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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.

Impressions:

The reason I love sequels is because I can familiarize myself with the characters and setting after a long break. It always gives a sort of sense of reunion. One problem though, is when the gap between the original and the sequel (in terms of when I watch it) is too long, I tend to forget most of the events in the firts season. Unfortunately, this is the case with Stratos 4. I remembered the main parts as well as the ending, but that’s about it. After watching the first episode and doing a bit more research, I’ve finally caught up again. I would simply rewatch it, but I don’t have them… The first episode of Stratos 4 Advance feels exactly like the original series, but with much better quality. Of course, that is expected. The new characters intrigue me though. For a series with only 6 episodes, there isn’t a lot of time to settle those new characters in if they are meant to be mainer ones. Unless of course, they were never intended to be main characters. There should be more interaction with those new girls and the old characters, and so far there has been none. I would say “But it’s only the first episode!”, but like I mentioned a few lines ago it is only a six episode series. That is not long at all. I’ve decided not to write a summary for this episode. Instead, I will be posting my thoughts on each episode and screenies of course, and write a full review of the entire series once I’ve watched all of it. (And when I mean full, I mean brief. It will be longer than a normal episode summary, but since it’s six episodes, it can be considered brief).

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