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Rating: 9.8/10

Overall Series Rating: 9.7/10

Impressions:

Man, now I’m sad. Not because this series has a mediocre ending or anything, but because it’s just so good in my opinion, that it’s quite hard knowing there won’t be any more for who knows how long. Perhaps never even. Stratos 4 has turned out to be one of my all time favourite shows, and it’s pretty disheartening to see it finish. As for this final episode though, I feel that it doesn’t have enough closure. There are still many things to resolve, such as Miharu and Sako’s daughter. The relationship between Karin and her…brother(?) also remain uncertain. Perhaps if there were more episodes, another conspiracy could develop regarding the parasite infections and using it to better or worsen the world. Apart from that though, the crisis-averted ending is a nice conclusion to this sort of series anyway, so I’m content with that. Overall though, I feel that the three new meteor sweepers didn’t get enough character development. I guess though, being an OAV, there wasn’t much time to include an episode that doesn’t advance the plot.

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Popularity: 16% [?]

Rating: 9.2/10 & 9.6/10

Impressions:

Finally, things are getting really exciting, and it’s about time too. Several things are going on at once, and they will probably all tie together in the end. Karen still scares me though, as I have a feeling she still has some of the bacteria lying dormant in her, and the approaching meteors might trigger their awakening. Miharu wakes up too! I wonder what role she will play in the final episode, or perhaps she will just serve as a hindrance or mild enemy? And yay, the three new girls make their first successful mission! I was worried that they’d be neglected and forgotten as the show nears its end. I am still amazed at the CG though, as it is by far the best I’ve seen. I think the launch sequences and space shots are what really draw me in, as it gives the wonderful feeling of infinity. Ah, and come to think of it, I still haven’t seen the two Stratos 4 OAVs yet. It would be something if you were to watch all the Stratos 4 episodes consecutively, which would be 23 episodes altogether. That’s as long as a double-season series. And now for the final episode…

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Popularity: 16% [?]

Impressions:

I think the reason why I like this show so much is because of the extremely realistic flight sequences. Not only that, they look awesome as well. The CG is implemented excellently and I can see nothing wrong with it. Although you can interpret this is a bad thing too, the realism of space makes mood of the show quite lonely and frightening. I think that’s a good thing though, as for example, it’s not good if you’re laughing at a scene where you’re meant to be bawling your eyes out, is it? It makes me think how the show would have turned out if it was a mecha series. Mecha is a lot harder to animated than still space ships, but from what’s available in Stratos 4 makes me think it would have the potential to be an awesome mecha. Another important quality factor in mecha is the scenes in the cockpit, which a lot of mecha fail in. I think Stratos 4 does their cockpit scenes quite nicely, even if no one moves around a lot. At least there’s a large range of angles that the shots are drawn from. I’m glad there was some action in space this time, since it feels like nothing is happening most of the time.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

Impressions:

So, as some of you may know, there are now eight episodes to Stratos 4 Advance. I was quite surprised when I found a torrent for the seventh episode when previously everywhere I checked, it said there were only six episodes. Apparently though, these extra two episodes are actually the mysterious Stratos 4 Advance Kanketsuhen eps I read on ANN. I would still consider them as part of Stratos 4 Advance though, as the same episode codes are used (to make it more fun, they can the episoes ‘code 200′ to ‘208′.) It would probably be easier to just do a single entry on episodes 3 – 7 right now, but I only downloaded seven to see whether it was real or not (and it is!) Anyway, this episode saw some return to the days when Stratos 4 was known for its infamous pantsu shots, though they weren’t as ‘extravagant’ as before. Plot-wise there really isn’t much going on at the moment, as the episodes are more like short stories, but with little bits of extra that will eventually come together in the end. I’m glad this whole other arc is an OAV, as that sort of guarantees to be better than average.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Impressions:

The second episode of Stratos 4 Advance continues with excellent quality, and of course it has to be as it’s an OAV series. Although, it seems that the first episode was broadcast on TV first before being released on DVD, while the rest were released on DVD first, then broadcast on TV. But since the quality is at the expected of an OAV series, I’ll just assume it as that. By the way, I will write a summary of the entire series after finishing the rest of the series.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Stratos 4 Advance (OAV):

Stratos 4 Advance is the OAV continuation of Stratos 4. The original series aired in early 2003 and had 13 episodes. There was an OAV sequel with the same name, which was released in mid 2004 and contained 2 episodes (I have not seen this OAV). The sequel to that is Stratos 4 Advance, which was released in early 2005 with 6 episodes. I’m not sure when this was subbed but I found the torrents on Tokyo Toshokan, which seem to have been released quite recently. To be able to fully enjoy Stratos 4 Advance, you should watch the original series first. There also happens to be another sequel after Advance, called Stratos 4 Advance Kanketsuhen, as listed by ANN. For detailed information about the original series, I recommend you visit Stratos 4 entry in Wikipedia.

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Popularity: 9% [?]