NoaIzumiAnime Review: Avenger
December 5th 2008 12:00
Far in the future, a cataclysm strikes the solar system, destroying the Earth and sending the Moon on a collision course with the human colony on Mars. With limited resources, the inhabitants of the Martian domed cities compete in staged gladiatorial contests to determine allocation. But a new gladiator, the daughter of refugees from Earth, has come from outside the domes to fight. Who is she, why is she seeking out Volk, the leader of Mars, and what’s the secret of Nei, the childlike android that’s with her?
The people of Mars are in a bad way. The moon hasn’t hit Mars, but it has gotten close enough that its gravity disrupts Martian weather, making life outside of the cities almost impossible. In addition, no child has been born on Mars in over ten years, leading to the popularity of “dolls”, childlike robots that fill the void.
The format of this review is a cliché, but it fits:
The good:
The dolls were probably my favorite part of this series. Unlike other anime androids, they are obviously artificial, although some are still cute as the dickens. In contrast, the black-clad enforcer dolls, who collect unregistered dolls for recycling and act as muscle for the dome’s leaders, are very creepy (in a good way). The dolls are also interesting for the issue they bring up. On Mars, there are no children, and it's been over ten years since any were born. So people turn to the dolls to satisfy the maternal instinct. Avenger looks at different aspects of this state of affairs and the implications for the society, although not as thoroughly as I would have liked. This situation has, or will have, a real world counterpart. In Japan, and in most first-world countries, the birth rate has been declining for some time, and at the same time, robotic technology is constantly improving. Will we wind up like Avenger’s Mars one day, with robotic children outnumbering normal ones? And what would that mean for us and our future?
The other issue is the vengeance factor. Layla is the sole survivor of a ship of refugees that was shot down on Volk’s orders in the wake of the catastrophe that destroyed Earth 13 years ago. With resources low as they were, Volk decided to kill them rather than add more mouths to feed. Layla survived the crash, and survived the Martian wastelands because of her drive to avenge her family. Hence, her amazing fighting skills and her search for Volk. But Volk isn’t an evil person, although he is a single-minded one. He feels he made the best decision possible at the time, although he does recognize it as a sin. (I appreciate a multi-dimensional villain, but they shouldn’t have to bend over backwards to get their point across. The fourth time he made the speech about making the best decision under the circumstances, I wanted to say to the screen, “OK, we get it, we get it!”) With that, and with Nei depending on her now, the closer Layla gets to her goal, the more she starts to think maybe that’s not what she wants, after all.
Other aspects of the series are worth mentioning. The fight scenes are well done, and I’m a fan of Layla’s fighting style. The soundtrack is excellent, and the opening and closing are both very good, and tell some of the backstory themselves, so they’re worth paying attention to.
The bad:
WTH kind of ending was that? It raised more questions than it answered, and wasn’t very satisfying. After the battles throughout the series, the showdown between Layla and Volk seem slow-paced and predictable. The crisis that comes up in last two episodes is never resolved, and the mystery of why no children were born in the past ten years is never really solved, either. At the end, they know what to do to have children again, but we never really learn what caused the problem in the first place. Neither do we ever find out what destroyed the Earth. There’s a short scene of something exploding between the Earth and the Moon, but that’s all we ever see. There was also a piece of dialogue in a flashback scene that suggests that Earth had abandoned Mars and cut off ties to the colonists, but we never find out anything more about that either. I’ll grant that none are strictly necessary to the story, but it seems like a gyp to set up all these mysteries and then not solve them.
Avenger is also lacking in character development. Layla develops a little as her motivation changes, but not by much. She’s a classic stoic warrior; I don’t think she has more than a half page’s worth of dialogue in the whole series. Speedy the mechanic, who travels with Layla and Nei, has more personality, but he’s not developed as much as I’d like either. And Volk and Vesta, the rulers of Vesta, have some dimension due to regret over the choices they’ve made, but aside from that they’re pretty flat.
The ugly:
Volk’s suit. Shouldn’t the uniform of a gladiator allow as much freedom of movement as possible? Volk looks like he’s dressed as a stag beetle for Halloween.
Great moments: Any fight scene with the black-clad dolls. And the first use of Speedy’s “doll friendliness” gizmo.
