(13 episodes)
What’s it about ?
The future, where everybody is genetically engineered to be AWESOME. A special team of elite agents has been assembled to get rid of a mysterious gigantic ring object that appeared near the moon years ago (it’s kinda in the way), but the mission quickly goes south when (1) terrorists blow up most of the recon team and (2) the ring itself fires a giant beam at our heroes’ space station.
Characters
Mika, our protagonist. She’s got something of an inferiority complex (everyone else on the mission is much more AWESOME than her, why was she chosen to participate ?). Although everything’s relative, given the kick-ass fight/greeting she has with her old friend (and straight-woman) Sofia.
Mir is the leader of the recon mission, and she’ll never let you forget she’s the most AWESOME person on the mission. She’s already got a groupie. Her reputation’s not undeserved, though, as she manages to survive both an assassination attempt by half of her recon team (infiltrated by terrorists) and the ensuing point-blank explosion.
It has to be mentioned that most of the cast (and Earth’s population, apparently) are female. Males are viewed as “dangerous”, and under constant surveillance by dedicated monitors. The mission has three of them : the Captain, who’s smarmy enough to warrant the monitoring ; Amagiwa, who apparently has some history with Mika (his role on the mission’s not clear yet) ; and…
Mario, the backup Captain, who hangs around with his sister Tiki. Which is puzzling, given that it’s specifically pointed out that siblings are not supposed to happen in this brave new world. (Points off to the show for claiming they have the same DNA. Urgh.)
Production Values
Well, it’s certainly got some budget. Good use of CG graphics for the space station and the ring. Overall, this looks quite sharp. The cheesecake factor is quite high, but very tolerable (it’s mercifully sparse on ass shots).
The score is very heavy on guitar solos, which quickly becomes quite annoying.
Overall impression
Disclaimer : I watched half of this first episode 6 years ago, before giving up at the inane figh/greeting scene. Let’s just say that I approached this again with some apprehension.
But actually, it’s much better than I remembered. A lot less fanservicey than I recall, and there seems to be an actually decent plot. It’s certainly a well-put-together show.
Do I want to watch more of it ? Let’s not get carried away. The characters range from inoffensive to bloody annoying, the gender politics look more like an excuse to have women kicking ass instead of a genuine exploration of the issues, and the exposition is beyond clunky. The next-episode-preview makes it sound like it’s heading into giant-robot territory, not a direction I care for. And finally, I don’t think I can bear those frigging guitar solos any longer.
