Fafner - Reviews

Story
Welcome to the small island outside Japan. Here people go to work every day, kids go to school and life is good overall -- until the Festums come around. Festum is an unknown creature which hovers in the air. It’s big, golden and has various capabilities depending on the Festum type. To fight against these creatures Alvis (the local battle command which is located underground) prepares for battle, weapon depots rise from the ground, along the coastline rocket launchers appear, a shield is raised and fighter jets are sent out.

In addition, Alvis has something called "Fafner". It’s a robot intended to be piloted by chosen children on the island, and during the first episode a child is forced to pilot it. To pilot this Fafner you get into it, put your hands into a couple of red cups full of goo to control the hand movements. Furthermore, a special neural network interface hooks up the pilot -- and if the pilot doesn’t use the special intended suit the hookup will hurt like hell. Once hooked up the pilot will feel the Fafner as if it was himself.

Now, does this by any chance even remotely remind you of another series? There is this old show from 1995, produced by Gainax, called Neon Genesis Evangelion, which started out basically exactly the same. I had a lot of trouble with Soukyuu no Fafner during the first episode. It was so much NGE that I ended up commenting on what might happen in the next sequence and so on. Later in the show a lot of elements from RahXephon will show up aswell. Once the main elements of NGE and RahXephon have been introduced the show manages to somewhat profile itself.

The battle between the Festums and this island/humanity is well depicted. Anything from the people in the shelter to the political roosters are shown. The whole show later on turns quite metaphysical and deals with questions about life and its existence. It’s done in a fairly easy to understand way and the show never gets deeply philosophical, like NGE did. The story, while heavily unoriginal is implemented in a most excellent way. The story flows well, the character introductions and buildups are handled well and the new elements are introduced well.

It also seems like the Japanese staff is full of those types who like to use German words for every technical detail. Now, we know that some Japanese people are keen on that, but man, these people at Xebec must really worship German as the show overflows with it. So if you know German and a bit of Norse mythology amongst some other things, then you’ll have an easy time understanding the reasons these words were used.

The show is concluded in a fairly normal way and there weren’t any surprises. It was an alright ending, although a small OAV epilogue certainly wouldn't hurt to have.
Animation
Coming from Xebec, the creators of Gundam Seed, many things hold the same standard if not higher. The colors used are clear and crisp. Mostly brighter colors were used. The CG is used here and there, and was integrated flawlessly with the 2D, looking quite pleasant. The big thing is the character designs which are of a very high standard. The designs are one of my personal favorites and differ from many of today’s design styles.

The characters look good anatomically -- we’re shown everything from overweight to lanky people – and they end up looking very natural. The faces look great with lots of contours that give a good depth. The lips are clearly accentuated which is another thing I liked. This also helps give the face depth, and the front and side profiles looked great. The eyes are of a more oval type, but once again the eye size and design varied depending on the type of body frame. The iris and pupil is very well drawn, which also helps add depth. The eyelashes are also somewhat special compared to many other designs. They’re most visiblel above the eyes, but they’re more fringed than straight. The hair is another thing which is drawn superbly. The hairstyles all end up having some form of volume. It doesn’t matter if it’s short hair, shoulder length or long hair. The various haircuts look very fitting and voluminous.

The Fafner designs also hold a high quality. They’re quite well detailed and the battles look quite good. The weaponry consists of everything from a pea-shooter to swords. There is also a progressive knife... Anyhow, the weaponry design also looks good. Soukyuu no Fafner also features one of the best scenes I’ve seen when it comes to firing a weapon, the impact, and the aftershock. They’ve really managed to animate the power of the weapon which was used.

All in all, I’m greatly satisfied in this department. Everything was handled pretty much with perfection. The only little thing I have to bark about is the lip animation. Sometimes the characters end up looking more like they’re quacking rather than talking. Both the upper and lower lip moves up and down in synch (like a bird with its beak). The image shown during the ED animation is very good. It’s a very simple, but yet emotional piece of artwork, and with these character designs it all ends up looking superbly.

I’ll give this section 9.9 it’s as close to perfection as it gets.
Sound
Angela (Stellvia of the Universe OP and ED theme) once again makes an astounding performance with her special voice – this time with the two songs Shangri-La (OP theme) and Separation (ED theme) which are very pleasant to listen to. The OP & ED animation is good and goes well with the theme songs.

