Candidate for Goddess
Jan 30, 2005Story
Like Stellvia, Candidate for Goddess is a lighthearted look at kids in space, training to fight a deadly disaster. In Stellvia, it was the upcoming shockwave that would destroy Earth. In Candidate for Goddess, it's invading aliens. Nevertheless, this is my favorite type of series by far, and thus, I was definitely disappointed when the end of Candidate for Goddess rolled around.
The story starts out simple enough: a narrator introduces us to Zion, the only human populated planet left untouched by Victim, invading aliens. Mankind's only defense (surprise surprise) is five giant robots called Goddesses which are piloted by very special pilots. We watch the series through the eyes of trainees as they admire the five pilots who hold mankind's future in their hands, and compete against each other so that they might one day pilot these Goddesses as well. The story is mainly focused on a young man named Zero who seems to have special EX powers (one of many things that is never really explained). Again, the story starts out interesting enough, making you think this will be an engaging and interesting kids in space type story. Unfortunately, after episode one it just goes severely downhill, and it's near impossible to explain why. Maybe it was the erratic pacing that poorly combines action packed battles against the Victim, and poor character development that in some cases, is never explained. On that note, maybe it's the fact that the many mysteries that actually manage to keep our attention somewhat (the EX powers, why Zero can't remember his past, etc) are never actually explained when the ending credits roll in the final episode. These things aren't explained in the OVA either, read my review of that for more information. Maybe it was the serious lack of character development, or I should say, character development that doesn't interest us in any way.
Again, it's really, really hard to vocalize why Candidate for Goddess sucked as much as it did. I guess you'd just have to see it for yourself to believe it. It must be a combination of many things, that in general weren't put together well. I found myself bored most episodes, but completely engaged in others. Again, I think you'll just have to see it for yourself. For me, I was very disappointed with the series, and felt I had wasted a great deal of my time by the end.
Animation
Visually, there's no arguing that Candidate for Goddess is beautiful. The CG is almost seamless and wonderfully illustrates the Goddesses, Victim, and space battles (as well as the space station, etc). This CG makes up a very large percentage of the series, which isn't a bad thing. The normal animation was also well done, with beautifully created characters who were vibrantly colored and animated. The EX powers manifested themselves wonderfully through the animation as well. Colors used were very bright and flashy, but nothing tacky. Hair colors tended to be interesting shades of pastel, but not in a terrible dating-sim series sort of way. If you watch this series for anything, watch it for the animation, that's for sure.
Sound
The music is entirely orchestral, mostly with trumpets and other very "happy" instruments. This seemed appropriate at first, especially for the lighthearted character development bits during training and discussions amongst friends. Unfortunately, this music also was played during very inappropriate times, including sad scenes and otherwise serious ones. The music was a lot like watching Galaxy Quest (real life movie), which was a parody of Star Trek and thus, the music sounded uber cheesy. For most of the time, this fit well, but for the serious times it was hard to take it seriously when this cheery 60s TV sounding music was wailing through the speakers. Great audio, but it really needed more mellow or sad bits for the appropriate times.
Characters
There were a great deal of characters involved, but none that we really came to know and love. Zero is definitely the main character, but all of his development (trying to remember his memories, his EX powers) were never explained, and thus it felt like a total waste of time. Hiead is the other supposedly main character, but he isn't on screen nearly as much, and to be honest, I felt he was as important of a character as all the secondary ones. It's definitely Zero's show, and his development failed miserably.
We also get to meet some of the female mechanics who are also given a fair chance at development, which also falls flat. Like the story section, it's hard to describe why the development failed as much as it did... I guess all I can say is that at the end of the series, I really didn't care about any of them, so that must be the best indication, right? You'll have to see it for yourself to believe it, I suppose.
Overall
Overall, I was very disappointed with Candidate for Goddess. It's listed as one of the top recommendations for Stellvia, which I LOVED, so I decided to pick it up even though everyone had told me it's disappointing and flat out bad. I can understand now why people recommend it for Stellvia (and indeed, I recommended Stellvia for CFG, but not the other way around, it doesn't deserve that), but at the same time it doesn't come close to Stellvia in any way. The animation is great, the music is decent (but inappropriately placed at times) and the story has an interesting concept, but the poor pacing and execution leaves little to be desired. If you really want to watch every kids in space type series, this will be one you should probably watch. If you want a GOOD kids in space type series, though, check out Stellvia, Vandread (sort of), GunBuster, or any other really good ones. Candidate for Goddess, odds are, will be a waste of your time just like it was a waste of mine. Now, off to watch Twin Spica...
5/10 story
8.5/10 animation
6/10 sound
5/10 characters
5.5/10 overall
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completely agree with this review....Candidate for goddess was a complete let down by the end. It had the potential to be a great anime but never followed through. I say they should remake it with some new directors that know how to develop a plot, develop characters and answer the unknowns of the this anime tastfully.