Reviews for Soukyuu no Fafner: Right of Left (7.77)

Astonishing... I would have never watched this OVA if I had not seen the series already but surprisingly this was much better then the actual series itself. In fact you do not need any prior knowledge of the series to watch this. Although the series wasn't bad at all it did lack in many places and sort of died off near the end. On the otherhand this sort story was very refreshing and informing of previous events before the series. Basically this sort story takes place rite before the series. The main plot is that the island sends off a small crew of fafners with pilots to try to divert the attention of the festums "evil golden creature things".

Animation
The animation was very well done, but usually ovas and movies have better animation so no surprise here. All the mechs and battles flowed well and were suspenseful. You also never find any repeat frames in all the battles or distorted/out of place backgrounds. The character designs are also consistent and more realistic then most animes. Although I have always found that Fafner characters look a bit like gundam seed characters which isn't a bad thing just a bit weird. The scenes themselves were well planned out. Every background fit the exact emotions and moments you found your characters in. A more cliched example would be when the lead female returns home to find all the flowers have lost there petals and.... you can guess what happened. Not only are the backgrounds fitting but they use a vast variety of them to keep the viewer interested.

Sound
The sound wasn't bad at all most of the things fit. The actual music didn't really stand out but the character voices were good. It all sounded like it should have.

Story
The story was one of the strongest parts of this OVA. Throughout the whole story you could feel the tension arising from each situation. Although the first half started off fairly peaceful they did a good job hinting at upcoming events. I particularily liked how they had a good number of plot twists. Not only was the main plot important but the love interest played a very important role and further improved the plot. Even though the entire ova wasn't very long it felt almost like a full length film.

Characters
Some of the main characters in the first series appeared in this one as well. They did not play a big role though, this story was mainly based on two characters Yumi and Kyo. They spend a great deal of time developing both characters making both of them very lovable and real. Throughout the series you learn more and more of there individual situations and also the one around them. The gradual but perfect pacing leads to a dramatic and rather unexpected ending!! Since soo much time was spent on the main characters some of the minor characters were lacking. Although in this case it helped the OVA more then it took away from it. If anymore time was spent on other characters most of the important moments would have been lost.

Value and Enjoyment
It was a very good watch and I definitely enjoyed it. After watching it I kinda wished the series was just as good... Oh well. Many lessons could be learned from this ova that include the general mentality of people in a hopeless situation. Unfortunately if anyone were to watch the series most of the value is lost with the ending and all the events within the series. This is a great quick watch for any who love a good ova, it is also a must watch for those who enjoyed or disliked the series but still like mechs. Definitely geared more to mecha/romance fans.

Animation :

Animation was very well done, but here I was thinking that the ova will be talking about what happened after the series. To think that it feature what happens before the series, this is my first time encountering it.

The scenes of battles are enthralling, the same goes for the machines. Background-wise, it seems to me that it piece in very well with the situation. Story line is well planned and it flows well with the climax when needed to be.

Sound

The sound is not bad, I would say and hence I give a value of 8. Basically certain songs like Marine snow, the scene where the female lead was crystallised and disappear, so on and forth, the song makes it well. Brings a sadness to it.

As for the songs used in the battling, certain parts didn't flow quite well. If you listen hard enough, it's a bit weird where it is clearly that a part is cut in the original song itself. Overall, it did not affects the ova badly.

Story

The story was the part that make this ova worth-while; about the same thing as stated by eltimsy. You could feel the apprehension and climaxs from the different kinds of situation they have.

The first1/3 of the ova shows what are the events that is going to happen, and you will be able to get it as they mentioned it quite well. Initially I though that it is going to be a battle of the mechs and the enemies. But there are plots of love story between the main characters added into the story that makes the overall ova to be so much good

Character

Character design in the ova are consistent but I would say that appearance wise, there's a bit of simialarity here and there. Even so, their characters differ from each individuals. The main characters are quite well-developed, and I feel that their appearance fits in very well with the characteristics they have, more matured than the characters in the series, I say

Value + Enjoyment

I really enjoyed it very much till to the very end. The show is very heartening and sad, but it did not spoilt the story at all. In conclusion, I can just say that it is an Excellent show to watch, whether it is before or after watching the series.

Hmmm... where to begin. I normally don't write reviews, but seeing as the current review posted is completely opposite my thoughts, I feel I need to write one.

We'll start at the beginning. Animation. The animation is fine. Nothing great. Fairly simple. Very recognizable characteristics and styles that you will probably remember from other anime. This is probably the best thing this series has going for it, which isn't' saying much. Moving on.

Sound. The sound was fine. Yet again, nothing spectacular, but then again, sound doesn't need to be spectacular. The vocals in the songs were pretty good and worked well with the scenes they were in. Yet again, this is one of the finer aspects of the anime, even though there wasn't much of an OST going on throughout the anime.

Ok.. we start the downhill trek. The story was just plain awful. And the worst part about it was trying to understand it. I just didn't understand what was going on half the time! Something about the left part of the island breaking off... and fafner is some kind of robot... and they have 60 days to accomplish something that I just plain don't understand. Not enough explanation about pretty much everything in the anime. This was the worst part.

Finally, the characters. First of all, there really is hardly any substantial character growth. Which, realistically speaking, is fairly understandable for an OVA. It's short right? Theres just not enough time to delve into each character. I wasn't sad at all when any of the characters died. No attachment at all. You dont' have enough time to get attached, and the time you do have just makes them irritate you, mostly because you don't know anything about them!

In conclusion, I'm about to start the Fafner series, and I hope it's better. I watched this first because it was listed as a prequel, but I didn't look at the dates. This apparently came out after the series, so perhaps I should have watched it first. Regardless, it is one of the few items I've ever rated a 5/6.