Dallos

In the future, the Earth's resources have been depleted and therefore a mining colony has been established on the moon so the Earth inhabitants can survive and flourish.  But all is not perfect on the moon. The colonists complain of being treated unfairly with low pay and feeling as if they are of a lesser race than Earthlings because of being colonist. As such they resort to terrorism in retaliation and to make their cause known to everyone. Of course the Earth leaders who are charge of them are under fire by the higher ups, and so they appoint Alex, head of the defense to get rid of the protestors and "terrorists." A young man named Shun gets mixed up with the the colony workers uprising, as his deceased brother was part of the movement. His best friend also gets caught in the crossfire and the workers do their best to resist the forces. They protect and hide around their stronghold Dallos, a mysterious advanced form of ancient technology whom no one knows what is it's purpose. Eventually Shun joins the resistance after the seeing the crimes the Earth defense has lied about and committed. When the earth forces try to destroy Dallos as a last resort, it actually rebuilds itself, but they are not prepared for what will happen next.

 

This was an interesting watch, mostly because of the fact it was the first OVA or Original Video Animation, and also the first straight to video anime. It's a 4 parter with each episode running 25 minutes or so, so about a movie length if you wanted to watch it in one day. Knowing 80's titles, I thought it would be more light hearted, and yet I was pleasantly surprised how serious it's content and message was. It's a futuristic setting, and yet a lot of the issues: equal rights for workers, discrimination, authority abuse and government cover ups, all were and still are timely subjects of current situations. The animation is very good for being from the 80's, and set the standard for later OVA series that look high quality, compared to TV series where there is a tighter budget. The characters are good though not totally memorable. I like how Alex goes from being stern with his guidlines and his job to actually learning a lesson from everything in the aftermath. I expected Shun to actually support the colonists cause, though I didn't expect his girlfriend would do a 180, after pleading with shun not to but then seeing the horrors of what is happening. As for Dallos, I'm still not sure what it's full purpose was and perhaps that's the point. I mean they have an idea what it can do when people "misbehave" if you will, so I think it's one of those "leave well enough alone" kind of things. For historical purposes, Dallos is a great watch after all, and probabaly one to have in your classic collection. Maybe not the most memorable OVA, but all future video series owe a lot to this one. Thumbs up.

 

Sound Euphonium

 

The Kitauji High School band club usually performed very well at concerts and were good enough to make it to the nationals. But one year they only made it as runners-up, which was devastating to some band members such as devoted trumeter Reina. Kumiko is a member of the band, playing a Euphonium in the bass section. When the new year comes around, she and her two new friends Hazuki and Sapphire reluctantly decide to join the band club again. Kumiko wants to play a different instrument than euphonium while Hazuki wants to play the trumpet. But the enthusiastic vp of the club Haruka is determined to get new recruits for the bass section. It's leaked that Kumiko plays euphonium, but she decides to try it agian. Hazuki is seduced into playing a tuba and gives it a nickname to boot. Sapphire sticks with her personal favorite: the contrabass. Mr. Taki is the new music teacher and advisor for the club, and decides to have the club vote whether or not to try to make it to nationals, while others hope just to play at the Sunrise Festival. The vote goes in favor of the nationals and so Taki warns them he will very strict in getting them to practice to get to a concert level of playing. Some ensembles practice, while others neglect to do so. At their first practice together with Mr. Taki, they play very badly, so he says they can't expect to play at the festival let alone the nationals if they play like they did. Some students don't like how Taki is running the show, and lose interest in the band. A practice is cancelled, and the heads of the club have to figure out what to do. Reina is frustrated and snaps at Kumiko after hearing criticism about Mr. Taki. Taki runs some vigourous and unusual drills to get everyone to practice better and get to a level he wants. The band later gets together for practice so Taki can hear them. They have much improved, and to the delight of everyone, Taki says they can aim for the festival as well as the nationals now...

 

I always like a series that has something to do with music, but I never had the privilege of being in a band during school. I guess it was just too intimidating and too time consuming--having to either blow into an instrument constantly or use a bow to play something. I guess I was destined to play a guitar. But seeing a series like this gives me an idea what it was like to be in a symphonic band. It's interesting to see a Japanese series centering around western instruments, and that even the cute school girls in anime can use trumpets, tubas and euphoniums (and I never knew that's what they were called). It's also interesting to see that the students devotion to band varies: some are just in it for fun, some probably just doing it for their mom or dad or some are striving to be the best. When faced with a challenging teacher/advisor, we see where their devotion lies. We start with a typical anime school setting, but it became more interesting when Kumiko and friends start talking about band and instruments and soon it becomes a great character study and not just an appreciation of band. Kumiko's relationship with Reina is rather cold after the failure of the previous year of getting to the nationals--Reina was heartbroken and couldn't believe Kumiko didn't feel the same. Now Kumiko has to start from scratch from her, though she's so afraid to approach her. She's also trying to restart a friendship with childhood friend Shuichi, after a falling out a few years earlier. Her two classmates Hazuki and Sapphire are very charming and are great more relaxed counterparts to the rather serious Kumiko. I also like the entusiasm of Haruka the VP of the band club, who's a bit overzealous and overexcited about getting new recruits for the bass section, and she's also very cute. Anime series where they aim for a goal keep me hyped to see the conclusion, so I hope they make it to the nationals--of course I hear there's a second season too. For something a little different in a school anime, and if happen to be a band otaku, you many want to check this one out. Thumbs up.