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Vandread - Enemy Engaged (Vol. 1)

Vandread - Enemy Engaged (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fast-Paced Anime Goodness!
Review: "Vandread" can be fairly easily catergorized. It's a space/mecha romantic comedy not unlike "Nadesico" or "Irresponsible Captain Tylor." However derivative it might be, don't make the mistake of thinking it's boring.

The basic premise behind "Vandread" is this: men and women are now completely segregated and consider each other mortal enemies. Men procreate with men, women procreate with women... in fact, no one even remembers what it was like when they still lived together as friends and equals.

Third class citizen and resident hothead Hibiki lets himself get conned by his co-workers into stealing a type of mech he works on, called Vanguards, to prove himself as good as his boasts. Unfortunately for Hibiki, just as he is to reach his goal, the ship he's on is attacked by a band of female pirates (all of whom are babes, of course) and he's taken as a hostage along with a cool, unflappable doctor and the cowardly helmsman Bart.

Amongst their captors is the bubbly, good-hearted Dita, the bespecacled engineer Parfeit, the tough gal "Dread" leader Meia, the vixen Jura, and an assorted cast of wild personalities. (Not to mention a guy by the name of "Rat Bastard.")

As the group slowly learns to accept (and even trust) each other, they must also fight against a strange and unknown enemy bent on "harvesting" everyone.

If this sounds like a lot to swallow at once, you're right. "Vandread" is a very busy series... the high energy and breakneck pacing never slows for a minute during all 13 episodes. The comedy, drama, and romance whiz by at light speed but it never loses it's sense of fun. Naturally, with a cast as large as there is, you need to rely on stereotypes (the hothead incapable of expressing his feelings, the vixen, the tough yet vulernable gal, the wise old lady, and the irrepressably bubbly cutie pie) to keep you occupied. All of them are likable, though... so only the pickiest of people should complain about it.

The upside is definately the comedy. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments to be had here. (Usually because of, or at the expense of, Dita.) The show's namesake comes from the possiblity of a Vanguard and a Dread to merge in battle... which is obviously a metaphor for sex. Being the only member on the ship with a Vanguard, of course Hibiki gets fought over by Dita and Jura over who gets to "unite" with him.

All in all, this is a fun series and definately worth a look for anyone who has a hankering for mecha battles and some romance.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Animated fun with adult themes
Review:
Gonzo, the production company, did an excellent job on the animation. The sequences are smooth and the "CG" blends well with the "standard" animation.
The premise is simple: men think women are evil, women think men are barbarians and untrustworthy. It's like going back to when I was in school and thought girls carried weird diseases. The interaction resulting from this makes the episodes entertaining, if not always hilarious.
After watching the episodes a few times, it became clear that the characters are being developed. Each has a personal history that slowly reveals itself and makes the interactions between them understandable. I look forward to finding out more as the series continues.
The situations are not overtly sexual in this series, but the theme is adult in nature. (One viewing of the end credits should be enough to get the idea.)

My personal view:
If you're a mature viewer that enjoys anime with flying machines and somewhat adult humor, you'll probably like this series. I'd place this series in a similar line as Tenchi and Love Hina.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Silly but fun space adventure/comedy, with some problems
Review: At least in this first disc (containing the first 4 episodes), Vandread is not a serious science fiction/action show. It's a blend of the Tenchi-style dynamic (boy surrounded by girls) with a Star Trek: Voyager premise (spaceship lost deep in unknown space). To be fair, I'd prefer to rate this at 3.5 stars, as it has some problems.

First, the good points. The show doesn't immediately fall prey to the standard plot device of every girl falls in love with the main guy. In fact, the men and women are at war, and the male planet's propaganda films about women are hilarious. There are also other guys in the mix, who liven things up a bit. The sheer number of characters is impressive--almost all of them are female, and if you're watching the dub, I think every American voice actress had to be hired to cover all the roles. The comedy, which ranges from slapstick to the culture/gender clash between the men and women, generally works.

Some things don't work well here. First, the spaceships and fighing machines are all computer-generated, and these parts don't mesh well with the traditional animation of the characters. It's better than, say Blue Sub No. 6 (made by the same studio), but still has a long way to go. The ships generally don't even look good on their own--even Transformers: Beast Wars had better computer-generated images. Second, the main male character, Hibiki, is quite pathetic--a born loser who works to keep himself that way. When he is alone on-screen, the show falters.

