Anime: Soukyuu no Fafner

Aliens attack and teenagers board giant robots to stop them. Yeeeeah, not exactly the most interesting of premises. It builds around that eventually to make it feel far more interesting and emotional (teen angst, alien revelations, deaths, etc.) but it never manages to be great. Something expected with any show that is animated by Xebec, a notorious studio for its unimpressive shows, and not Sunrise, the king of mecha anime. And it was also directed by Habara Nobuyoshi, who makes only shows with impressive premises but otherwise very dull plots (DNAngel, Broken Blade).

Fafner can be roughly described as a combination of a Neon Genesis story with Gundam SEED characters. It is also the downfall of the show if you even make that comparison, since it can barely stand next to those colossi without fainting from fear. It doesn’t have their high production values, their engrossing storylines, or their memorable characters. Even if it can stand on its own as an individual work of fiction, it just doesn’t have the juice to back it up. It is not a bad show; it mostly suffers from a really boring and unexciting first half. The second half is much more entertaining because of the various character breakdowns and deaths (trademark of Gundam) and the revelation of the nature of the alien invasion (which is done in a similar method as Neon Genesis).

The thing with it is that it heavily depends on character tragedy. It only becomes interesting when somebody dies or starts getting all emotional and not when the aliens are tough to beat or some strategy is needed to fend them off. Although this can be enterpeted as a show that focuses on character drama rather the poser robot action, at the same time I doubt most people will even remember its story or characters. The reason is simple to figure out; it doesn’t focus on the characters but rather their drama. Just the opening video alone is preparing you for that; it is showing you nothing but slice of life moments and some robots shooting. But does it feel like it’s about the characters in that opening? No, they are just there to fill the backgrounds that are the idyllic sceneries and the cockpits of the robots.
“Characters? What characters? Oh, right, those things that talk… I was too busy crying over their tragedy to pay attension to them.”

The production values are ok; if you see past the obvious Gundam SEED blueprint. The mecha action is nice and the slice of life moments are well done but never super awesome or eye watery. I’m not very fond of the CGI used on the glowing aliens but then again it did make them look unearthly, so no worries. The main opening song is simply WONDERFUL and the rest in BGM and voice acting don’t have any hiccups in them. What I ended up disliking the most is the generic looks of the characters, which make them hard to remember (aside from being SEED clones). And surely, it is very hard to portrait drama over a bunch of teenagers piloting robots and fighting aliens if to the most part they are acting like everyday nobodies. It just fades away from memory if they seem so unimportant for you to remember. Nobody is charismatic enough to care about that much after awhile and those scenes of yelling and crying end up being more ridiculius than emotional.

Some may love its slow development into an epic battle of survival and teenage angst but most will be alienated by blunt characters and a story which feels like it’s 90% about events you already have seen elsewhere or are not that great to remember. Down to it, the whole show is just too slow and dull, with uninteresting cast and overblown teen angst that borders idiocy. It may be an ok time killer but surely not something worth remembering or suggesting to others.

SUGGESTION LIST
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Gundam SEED
Rahxephon

Note: This review is based on Blitz fansubs, which are good for the most part. Recommended. Also, this review applies to both Fafner TV series and its OVA.



Sokyuu no Fafner, originally written as a light novel by Ubakata Tow (Le Chevalier D'Eon, Chaos Legion) and directed by Habara Nobuyushi (Negima!, Shaman King) is a show with great potential and interesting premise plagued by poor execution and horrible character development. Basically, humanity is as good as extinct, since vicious aliens came here to earth and destroyed our civilization. Only very few resistance factions, still fighting the aliens remain on earth, though their defeat is only a matter of time, as the numbers aliens are seemingly limitless. Our cast, on the other hand, pretty much betrayed their human siblings, found themselves a cool secluded island, masked it, and tried to live their lives as if nothing happened. As you can imagine, nothing good came out of it and after awhile they have also joined the war, using their secret weapon - "Fafners". Huge mechas, which, of course, can only be piloted by teenage boys and girls (as always).

