Sol Bianca (1991) Online

Having seen this OAV a few days ago, I was interested to see so few reviews, so I'll write my own ;)

The plot basically revolves around the pirates on board the Sol Bianca, who find a young boy as stowed away in a cargo crate which they've just half-inched from a space freighter. Said boy wants to go to the planet where he was bound before his 'kidnap'. After buttering up his (all female) 'captors' with stories of treasure, they head off to the planet, full throttle. Blah blah blah. Feeling excited yet? I wasn't.

About half way through, it had become obvious that the female leads were busy following their stereotypes, and would do nothing more. The 'baddie' is identical to a thousand and one evil generals seen elsewhere in Venus Wars and Plastic Little, though both those characters had at least some interesting facets.

Every aspect of the OAV is well-trodden territory, from the characters themselves, the character designs, the plot, the settings, the relationships between characters, it's all 'ditto'. There's no time given to explaining what's going on, because what's going on is painfully obvious. You sit there in stupified silence and wonder if the few minutes of decent viewing (most of the way through the film) justify watching the entire thing. They don't, unfortunately.

What bothers me intensely about this is if there were a few more minutes running time, and a little more LIFE in this short film, then it could have turned out differently. As it stands, I can't see it being of much use to many people.

If you can see this for nothing, borrow it or watch it on TV, then go for it and form your own opinions. I would heartily discourage all but completists from paying good money to own this, there's nothing here they won't have seen being done better on another anime film.

This is simply one of the best. One of the greatest anime movies short of Akira. You got to see this, even if you hate anime! Five women against the universe? The universe doesn't stand a chance against them. WooHoo!

My favorite scene in the movie takes place when one of the lady pirates dons a space suit, floats over to an artificial planetary ring, sets up a wicked-looking sniper rig, and starts raining down energy bolts on unfortunate bad guys several kilometers down, precipitating an exciting escape attempt.

Another was when one of the main characters explains to the ruler of the planet exactly why it is that they will not trade their ship for their lives. Very Japanese, but with a hint of Ayn Rand.

Really liked the gals. Nice production design as well. And the music added to the interest.

This first episode was great. I hope more will be forthcoming. (If the weak second installment did not doom the franchise!)

Iria:Zeiram the Animation and Venus Wars are my favorite anime titles. This movie is now included in that category. Sweet animation, fun characters, nice music, and exciting action scenes. A must see for anime fans.