Stratos 4: Volume 3

Introduction

It sounds pretty counterintuitive, but it's hard to get enthusiastic in a review about a show that is good. Great shows are easy to rave about, stinkers can raise a flow of vituperative bile that is brilliant for the reviewing process, even if the actual viewing may be mind-numbing, but shows that are just good enough make it harder, and you have to look for quirks and idiosyncrasies that make the show stand out where the actual content doesn't. Stratos 4 makes it harder by being, anime-wise at least, dead centre in the middle of the road. It's a sci-fi action show with more than a hint of comedy, with a cast of pretty teen girls and oodles of fan service. Shows like that are a penny to the dozen. Even if I'm enjoying the show, relaxed and entertained, it's still a nightmare to get enthusiastic about it in print afterwards. The only thing that really stands out is that the cat is subtitled, and at this stage of the game, a subtitled cat just isn't different enough. Here endeth the damp squib of an intro.

It's the future and the Earth is in danger as never before. The skies are full of comets, asteroids, and debris, all on a collision course with Earth, but to combat this threat, a space force has been put into place, the Comet Blasters, who venture forth from an orbiting space station and disintegrate the rocks before they fall to Earth. Of course there can be no plan without a back up, and supporting them from the Earth's surface are the Meteor Sweepers, who launch in high altitude aircraft to clean up what the Comet Blasters miss. As you would expect, it's the Comet Blasters who take all the glory. Mikaze Honjyo comes from a family of pilots, and together with friends Karin, Ayamo and Shizuha they undertake training as part of the Meteor Sweepers, hoping to work their way up to a space-borne position.


The final five episodes are on this disc from Beez

9. Vapor Trail
Coming back from a mission, the base is still at panic stations, a helicopter is waiting, and there is no time to waste before Karin, Ayama, Shizuha and Mikaze are whisked off… to a spa resort. Pleasure trips are serious business, and how better to unwind than at an onsen, although a group of dispirited men are left behind to keep the base manned. But this is an odd trip. Karin is behaving oddly, developing a massive appetite and an interest in Mikaze's lips, the instructors are discussing the odd behaviour of their superiors at the Cosmic Emergency Management Agency, the Meteor Sweeper's fans have followed them to the resort, not (just) to peep, but to discuss ever more bizarre conspiracy theories, and way above on Station 7, more and more of the crew are behaving just like Karin.

10. Mission Abort
A turn in the simulator is a brutal reminder to Mikaze of just how hard you have to work to be a Comet Blaster, but all of a sudden the Comet Blasters aren't working at all. The Earth is about to enter a period of Great Fall, when the frequency of meteor strikes increases tenfold. But something odd is happening aboard the space stations, communications are suddenly cut off, and the responsibility of protecting the Earth falls to the Meteor Sweepers alone. It's impossible to keep up. When the first comet is destroyed, Karin falls unconscious, and is taken away by faceless CEMA officials. And there's still time for Mikaze to go over old mission footage and notice something odd about the comet debris.


11. Target Merge
After seeing Karin's cry for help on the cellphone that she dropped as they were taking her away, Mikaze and Shizuha demand to go after her. With Karin gone, they are down one interceptor anyway, but for two of them to leave means that instructor Sayaka Kisaragi will have to fly a mission for the first time in years, if she can overcome her demons. Mikaze and Shizuha get to the city, but there's no sign of Karin at the hospital. An anonymous tip points them to the Tsukaba Research Facility, but they get there too late to find Karin. What they do find are more questions, questions that can only be answered by that anonymous tipster, who turns out to be an official in the Comet Emergency Management Agency, one of the men who sat on the inquiry board that grilled Mikaze.

12. Engage!
There's not a lot of trust to be had with their new friend, especially as CEMA arrives at Shimoji base and takes control. But Mikaze learns that Karin has been taken aboard Orbital Station 7, where an insidious plan for global domination is unfolding, and the next step on human evolution. In the mayhem, Ayamo manages to escape from Shimoji, and meets up with her friends. They are about to realise their dreams and escape the bonds of Earth and breach the final frontier, but with their friend Karin and the fate of the world at stake, this isn't going to be a pleasure cruise.


13. Final Approach
The girls have to trust the rocket to deliver their cargo module to the right place, to get out before it docks, spacewalk over to the station and sneak in with no one any the wiser, avoid the subverted crewmembers, team up with few remaining rebels, find and rescue Karin, and defeat the menace, without becoming subverted themselves, and all without getting spacesick. Simple. Except that the largest comet yet is heading for Earth, and there's no one left to stop it from sending humanity the way of the dinosaurs.