While the background of the show seems interesting: the world is under attack by unknown entities who seem to only seek knowledge of humanity through war, the brilliance of the plot kicks only much later in the show. Up until then you are forced to watch many of this show's lame characters and their fake reactions to the sudden changes of their peaceful environment. Anyway, if you can live through the first half, (there were quite a few occasions I nearly fell asleep) you will probably enjoy the second one. As once the details of Festum, humanity's enemy, are revealed, everything kind of starts to emit a new, much more important and even philosophical glow. Though I must admit there are some things about Festum I don't understand even after finishing the show, though it might be possible that I simply slept through the possible explanations in the first, totally boring half.

Animation: 6/10

I must say that Hirai Hisashi's (Gundam Seed, Infinite Ryvius) character designs, though very similar, pale in comparison to his other works. And I don't mean the technical side - just like their personalities their looks are simply unmemorable (why no clones of Lacus Clyne? T_T). Even now I don't remember most of their faces. Backgrounds are quite bland, they didn't catch my attention in any way. They don't look bad, they just look, well, ordinary. No picturesque stuff, no cool 3D graphics, just the stuff you, pretty much, see on any average anime these days. Animation fluidity is plausible for the most part, characters do look realistic when they walk, though I wish they had made those mecha fights more exciting. Oh yeah, and don't expect anything from the direction, as they show you only the stuff which simply happens without bothering with any extra subtleties. Boring.

Sound: 5/10

The opening song Shangri-La by angela is a good theme, just like it's name. Unfortunately, though it's a good mood setter, the lame pacing of the show screws the mood after five or so minutes anyway. Separation, also by angela, is, again, a pretty good song. Good mood for ending the show, it's too bad I was always so sleepy when I finally would get the chance to listen to it. Anyway, that angela is pretty good, I guess I'll keep my eyes on that group.

...What I can't say about the compositions of Saito Tsuneyoshi (Dennou Coil, Kaze no Yojimbo) who yet again produces some of the most boring music themes I have heard in anime. Music had all the potential in the world to keep me awake, even when those boring episodes at the beginning where doing their paint drying exercises, but only to the contrary, those lullabies made me even more sleepy. Think they would learn what a good music is when the Gundam Seed is out and everything.

Voice-acting leaves much to be desired as well, and it's obvious, as the majority of the cast are rookies. Ishii Makoto, who voices the main character Kazuki, only got a few roles in Tears to Tiara and True Tears. While the main heroine Maya Toomi is voiced by Matsumoto Marika, who also, has only two or three roles under the belt. Though her voice as Miwako in Paradise Kiss was pretty good and did suit the character better than it does in this show.

Story: 6/10

While weighed down by this show's lame characters, story still remains interesting and at times exciting. Though still poorly executed. It had much more potential than it managed to use. Well, at least there are no fillers.

Characters: 3/10

Fake reactions, followed by incomprehensible actions. First it seems like the character doesn't really have a problem, or even cares about piloting huge robots to fight vicious, all-killing enemies of earth, later he suddenly runs away shouting something like "I don't want to kill anymore". Those out of the blue, "what the hell?" reactions are very common in Fafner.

Actually the characters in Sokyuu no Fafner are so bland, I had trouble remembering who they really are, especially the main guy, who ironically gets almost no attention in the beginning of the show. Frankly I didn't know a thing about him except for that he is supposed to be the main character. Oh yeah, and that he is an ace at piloting mechas, but you already knew that, didn't you? I don't know much about him now either, even after finishing the show. All other characters either follow "who is this guy, again? characteristics or are fake enough to make anyone sneer in disbelief.

