Solty Rei: Volume 2

Introduction

When I reviewed volume 1 of this new sci-fi action series from MVM, there was thick snow on the ground. Now with the advent of volume 2, it's almost sunbathing weather. Normally that would be an indictment of achingly slow release schedules, but not this time. It's still the standard two months between releases, and it's really a comment on the screwy weather we have nowadays. As I mentioned last time, Solty Rei is a Gonzo production, which means a futuristic, post apocalyptic sci-fi mystery action show, with pleasant animation and high production values. It may be like a lot of Gonzo's output, but when they get the ingredients right, the show can be exceedingly satisfying.

The Blast Fall devastated the city, a mysterious event twelve years ago that cost the lives of thousands. It's effects are still visible today, an Aurora Shell that arcs overhead, preventing anyone from leaving the ground or even the building of high-rise towers, interfering with communications, as well as the number of cyborgs known as Resembles roaming the city, survivors who have had their bodies repaired with technology. It's the Reestablishment Universe Committee, the RUC that is at the heart of the city's reconstruction and the proliferation of cyborgs. Roy Revant works in this city as a bounty hunter for the Maverick Hunters Company, although his hard-bitten brutal approach means that he pretty much works alone. He's been hunting ever since the Blast Fall, in which his daughter Rita vanished, an event that eventually claimed the life of his wife. The loss and grief still prey on him; he's still looking for his daughter, or maybe just salvation, when one day it literally falls from the sky.


Volume 1 offered a bumper six episodes to tempt us with Solty Rei's delights, but we're back to the standard four episodes with this second volume.

7. A Little Blue Demon Comes to Visit

Roy and Solty have a houseguest. Following a police raid on the Anderson siblings' hideout, Rose Anderson has decided to make herself at home. She's also started remodelling the apartment, much to Roy's frustration. Of course Rose isn't here for her health. She has an ulterior motive. The trouble with Resembles is that their bodies have a tendency to reject the cybernetic implants. That's not a problem to registered citizens, who have ready access to the antibodies that keep rejection suppressed, but for the unregistered it means a life of sickness, and if left untreated, death. There's a shipment of antibodies in a few days, and the Anderson siblings are getting ready to hit the convoy. However, security has been upgraded, and following their recent adventures, Rose could use Solty's help. But Roy and Solty are adamant; she is not becoming a thief.

8. Revenge

Rose is still at the apartment, and following the recent heist, she's more determined than ever to recruit Solty to their cause. Her brothers Larry and Andy give her three days to do it; after all keeping company with a hunter is not the best idea for a thief. As time runs out, Rose gets more desperate to convince Solty and Roy, and she's on the verge of doing something really daft, when she spies a face in the crowd that she recognises. It's someone she once considered dead, a Resemble named John Kimberly, who she witnessed killing her best friend and her parents. Suddenly her priorities change.


9. Girl's Day Off

Solty's practicing her cooking skills, the girls of the RUC Security have half a day off to unwind, and Rose is at a loose end for something to do. When she wanders into the park, she happens to meet again a handsome man, one who is a little too unconventional for the job with RUC that he has. When Silvia of the RUC Security Division sees her boss on a date with a strange girl, her curiosity is piqued. When Kasha sees Rose on a date with a member of the establishment that she usually fights, she needs to know what is going on. The chase begins.

10. Treasure and Rescue

The pursuit of a simple bounty took Roy, Rose and Solty into the ruins of the old city. Which is when the ground caved in, and Solty, Rose and the criminal Resemble vanished into the depths, the ground sealing up behind them. It isn't long before the Resemble Rescue Team is on the case, but digging out the girls will take a long time. As for Rose and Solty, what starts out as something of an adventure, exploring the abandoned underground city, turns more serious when a fire starts. And as time runs out below, one of the unstable buildings up above them collapses, sealing them in even further.

Picture

Solty Rei gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. And after the somewhat dismal volume 1, volume 2 rectifies nearly all those previous faults. The image here is a major improvement, although as you would expect it's still an NTSC-PAL conversion. But gone is the excessive softness, gone is the ghosting, and gone are the juddering pans and scrolls. Now the image is sharp and well defined, the animation is fluid and clear, and everything is as smooth as silk. All that there is to whinge about now is some slight compression artefacts, but this is what that first disc should have looked like.

Solty Rei is a bright colourful anime, plenty of vibrant colours and daytime scenes, although the future world, while distinctive and accomplished, certainly isn't memorable. The character designs are up to Gonzo's usual standards, while CGI is liberally used to enhance the 2D animation. Some of the mundane objects like cars aren't all that impressive, but when it comes to the fantastic, like mecha and robots, Gonzo's traditional design ethic comes through well.

