DoodlebugFour

Story: Neutral

The series take place in a futuristic city that is recovering from a explosion that occured less than a decade ago. The story begins with a Bruce Willis lookalike named Roy Revant who works as a Bounty Hunter for a living. During the 1st episode, he comes across with an mysterious amnesiac green haired girl who ends up following him like a stalker only to end up living with the guy not long after it is revealed that she is an android. The 1st half is pretty much slice of lifeish where random stuff happens (coughSwimmingPoolEpisodecough), but it isn't until the halfway mark when things start to get actually interesting and more dark in tone.

Characters: Neutral to Positive

While the 1st half of the show dosen't really have much going for it storywise, the character cast do hold up for the most part, even if they aren't that deep of characters, but do make up in charm. There are three leads: Roy, Solty, and Rose:

Roy Revant is a gruff middle aged man (Yes an anime male lead that's not a bloody bland-looking highschooler) who initially comes off as an grumpy @$$hole who dosen't want anything to do with his newfound friend, but when your acquaintances guiltrips him to take the android in after authorites tried to take her away, can we really blame him XD. We would also over the course of the 1st half learn that he is a widower who lost his daughter Rita to the blast fall incident years ago, and is deep down still haven't gotten over Rita and believes that she is still out there.

Next Lead of Importance is the mysterious android, who early on is named Solty who Roy reluctantly adopts. Sadly we don't learn who she really is until towards the end of the show, which really bites and hurts the story quite a bit. But I will say that her relationship with Roy is pretty interesting to watch as they slowly becoming more close to each other in a father-daughter way which ends up being the biggest highlight of the show. Given her amnesia, she is also naive to her surrounding and we watch her experience and learn new things. She's also manages to be quite endearing without coming off as a vapid tard.

Then finally there's Rose Anderson who's introduced a few episodes in. She's a spoiled primadonna thief accompanied by her brothers, who initally comes off as an major annoyance but over the course is revealed that there's alot more to her than meets the eye, and ends up serving an important role as well.

Other characters include Roy's mission handler and sister in law Miranda, her bossy daughter Kasha (who ends up being the main focus of the OVAs set between episodes 9 & 10), Rose's protective brothers Larry and Andy. Yuuto, who is a nerd with a creepy unrequited crush on Solty, The professional yet sisterly RUC girls, the totally "not a villain" Ashley Lynx, and introduced halfway through the show is an elderly man named Joseph who also ties to past events.

Visuals: Positive

For a GONZO production made in late 2005, it holds ups really well. In fact Solty Rei is probably one of GONZO's better looking shows they have made along with Gankutsuou and Last Exile from what I have seen. The designs of the background and characters are stylish and fitting for it's sci-fi setting without looking like a generic school comedy. And while it does have CGI that does stick out, there really isn't that much of it and dosen't look nowhere as ugly and stiff like say in Gantz for example. Actual animation itself is fine for what it is for your usual TV anime. There is also a bit of fanservice, but it is surprisingly rather tame and subtle despite a pool episode and some heart to heart chats in the bathtub. And the best part is that things are  consistantly on-model, which really says something considering GONZO's notorious habit of off-modeling.

Music: Neutral to Good

Opening Theme "Clover" is upbeat and catchy, the ending theme is calm but kinda forgettable, background music, while nothing to write home about, serves it job well to set the mood. Probably the most outstanding track is "Return to Love", a rather lovely melancholic Jazz piece.

Voice: Positive For FUNImation English Dub, ? for Japanese

Licensed by the distributor company Funimation and Directed by voice actor Christopher R. Sabat (Half of DBZ's cast LOL) in his own recording studio Okratron 5000. Features a well named cast full of Funimation veterans such as Carrie Savage (Paranoia Agent's Maromi, Texhnolyze's Ran) as Solty, Colleen Clickenbeard (Fairy Tail's Erza Scarlet, FMA's Hawkeye) as Rose Anderson, and Sabat himself as Roy Revant as our leads. Noteworthy supporting castmembers also includes the likes of Eric Vale (Hetalia's America, DBZ's Trunks), Jason Liebrecht (DTB's Hei, Black Butler's Finnian), Stephanie Young (Claymore's Claire, One Piece's Nico Robin), Luci Christian (FMP's Kaname, Princess Tutu's Duck), Chris Patton (RahXephon's Ayato, FMP's Sosuke), Laura Bailey (Furuba's Tohru Honda, Soul Eater's Maka), Jamie Marchi (PASWG's Panty, Witchblade's Masane), Kara Edwards (DBZ's Goten and Videl), and Caitlin Glass (Xenoblade X's Elma, Ouran's Haruhi). Sabat not only proves he can carry a more well grounded performance that is a farcry from his Dragonball roles, but also proves himself capable of guiding a veteran cast with the direction they need for this rather oddly charming ensemble of characters. It also dosen't hurt that this show is set in a more westernish setting, meaning there's barely any corny japanese puns to awkwardly translate.

I haven't seen the japanese version tbh, though I do know for a fact that Roy in this version is portrayed by Jouji Nakata, best known for villains such as F/SN's Kirei Kotomine and Gankutsuou's Edmond Dantes. Which itself is a major case of breaking against type for Nakata since he is always casted as the villain, rarely does this man ever gets to play a good guy, let alone the main hero in this case. XD

Conclusion: Positive

Overall, while the story does fall flat in certain areas, it does make up with nice aesthetics, solid character chemistry, and a great english dub cast. It isn't groundbreaking, but if your looking for something that isn't your run of a mill high school softcore p**n, then this a series to check out.