Otaku Review

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo (Sora Kake Girl)
Studio: Sunrise
Premiere Date: 1/5/09
Genre: Sci-Fi

Sunrise delivers another sci-fi space mech series this time starring a cute high school girl and an AI dealing with some odd issues with insecurity.

The Story

Ten thousand years from now, the population of Earth will have long left the planet and colonize the surrounding space. Fast forward to the start of ‘Sora Kake Girl’ and we find that some things always stay the same. Our heroine, Akiha, has just been told that a marriage has been arranged and she is to be married right away. Running away to school, she eventually winds up in a space pod exploring (for some reason that’s never really explained) before stumbling across a giant space colony that has found its way into the orbit. Thrust inside by the ruckus, Akiha meets the AI that controls the colony named Leopard.

Good and the Bad

The animation was the first thing that struck me about the premiere episode. Filled with bright colors, very clear lines and lots of straight edges; the animation in this first episode looked incredibly polished. From what I could see during my viewing, Sunrise didn’t miss a single detail when it came to animating this first episode. One can only hope that this level of detail will continue in the future.

Once you get past the pretty animation though, all that’s really left for ‘Sora Kake Girl’ is the comedy and story. The comedy in this first episode isn’t bad by any means. Sticking with mostly over the top reaction jokes, the humor in this series is really delivered hard by every character. The jokes are usually so obvious though that it’s almost hard to know how to react to them properly. There are some dialogue jokes which will gain a nice chuckle from the audience but when Leopard discovers that someone has drunk his tea or may not be listening to what he has to say, I found myself laughing more at how unexpected the reaction was as opposed to the reaction itself.

The story in this first episode doesn’t help any getting the series off to a rather rocky start. In the first few minutes of the series, everything seems to move along at a strong pace. The characters are all introduced and set up very smoothly and the story seems to start with a good kick off point. The human race has colonized space and a giant colony has appeared in the orbit with no explanation. However, once you get past this audience members will stare right smack into a couple of holes left for fans to wonder about. I’ll even give you one of them; anyone going to explain to me what Akiha was doing in the space pod in the first place besides ‘something she wasn’t supposed to be doing’?

As with other things in ‘Sora Kake Girl’, the characters is where this series has already managed to step away from the pack and create something new and fresh with Leopard, the AI with a major insecurity complex. The personality of Leopard is hard to explain, he identifies himself as the home of a ‘lone, noble soul’ and upon his introduction he’s debating with himself on if he has what it takes to be a tea meister. With his constant over the top reactions and insecurity issues though, one can easily draw comparisons to Marvin the Paranoid Android of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ fame. It’s going to be interesting to see how the staff decides to combat this in future episodes.

Music

The most annoying bit to this first episode is that there is no op sequence so fans don’t get to hear the single from ‘Ali Project’. Barring that however, the background music in this episode is a surprisingly strong driving mix of electronic themes. While only a couple of them have a particularly driving beat to increase the intensity of the series, the rest of the tracks at least avoid being grating to listen to. I did find that even early on though the electronic quality of the music really takes away from its appeal. ‘Sora Kake Girl’ could easily already be much more enjoyable with a full instrumental score but that’s just nitpicking.

Cast

Early on, the audience gets a really nice chance to meet many of the characters giving us a good chance to sample the voice pool. Taking on the lead roles, Aya Endo (Itsuki) and Mako (Akiha) manage to present pleasant lead characters that don’t grate on your nerves. Standing out from everyone and stealing the show however is Jun Fukuyama (‘Akikan’, ‘Code Geass’, ‘Black Blood Brothers’, ‘Buso Renkin’, among others) as Leopard. Completely over the top but presenting what has started one of the more unique characters in recent memory, I’m finding myself wanting to watch more just to see what they do with this character.

Also managing to stand out from the rest of the cast is Yuuka Nanri (‘Gunslinger Girl’, ‘School Rumble’, ‘My-Hime’) as Nami. While her role in this first episode isn’t that large and her role in the series is far from clear, a couple of lines of dialogue delivered by Nanri made me stand up and take notice. My instincts tell me that this is a character and performance to watch.

Overall

Well, that was unexpected. Initially I thought this series was going to be mostly fluff. Instead I have found a series that seems to at least possibly have a good idea and strong enough characters to make it work. I’m not sold on anything yet but when the second episode of ‘Sora Kake Girl’ airs, I’ll be ready to see where it goes next. Recommended.

Final Grade: B

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