Rating: 8.8/10, 9.2/10, 9.5/10, 9.3/10

Overall Series Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

I can’t exactly say the ending is unique, and that is the main reason why I think it somewhat let the rest of the series down. I was expecting war on a grander scale, more deaths, and I wasn’t expecting Sara to survive either. I guess the overall flaw is the over-focus on Sara and her emotions, rather than on the plot, which had a lot of potential. Just one ship doesn’t cut it in my opinion. However, the ending is still very enjoyable, so I can’t complain too much. All in all, this is a series I would recommend, even for those who dislike mecha. It begins powerfully with all the deaths and angst, and rides along until the end with more emotional development and drama.

At first, the quality is questionable, though it doesn’t really matter as the other aspects are good enough to more than make up for it. As the show progresses though, the quality improves a great deal, and the mecha action scenes become a nice sight to behold. The battles near the end of the series are especially impressive. I really like the concept of the Strains and the way they launch as well. It gives the sense of primitive insects, with the way they are stored and released. I really like their designs as well. This is a mecha design where CG looks really good. The flying sparks are a nice touch as well.

I put off watching the last few episoes of this show for many other things to watch, though now of course, I have finished the series. Watching series in a row sure satisfies tempations, but allow less time for analyssation and for the episodes to sink in. However, I decided against blogging this as two or more separate entries, as I hate putting things off and extending things. Anyway, final few words, I think the concept and backstory are pretty well thought out. Ralph remains the antagonist until the end and dies like he should. However, I was expecting Sara to perhaps suicide to take her brother down with her, but it doesn’t happen.

Rating: 9.3/10 & 8.6/10

Impressions:

Wow, those were two smokin’ hot episodes that completely returned my love for this series! Episode 8 was such a shocking reminder of how serious and fantastic this should used to be before a brief period of complete shit. It is full of drama, emotion and engaging plot twists. And the producers even managed to throw in some romance and fun in the first half. Unfortunately for Sara, another potential lover is killed by her brother. However, fortunately for me though, it is one of the things that make me come back for more. The drama and plot are so juicy you simply cannot wait to see it. The action is nice too, though we didn’t exactly see much in either episode. That will be reserved for the final few episodes I believe. It’s also about time Sara’s true identity is revealed. Episode 9 isn’t as gripping as episode 8, though entertaining nonetheless. Sara finally comes to terms with her feelings towards her brother, and makes a temporary truce with Lottie as it seems (and perhaps the higher ups as well).

The quality is noticeably higher now, and hopefully it can stay like that for the rest of the series. Episodes like these make me wish the series was a 26 episoder, and without the random and inappropriate fanservice that episode 7 is laden with. I’m also glad that Sara finally voices her own misfortunes in life. I had hoped she would be more forceful with Lottie, explaining to her that she is not the only one who suffered. However, the end result sufficed and that is that. Anyway, downloading episode 10 now (can’t wait)! It seems like Ralph’s intentions will finally be revealed. He must have had a really important reason to defect to the other side like that, and Emily most likely has something to do with it. Him coughing up blood also suggests he is short of time to do what he needs to do. I’m also not sure how he’s gonna die, though I am pretty sure he will. Perhaps he will be handicapped by his disease of sorts, allowing Sara to take the upperhand. He will probably die in front of Sara though (it would be pretty meaningless if he just blew up alongside his Strain).

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

Wow, what an unexpected episode. The fanservice meter increased from 0 to 100% in the first five seconds. o_O And the nude scene was uncalled for. I mean, why the hell would the producers decide to do something like this? The show was doing great before, it didn’t need any redeeming points. All they had to do was cut to the chase and have Sara lose her mimic. They didn’t have to go so far to set up its misplacement. I am very disappointed. Soukou no Strain started wonderfully with a solid foundation for a captivating plot to blossom, and in fact that plot is still there, though cleverly disguised by the fanservice and filler-like material. The sudden change in Sara’s life when her friends were killed provided the drama, torment and bleakness that the show lives off. And the problem is, I doubt that will ever come back. Next episode, Sara appears to be on a date with Carris. Sure, her relationship with him needs to develop, but if it gets dragged out unnecessarily; filler!!!

