Yep, it’s that time again. Behold yet another DVD cover image. Because I’m much to lazy to figure out how to make screencaps, much less actually take the screencaps. And I’d probably finally have to install DVD player software on this computer. What do you think I’m made of, free time?
…all right. So I do write and anime blog and write fanfiction. So by definition I do have too much free time.
Anyway, on with the cover image, the cut, and then… an unordered list of my thoughts!
- Holy shit! It is Space Lesbian Disease. Well, okay, I’m sure that they don’t actually care about the gender of the victims, and it just happens that the orbital stations are staffed entirely by young, attractive women, but still… Space Lesbian Disease. Sheesh.
- Which reminds me… shouldn’t the obvious clue about the footage from the orbital stations being faked have been that the spokesperson after the “interruption” was male? I know they haven’t explicitly said that the station was female only, but we’ve seen lots and lots of shots of large groups of the crew and they were all female…
- I’m curious as to the initial vector of infection, though. The activity surrounding fallen comets suggests that it might be exposure to fragments of the comet, but then one would expect Space Lesbian Disease to first show up in areas where a comet strike occurred, not out in space where the people are separated from the comet by hard vacuum. I suppose it could be some sort of energy rays from the comet…
- Couldn’t the (presumed) aliens just design the comets to fragment in the upper atmosphere and disperse their payload that way, though?
- My friend suggests that Karin was first infected in the briefly flashed-backed-to apparent space accident, and that SEELE… err, the shadowy conspiracy placed her in the Meteor Sweepers knowing this for some nefarious purpose.
- That wouldn’t surprise me, but I hope not. It doesn’t much match the sudden change in Karin, and there’s been nothing so far that even hints at there being a possibility of the existence of any remotely sane reason for anyone to want to sabotage the Comet Blasters/Meteor Sweepers. (A conspiracy covering up the existence of aliens and Space Lesbian Disease, though, I could totally buy.)
- While it was telegraphed fairly obviously from at least the second DVD on, I am still somewhat surprised at the whole conspiracy/aliens angle. I wouldn’t have expected it from Steven Den Beste’s description of it as a sports anime at the core.
- You’ll note that all my commentary is pretty much on the last episode. While there were some amusing bits, the first two episodes on the DVD just generally felt kind of wasted, particularly given that this is a thirteen episode series. It would have been nice if they’d worked in a Shizuha or Ayamo-focused episode by now.
- It also probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea to have a more Karin-focused episode before she fell pray to Space Lesbian Disease, so that we’d see more of a contrast.
- I also could have sworn that Mikaze’s sister was one of the Comet Blasters, but it seems not. Huh.
- Despite this DVD containing the hot springs episode, the amount of fanservice seemed to drop from last time. I only caught one panty shot (in yet another reminder of why , anime to the contrary, skirts would probably not be uniform wear in a low-gravity environment.
- This list seems fairly negative glancing back up at it, but I did enjoy the DVD. Maybe I should change the tagline from “Yet Another Pointless Anime Blog” to “A Whiny Anime Blog.” Then I can whine about how I talk too much about what I don’t like again!
- Wait, I just did. Quick, something positive… umm… the scenes with the infected crew of the orbital stations were nicely creepy.
- I’m kind of curious how this is going to wrap up in three more episodes. Then again, there are 10 OAV episodes following it, it seems. Doesn’t seem any but the first two are licensed, though.
I think that’s enough for now.
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I don’t quite understand what you mean by showing Karin before the infection. She was about 7 year old at the time. The infection coincided with a terrible catastrophy, and she was the only survivor. Don’t you think that everyone perhaps ascirbed her change to the shock? Also, since she was autistic to begin with, it’s hard to say just what the change were in her case. It’s hard to see her frolicing about the station before the impact…
I do not quite remember, but IIRC Karin started snacking at some point. If so, that probably was only because the infection was overpowering her, like in case of AIDS’ victims. It wasn’t an indication of new infection, although probably the need to destroy aliens shook her and affected her (unusual) resistance.
Did you see the part where midi-chlorians in her compel Karin to infect Mikaze? I’m not sure on what DVD it is. I thought it was great. Karin is really something.
And one other small note… The reason why the men in sunshades decided to let Karin to fly Meteor Sweepers never seemed persuasive to me. What am I saying, “let”, they completely set her up. Karin is the only student who can’t fly an airplane! From what I know about the way the guvmint operates, they should have packed her into a single cell in a special facility. Imagine the risks of letting her run unchecked (which almost came about when Karin was shocked by action). And governments are risk-averse. Well, it’s only an anime…
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I don’t quite understand what you mean by showing Karin before the infection. She was about 7 year old at the time. The infection coincided with a terrible catastrophy, and she was the only survivor. Don’t you think that everyone perhaps ascirbed her change to the shock?
I was working under the assumption that the infection happened during her blackout at the end of the first DVD, since otherwise that event seems rather pointless (and mostly ignored). Also, if Karin was infected way back then, and the shadowy conspiracy knows about it, it makes no sense for her to be in the Meteor Sweepers.
In any case, you can replace “before infection” with “before the infection really started to dominate her and make her behave unnaturally.”
Did you see the part where midi-chlorians in her compel Karin to infect Mikaze? I’m not sure on what DVD it is. I thought it was great. Karin is really something.That was on this DVD, yes.
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I thought about explaining that the infection happened on contact, but considered the spoiler too severe. It’s a flimsy show, you have to enjoy every little bit, including the element of surprise. Now you know it all, what is left is for the good guys to triumph. My only regret at this point is that Tsubasa hasn’t got a bigger role.
Stratos 4 Advance is reportedly garbage, mostly the X Files stuff.
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Aaron, they’ve got more surprises in store for you, and you’re going to get more of both Shizuha and Ayamo before it’s all over. (No focus episode, though.)
And the 4 Otaku show up again in episode 10 — and IMHO get the best scene in the series. You’ll love it!
It isn’t quite “Space Lesbian” disease; it works equally well on both men and women, and it doesn’t change their sexual behavior. As to Karin, her presence at that base is explained acceptably well — which is to say, about as well as anything is in this series, given the basically flimsiness of the story concept.
Once you’ve watched the ending, you’ll understand why I call it a sports drama. I stand by that characterization.
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I’m rewatching the last DVD now, and actually the 4 Otaku get their great scene in the 12th episode. (I gotta learn to count.)
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Aaron, they’ve got more surprises in store for you, and you’re going to get more of both Shizuha and Ayamo before it’s all over. (No focus episode, though.)
And the 4 Otaku show up again in episode 10 — and IMHO get the best scene in the series. You’ll love it!
I’ll look forward to it. :)
Once you’ve watched the ending, you’ll understand why I call it a sports drama. I stand by that characterization.
We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish this off this weekend.
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I watched the ending and I do not understand why the sports drama. That’s probably because I never saw a single sports drama (except this one), not even Tennisno Ojisama or such. I foresee googling in my future.
I’m pretty sure that “Space Lesbian Disease” was a joke, regarding how it was framed.
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