During one of my slumbers in the first half it suddenly came to me how did those lame characters were created. It felt as if the people responsible for characters in Sokyuu no Fafner had seen characters in Gundam Seed and thought of stealing their characteristics, without really grasping any of the essentials. Ending in awkward developments, without any real, visible motives. Seriously, if I hadn't seen some other of the mecha show's before, there would have been no way for me to understand most of the actions some characters partook.

Myers Briggs personality type indicator[/u]:

Tomi Maya - ESFJ (F)
Makabe Kazuki - ISFJ (F)
Minashiro Soshi - ISTJ (E)
Memphis Canon - ISTJ (F)
Minashiro Tsubaki - INFJ (E)
20 or so other characters I can't remember - (F)

I can't believe I couldn't remember even a single name of either of characters without looking in the web...

Show Spoiler

Value: 4/10

Though the second half does have some interesting ideas, the boring first scares me away from re-watching this show ever again.

1. Conclusion: If you have enough patience for somewhat slow shows and you can ignore horrible character development - then give Sokyuu no Fafner a shot, which is rated for 13+ years old audience. While I doubt it will become one of your favourites, at least its got some interesting stuff to show in the end. Though I'd still rather recommend watching great mecha shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Seed or Infinite Ryvius while ignoring Fafner altogether.

If you can get past the first tedious 8 episodes, you're in for a solid show.

The biggest problem with this show is that it takes ages to kick off. It isn't that the first half of the show is bad, it's just taking a long time. That's what made me grit my teeth for a long time, but after the story gets into its active part, it rushes forth like a loose herd of buffalos, showing no mercy to watchers who want their anime paced. While rushing your story is usually a bad thing, this show manages to stay on the rails instead of getting derailed as so many other shows – which means you're in for a hell of a ride.

Animation: Pretty good in 2008 … especially when considering it was made in 2004.

Having seen the show in 2008, while the show was produced in 2004, it is hard not to get your hopes up too much. You're used to see the sublime quality from 2008, so the animation is easily disappointing.

Fortunately, Soukyuu no Fafner managed to keep at least a good quality, even when compared to an average anime in 2008. The motions are fluid, the facial designs are pretty good and the mecha quality is good too. I'm not a fan of mecha anime, so I cannot comment about the mecha designs, or details – they just looked good in my eyes. Sure, there were some situations where the animation shows its flaws, like in some facial emotions, or backgrounds which seem a little rushed, but generally, it holds up pretty well.

Sound: Remarkable enough to point out several aspects.

OP/ED
Both songs are sung by Angela and to be honest, there haven't been many songs from her I disliked so far. At least not the ones selected as songs for an anime. Still, these songs sound good – upbeat song for the OP and usually upbeat for the ED. Usually? Exactly. Which brings me to the flexibility of the ED-song.
They integrated the song well into the show, to maintain the flow of atmosphere; when a particular episode has a sad content, they also go for a ballad-version of the song, rather than the regular upbeat version. It's only a little detail, but it offers so much more to the atmosphere of the show, that it is worth mentioning.

Voice acting
The voice acting is good, although there are a few characters who sometimes skip a note, or have a not-so-convincing yell when they are hurt. It is hardly a problem though, as there are plenty of other characters in the show, which are doing a good job. But with so many characters in this show, it is remarkable how almost all of them are doing a solid job. Not to mention that they all have a proper voice for their personality, which means the casting has been done well.

Music is the last aspect in the section. It is often executed by the Warshaw Philharmonic Orchestra, which explains the extraordinary BGM at times. I can't say I have listened to the OST by itself, but when the BGM is done by a worldwide known orchestra, then there's got to be some good music inbetween. It shows at least in the show that the music kicks in at all proper places and never feels out of place, like with a wrong type of music for the particular situation.

Story: Suffers from the starting up process. But with a mid-section so captivating, not many equal it.

Where shows like Mugen no Ryvius need a 4-5 episodes to kick off properly, Soukyuu no Fafner pulls ahead and needs 8-10 episodes before it gets interesting enough to keep watching.

