sothis

In a perfect world, one would be able to replace a review's contents with a large eye-rolling smiley face image. Alas, this is not that perfect world.

Sky Girls begins with a narrative which is remarkably more epic than the content itself: mysterious beings known as Worms came to Earth, messed shit up, and ultimately kicked humanity's ass so much that it resorted to nuking Earth to save themselves. Unfortunately, this not only submerged 50% of the land mass under the ocean, but also killed off 90% of men aged 20-40.

Humans: 1!

Dating and sex life of any adult woman: 0!

After such an intriguing narrative one can't help but be baffled at what comes next: a barrage of panty shots, cleavage shots, and ecchi Love Hina-esque moments. Oh, and did I mention that the three main characters all appear to be 12 years old?! They fight one of the monsters in their wacky mechanized contraptions - complete with an Evangelion-style suit that disintegrates after a short time - and that's about it.

OH MAN, SO AWESOME.

I've seen fantastic short OVAs, and this is not one of them. The story was boring and unoriginal, and ultimately ended up being a weak excuse for (bad) ecchi. Yaaaawn.

The animation is decent yet unexciting. Backgrounds are detailed enough (though due to the short length and location, they are generally either a wall of a ship or the ocean) and colors are vibrant. However, the character designs are rather odd. Male characters look appropriate, but the only female characters look extremely young. For this reason, it is even more disturbing that the camera can't stop sneaking a peek at the posterior or flat chest of one of the heroines.

The majority of the OVA is devoid of any background music, which fits fairly well. During the battle sequence there is a generic orchestral / metal hybrid song that blends into the background a little too well. Nothing spectacular, but nothing offensive either.

Generally I don't dock the characters score of a short OVA for lack of development, but in Sky Girls's case, the characters themselves are so utterly annoying that I can't help but do so. Not only is there no development, but the characters are remarkably stereotypical: nasal and childish girls who would rather go swimming than fight the bad guys. I can't say much else in this area, because there is nothing memorable to write about.

I've seen good and short OVAs: Atama Yama, Super Kuma-san, and pretty much anything by Studio 4C. Sky Girls is not one of these OVAs, and is essentially a complete and total waste of time. If girls fighting baddies is your thing, try out the far superior Stellvia. Use that 30 minutes you've saved doing something productive, like making recommendations!