Anime Soukyuu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor

[Dagger]

Five episodes in, and people are already calling this series a RahXephon knock-off... oddly enough, because pretty much the only thing they have in common (other than certain elements found throughout the Eva-Rah-Gasaraki genre) is the fact that both anime take place on an island.

So far Dead Aggressor has followed a pretty typical "boy meets mecha" plot, with some love triangles and mystical-sounding German thrown in for good measure. The character designs are by Hisashi Hirai (Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Gundam SEED), and as a result they look [i]really[/i] familiar. He's only made one deviation from his regular style, which is the addition of Saikano-esque blush lines to almost every character's face. That having been said, I think the cast of this series generally appears less stiff and plastic than, say, the cast of Gundam SEED.

The animation is solid, and the OP theme is hideously addictive. While Dead Aggressor doesn't have any glaring flaws, it also hasn't done much to distinguish itself. I can't even say I feel fond of many of the characters--Soushi and Maya are alright. Kazuki seems a bit bland, and Shouko is way too fixated on him to be interesting. I like the show (perhaps mainly because I just love the genre, and there isn't anything horribly wrong with Dead Aggressor's execution). However, I'd be very interesting in finding out what other people think of it.

~Dagger~

[Hittokiri Zero]

Before posting in this thread I just wanted to watch the fourth episode of Soukyuu no Fafner so I could give a valid opinion. The short story = I like it. While I have not seen RahXephon and have only read what the plot is about I can see where people draw the similarities between the two series, sure you could compare Fafner to EVA but I honestly think (atleast so far) that's a bit of a stretch.

Fafner is really an interesting anime in my opinion; there aren't many animes that I've seen that I can honestly say I don't fully understand Fafner is exactly one of those animes where even after four episodes i'm still trying to tie all the threads that have been thrown at us together and am still trying to figure out the rational behind each specefic character. I guess the beauty of Fafner is that so many ambiguous characters and references to people, places, etc. are brought up in such a way that rather than feeling lost a strong sense of curiosity is aroused and the series really has you wondering what is going to happen next, and why certain characters make the decesions they make. I'm really eager to see how Soukyuu no Fafner progresses the animation and soundtrack are great and the plot while generic in some ways more than makes up for itself in constantly keeping you thinking and wondering [i]why?[/i] and [i]what?[/i].

[Dagger]

This show has some of the best music I've heard in a while. For example, the piano theme which played during the last part of episode 6 basically salvaged what was otherwise a pretty mediocre scene.

Shouko had a great chance to redeem herself and become an interesting, sympathetic character. In my opinion, the scriptwriters totally botched it. [spoiler]First of all, episode 6 had way too much screaming; that sort of thing is only effective when used sparingly (fortunately, most of Fafner's seiyuus are very good). Secondly, she should have thought about people other than Kazuki five minutes before her ******* [i]death[/i]. I mean, come on.

I was extremely relieved when she spared a moment to reflect on her incredibly devoted mother--but what about Maya? What about the girl probably cared more for her and did more to help her out than Kazuki ever would? Shouko's infatuation with Kazuki irked me. To make it more realistic and appealing, they should have had her inner monologue or whatever dwell first on Maya and her other friends, then on her mother, then gone straight to her final line about keeping the promise.[/spoiler]

The dialogue in the scene right before the credits was really quite well-written, and the transition to the ED song was simply perfect. I also liked finding out that Soushi isn't totally cold-hearted, particularly considering his behavior during episode 5. Well, either that or he's even more frighteningly manipulative and devious than I had previously suspected. ^_^;;

Maya is a great character; I hope she'll take the spotlight now that [spoiler]Shouko is out of the way.[/spoiler]

To be fair, this episode had me on the edge of my seat even if I hated the way certain situations were handled. The background music was, as I mentioned before, absolutely top-notch, and the animation seemed to kick up a bit as well.

~Dagger~

[[SKY KEEPER]]

@ Dagger IX1: I think that song is "Proof". It came with the Separation single.

I find SNF very addictive. Just the first episode makes me want to download more and more, following the story. The dialogues are nice overall, especially before each ED, which I believe is Soushi's voice. The characters in it are very well created. They're not just these emotionless animated drawings of people. They all have emotions and personalities. They're fun to analyze, specially Soushi, whom I like enough to make the avatar of. ^^

The background music are very well played, not very surprising because the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra are the ones playing. One of the things I love SNF is because it has a world-famous orchestra playing it's BGM's and Angela singing the OP and ED.

BTW, the OST is out and avaliable in BT if you search for it.

[Dagger]

Thanks for the information, [SKY KEEPER]. For a while I really wanted to have a Soushi avatar, haha, but I couldn't find any decent Fafner-related scans. So I just threw together something featuring Kazuki instead--actually, that's the last avi I used before making my current one. In any case, I very much like yours. ^_^

I've fallen incredibly far behind in terms of watching Soukyuu no Fafner; right now I'm still scrambling to keep abreast with anime like Monster, so it might be a little while before I can catch up. But for whatever it's worth, I recall thinking that Soukyuu no Fafner had gotten exponentially better with every installment. By episode 11 I was completely convinced that this show could come to stand among the most revered mecha series of recent years (it's definitely the best post-RahXephon mecha anime, that's for sure).

~Dagger~

[[SKY KEEPER]]

Do you still want a Shoshi avatar? I can find you some good pictures if you want.

I hope you'll catch up soon. It's getting more intense every passing episode. ^o^

[Dagger]

Heheh, thanks, but I think I'll stick with Nana-chan for a while. ;)

It's taken me much longer than it should have (Sailor Moon kept getting in the way, haha), but I just finished episode 16. So I'm not [i]too[/i] far behind now, thank goodness.

I feel sort of sorry for Maya--despite being the most obvious female lead and/or love interest for both of the main male characters, she scarcely gets any screentime. Besides, it seems like Soushi and Kazuki are way too wrapped up in each other's angst to bother with any [strike]other[/strike] romantic entanglements. :sweat:

More seriously, I thought the part when [spoiler]Kazuki's eyes turned red[/spoiler] was the coolest moment of the show so far. Also, I was both surprised and pleased with the growing emphasis on "conversation," which has been nicely underscored by the fact that some of the most pivotal scenes are... well, conversations.

For example, I very much liked [spoiler]the exchange between Soushi and Kazuki which took place right before the aforementioned red-eye/merge thing. That did more to explain (rather, justify) Soushi's personality than the previous fifteen episodes combined, and pulled it off in a believable manner. Soushi's impassive facade finally cracking had a huge impact because he was so consistently distant and cold before.[/spoiler]

Kazuki's confrontation with [spoiler]a vision of Soushi's younger self[/spoiler] was appropriately creepy. It reminded me of a scene from one of the later episodes of Elfen Lied: little Lucy being mentally tormented by [spoiler]her inner psychopath, shown as a child with a bandaged face and only one visible eye.[/spoiler]

My Norse mythology is pretty rusty, but watching Soukyuu no Fafner makes me want to go look up all of those familiar-sounding terms. Soon shows in this genre are going to run out of mythological canons to exploit...

~Dagger~