Well, at least it seems like Sara is going to meet the real Emily. It appears that Emily has a better personality than people would think after witnessing her display of affection for Ralph and nothing else. Still, if her personality is a fun one, it will be totally misplaced. The fun and humour will destroy what’s left of the dark atmosphere that this show is good for. Anyway, I still haven’t gotten used to Sara feeling so at home with her new Reasoner teammates. It looks like the absence of Sara made her break down and let out her lingering feelings regarding her brother’s betrayal. At least this proves there is still some hope left in the show, and perhaps Sara will go psycho when she meets her brother. There’s still Ralph’s reasons and background to go through, and there’s plenty of time to do that. Being a single season series, this show should have little pacing problems with its great storyline, though unfortunately it’s already suffered quite a letdown due to Lavinia. But then again, there must be people out there who loved this episode for her.

Preview:

Next episode – #11
It’s Tougou vs Cornelia!

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

I’m slightly disappointed with this episode, since the drama and emotional build-up have just disintegrated with the tone change. Not to mention the plot just crashed into a brick wall too, and it slowly started seeping through again by the last third of the episode. It’s kind of sad how now it looks like Sara’s back to her old self again, which means there will less likely be many more deaths, betrayals and serious confrontations (within Sara’s ship I mean, not against the enemy). The battles should remain and only get more significant, though it looks like the series might be taking a break from everything and focusing on character development. The storyline might be picked up again after a few episodes and cruise along to the dramatic climax, then for a grand finale at episode 13…or was it 12? Hopefully, that is. Still, there hasn’t been nearly enough focus on the Deague, Ralph or Emily – the real Emily. She and her mimic are bound to cross paths sooner or later, and I hope the drama can be spread out evenly through the course of the series.

The party is pretty ridiculous if you ask me, though it did provide the basis for some expressive interaction between characters, and especially, the coaxing of our main character, Sara. It seems that since the last episode, she has opened enough to actually take notice of her peers, enough to remember their details and convey them to Emily. Carris warms up to Sara somewhat by engaging in something she is rather familiar with: dancing. However, he ruins it by asking her about her teacher, which obviously reminds her of Ralph’s betrayal and the death of all her previous friends. Even so, by the end of the episode, she seems to have accepted her new team mates as her friends. Oh and, while accidentally wandering the Omni’s post on the seventh episode, it seems like there will be some…changes to the style of this show. It also shows how close Emily is to meeting/returning to her mimic, as well as Ralph’s and Sara’s in-person confrontation. That will surely bring some weird twist in the plot, or at least a kick to jump start it again.

Plot Outline:

- In a Deague ship, Emily is running through the halls, accompanied by Ralph
- A confrontation involving Ralph and a Deague operative reveals Ralph’s misplacement on the vessel
- Back on Libertad(?), the Reasoners are having another simulation battle, though Sara once again strays from the agreed formation to destroy the enemy
- This upsets Lottie, who runs to Sara’s Strain and tells her off
- Sara ignores her and takes Emily back to her room
- Later on, Carris and Dickon take a look at a drawing Sara is making, and are shocked to hear that it’s Emily’s clothes (apparently the drawing is so horrible it can’t be recognised)

- A little while after, Lottie decides to hold a party in Sara’s Strain’s hanger
- Sara sits with Emily and doesn’t really participate, but Carris sits down beside her and starts a conversation
- When the music starts, the two start dancing (Sara actually agrees to this since dancing was once her passion)
- Afterwards though, Carris asks her about who taught her how to dance, which reminds her of her dead friends
- Before any more words can be exchanged, a warning sounds, indicating the presence of danger
- Apparently, a number of Tumors have been detected on the ship and the Reasoners are sent out to investigate
- Lavinia is ambushed by the Tumors, but is saved by Sara
- Sara and Lottie team up to destroy the Tumors by themselves, before returning to the ship and resuming the party

Preview:

Next episode – #7
There WILL be nudity

Rating: 9.2/10

Impressions:

I just love this show now. After the big battle that was last episode, the show retreats back into character development mode and deals with some serious relational issues with Sara and her coworkers. It kinda pissed me off seeing Sara just take the beating by Mariette and not even saying anything. I was really hoping she’d express her reason for not retaliating, which is obviously because she’s been through the same situation and knows how it feels. But I would have really liked to see Sara go agro on Mariette and say straight to her face that she’s not the only one who’s suffered. Anyway though, the moment is incredible serious and provides potential for the show to evolve this particular branch of the story. Sara’s new possible love interest is also getting more screen time along with the other Reisners, though I hope the Gambee pilots aren’t thrown out in terms of their roles as characters. Mariette will probably return later on and hinder Sara during some important activity, causing all sorts of trouble to make people hate her more. I do hope that she actually dies a painful and pitiful death, and not ‘learn her lesson and become a good person’.

