 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ADV FILMS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 2.0 AND JAPANESE DD 5.1 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 90 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV PG | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/12/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/26/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Wow. Project Blue Earth SOS really shines - both metaphorically and literally! Now there’s a talent if I ever heard one. This anime is the kind of show that can bring back people’s faith in the art form, just in case they’ve lost it lately to any of the “beautiful, yet empty” shows that are so many in recent years. It’s one thing to look good, but to look amazing and have plot content that measures up to such visual excellence is another story altogether. Project Blue Earth SOS is visually fantastic - it’s movie quality animation in a television series - you can’t ask for more than that. And the story is going places and getting there fast - this one could be epic.
But lets start where it supposedly all started. On January 1st, 1995, a G-Reactive fighter plane was being tested when it was hit by a mysterious rainbow light and disappeared off the radar and out of the sky completely. Five years later at the turn of the century, two boys meet for the first time at a train station where a new bullet train with a G-Reactive component is being launched. Billy Kimura and Penny Carter are their names, and they are highly competitive with each other from the get go. Billy is a billionaire’s son with a strong wit and a will to get things done, and Penny seems to be a wayward traveller with more smarts than he lets on. Before they have time for more than an introduction though, the train is hit by a fantastic rainbow light and completely disappears - just like the fighter jet of five years ago. To everyone’s shock and dismay, it doesn‘t return and there is no trace that the train had ever been there in the first place. Many other G-Reactive vehicles are disappearing also, and no one is completely sure why. After a series of events and discoveries, the two boys uncover that aliens were beginning to invade earth as early as 1995. Scientists developed the Sky Knight, a fighter plane capable of defending the earth from these violent new invaders. As the extraterrestrials begin to invade earth and create havoc by destroying G-Reactive capable machines, the boys and their comrades set out on an attempt to save the human race from the so far faceless alien threat. What could these invaders be after? What are their motivations in destroying G-Reactive technology? The story and characters are engaging on a film quality level - there’s lots of interesting things going on for all of them, no question. But the animation hardly disappoints. Everything is crisp and clear beyond what has been possible in animation until more recently. The fusing of hand drawn traditional animation techniques and computer graphics are almost seamless within the art of this series - it’s one of the most seamless examples of these techniques being mixed that you will have ever seen. Everything is vibrant and alive - or shining, stellar and fantastic when it comes to machines and technology. The world that is being portrayed is a strange one, but also fairly familira. It’s almost as though technology got sped up about 50 years earlier than we may very well experience in the future - but still pays homage to that familiar technical buzz of 1950’s post war boom. The architecture of buildings and the fusing of nature with them is amazing. You may actually want to pause the DVD playback and just check out some of the architectural design - I know I did! The home base that Billy seems to live in, or at least returns to frequently is one of the most fantastic architectural designs for a living space that incorporates living vegetation and environment that I have ever seen in real life or in a piece of fiction. If that building ever opens up somewhere nearby, I’ll certainly look into maybe renting some space and taking in the good life. Mechanical designs and character designs are cool also - everything and everyone in this show is made so believable by the way they are portrayed. It’s an immediately impressive work of art as an anime - it catches your attention and holds it with good old fashioned story depth, and new age animation techniques that have to be seen to be understood. All in all, the whole package that is this show just blows me away - it’s wholly innovative and exciting. Science fiction, government intrigue, interesting design concepts, floating fortresses and more fire power than you can shake an atom bomb at all come together to make Project Blue Earth SOS a sure winner in the anime scene. EXTRAS:
Clean Opening Animation, ADV Previews, and DVD Credits. IN SUMMARY:
Project Blue Earth SOS is as entertaining as it is beautiful - a totally worth while watch with everything from high flying adventure to innovative technological concepts that make this show both smart and exciting. The animation is perfect, and the story has the potential to be truly epic. Not to be missed!
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