As for the background soundtrack, it’s there, but not so visible. The soundtrack style follows that of many sci-fi mecha shows with more pom-pom classical music, which reminded me of the NGE OST every now and then – nothing special with other words. The very emotional parts are built mostly around the ED tune "Separation" which is of a slower, emotional, ballad style character. There are various versions of the song used: a standard version, instrumental piano version, piano + vocals, Piano + Cello with the vocals and so on. These various versions are all very good and fit the mood they try to set. The VAs put up a great performance and really make the characters come alive, whether they go haywire, become hysterical or laugh.
Characters
Xebec didn’t let me down in this department. One of the reasons I came to like Gundam SEED as much as I did was because of the characters, their depth, actions, reasoning and interactions. At times Soukyuu no Fafner feels like a little mini-version of Gundam Seed form that point of view. As mentioned before, this show is a lot about the characters and their actions.

I, for instance, have never really given a deeper thought to this "use children in battle robots" scene, as no other show has gone any deeper. It seems like that’s become the norm: (of course we have to use children!) and there hasn’t been much more emphasis than that. NGE did deal with this somewhat but it felt like a smaller thing compared to everything else which went on. But in Soukyuu no Fafner the whole absurdity of the situation struck me. The relationship between the child and parent is depicted in a good way, and when their child heads out to battle it’s easy to emphasize with the parent or sister. This show also, once again, shows that letting children go to war is not a good idea.

Another thing which is shown superbly is the death of close ones. I don’t mean that the actual death of the character was shown superbly with lots of blood. It’s a war, and people die, and this leads to various consequences. People take a close person’s death differently. How the various people react is shown in a humanly believable way, especially the parents who have to see their child go before them; some say the cruelest thing to a parent is when they outlive their child. There is particularly one case where a character dies... The whole buildup to this event is, although predictable, one of the better ones I’ve seen.

Once again, together with the superb character design, the great VA acting, the personalities which feel very human and real – this show will undoubtedly make the viewer feel empathy (if the viewer likes this kind of drama of course).

I have never given a 10 before. 10 is perfection...but I simply can’t find anything at all to complain about. The characters, their depth, actions, reasoning and interactions are handled exceptionally well. Nothing is rushed, nothing feels forced, and noting feels out of character.
Overall
With all of the good values in this show I will overlook the fact that I’ve never seen a show borrow more heavily from other shows before, nor have they used as many German words before. This is something for those who enjoy sci-fi, mecha battles, great visuals, and first and foremost, the drama surrounding war.

A short and simple roundup of a long review.

Aliens attack and teenagers board giant robots to stop them. Yeeeeah, not exactly the most interesting of premises. It builds around that eventually to make it feel far more interesting and emotional (teen angst, alien revelations, deaths, etc.) but it never manages to be great. Something expected with any show that is animated by Xebec, a notorious studio for its unimpressive shows, and not Sunrise, the king of mecha anime. And it was also directed by Habara Nobuyoshi, who makes only shows with impressive premises but otherwise very dull plots (DNAngel, Broken Blade).

Fafner can be roughly described as a combination of a Neon Genesis story with Gundam SEED characters. It is also the downfall of the show if you even make that comparison, since it can barely stand next to those colossi without fainting from fear. It doesn’t have their high production values, their engrossing storylines, or their memorable characters. Even if it can stand on its own as an individual work of fiction, it just doesn’t have the juice to back it up. It is not a bad show; it mostly suffers from a really boring and unexciting first half. The second half is much more entertaining because of the various character breakdowns and deaths (trademark of Gundam) and the revelation of the nature of the alien invasion (which is done in a similar method as Neon Genesis).

The thing with it is that it heavily depends on character tragedy. It only becomes interesting when somebody dies or starts getting all emotional and not when the aliens are tough to beat or some strategy is needed to fend them off. Although this can be interpreted as a show that focuses on character drama rather the poser robot action, at the same time I doubt most people will even remember its story or characters. The reason is simple to figure out; it doesn’t focus on the characters but rather their drama. Just the opening video alone is preparing you for that; it is showing you nothing but slice of life moments and some robots shooting. But does it feel like it’s about the characters in that opening? No, they are just there to fill the backgrounds that are the idyllic sceneries and the cockpits of the robots.
“Characters? What characters? Oh, right, those things that talk… I was too busy crying over their tragedy to pay attention to them.”