Sound

Sound comes in the form of DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Japanese along with optional translated subtitles and signs. I found no problems with my usual preference of the Japanese track, while the dub is one of the really good ones, well cast and with distinctive characterisations. I was very impressed with the English voice of Roy Revant. The show gets the usual catchy j-pop themes, while the incidental music owes a fair bit to those old US cop dramas, with a noir-ish edge.

Extras

All you get this time are the textless credit sequences, and trailers for FLCL and the Adolescence of Utena movie.

Conclusion

Four more episodes of Solty Rei continue to flesh out the world and develop the characters, offering a variety of drama, comedy, action and intrigue, and setting up little nuggets of mystery and enigma to keep the anticipation for the next volume high. It's a typical Gonzo action series then, but this one is more pleasant than most, with likeable characters and an engaging story, while the slight noir sensibilities help to give it an individual signature that makes it stand out from the pack.


It quickly became clear in the first volume, that despite this series being called Solty Rei, by far the most engaging character was Rose Anderson. It's no surprise really that she figures greatly in these four episodes, and it even seems for a while that the central duo of Solty and Roy are relegated to supporting roles. Rose actually moves in with the family Revant at the start of this disc, although she has ulterior motives. It starts off as a comedy episode, with the flamboyant Rose making herself at home in Roy's apartment, effectively remodelling the place while she's at it, but it's all in an attempt to recruit Solty to her cause. Following their previous misadventure, Solty's no longer as naïve, and Roy is more protective of his green haired charge, so gaining her cooperation becomes even harder. Rose has to be sneaky, but when we find out why, it's another example of the divided society in which they live, where the haves and have-nots suffer a more brutal distinction. It's basically a reiteration of episode 6 from the previous volume, but a more striking example. What's interesting is that Roy is still the hard-bitten bounty hunter from before, taciturn and non-demonstrative, but there are signs here that he's developing a fondness for Solty, and he's certainly quick to defend her.


It seems more of the same in the next episode, with Rose's attempts to recruit Solty stepping up a notch, and initially the episode goes for the comedy jugular. But as soon as Rose recognises a face from the past in a street crowd, it's as if a switch is flipped, and we're into the serious drama. It's a strong, if slightly clichéd idea, and soon Rose loses her sense of professionalism in her need for vengeance, and it's up to Solty and Roy to protect her from herself. At this point, Rose's brothers Larry and Andy begin to play a greater part in the story, and their characters begin to develop beyond the simple sidekick stereotypes. As I said, it may be a clichéd story, but that doesn't stop this from being the strongest episode on the disc. Of course after such a tense conclusion comes the obligatory wind-down episode. Girl's Day Off is just that, with Roy off visiting his wife's grave, Solty beavering away in the kitchen, and Rose left to find something to keep herself busy. It's really a nonsense episode, with not much accomplished save for creating an odd dynamic between the RUC security chief and master thief Rose Anderson. It does offer some growth to the characters, but doesn't really move the story along.


But if that was Solty Rei at rest, for the final episode we're jumping onto a moving express train, as we join the characters mid-crisis, with Solty and Rose trapped down a well, and Skippy the Bush… sorry, wrong show. They're trapped in an underground city while Roy, Miranda and Kasha wait impatiently for the rescue team to do their work, and as in all such disaster stories, the situation gets progressively worse, the danger increases and the characters' survival more and more precarious until the last minute. It does add another facet to the world though, an underground city so ancient that no one speaks the language printed on the guide books (Except Solty for some odd reason), but obviously modern in every other respect, a mysterious history yet to be revealed, and an odd reaction from Rose when caught in mortal peril. This disc leaves us with plenty more questions needing answering.


I really shouldn't be surprised at this juncture, as Gonzo action shows are usually all over the place thematically, in terms of story, and in terms of character focus, for at least the first half of the run. They'll supply little snippets of overreaching story, and sporadically build the world and the plot, but it often feels random and scattershot, utterly episodic. What's disappointing here is that the stories are so average, or it could be that after all this time, familiarity has bred contempt. However, the colourful and entertaining characters redeem the mundane stories. Rose is an instant draw, Solty is charming in her childlike innocence, and it's a change to see an anime show with a male lead that has long since left his teens behind him. Roy brings a maturity and world-weary cynicism that makes this show stand out from the rest, and the joy in this story is watching Solty gradually chip away at the stone wall he has built around his heart. On the strength of these two volumes, Solty Rei isn't a must own anime, but it's certainly a delightful way to pass the time.