Anime Meta-Review
Gall Force: Earth Chapter
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Title Info
- seen: 1-3 of 3
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- made: 1989
- Review created: Sun Oct 1 14:04:49 EST 2000
- mod: none
This is a difficult one to review, because it is an interesting mix of strengths and weaknesses. The story is only loosely connected with the other Gall Force material and takes place on earth. Mankind has got access to advanced alien technology and managed to well and truly stuff things up. As a result they are now in a vicious war (and loosing) with their own robotic creations. We get to follow one human `team' in some stories from the resistance. In addition the human base on mars, to some extent protected from the war, has to decide whether to save or abandon their desperate collegues on Earth. Thus, from the earth point of view, the alternate between being enemies and allies. Of course viewers of the earlier material will recognise some `stowaway' aspects to the technologies, which promises the possibility of interesting revelations.
The attitude in this series is pretty serious. Mankind has largely lost and fallen back on desperate plans for victory. The fact that mutual annihilation seems like a `victory' makes it clear how bad things are. Likewise material assets are rare, the earth is a wasteland and the soldiers we follow (with the return of some gall force archetypes) really do seem fatigued and desperate. As an action piece, with small unit tactics against mysterious robot foes in a post holocaust setting it works really well. The technology and action is entertaining and the characters effective and interesting. The main problem really comes in considering it a part of the Gall Force family. As such it seems to lack the epic story, and at times feels like pushing the series on too far past its natural conclusion. This is sadly confirmed by the last episode (which I had been really looking forward to) which runs out of both money and inspiration to provide a silly, poorly animated and largely meaningless conclusion to what could have been a solid OAV series.
Certainly the animation, at least upto the conclusion, is pretty good. The world and tech design continues the level of detail seen in Gall Force. The characters are excellent and very engaging and the bad guys correctly malevolent. The depiction of the military elements, and mindset, is also very well done. The animation quality, while somewhat dated, is very solid and the characters look even more attractive than ever. Action and effects scenes are likewise capably handled. In some ways the better animation, and action focus, might be the prime reason why this anime doesn't sit comfortably with the other Gall Force material.
None of my sources have a review for this anime.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:18 WST 2009