So far, I have seen only the first ten episodes, on 2 DVD’s. The menus are good - a bit slow to get to the point, because of animation, but it’s good stuff, and very clear. Music is a plus; the opener and closer are both catchy romantic tunes, and the soundtrack during action shots obviously makes use of a “bass choir” (if there’s a technical term for it, I don’t know what it is) overlaying a good electronic score. The animation is good; underwater landscapes are detailed, and interiors have an authentic worn and rusty look to them. You can look at areas in Adena and know the place is run down and economically blighted.
Voice acting in the Japanese version is outstanding, but avoid the English dub like the plague. They made a horrible, horrible choice for Lt. Vestemona, and she’s the major female lead. Her seiyu comes across as a whiney, bitchy, little twit. I’ve heard more lethargic delivery, but never more revolting. It took all of five lines spoken by her before I cried “Uncle!!!” and switched to the Japanese voice track. It was bad enough to make me cheer her rival Enora on.
Character design is good, with the possible exception (again, unfortunately) of Lt. Vestemona; I am bad about face recognition, and her changes in hair color and styling from on duty to off gave me problems. For some reason, when she’s off duty and lets her hair down, the animators tend to color it more brown, especially in dim light, and that threw me. It wouldn’t have if I’d paid more attention to the opening credits. There’s a beautiful fade there, that highlights her inner conflict over being back on Mars, let alone the other little problem she discovers there.
Gram is fairly typical, just a good-looking hero, but the designers avoided the easy trap of making Captain Elizibeth look too sexy to be the leader or Enora vampish enough to ring false. Bon, Gram’s young friend, is missing a tooth, which helps drive home that these people are poor; neither we nor they can take their health or dental hygine for granted. Life’s hard. Talking cats and robots with an attitude? Done to death. But a talking porpoise that walks around in a robot suit? A bit different.
And that really summarizes Mars Daybreak. There’s not a lot that’s original; it’s one clichè after another. (Edit: it is based on a computer game, after all!) Take a “true prince” story. Hide it under a science-fiction sea pirate adventure. Tuck in political intrigue, revolutionary movements, and a love triangle involving the true prince and two strong-willed women who shouldn’t have anything to do with him, but instead have everything to do with him. Don’t forget to make the pirates be Robin Hood-like heroes, then add a few plucky kids, mecha combat, psychic girls, touchy robots, ancient mysteries, a treasure waiting to be found, a revolutionary leader, double agents, “sea-witches,” talking animals, mercenary bad-guys, manipulative politicians, and a few crackpots. Stir vigorously.
Edit: grrr, sorry about the lack of pictures for the first three hours. Stupid thing will show them in my preview, but not after posting, unless I put a fully qualified URL in the link. Anyway, it’s fixed now. Click on the pics for the full size.
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