Soukyuu no Fafner suffers from the fact it has too many characters, has a too complex plot and still needs to fill so many episodes before they can get to the point where they can focus on what they really want to tell. It means the first few episodes are tedious, annoying and sometimes plain boring, simply because they cannot show you the real story – yet.

They decide to focus on the characters, to show them how they are, what their personalities are and how the world is how they see it. There are so many characters and so much history that it takes a long time until they have finally shown all the characters and have shown enough of their personalities to make sure that you notice the development they will undergo in the series. But in most series there are only teenagers, which have a limited set of memories. In this show, we also have a set of adults, all with their own history and memories – which is remarkably more than the teenagers. And in order to develop them, also their history has to be revealed along the way. Which is probably the biggest reason for the starting-up phase to take so damn long.

The biggest problem here is that the ‘starting-up phase’ isn't all that bad, but it drags and drags and it takes ages to get somewhere. While we as watcher can see where it goes eventually, it still takes them 5-6 episodes to get there by itself. But once the ‘boom’ has taken place, the writers can focus on what they want to tell and the story kicks off majorly.
And when I say majorly, I mean majorly.

All of a sudden, the character personalities have much more impact than they used to, the action becomes actually interesting and the plot manages to become attractive. It surges, with a couple of short, calm phases in order to surge once more. There is a lot of pace all of a sudden in the series and it applies it well.
Only a few shows manage to have a mid-section which is so solid and captivating as this show.

The end of the series displays some cracks because of that solid pace, but it never breaks or shows even any serious flaws. And while it feels like the pace have been upped a few notches, it results in a little less realism and a lot more spectacle. Great for a finish, but bad for the story itself, which now all of a sudden feels a bit … rushed. Nevertheless, 99% of all anime have a problem with the finish, so it would be unfair to point this out as a major flaw, especially since this show at least gives you a hell of a finish to watch, which is much more than most shows give you.

Characters: Whiny adolescents becomes solid personalities.

It is known that war changes one's personality often. Perhaps that's why all of the characters start off as whiny kids, who are mostly annoying in the first part of the show. Only when they are getting involved in the war going on, these kids are growing with huge steps and despite them being insecure adolescents, they become humans.

Some people compared this show to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Although I think it's pretty farfetched, it does have similarities in terms of character development and parts of the plot itself. While NGE tries to throw its characters in every direction, this show contains too many characters to do so. Instead, they try to give them a good development, rather than extreme development, which works really well. It makes most characters solid, much more than what one would expect from a show with 30 characters – all with a particular role in the plot. In that light, the show might have much more in common with Mugen no Ryvius instead, where the focus lies much more on the characters rather than the plot.
It helps a lot that – after the first tedious moments – all development is rock solid. Actions, decisions and emotions are all realistic and that is the show's strength. While you often see characters who make odd decisions, these ones don't – as you've already learned their personalities over the tedious start and this builds on what kind of person they are and how they can be influenced by what happens.

If you think that the plot would be playing 2nd string, I can assure you that it isn't so. If I had to give any balance, I'd say characters – plot would get around 65% – 35%, as there is plenty of plot around to move the characters around as pieces on a chess board.

Value & Enjoyment: Gritting your teeth does get you somewhere.

Like I said, I found myself gritting my teeth in order to sit through the tedious explanations of personal history, experiences and the lack of action – due to the secrecy on the island. It's part of the story, but that still means the anime becomes boring because of it.
But while that is hard to sit through, the rest of the show is well worth watching. A recommendation, if you're not afraid of having to deal with whiny kids as protagonists, until they mature and bring you a good mecha with plenty of story and character development.

This will be my first review and I feel this is a good series to start with.
Bear with my, because English is not my native language, so pardon me for any errors in spelling.

I have watched anime for about 6 yers now, I like everything, but I have my favourite genres.
I went to Japan for about a year in 2003, trying to get to know the people and the country a little better, it changed my life and my perspectice on anime and the bussines as a whole.

