(L) Project Blue Earth SOS

[Ja-Y-Ce]

Source: Anime Days

Studio A.C.G.T. will produce "Project Blue Earth SOS" an OAV based on a series of illustrations entitled "Earth SOS."

The Earth SOS illustrations were created by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, and published in the 1940s. Komatsuzaki is a famous Japanese sci-fi illustrator and model designer who worked on many popular projects during his lifetime, including the Thunderbirds puppet TV series, Atragon and The Mysterians. Atragon was in fact partially based on an original, illustrated story by Komatsuzaki, "The Undersea Kingdom" (Kaitei Okoku). He also designed the ship itself. Komatsuzaki passed away in 2002 at the age of 86.

Project Blue Earth SOS will be directed by Tensai Okamura, based on a script by Ryota Yamaguchi. Character designs will be by Noriyuki Matsutake, while Shinji Aramaki and Jin Fukuchi will handle mechanical designs.

The series will be broadcast once on AT-X in July, before being released on DVD.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...me.php?id=6382

Official site - http://www.projectblue.jp/

Juz wonder, has anyone seen this yet? Can tell me whether is it good? It was out on 2 Jul 06. Thanks in advance

[Keitarou]

Hmm, to summarise it in one sentence: Retro-futurism styled, quite fun version of War of the Worlds.

We have three main characters who are all kids. Billy Kimura, a proclaimed genius, Penny Carter, another genius who got several master degrees in science, and the daughter of a famous professor, Emely Brest. The story starts off with a test flight of some new jet engine, but is interupted when some weird lights catch up with the jet and it disappears. After that there seems to be a shift and we continue (years later? - I think Clayton mentioned it being five years ago) with our characters who witness another such happening, after some research they set off just to find out that those lights are actually of an extraterrestrial source. The full-scale attack happens shortly after that but they get unexpected help and the episode ends with the introduction of Metropolitan X. Story in a nutshell, nothing really outstanding.

It's really the style all this ova is about. Retro-futurism works quite well, the designs are good and manage to build up that overall feel and the music is fitting with its jazz tunes. Aside from that it seems like there are quite some underlying things in that ova which could lead to interesting development, for one the unknown characters introduced in the opening only with a "?" instead of a name and the sudden reappearence of a character at the end.

Overall not something that's even near a must see, but in case you like something along the lines of my try to summarise it, you could give it a shot. I'm rather sceptical about the expectations of a sub though.

Oh yeah, some screens in case you need to get more of an impression than the promo delivered:

[Radiosity]

Ooh, Ms. Brest is voiced by Ryou Hirohashi, the voice talent behind my beloved Alice chan (Aria the Animation), amongst other notable roles.

I have to ask though, WTF is Metropolitan X? Please tell me it's not some dodgy mecha? One can only hope...

edit: Looking at the pic there... it seems that it's a city? Sounds reasonable from the name.

[CaiSter21]

any words on a group subbing this anime?

[hdx514]

Calling sky captain... We will not die without a fight! Metropolitan will live on! We're going to survive and celebrate our Independence Day!

[orion]

Sub is out for this. Yippee!

Can we move this to the fansubs forum?

[pathyfinder]

any word on how many eps yet?

I enjoyed the first ep, found it very entertaining. (Even yet, it was predictable, I liked it )

[ImClueless]

Originally Posted by hdx514

Calling sky captain... We will not die without a fight! Metropolitan will live on! We're going to survive and celebrate our Independence Day!

Yes this show is very much like Independence Day. They better not defeat the aliens like Independence Day. It also reminded me of Mars Attacks although the way the Martians are defeated in the movie was kind of lame too eventhough it was really a parody of the old school sci-fi movies. Aliens invaders should be tougher and not get defeated so easily.

[syniel]

I couldn't actually get into any of the characters of the OAV. Did anyone else have that same feeling?

[Friday]

it looks promising

[lavielove]

@ImClueless 1940 is alot earlier than 1996,so that thing must be other way around.The mysterious girl should have had more screen time than Billy though.I think we'll have a chance to find out more about her in second OVA.

[ragnarokr]

Well, this looks promising. UFos are allways interesting and a anime that runs away from the overflowed sterotypes of the bishoujo anime of nowadays is also highly welcome.

BTW, does anyone knows the periodicity of the OVAs?

[ImClueless]

Originally Posted by lavielove

@ImClueless 1940 is alot earlier than 1996,so that thing must be other way around.The mysterious girl should have had more screen time than Billy though.I think we'll have a chance to find out more about her in second OVA.

Huh, 1940? What are you talking about? Isn't this anime set in 2000 and both Mars Attack and Independence Day set in the late 90s?

[ashefatal]

..Yea...my NewType July issue says "Set in the retro-futuristic metropolis in the year 2000.."

[Rowan]

That I just don't get. Why in the world did they set a futuristic story six years in the past? Homage to the author? Just for fun?

R.

[felix]

Its a parallel universe thing...
The main reason is because the story was probably originally written that way... and if it was set in the future it would look cheesy...

[Hayamaneko]

lol "Lotta Brest". And she's a loli too

[Kilarney]

It appears as though the second episode aired on August 5, 2006. Let's hope a fansub comes out soon!

[Loki.Nya]

*cough*

No one is doing this show?

[orion]

Maybe they couldn't find a decent raw.