such a short space of time the writing manages to build up some convincing relationships and emotions here, which is pretty good going really!
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January 27th, 2005
I feel this deserves a full synopsis really, which’ll go in the extended entry for spoilers, but as such I’ll just give brief thoughts on Fafner as a whole.
Soukyuu no Fafner was probably the best mecha series of last year, although admittedly it didn’t have a lot of competition. Although it wallowed in melodrama, I think that’s why I liked it - let’s face it, if you’re fighting golden glowing aliens and everything/one you know is rather rapidly going down the pan, I’d probably be screaming and whimpering a lot myself. Some of the writing was a little clunky, with all the “Are you there?” stuff, and I’m pretty sure the series was supposed to go one way and then didn’t (what happened with that whole radio thing we had “foreshadowing” for in episode 1?), although that certainly worked to the show’s advantage as we lost the dreadful Soushi monologues and so on.
Anyway, there were a lot of things to like about Fafner. The animation was generally very good throughout, with decently used CG and smooth 2D, the music was suitably overblown (and the OP and ED were angela’s usual goodness), and the characters were eventually almost all well developed enough for me to care about what happened to them (which was almost invariably something horrible). I’m definitely looking to pick Fafner up on DVD whenever it gets licensed, and I hope that, despite the general lack of enthusiasm Fafner seems to have picked up among the fansub community, my inane ramblings about it might spur more people to give it a try.
Anyway, on with the spoiler-tastic synopsis!
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January 27th, 2005
While Alvis deals with the aftermath of the last episode, the weather conditions continue to behave oddly. The island receives a visit from none other than Akane, who reveals to Tsubaki and Fumihiko some vital information about the Festum and the Mir at the North Pole, thus giving the remaining Fafner pilots the knowledge they need to make one final strike against the Festum to attempt to rescue Soushi and save the world.
You know, I don’t think I really understand what the Mir are supposed to be, so I spent a lot of time furrowing my brow at the screen attempting to understand what Akane and Tsubaki were talking about. But there were cool glowing monsters and stuff as well, so all’s well that ends well - and hopefully, Fafner will do so with a double episode special. The fairly exposition-heavy second half of the episode suggests that the writers didn’t really have time to fit everything in, but to be honest it didn’t really detract from anything that much. On to the final episode!
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January 27th, 2005
The UN attempts to create their own Nothung model, but the experiment goes horribly wrong. Meanwhile, on Tatsumiya, Kazuki and Tsubaki work together to attempt to help Soushi, but the fallout of the UN’s experiment means that their efforts are doomed to failure, and the lives of all those at Alvis are in danger.
What a horrible episode - horrible in a good way, but I actually felt almost physically sick after the UN experiment (although being ill at the moment probably had something to do with it). I’d already worked out the main thrust of this episode from the preview, but still… ugh. Xebec certainly have a way of making an impact on the audience. I hope the end of the series isn’t quite as depressing (although Fafner hasn’t exactly been a bundle of laughs!).
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January 27th, 2005
The evolving nature of the Festum attacks troubles the Alvis team, and alongside the events of last episode things are looking bleak. Canon makes an important decision to try and help, but the latest Festum has a new attack method which they are unprepared for…
Well, as we get closer to the end the setbacks for Alvis seem to increase, but we’re not really getting any closer to a resolution - I assume we’re killing time until the North Pole mission alluded to back in episode 18 or so.
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