Now, on to the review, I will try and make it short and usefull for you.

This series is a real rollercoster ride, it has it's ups and downs, like most other series, but this one can be hard to follow if you don't watch the episode closely togheter (i don^t understand how they could air this at a wekly basis) and you also need to pay close attention to the story.

It's a series dealing with emotional things, yet it has a "childis" approach to certain things, and some times it can be hard to realy appriciate the seriousness of the show. The animation ranges from very neutifull to downright uggly, or maybe sloppy, yes, sloppy is a better word for it.

I have read that all the staff went in to this one with much emotion and that at the ending of the series they felt drained of power and emotion. They went all the way for this one, and as I said, it shows, from time to time.

I think you will feel good about this one if you stick with it to the finish line, if you watch alot of other shows you may feel tempted to drop this one in the middle, but don't, give it a shot, you will feel pleased and be rewarded at the end. Not good, nor bad, this one stands on it's own two feets, but at the same time fails to deliver everything you want, i am divided by this.

First time i saw this series, i only thought of evangelion combined with gundam seed characters. i never liked evangelion due to their characters' severe emo problems. so i gave fafner a try hoping it would be different. some of it was similar to eva's story like main character's father being the head of the military. i never got to think of the story because the tv stations in Japan aired every ep like every other week ~_~. that time i didnt pay much attention to the storyline and character development.

i decided to watch it for the 2nd time after all the eps came out subbed without any delays of waiting to air. this time i paid full attention. after around ep 6, i got hooked. first major character already died in ep 6, it gave me a huge shock. then i got more into it at ep 15. thats when the major character development begins. around ep 20-24, so many people suffer from pain and dies. now thats the way my mecha series should be. ep 25, now this is one of the best final eps i've seen in any animes by far. 1 hour with nice action and finishing up the story.

i loved most of the characters in this series. they arent annoying as evangelion and dont have severe psychological problems. unlike eva, the characters stay developed. in eva, shinji, a wimp at first, developed a bit but stayed as a coward in the end. talk about some development there. like eva, the story uses ancient myths. so it may get complicated at times but soon it makes perfect sense. i had a hard time following the storyline of eva that watched it almost 3 times to get it. fafner's story has an easier story to follow. and of course the music ownz. both the OST and op/ed gives a perfect mood in each setting. the mecha designs are unique, different but cool and futuristic at the same time. as for the animation, its smooth and fluent like water. I think the strong points of fafner is the character development, at times its emotional enough to make u teary.

The good: music, lovable characters, the ending, and the story

The bad: starts off kinda slow, characters looks too alike from gundam seed, art sometimes go ups and downs, eva fans will probably look down on fafner

kazuki looks like the cross version of kira and asuran from gundam seed =P

Ok, the show starts out of nowhere which is quite retarded. there is no explanations or character developments until mid-half way through the series. sure it's better to have it then not but you need it in the beginning, otherwise viewers will be turned off by it (in the case of fafner, they were. that's why so few from the anime community have bothered watching it).

anyway. the animation blows. there are shadow marks under every person's eyes at all times which is annoying, like the nose lines in wolf's rain...that shit pissed me off. if you're gonna bother doing something do it right ffs. i'd say the only aspect animators focused on were fafner (the main mecha) and the backup mecha units. the festum (enemies) also look like crap.

the only thing this show had going for it other than the spin-off story of rahxephon was the sound. simply put, it was enjoyable at almost every moment (action scenes, sad/happy scenes etc.) only good thing worth mentioning.

story - been there done that. nothing real original, not much effort put into it. if you really enjoyed rahxephon and really wish there was another show of its genre, this is for you. go watch it. otherwise steer clear of it...hell, take the earliest exit while you're at it.

i already mentioned how shitty character development was so i'll keep this short; it was shitty.

as you have no doubt already guessed there was no value in it for me.

likewise with enjoyment...