Series Recommendation: Vandread
“Men and women aren’t enemies. We’re supposed to understand each other.”
An action-filled romcom that takes place in the vast space, Vandread is a story about a society divided. For some obscure reasons, men and women are forced to live separately on different colonies, destined to never come into contact with each other. Until the day Hibiki Tokai, our teenage hormone-filled male, decided to steal a Vanguard – a mecha used for the gender war. He then got caught in an attack by female pirates and was forced to journey with them when they all got thrown through a wormhole and had to look for a way back home, together. Luckily, our female protag, Dita, is a genki-type that can care less about the gender-wall and began to take an interest in our Hibiki. The female pirates also possess Dreads, space fighters that somehow can “fuse” with Hibiki’s Vanguard to create Vandread
+ PLOT: A very interesting setting to come out in the year 2000, it really depicts several aspect of human society (especially gender, duh). Being a space opera, our characters got plenty of interaction and character development. However, some parts were a bit slow since Hibiki is your typical hard-headded, stubborn and ultra-dense protag, but that makes his final development have more impact. The over-arching plot is kept half-serious half-lighthearted, kinda similarto Full Metal Panic! ss1. Seeing the human society changes from a group of unwilling men and women is really interesting.
Animation: The mechs were all CGI-animated and the Vandreads got a glossy texture on them. To be fair, GONZO and the 3D CG studio probably weren’t experts with 3DCG. The animation is sometimes choppy and just overall shows the immaturity of 3DCG at the time. However, it is still watchable.
+ Mecha Design: The mechs are designed by Kanetaka Ebikawa and Yoshikazu Miyao and their movements are supervised by Shoichi Masuo. You can see the militaristic style of Ebikawa on the Vanguard and DIta Vandread. Due to the mecha concepts in Vandread, there is a large variety of mecha featured and all of them are quite unique that reflects different union between boys and girls. Overall Vandread has some awesome design.
+ Music: The mechs are designed by Kanetaka Ebikawa and Yoshikazu Miyao and their movements are supervised by Shoichi Masuo. You can see the militaristic style of Ebikawa on the Vanguard and DIta Vandread. Due to the mecha concepts in Vandread, there is a large variety of mecha featured and all of them are quite unique that reflects different union between boys and girls. Overall Vandread has some awesome design.
+ Music: The mechs are designed by Kanetaka Ebikawa and Yoshikazu Miyao and their movements are supervised by Shoichi Masuo. You can see the militaristic style of Ebikawa on the Vanguard and DIta Vandread. Due to the mecha concepts in Vandread, there is a large variety of mecha featured and all of them are quite unique that reflects different union between boys and girls. Overall Vandread has some awesome design.
+ Conclusion: Overall, Vandread is an interesting show with a fresh concept of human society. The characters are interesting and the mechs concept are also. There are improvements to be made in the animation department but it’s still decently made. If you want a hilarious space opera with a bit of drama and great mecha designs, then Vandread is a good choice for you.
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