Are you there? I'm here, and I'll be reviewing the anime Fafner (I'll call it this throughout the review) which I am sure most of you have never even heard of.
Yeah I like to find stuff that people don't watch and see for myself are they really worth ignoring. So I hope you are here till the end of this one.
P/S: I'm trying a new review format.
Overview
Genre: Drama, Mecha, Sci-Fi
Episodes: 26
Length/Episode: 23:50 minutes
Studio: Xebec
Date Aired: 2004 (Old innit?)
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| The one and only battle damage you'll ever see in this anime. Others mostly just minor damage like chopped arm and such. |
Opening and Ending Songs
Both are sung by angela (I am sure as hell she has this relationship with Xebec. So many animes by Xebec got songs sung by her damn it). The opening, Shangri-La will give you the idea of what the story is generally I guess. And its good too (in my humble opinion).
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| Not angela, but this part was funny as hell. |
The Ending song though. Believe it or not, I have never heard of Fafner back when I first heard it. This was... back in 2008. I was randomly downloading MSG SEED's songs and stumbled upon this. Now in 2016 when I watched the anime I was like "OH WHAT ITS THIS SONG" so it kind of brought back memories. Ending song by far better than the opening song (again in my opinion) because it just gives me that sense of nostalgia. The song is titled Separation.
Summary
Ya know. I can just copy the summary from Kissanime or whatnot and be done with it but I won't. Just saying. So anyways, Fafner takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where angel-shaped aliens called Festum decided that they want to "learn" about all sorts of things from humans.
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| At first look, they seem like angels... Sheesh. Yeah this is a Festum. |
The anime tells of an island created solely for the purpose of combating these aliens and the children destined to be pilots of machines that are able to block the aliens' mind reading abilities (yeah these Festums are kind of overpowered if you ask me) making it slightly easier to beat the crap out of them.
Note: Emphasis on the "slightly".
Character Layout
So the anime focuses on the children of the island and how their fates go about as they fought the Festum. They're teenagers. High school kids. So expect to see naivete, foolish actions, burning youth (which leads to more foolish action) and probably a bit of romance as well.
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| "unite" with who I guess? *smirks* |
There are also adults on the island of course. I mean lets be real a bunch of kids can't fight over powered mind-reading silicon extraterrestrial beings. The adults are made up of mostly researchers, island maintenance staff and military officers who work to make the island what it is. A lean, mean Festum fighting machine.
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| One of the asshole adults. There's more where these came from. Sigh. |
There isn't much ambiguity in the teenager characters in the anime. I mean they all love each other and the power of youth and all that so I won't expand on it. The adults, however are very different. Some of them are selfish sumbitches and others, assholes (especially the ones that are OUTSIDE of the island).
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| A love triangle right at the start. Though... its still frustrating to watch. Sigh. Frustrating. |
The ones who live in the island are close to each other just because they lived with each other for a very long time. I mean, its practically a neighborhood already and I find it quite entertaining at times.
P/S: There's also a catch as to the adults' function on the island. I was smiling when I found out.
Rough Plot Structure
The anime starts off slow for about 10 episodes, giving a somewhat... basic explanation on stuff and the atmosphere of the anime as a whole (which is in my opinion depressing) and then comes off really interesting as it goes on. Believe me. My attitude towards the anime changed from "come on lets get this over with" to "oh wow I wonder what happens next" as I watched episode 10 onward.
Before episode 10 though, it was hard to watch.
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| This was also very hilarious. This and the screenshot from the "songs" subtitle were of the same episode. |
Weight of the Anime
By weight... I mean... uh let's just say this is where I explain whether its got weird stuff going on about it or its just one of those animes where you can watch it without paying much attention to details, yeah?
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| Yeah these borderline yaoi japes will get to you. BUT. WATCH TO THE END. You'll understand. |
So Fafner is quite heavy in this sense. There are so many mature themes present in the anime such as the meaning of existence (Yes really the Festum questions the meaning of existence. That was the whole meaning to the quote "Are you there?") and the nature of peace.
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| MORE YAOI JAPES. ENDURE IT. Its not really what it looks like. I promise. |
Its... also heavy in the sense that it doesn't spare people much. Yeah. As I watched the show I was betting with my cousin who would die next. No really. Sure it doesn't really have the suspense element like, say Terraformars (an anime where people hunt human-sized roach martians and die like lambs to a slaughter) but it gives you this feeling of creeping death instead.
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| These yaoi japes were aimed at this guy. Yes this is the main character. |
There are still plot armor though and if you haven't noticed yet, there's a second season and all that too so I kind of inferred who died and who lived because I accidentally saw the cover for the second season.
The Ending
In my opinion, an anime's ending is quite important. How one anime decides to close itsself says a lot about it as a whole. Not to say that if the ending is sad, its bad. No. HOWEVER. IF ITS A CLIFFHANGER WITHOUT A SECOND SEASON, THEN ITS BAD.
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| STAHP IT WITH THE YAOI JAPES GOD DAMN IT. |
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| This is a VERY OLD JOKE. None of you new kids would even think this is funny. At all. I lived when this joke really did make sense. So shut it. |
So Fafner closes up almost nicely as it doesn't imply anything about the story continuing and the main conflict is resolved anyways. There wasn't any point in doing so. However, it did have one small detail it decides to hold back as there is a movie concluding that one small detail I think, so that's fine. I have no qualms with that. I will probably do a review on the second season and the movie too probably.
Mech Design
This is a special subtitle for mecha (duh) anime.
I have to say that the Fafners have a very original design and each Fafner is different from the other. I give kudos to the people who work hard on the designs... BUT in my opinion, its not really appealing. At all. The designs look a bit weird (except a select few) probably because I myself am not accustomed to various real robot (mechs that are smaller in size and excels in mobility rather than power) designs myself but I really couldn't like the designs much.
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| It looks... like a praying mantis or a grasshopper. Its not bad per se but I don't know. I don't prefer it. |
I didn't say it was bad. I said it was unappealing. Plus. Take everything I say with a bucket of salt.
In A Nutshell
I'd really recommend this anime to people who can actually stand dark and depressing story lines and those who actually prefer the sci-fi genre. Sure the tag says mecha but it leans heavier on the sci-fi and a lot less on the robots. If you love hot-blooded youth spirit or sugar-coated clouds, I advice you stay away from this one. It has none of those things.
P/S: If you read this, I beg you. Please. Tell me which style you prefer. This one, or the previous ones where I just write about interesting stuff on the anime. And please. If you're still reading, I beg you. Leave a feedback. Hell at least leave a tick on the boxes below. At least I'll know whether I suck balls or I'm just trash. I beg you. Please.
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