Isabella shouldn’t have died either. She hasn’t suffered enough for targeting Sara. She also hasn’t expressed the shock of learning how useless she is compared to Sara. That’s how all mechas should be like; the lowly, unimportant, hated initial rival of the main character gets owned by the main character and expresses (extremely satisfying) shock. Oh well. I think most people will agree with me that Soukou no Strain has an incredibly attractive storyline. The quality remains quite mediocre, though the psychology and plot of this show more than make up for it. Of course, it would be much better if it has higher quality. Sara is providing the majority of the complicated emotional divergences with her ever-changing mentality. She started off as any other ‘normal’ character, a happy, eager and somewhat thick-headed character, but the shock deaths of her three closet friends and the betrayal of her dear brother changed all that. Since then, she has remained a cold statue refusing to open up to anyone, and forced to hide her identity too.

But now, with her new accompaniment, the Reisner team, she is showing signs of slowly regaining her former state of mind. It should happen over an extended period of time to increase the drama, though I don’t know where it will go from there. I hope the show’s mood doesn’t lighten too much. It needs dark and hurtful moments like Sara’s beating every now and then. I’m also looking forward to hearing that shriek of hers again. It looks like the current cast will be a constant throughout much of the series, which means each character needs to be properly developed. This means no per-character episodes, and especially not in sequence, and interaction between all of the characters. There definitely is not enough time for time wasted on character development, but it is an essential aspect, which means proper integration of it in plot-flowing episodes will be perfect. I’m very disappointed that this series is only 13 episodes long, but that means there will should be no pacing problems, especially with how it’s going so far.

Preview:

Next episode – #6
Another battle…?

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

I’m pretty impressed with the sub-lightspeed battle this episode. The events are fairly predictable; Sara piloting the red Strain with Emily, the mimic, then going to fight her brother. I wasn’t sure about how the fight would turn out, and was expecting a lot more marvelling from other onlookers, though unfortunately that didn’t happen. I had also been hoping that blue haired pilot (the one who always picks on Sara) had either died, been severely injured or severely humiliated from Sara’s performance, though that didn’t exactly happen either. All in all though, it was a good episode and a wonderful first battle with the new taskforce. Soukou no Strain continues to maintain its heavy sense of realism with its deep sentimental characters and overflowing emotions. Death, like I hae said before, is not a problem in this show, and for that I am glad. I also have the feeling friends could become enemies at any second, with Sara’s and the ‘princess’s conflicting interests, though that probably won’t happen any time soon. Another thing I should mention is the fun little twist that has been set up: Sara and Emily, the mimic, have a powerful connection, proven by their ability to link, while Ralph is taking care of the real Emily, who seems to adore the traitorous brother. In the end, they are bound to meet and discover what the other possesses, and from their there will be an explosion of drama and tragedy (I hope).

Rating: 8.3/10

Impressions:

Another enjoyable episode; a lead up to the first battle with Sara in her new red Strain. Of course, we all knew it was going to happen, but it still is nevertheless exciting to watch. Just the feeling you get when watching the characters get geared up is stirring. I have really fallen in love with this show, and the quality is improving as well. Regardless of the normal animation, the computer generated animation is fairly high quality and pleasant to look at. I was hoping that the sub-lightspeed battle would actually take place, having Sara own everyone of course, before being invaded. That way, she’d get much more awe than the way how this episode played out. However, her being a reisner would allow people to track down her past pretty easily I’d assume, which is why this would want to be kept a secret. There’s no doubt that Sara and the ‘princess’ will meet and both try to kill Ralph, and they’ll probably both be angry and desperate instead of friendly toward each other. Sara’s abilities will become revealed to her of course, though I wonder how she’ll react. I think the fact that they are both Reisners will allow them to be close friends, and Sara will probably not be picked on as much anymore. By the way, yes I am being very slack with only six screenshots this episode, but I promise I’ll start blogging normally again by the weekend and onwards, since then I will be on holidays!

