Lol, refreshing review! To the point, clear, and very dynamic :)
Geneshaft tv Review
In the 21st century mankind was on the brink of destruction. Through genetic engineering however they eradicated such feelings as love and the desire for power. Since women are naturally less agressive than men, women to man ratio was set to 9:1. Now people are engineered to have skills that others view as being necessary. There is a giant ring that now orbits the earth, that sits there and relays information back to an alien race that sent it. Now a team of five women will try to eradicate the alien threat.
Source: Anime News Network
Story & Characters
First of all the only way I can start to explain Geneshaft that it is Divergence Eve mixed with a bit of Vandread.
Based in the future humanity has almost wiped itself out but in a last ditch effort they were able to rebuild by genetically engineering all of the humans. Believing that men are the cause behind wars, the general male population has been downgraded to a scale of 1 in 9 favoring the females. When a human is born they are given a specific genetic code and a purpose to fulfill during their life, no one contests it, they think its natural human nature to them.
Life seems to be in perfect harmony once again but as things could not get any better an unknown entity that looks like a giant gold colored ring shows up above the Earth. Enter the crew of the Bilkis, a high tech spaceship armed with the best of its class female crew and their weapon, Shaft.
As the Ring attacks Earth, the crews of the Bilkis manages to survive but are considered traitors by the government. With only the bug filled Shaft at their disposal can Mika Seido and the other girls manage to overcome the threat to humanity? Or will they die trying to protect the place that disowned them?
Rating:
Art
With the same style of Divergence Eve, Geneshaft uses CGI mechas for their battle sequences. At first its a bit weird going from the usual anime style to full CGI but you get used to it eventually.
While on the subject of the CGI I would like to talk about the Shaft. Damn its ugly. It compacts like a semi transformer and hooks onto the ship, it has huge claws on it and a big piece of what seems like unnecessary plank across its head. Yep thats one ugly mecha. The inside of the Shaft however is anime drawn and it has a flashy sequence for when the Shaft starts up. Sometimes you will wish that would be shortened from time to time since it can be boring watching start up over and over again.
The characters are well drawn however, the crew consists of your typical anime stereotypes with the bad guy being overly pretty for a male, the shy girl with glasses, the hyperactive brown skinned blonde hair girl, the pretty one and the plain girl as the main. While the girls clothes are awfully skin tight they arent too revealing and their chest area isnt overly huge. It plays towards ecchi but only slightly. Sometimes thou with the Captains outfit it makes him look like his shoulders are too big for his head.
Unfortunately not much to comment of the backgrounds since most of it takes place either in space or in the Bilkis. Also the opening sequence bares the uncanny resemblance to the opening from Divergence Eve.
Rating:
Sound
The highlight is the music. The opening theme Shaft Drive is excellent with the rest of the OST taking on the same rock sounding format. 99.9% of the music is instrumental except for the ending theme Broken Camera which they seriously need to change that song. The guys vocals sound like he is singing stoned and he is about to pass out at any moment. Oh the pain of having to listen to the first couple of seconds before hitting the skip button.
Overall the OST is definitely one to have a look at as well as the Extended Score that was released. If you are into the rockish to metal sounding instrumental music you will love it.
Unfortunately I cant compare the English voices to the Japanese since I am still waiting for my boxset to arrive.
Rating:
Presentation
The way I see Geneshaft is you will either love it or hate it. There is no in-between. You will either watch the first couple of episodes and go *yawns* that so boring what inspired me to even start watching this or you will go ohhhhhhh yeeeeeeeah thats so cool.
While the plot seems a bit exhausted with the fight over to save the Earth and the plain normal main character trying to establish themselves over the more powerful domination character it still holds interest with character developments.
There is plot twists and turns and if you cry very easily like me you might even shed a tear (I did twice). The only thing that bothered me was the ending, it seemed too easily resolved but yet it was done in a spectacular way. Plus it was left open with the main storyline with the Main character and her anger conflict counterpart.
For me personally I loved Geneshaft (then again I liked Gasaraki too and people thought I was weird for liking that) but its worth the watch just for being one of those series that people would never thought about giving a second look at.
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.0000 (above average)
Reviewed by EvoIIICE9A, Oct 21, 2005
Comments
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kuroimisa Retired Moderator Oct 22, 2005
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Ephemeral-Garden Oct 24, 2005
Oohh... Geneshaft is like Vandread? Not that I ever seen Geneshaft, or either heard of it, but if you say it's like Vandread... ^^ I really must see the presentation of all those mechas and stuffs. ^^ And for some reason, Geneshaft is like Vandread ne? The way you explain it, it really sounded like Vandread, except the part of the ugly mecha with a plank-like thingy at the head. But overall, that's a pretty neat, very detailed and nicely written review. Argh.. it urges me to watch mecha-fllled anime.
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tevi Oct 27, 2005
Hmm, I haven't seen either of the two you mentioned, and I haven't seen this, so I have no idea what's going on ^^ But, I think that you've got an great grasp of description without over-describing... You've definitely perked my interest, although I'm not much of an anime-watcher... If I remember [uh, I have the shortest short-term memory ever...], and I have enough time, I'll give it a try ^^
Thanks for the effort you've put into reviewing this =)
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greatdragon Oct 27, 2005
no good, its very poor
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