Wandering thoughts in a Beautiful World.

Here’s another animation from the period i consider the Renaissance of animation that i really find nostalgic. When i first saw it, the show was being aired on AXN’s animania timeslot from 5.30-8pm( sadly now turned into primetime tv for shows like alias etc. T_T). This as one of the first sci-fi animations i watched at the time, other than Sol Bianca and Vandread, to name a few.

The story is set in the 20th and 31st century, where four young ladies are selected to participate in a arena style version of space combat between two factions, piloting several space warships to decide on different issues, such as planetary control or resources.  Using a time machine made by the team’s mechanic and technical advisor, they travel between their time and the 31st century. As they progress through the series, the four girls experience victory, defeat and realise the importance of their relationships with each other.

The art of the animation itself is quite good, considering the period it was made in, and the character design and plotline was certainly uniform to the period, where animations started to become more focused on relationships while retaining the old victory/defeat episodes. As the series progresses, the plot transitions between the two, giving it a feel of the sports/competition genre as well. 

Nevertheless, it is still a space-adventure series, and it doesn;t disappoint with several different designs for the space warships. A fine example would be the warships used by the main characters, which are named the TA , or Super series. The warship’s are also named reflecting each character’s main strength, such as Yohko’s TA-29 Super Strike(Firepower and Accuracy) Momiji’s TA-23 Super Storm (Intense weapons fire), Ayano’s TA-27 Super Struggle (Grappling/throwing techniques from her martial art training), and Madoka’s TA-25 Super Sprint (Speed/Brute force.)

Here’s a bunch of screenshots of one of the main characters, Ayano Elizabeth Hakuhouin’s  Hakuhouin Power Attack, using the TA-27 Super Struggle.

So far i’ve decided that i’d get this series first, since i want to complete collecting all the old stuff i watched, and i’m getting it off the fansubs( here’s a rasberry to some silly company out there.) Ah, how i wish i could finish it quicker, still have a bunch of old series to grab…. T_T it’s neverending.