Picture

The 4:3 regular transfer is clear, sharp and colourful. It's one of the better such conversions in terms of NTSC-PAL, in that there's no ghosting or judder, and in terms of clarity, it could almost be native PAL. It's just a tad soft though, which I guess is to be expected. However, that has to be balanced with excessive pixellation and artifacting around fast motion. It isn't unknown in animated DVDs, but this is a little too much, and just too noticeable in some scenes. You expect to see it if you pause the disc at an inopportune moment, but you usually miss it during normal playback. Not here though, and it can be distracting.


The show itself comes from around 2003, and is a little behind the curve in terms of its look and style. The character designs are simple, but memorable enough, but this is one of those anime that mixes 2D and 3D CG elements. It's just that there's no attempt to blend the two, and the CG does stick out a mile, especially the space stations and air/spacecraft. That said the animation is bright, pleasant and fluid, and the show is very aesthetically pleasing.

Sound

It's the basics for the sound on this disc, DD 2.0 English and Japanese, along with optional translated subtitles in English, French, and Dutch (Beez is an anime company with a European presence). The dialogue is clear for both versions, and you get some nice, poppy themes for the opening and end credits. The sound is adequate for the action nature of the show, but a surround track would have been nicer. As for the dub, it's passable, although I have to admit that I didn't personally find it all that pleasant, sounding awkward and unnatural at times. Japanese is the way to go here.

Extras

The Amaray case gets a reversible sleeve, which allows the girls to change out of their uniforms into something a little more comfortable. The disc gets a nice animated menu, with all options available from all menu screens, making navigation a doddle.

You'll find the textless end credit sequence for episode 13, and trailers for Gundam SEED, s-CRY-ed, Witch Hunter Robin, Wolf's Rain, and .hack//SIGN.

There is an eight-page booklet inside the Amaray case, unique to this volume that looks at the hardware used in Stratos 4 and how the planes are based on real world designs in some cases.


Finally there is the Director and Voice Cast Interview. This lasts 16 minutes, and sees Fumiko Orikasa (Karin), Yumi Kakazu (Mikaze), Shiho Kikuchi (Ayamo), and Kaori Shimizu (Shizuha) joining director Takeshi Mori for some culinary fun at a Chinese restaurant. In between courses they talk about the show some, and there's also mention of the forthcoming OVA series.

Conclusion

Well that was frivolous. In this instance, frivolity is a good thing. You should know however that Stratos 4 is the anime equivalent of easy listening. This isn't the show that you get hooked into, or where you invest emotionally in the characters. You may have cataclysmic meteorite strikes impending, but it's never anything worth worrying or stressing about. It's all going to work out fine in the end, it's just a matter of waiting to find out just exactly how, and if you get a peek of a cute anime girl's hindquarters in the process, well that's just the natural order of things.


It's usually a problem when drama becomes undramatic, but not here. This is a bright, shiny, happy show, and even when we get to the deep, dark, 'invasion of the bodysnatchers' storyline that lies at the heart of it all, it's treated with the lightweight tongue in cheek approach that the show has favoured up till now. The only dark moment in an otherwise universal bright spot is the flashback to instructor Sayaka Kisaragi's past that explains why she is reluctant to get inside a cockpit again. Twenty odd frames of a burning plane wreck and a crying child do not a depressing melodrama make.


We get one final off-topic diversion at the start of this disc, and in a show driven by fan service, no matter how toned down, a hot springs episode is practically mandated by law. Girls have to be naked at some point in these shows, even if they're mostly obscured by steam, and just before things get faux-serious is the most ideal time. If it hasn't become clear before, it turns out that kissing, and lesbian kissing at that accomplishes the bodysnatching. That's another fan service box ticked. But generally, this is an episode where the girls have fun, and surprisingly, no one compares breast sizes for the duration. I suppose Studio Fantasia weren't kidding about toning it down.


It's toned completely down for the final four episodes, as we concentrate on the concluding arc of the story. The subversion of the orbiting bases is almost completed, the Meteor Sweepers are left as the last line of defence against the comets, and Karin falls ill and is kidnapped. We finally learn the truth about the comets, what is happening in orbit, and that Karin is key to the whole thing. In one of those plot holes that you don't lose any sleep over, Karin is somehow kidnapped from the kidnappers and taken into orbit, meaning that to rescue her, Mikaze and the others have to fulfil their lifelong dreams and venture into space as well, saving the world in the process.


It's a rousing and entertaining finale, getting the balance between action, pace and the refusal to take anything too seriously just right. I got caught up in the story and the energetic flow and even ventured close to the edge of my seat on occasion. It's a nice ending to the story and if you choose to, you can be more than satisfied with the disc at this point. However, the combination of mild fan service and even milder sci-fi action proved to be a fair success in Japan, and OVA series followed. The first two-episode outing was released in the US, but has since been deleted. The subsequent six-episode OVA hasn't yet seen an English language release, neither has the two-episode follow up to that. But as I said, this thirteen episode television series is complete in and of itself.