Comments on: Thoughts On: Stratos 4 DVD 3

By: Pete Zaitcev

Pete Zaitcev — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 05:25:00 +0000

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.

By: Aaron Nowack

Aaron Nowack — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:12:32 +0000

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.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:59:29 +0000

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.)

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:45:19 +0000

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.

By: Pete Zaitcev

Pete Zaitcev — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:28:00 +0000

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.

By: Aaron Nowack

Aaron Nowack — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:33:30 +0000

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.

By: Pete Zaitcev

Pete Zaitcev — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:13:44 +0000

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…