The production values are ok; if you see past the obvious Gundam SEED blueprint. The mecha action is nice and the slice of life moments are well done but never super awesome or eye watery. I’m not very fond of the CGI used on the glowing aliens but then again it did make them look unearthly, so no worries. The main opening song is simply WONDERFUL and the rest in BGM and voice acting don’t have any hiccups in them. What I ended up disliking the most is the generic looks of the characters, which make them hard to remember (aside from being SEED clones). And surely, it is very hard to portrait drama over a bunch of teenagers piloting robots and fighting aliens if to the most part they are acting like everyday nobodies. It just fades away from memory if they seem so unimportant for you to remember. Nobody is charismatic enough to care about that much after awhile and those scenes of yelling and crying end up being more ridiculous than emotional.

Some may love its slow development into an epic battle of survival and teenage angst but most will be alienated by blunt characters and a story which feels like it’s 90% about events you already have seen elsewhere or are not that great to remember. Down to it, the whole show is just too slow and dull, with uninteresting cast and overblown teen angst that borders idiocy. It may be an ok time killer but surely not something worth remembering or suggesting to others.
 

SUGGESTION LIST
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Gundam SEED
Rahxephon

Okay, my rating might seem average, but I enjoyed this anime. The only, most thing I loved in this anime were the BL elements around all the characters; yeah, Kazuki and Soshi. OTP. Besides that, everything is hatred. I didn't come to like any of the female characters except Tsubaki. Her honesty, benevolence, hope and bravery was more than enough to like her. 

Moreover, I liked Kazuki and Soshi's strong friendship, but won't believe it as a brotherhood. OK. SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SEE THE STRONG OR WHATNOT ROMANCE HINTS, BUT PLEASE NOTICE THE STRONG STRONG BL HINTS TOO. 

Lastly, the only thing I hated about those 2. Kazuki; I hated him in times when he got to muffy lovey with that jerk Maya. Yes, he didn't share any feelings with Shouko, which I was quite satisfied with, but didn't like when he used to smile like a halfwit guy. Soshi; he also seemed an asshole when he ignored Kazuki's bl calls.... man, the creator doesn't know how to make up 2 guys' relationship ಠ_ಠ

All in all, liked the mecha and the ending was, too damn sad!! You should really give it a try, I'm not saying it's one of the masterpiece mecha anime, neither am i bad mouthing it, hey. Just that it's really good. the plot twists here and there... and then if you're a fujoshi, give a try lol it's funny and great.

Warning spoilers ahead! I have watched 3 episodes of this and I have only a small clue as to what is going on. Outside of the statement that something happened to Japan 29 years before there is no indication of what is going on. There are som aliens attacking an island, and the island has giant robots to fight them. What?? There is no explanation of why the aliens are attacking, exactly what happened 29 years ago, was Japan destroyed or did it build defenses like this island has, how did the island build those defenses without the citizens knowing, where did they get the resources to build their defenses, why do the aliens ask 'are you there?' before they attack, why are only teenagers with a certain numerical value the only ones capable of piloting the giant robots, what do those numbers mean, and a bunch more questions. How am I supposed to enjoy a show that has so many unanswered questions, I need more of an explanation than 'something happened 29 years ago'. I couldn't figure out the movie 'Fafner: Heaven and Earth', so I thought I would watch the series to get an explanation and I find the show has the same problem as the movie, there are no explanations. Oh and the drawing and the animation are not all that good, but they are not horrible either. I think they were trying to make it look like the manga, instead of making it an animation.

Story

The story is good, very good in parts. To get there though you have to get past the impending feeling of deja vu you get from watching the first few episodes.

 

Animation

It feels very crisp. There is seamless integration of 2D and 3D. By far and away the best thing about the show. A visual delight.

 

Sound

The music is a little cliché, but it is in keeping with the rest of the production. The Voice actors give a strong performance.

 

Characters

Highlight of the show, they are well developed and you can not help but feel for them. The side characters get more of the centre stage in this respect. They bolster any shorrtcoming on the part of the lead.

 

Overall

Excellent anime that is definitely worth a watch. There are similarities to another action mecha anime but this definitely holds his own