Extras: Clean opening and closing, original trailer, some production sketches. Nothing special.
Summary: A good story with a lot of potential, but the characters don’t live up to it, and the ending really falls short. Grade: B minus
Trailer
Age Rating: 13 and up. Violence.
Nei and Layla
The people of Mars are in a bad way. The moon hasn’t hit Mars, but it has gotten close enough that its gravity disrupts Martian weather, making life outside of the cities almost impossible. In addition, no child has been born on Mars in over ten years, leading to the popularity of “dolls”, childlike robots that fill the void.
The format of this review is a cliché, but it fits:
The good:
The dolls were probably my favorite part of this series. Unlike other anime androids, they are obviously artificial, although some are still cute as the dickens. In contrast, the black-clad enforcer dolls, who collect unregistered dolls for recycling and act as muscle for the dome’s leaders, are very creepy (in a good way). The dolls are also interesting for the issue they bring up. On Mars, there are no children, and it's been over ten years since any were born. So people turn to the dolls to satisfy the maternal instinct. Avenger looks at different aspects of this state of affairs and the implications for the society, although not as thoroughly as I would have liked. This situation has, or will have, a real world counterpart. In Japan, and in most first-world countries, the birth rate has been declining for some time, and at the same time, robotic technology is constantly improving. Will we wind up like Avenger’s Mars one day, with robotic children outnumbering normal ones? And what would that mean for us and our future?
The other issue is the vengeance factor. Layla is the sole survivor of a ship of refugees that was shot down on Volk’s orders in the wake of the catastrophe that destroyed Earth 13 years ago. With resources low as they were, Volk decided to kill them rather than add more mouths to feed. Layla survived the crash, and survived the Martian wastelands because of her drive to avenge her family. Hence, her amazing fighting skills and her search for Volk. But Volk isn’t an evil person, although he is a single-minded one. He feels he made the best decision possible at the time, although he does recognize it as a sin. (I appreciate a multi-dimensional villain, but they shouldn’t have to bend over backwards to get their point across. The fourth time he made the speech about making the best decision under the circumstances, I wanted to say to the screen, “OK, we get it, we get it!”) With that, and with Nei depending on her now, the closer Layla gets to her goal, the more she starts to think maybe that’s not what she wants, after all.
Other aspects of the series are worth mentioning. The fight scenes are well done, and I’m a fan of Layla’s fighting style. The soundtrack is excellent, and the opening and closing are both very good, and tell some of the backstory themselves, so they’re worth paying attention to.
The bad:
WTH kind of ending was that? It raised more questions than it answered, and wasn’t very satisfying. After the battles throughout the series, the showdown between Layla and Volk seem slow-paced and predictable. The crisis that comes up in last two episodes is never resolved, and the mystery of why no children were born in the past ten years is never really solved, either. At the end, they know what to do to have children again, but we never really learn what caused the problem in the first place. Neither do we ever find out what destroyed the Earth. There’s a short scene of something exploding between the Earth and the Moon, but that’s all we ever see. There was also a piece of dialogue in a flashback scene that suggests that Earth had abandoned Mars and cut off ties to the colonists, but we never find out anything more about that either. I’ll grant that none are strictly necessary to the story, but it seems like a gyp to set up all these mysteries and then not solve them.
Avenger is also lacking in character development. Layla develops a little as her motivation changes, but not by much. She’s a classic stoic warrior; I don’t think she has more than a half page’s worth of dialogue in the whole series. Speedy the mechanic, who travels with Layla and Nei, has more personality, but he’s not developed as much as I’d like either. And Volk and Vesta, the rulers of Vesta, have some dimension due to regret over the choices they’ve made, but aside from that they’re pretty flat.
The ugly:
Volk’s suit. Shouldn’t the uniform of a gladiator allow as much freedom of movement as possible? Volk looks like he’s dressed as a stag beetle for Halloween.
Avenger DVD
Great moments: Any fight scene with the black-clad dolls. And the first use of Speedy’s “doll friendliness” gizmo.
Extras: Clean opening and closing, original trailer, some production sketches. Nothing special.
Summary: A good story with a lot of potential, but the characters don’t live up to it, and the ending really falls short. Grade: B minus
Trailer
Age Rating: 13 and up. Violence.
| 57 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
