It's another bounty hunter show, but this time with a softer more huggable side.
Story - 8/10
I was pleasantly surprised by the way Solty Rei turned out. At first it seemed like it was going to be a typical android/bounty hunter procedural, every episode just a stupid little task where Roy and Solty go out and catch a bad guy, maybe a weak plot strings everything together, but boy was I off.
They managed to create a very compelling story with great twist and turns that will keep you watching till the end. They also kept pretty true to the story and only had two episodes I can really think of that strayed off topic, which is sometimes nice to have as a way to break up the story and find interesting ways to shoehorn in information.
There were some plot holes and things mentioned that I would have liked them to fill in, and that would have raised their score a bit, but still the series proved to be a top notch show that found a way to continue to rise till the very end and not peak somewhere in the middle.
Animation - 9/10
I'm surprised more isn't said about the animation of this series. The art direction is amazing, creating a world that looks like a futuristic 1940's New York City, but still making it look fresh and original. Everywhere you look the colors pop while still blending in with the scene.
The characters are pretty standard, but still manage to be amazing, as again the colors used, and the depth of those colors, are done to perfection.
The only downside, as with many anime products, was the use of CGI. It never looks good, and while it looked better than most here, it still stunk.
What makes the animation stand out the most is the fact any of it was done at all. Watching the show you'd think the animators spent all their time just trying to draw the female form, to the point they would just throw in useless shower scenes or bent over shots, and while I know they try to sell everything to the 13 year old boy in most of us, this series didn't really need it.
Sound - 7/10
From the look of the show you'd expect the music to be similar to some of our other great bounty hunter animus. But despite that classic pre-war look, all the jazzy music comes in short spurts here and there. For the most part the music is much more like that of a video game. To be specific it comes very close to matching a few tunes from Final Fantasy VII, such as the Costa Del Sol Song, Cait Sith's Theme and other upbeat circusy type songs, there's also a smidgen of Mario Bros' music tossed in here and there.
The opening a closing tunes are nothing special. The first being a somewhat catchy little pop number and the ending being your typical Anime piano ballad.
The voices and sound effects aren't going to jump out as groundbreaking, but they manage to fit the show very well, never really hitting that sour note when you get an anime filled with younger characters with screechy voices.
Characters - 6/10
The writers seemed to focus on putting together a very good story, yet somehow keeping the characters pretty weak when it comes to development. Not to say they are bad characters, but what you find out about them tends to not fill many of the gaps created throughout the series.
Overall there aren't many characters for a series that lasted this long, Roy's family and friends, the undocumented criminal trio, five members of the government and one or two stray characters. When they did put work into building a character he was a one offer, in a time waster episode and never heard from again, though this experience does help Solty grow.
The two episode companion OVA did more to help us learn about a few characters than the whole series did for the major ones.
As for originality with the characters, there really wasn't much. Tough guy loner, bratty girl, android who learns to be a human, heck there's a character that seems as if she's a complete copy of FLCL's Ninamori, hair color and all. The only little thing that really stuck out to me in regards to characters was the bit of work they put into naming the four members of R.U.C., with each girl being named after a Japanese car.
Also out of all the characters I felt most interested in two of the R.U.C. girls, Celica and Accela, they were written as pretty normal girls, where as everyone else in the entire Anime world are over the top super heroes. These girls had super powers, thats how they became members of R.U.C. but they were still just normal twenty something year olds with simple lives and desires.
Again, the score could have been helped if they just filled some of the plot holes they opened up for little to no reason, but guess we can't expect everything in only 22 episodes.
Overall - 9/10
I'm glad I took the time to watch Solty Rei despite it being hidden in categories that are packed with much more successful and touted shows. Its appearance may seem a bit kiddy at first, but the story is really worth your time, as it's very well thought out and is filled with twist and turns. One of the best parts of the show is it doesn't treat it's viewers like idiots, it makes you think and is filled with moments of real gut wrenching plot. It has it's few flaws with forgotten plot points and incomplete characters, but it's easily overlooked as the story and writing are very well done.
So while it may start out a bit slow, keep watching, because by episode seven or so you'll be eager to keep watching as many as you can in a night to see what surprise happens next.