SUMMARY
Ryu Soma is a
member of Funeral, an anti-alien attack force. No one at Funeral
knows that he is really Takuto Kaneshiro, the only survivor of a secret
project called Morgue. They also don't know that he is supplying
information to a man known only as Mister X.
Funeral is using a reconstructed alien called the Extra 1 to help fight
attacking aliens. Ryu blames the Extra 1 for the destruction of Morgue,
and the death of his girlfriend Maki. He also does not like the fact
that in order to control the Extra 1, they have to use a young girl named
Harriet, who has a symbiotic relationship with the monster.
Despite his dual identify, he has finally managed to gain the trust and
respect of most of the members of Funeral. Dan Simmons, a fellow Sarg
pilot feels that Ryu is hiding something, and he is determined to find out
what. This desire becomes so strong, the two of them get into a fist
fight. During the fight, an alarm is triggered, landing the two of
them in the brig.
Their forced time together does not last long. More aliens have
arrived, and they are getting harder to defeat. Even the Extra 1
can't seem to achieve victory. Will Ryu be able overcome his hatred
for the Extra 1 and help defeat the aliens? Can Harriet handle the
stress of war, or will she suffer a complete mental breakdown?
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO: The quality is excellent.
There are no pixels or errors noted. The colors are solid, and the motion,
fluid.
AUDIO: There is very little difference between the Japanese and English 2.0 audio
tracks. What difference there is in the volume and the surround sound elements. It
will depend on your equipment on which one sounds better.
EDITS: The only edits is that the clean close animation is used. No edits
to the episodes have been made.
EXTRAS: Typical of most Bandai releases.
There is a text less open (with subtitles) and some tech specs. That's
it. Well, there is the reversible cover.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY:
With so many people involved in this series, it's amazing how put together this
show is. You have the "Original Concept" designers Hajime Yatate
and Kazuyoshi Katayama who came up with the idea. There is Chief Writer
Hiroshi Yamaguch, who is the one responsible for keeping it together. Last but
not least are the screen writers, who vary episode to episode. Each episode is
very well done, with and even amount of action and characterization.
ACTING: The acting on both sides is pretty typical. It's good,
but it's nothing groundbreaking. I do enjoy Crispin Freman's Dan, but his
accent slips from time to time. I also can't stand Lara Jill Miller's
shrill voice for Sue Harris. To be fair, Sue Harris is a waste of space,
and the voice does match the character.
I really the voice work of Paula Mattioli Walker as Genevieve
Green. Her voice in vibes the character with a "I'm sexy and I
know it" vibe. What surprises me is that Kikuko Inoue does the
Japanese version of Genevieve. It's not the "Belldandy"
voice we are used to hearing. As Genevieve, her voice has the same
regal/sexy quality as Yoshiko Sakibahara (Sylia in the Bubblegum
Crisis OVA) does. I understand why she is one of the best voice
actresses out there.
FAN SERVICE: None in the panty category. Even the uniforms are very
un-sexy. There is Maki in one of Takuto's shirts, but that don't
count.
Take a look at the Air Force jacket that Dan is wearing.
Since when did the "Green Berets" become part of the Air Force?
CONCLUSION
A gathering of Sunrise Inc. superstars,
Argentosoma is a tightly plotted, well animated follow up to Gasaraki.
Very similar in tone and feeling, this show will keep mecha heads happy, and conspiracies
fans satisfied.
This volume is called Getting Even, but that is not what this disc is
really about. For this volume, it's all about the past.
We finally get to see what great psychological trauma that haunts most of
the characters. We learn why Dan joined Funeral, why Maki's death
hit Ryu/Takuto so hard, and why Commander Ines has no kids (I didn't know
she had any problems). The most interesting discovery is that
Harriet seems to have alien shrapnel imbedded in her body, which may the
reason she and the Extra 1 are symbiotic with each other.
We start to
see some of the cracks in Ryu's armor. We find the young man
actually getting excited over analyzing the properties of the latest alien
threat. Several time when he is in the position to "kill"
the Extra 1, he doesn't for fear of destroying Harriet's fragile psyche
(not that I care). For the first time, Ryu laughs when he reads that
the metal he created was "discovered" by the university he used
to attend.
As I said in the review of Vol 1 ,
comparisons to Evangelion and
Gasaraki are going to be inevitable. The aliens in this volume are
like the Angels in Evangelion. Each one that appears is stronger and
more dangerous than the one before. You also have Pilgrim Point, the
one place that the government does not want the aliens to go. Sounds
a lot like Central Dogma in Evangelion.
With Vol 1, I also talked about my dislike of the
annoyingly cute character of
Harriet. While I still find her role useless, I can see that the
writers are setting her up for something more than the best friend of
"Mr. Elf" (her name for the Extra 1). Besides, you could
not have Commander Ines get over the death of her daughter, or most of
episode 9 with out her.
I still don't get the whole Maki/Takuto thing. In
episode 6, we learn that Maki is a total psycho. She burns the word liar
into the floor of his dorm room, despite Takuto's protests that all he did
was help some girl study. When Maki emerges from another room, she
is wearing nothing but Takuto's shirt, saying in her non verbal way
"let's fu**". So you mean to tell me that Takuto is hell
out for vengeance because he did the nasty with a psycho chick who
constantly pissed him off? Talk about your destructive
relationships.
Not
a lot of the conspiracy thriller plot threads with these episodes. Mister
X only has a couple of brief appearances. The focus is on the
background of the characters, not on the background of the series
political state. On the plus side, you get to see a lot of the
Sarg's, and get some interesting technical information. That should
keep the mecha fans happy.
The animation seems to
have decreased in quality in some episodes. On the smaller screens,
you may not notice, but on larger sets, you will.
I
really enjoy Argentosoma. With it's interesting story, cool mecha,
and solid characterizations, this one is a keeper. I already have
Vol 3, and I can't wait to check it out.
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