But, on the whole, this is a worthwhile purchase. The age rating Pioneer gives this is 13+, but I think I'd bump that up a bit. The numerous female characters don't wear much in the way of clothing, and there is some sexual humor (but no sex). If you like silliness and science fiction, you could do far worse than Vandread.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vandread = pwn
Review: Buy it, watch it, then wait for the rest because this series pays off. One of my favorite anime series alongside Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Hellsing, Gundam, and Evangelion. Aside from a plot that continually improves, characters that grow on you, a multitude of hysterical moments, and a pretty good mix of j-pop, this series leaves little to be desired.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Get ready for an epic series
Review: Easily one of the best Anime to date, japan or in the US. Great characters, awsome babes, kick butt CG and Cell animation, and one of the freshest stories in years, vandread is a must see for otaku alike!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Comedic space romance of meeting the opposite sex 1st time!
Review: For those of you who enjoyed Martian Successor Nadesico, think in terms of Akito like Hibiki the pilot who wanted to prove himself that he can pilot a mecha. Throw in an over hyper active female who has never met a male species before and watch as she meets Hibiki... then they chase each other around in a captiol spaceship that Hibiki snuck aboard to pilot a Vanguard... while an ambush of the female race that is dressed with alien battle uniform with highly technologically advanced weaponary is looking for her within this captiol ship... Hibiki who's called "Mr. Alien" by her soon finds out this female's name is Dita... though acknowledging his own history runs in sheer terror at the sight of this female... why? Well... check out this awesome Anime title and see for yourself!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent
Review: Gah, I don't think plotless fluff comes better than this. The overall feel of the show is perfect, from the bright colors on the ship mixed with the sedate colors used on the characters to the excellent music, everything meshes well. I love the design used for Nirvana and the Dreads, and the Vandreads are nifty, if a little typical. The CG animation, which so many people have looked down on, is a little jarring at first, but had they tried to to the battle scenes without it, this series would have lost a LOT of what it had going for it in the first place: the superb action. God, watching these battles is like a 20 minute shootergasm. And the enemies are smart and vicious without being too trite... perfect. [....]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this anime!
Review: I admit I was never a huge fan of anime shows. But one dull night at home and nothing else to watch on tv changed all of that. I couldn't find anything else to watch and I came across a few late night anime shows on Starz action channel. I would usually watch for a while just to pass the time. Until I saw Vandread. It was already near the end of the first stage but the episodes I saw were amazing! The story was interesting, with the women and men getting to know one another after years of being separated from the other and the 3D action was outstanding! It totally blew me away. Ever since then I watched the rest of the first stage and all of the second stage and it just kept getting better and better, I didn't want the series to end and I had to see how it all started so now I'm in the process of buying the series DVDs.

Unfortunately the DVDs don't really offer anything on them: all you get is a language choice (English & Japanese), English Subtitles, Scene Access, Promo videos, Design Gallery, Textless openings. Plus four episodes: Boy meets girl, And...I lost my way, This is the path I choose to live, I want to know more about you. Even though I love the episodes especially in letterbox version the DVD itself isn't worth twenty-six dollars.

But that's okay, I still want the entire series on DVD and will pay for it, the series is that good! LOL! It also turned me on to watching other anime shows like Inuyasha, cowboy bebop, et al on the cartoon network and other late night starz action channel anime shows. So I guess it opened up the world of Anime to me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Anime at it's best!
Review: I just have to say, anyone who loves anime should get this DVD, Vandread, is a cool, and best, anime series, it has everything, action, humor, drama, and romance. I especially like the drama and romance parts of Vandread, because those are the parts where it gets serious, and thats how I like anime series to be like. I still havent gotten all the Vandread DVD's, but trust me, because of how much Vandread really kicks ass, Im going to get them all. Vandread Rules!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Boy-meets-girl space theme
Review: I like boy-meets-girl space themes with action and decent graphics, with slinky gals, occasional jiggling, people who aren't [bad], and this has them. I prefer anime where the genders mix and goofs happen and comedy occurs and sometimes there is heart break. The plot and story aren't necessarily new: Martian Successor Nadesico and a few other series have similar plot. There are pirates, transforming mecha, battles, glitzy affects, and so on just like others. But, it is told with enough original details to make it fresh (beleive me, I have watched a lot of shows, and a lot are pretty dull, so I won't say that without need).

Perfect? No. I am also looking for mature (not twisted nor peverted, just mature) themed anime along the lines of boy-and-girl-have-already-met-and-married-and-have-kiddies to get out of the kiddies in high-school level most are, but since most anime is intended for young kids and serial TV showing, I don't really complain that I don't find it. Series like these make the wait okay.

Nudity? Hmm, gotta look harder I guess. Haven't seen any real nudity in it. Maybe some of the reviewers haven't seen the show? (Or maybe they think of nudity as something other than really naked people?)


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