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

I’m still waiting for Shinsen’s release of Soukou no Strain 3, but I have no idea when it will come since Shinsen has so many active projects at the moment. Anyway, Sara has lost her mimic, changed her last name to Cruise, joined a mobile infantry training battalion, practising in standard mechanical weapons in order to seek out her traitorous brother. Strain pilots, called Reisner(?), are highly regarded in this regiment, and it just so happens that a Reisner decides to become friends with Sara. Well, not really, since Sara is still pretty cold, refusing to talk with anyone. She puts 100% into her training and wishes to advance as fast as possible. I can already see where this is going. Sara probably uses the mimic she finds to pilot a Strain (or something like that) and shows all the poor losers that pressured her how awesome she is, including the midget Reisner. There of course will also be the clashing reunion of Sara and her brother, and the little girl (Emily was it?) that he took will become a major part of the story, probably after being rejoined with her mimic. If it is her mimic, that is. I’m looking forward to the next episode, as despite its mediocre animation, Soukou no Strain still remains as one of my more favoured ones this season (though it is still new and mysterious, and could diverge in many ways).

I’m not too impressed with the new characters, since I like the initial one better, though they were all killed off were dramatic effect. Or, they might not end dead and come back some time later in the series. Their deaths really hardened Sara’s personality and have given the show an obvious darker mood than it would be if no one had died. Hopefully, the guy who likes Sara is still alive, as a large amount of time was spent on development between the two before he ‘died’. The general plot is yet to be revealed as well, so once that becomes more obvious, perhaps the possibility with reappearances of supposed dead characters will become more determined. People returning to the main plot after being removed from it are always interesting, and usually give me a satisfying feeling after either seeing the enemy’s astonishment, or another protagonist’s delight (or both). Awe is also a nice factor that’s used in these situations. I would sure like to see Sara’s reaction if something like this happened; I don’t really like her current attitude. It’s too harsh and not nearly as fun as her previous persona. That’s another issue that this anime excels in expressing; emotions. The scream at the end of episode 1 was truly good, and her actions this episode enforce the idea that she has been broken to the core, before trying to mend/cover the mental wound up with a solid stance. Character development as such is a sure appealing factor in this show, which will work wonders if it can be exploited further.

Genres: Drama, Mecha, Science Fiction
Studio: Soukou no Strain Production Team
Animation: Studio Fantasia
OP: “Message” by Yoko (Download TV size mp3 – 2.06mb) *Right click and ’save target as’
ED: “Umi no Opal” by Sema (Download TV size mp3 – 2.06mb) *Right click and ’save target as’
Official Site: http://www.s-strain.jp/

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

I had watched this episode a week ago after seeing this post by Kita ze Inbou. I had planned on watching it when I was checking out the new fall season shows, but completely forgot about it when I had engrossed myself in all the other new series. Even so, it wasn’t that high on my list, but the first episode really hooked me. The quality was pretty pathetic (but expected since it’s a new studio), but the significant thing is that, regardless of that, I still loved the episode. And I usually hate anime with poor quality. Another saving factor is that the CG used for the mecha is really good, and the giant ‘Strains’ present yet another pretty unique mecha type. It’s not just your ordinary big robot, but a totally different concept altogether, though it hasn’t really been explained in detail. The other memorable unique mecha type is Neon Genesis Evangelion, with its bio-mechanical concept. These Strains require a ‘Mimic’ to function, which is essentially a clone of the pilot, grown from a cell extracted from the embryo (or something like that). There are also regular mecha, but of course they’re inferior to the Strains.

The story is about a girl called Sara who becomes a Strain pilot student in order to fight in the front lines to see her brother, who is a hero amongst the human civilisation. The anime is set in space, where humans are at war with some enemy which I am not sure of yet. Anyway, Sara’s brother turns out to be evil and attacks the base at which Sara is training at. Almost everyone is killed, including Sara’s three closest friends. Her mimic is destroyed as well, rendering her incapable of piloting a Strain anymore. Now, her reason to see her brother again intensifies. Her shriek of agony at the end was intense and highly believable and enough for me to look her seiyuu up. It turns out she’s voiced by Ayako Kawasumi, who also does/did many roles from quite a few famous series, including Kaori from Kanon, Fuu from Samurai Champloo and Yoshida from Shakugan no Shana. Speaking of the latter, I guess that show and Soukou no Strain both share the same acronym SnS. Hehe, that’s got nothing to do with anything though. Anyway, I’ve seen two of the three episodes released so far, so I’m looking forward to more, and especially an improvement in quality. I highly recommend this show to anyone who hasn’t tried it, and if I’m killing you hard drive like mine, then I apologise beforehand! ^^