Vandread

Vandread, directed by Takeshi Mori, is an anime that attempts to combine elements of action, romance, comedy, and the occasional piece of Star Trek-ish technobabble, and is achieved with a certain degree of skill. Vandread presents a mix of cleanly rendered CG-combat, well-animated characters in the BESM style, comedy ranging from slapstick to subtle humor, and characters and action sequences that aim to be both memorable and entertaining.

Summary

Universe

The setup for this anime is fairly implausible (although it is later explained), but in this universe where men and women are completely segregated (on completely different planets, at that!), the gender wars are more than just a metaphor. Hibiki Tokai, a 3rd class laboror, takes up a bet to steal a high-tech humanoid robot, known as a Vanguard, from the male attack force about to fight the 'evil females.' Caught onboard when it takes off, the ship is rapidly attacked and all males evacuated, with the exception of Hibiki, Duero McFile (Ship's doctor and total badass ), and Bart Garsus (Designed as an unfortunate and pathetic character who doesn't really mature until the 2nd season, when he becomes genuinely likable. Oh, Bart is also the only one who can pilot the Nirvana). Stuck onboard the damaged warship with female pirates all around, things seem to have his an all time low until the retreating males fire a rather large torpedo at the ship to prevent it from falling into women's hands. The core of the ship, a mysterious crystalline entity, protects itself by eradicating the missile and fusing the large warship with the female craft, making a quirky ship with very smooth lines, a host of technical problems, which episodes are often aimed at solving, and various hidden capabilites that become apparent in later episodes. Three guys on a ship full of girls, might seem like a great setup for a hentai, but it's not that simple.

In this alternate, futuristic universe. Men and women consider each other to be completely separate species (Hibiki gains the nickname 'Mr. Alien' from Dita, one of the many female leads), and the three put up with much abuse at the hands of their female captors, but gradually make their presence accepted: Hibiki as a primo fighter, Duero as a skilled doctor AND engineer, and Bart as the ship's navigator.

The story of the season is the trip to the female homeworld, and along the way the crew encounters strange, robotic creatures that are both enigmatic and rather borg-like, though they do not communicate at all. The subsequent battles provide the action sequences for the first two seasons, with the setup for a third season being quite clear.

Characters

Dita is one of the female leads that is romantically involved with hibiki. From the start, she refers to him as 'Mr alien', while Hibiki refers to her as 'UFO Girl'. Di-ta has a bubbly lively personality that usually shows in almost every espect of life, even when she is fighting (at first, refers to the enemy as 'bad aliens'). she admits to having feelings for Hibiki since she met him (love in first sight?). she has red hair that grows almost all the way to the floor (approximatly below the knee). When her dread unites with hibiki's vanguard, they become a new mecha that access to powerful lazer weaponary. Although Hibiki never admits to liking her until the end of the second season, when he finally calls her by her name. It is apparent that he feels something for her. She loves cooking for Hibiki, she feels happy and fufilled to see hibiki eat (some housewife syndrome?).

Meia at first has the behavior of an Amazon, she hates men and is disgusted whenever hibiki saves her. She dislikes hibiki at first, but she steadily gets a crush on him, although she has never admited it. she is incapable of smiling, (only does so once during the second season) suffers from Claustrophobia and has a traumatic past. she commandes the other dreads in battle is usually called 'leader' or 'chief' by others. When her dread unites with hibiki's vanguard, they become this vandread that resembles an eagle. it's main weaponary is speed, it just cuts through the interior of the enemy ships. It is consider the most elegant vanguard in the series.

Jura is the secondary leader of the dread fighting force. although she is quite bad at leading. She has long bonde hair that she takes cares of almost religiously. Extremely vain and in the first few episodes keeps trying to unite with hibiki's vandguard. she carries a sword around, but like her commanding, has very little skill with it. Is the lover of Barnette, another dread pilot (both are women, so is considered a lesbian). she is shocked at the look of her vandread when she first unites with Hibiki (it was said to resemble a crab). The vandread she and Hibiki pilot has the ability to use shielding systems to shield entire planets from attack.

External links

• VANDREAD