Starship Operators (Vol 1-3): Added 5-21-06

Rarely do I ever watch mostly serious anime. I decided to give Starship Operators a look after reading about the plot. Set in the future Starship Operators revolves around a crew of cadets aboard a highly advanced 'guardship' the last free-ship of their nation. A space nation called Kibi which was invaded by another space nation.

In order to sustain the fight as a rogue ship, the crew of the Amaterasu signs a deal with a reality TV show in order to provide them with supplies. The Galaxy Network, the sponsor and part of a large conglomerate AGI agrees. With a camera crew aboard the ship things are anything but normal.

There's some things that the series manages to get right. The visuals are great and the art style is pleasing though it doesn't try to wow you with too much technical design. The dub version is fairly well met and the vocal performances are usually consistent. The soundtrack is also very nice and has a pleasant closing track. What wasn't done very well was the length of the OVA and the overall character development. I often felt like the plot was rushed by episode seven and things were jammed rapidly during the last three episodes of the series. Realism is done surprisingly well and in some areas they comment on the state of TV and particularly reality TV and journalism which I found interesting.

All in all the series wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The plot advanced very quickly for my taste and given some of the complex political plotlines they tried to unfold things didn't work well and everything felt hobbled together. Sadly I have to give this series a 6/10. While the video and audio were great, the storyline won't win people over. The ending of the series felt a little off kilter.
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The crew of the Amaterasu