Movie: Fafner: Going Home builds on what took place before with the premise from the initial volume being: "The story takes place in the future on an island paradise known as Tatsumiya Island. Life pretty much seems to be like any other island community, with kids going to school, parents working in their shops, and little exchange between the mainlands that are hundreds of miles away. The lead character is Kazuki, a high school kid that is no stranger to a fight and generally seems slightly withdrawn. When Soshi returned from an extended trip to Tokyo, all heck started breaking loose with announcements made for the residents to go to a series of what appear to be bomb shelters. Kazuki is taken to a small military base and soon finds himself piloting a large, powerful humanoid shaped robot called Fafner with the assistance of Soshi due to a series of inter-related circumstances involving an attack on the island by a golden robot called Festum. Festum is routing all the other defenses and after a brief bit of exposition, we find out that several of the students have the right genetic code to pilot the Fafner but Kazuki is most suited. He stumbles through the fight as several initially important characters bite the big one and we find out the history of the island, with few bits of interesting facts about the devastation of Earth in recent years (that the youth of the island had no idea about)."

It's been about a year since I saw the show but I picked up pretty quickly considering the often generic nature of the series when I obtained a bunch of volumes at once for review. The back cover summed it up nicely here with: "THIS IS THE LAST STAND! The Fafner pilots are dealt a serious blow when their battle commander, Soshi, along with the Siegfried System are seized by the Festum! With only one chance of rescuing Soshi, the pilots of Tatsumiya Island must join forces with the United Human Force s for an all-out high stakes battle against the North Pole Mir..."

Essentially, there are three groups to the movie; the residents of a small island in the Pacific hidden away from the rest of the world under the guidance of a group called Alvis, the rest of the remaining world under the leadership (or lack thereof) of the Neo UN, and an alien force called the Festum. The Festum started attacking Earth thirty years ago, starting with a genetic attack that prevented mankind from reproducing naturally, forcing the use of gestation chambers to have children. They routinely attack cities and very little is left of the world's defenses by this time. Borrowing elements from a number of series (it looks like the Gundam Seed series and has a lot of the same themes as Neon Genesis Evangelion). The Festum have begun concentrating their attacks on Alvis and the Neo UN has grown really envious of the advanced equipment the islanders have developed, making them attack the island as well in an attempt to help advance their own forces in fighting the enemy off. The islanders eventually get several of the fafner's up and running, allowing for a team approach rather than relying on one pilot but the Festum attack with increasing frequency and it is revealed that piloting the robots eventually leads to assimiliation, making it dangerous to continue serving for long. Like Gundam Seed, the plot details hinge on the nuances of the character interaction rather than specific battle outcomes and reviews such as this are often forced into spoilers whereas a boxed set (coming in January of 2007) review would be much easier to write and easier to provide you with the generalities of the show (to make up your mind about buying or renting it).

The episodes this time were 24) MIR (Conversation), 25) Symbiosis (The Final Battle), and 26) The Sky (Azure). Throughout the series, Soshi has been both a friend and a mentor to the pilots as he served to interface with them in their fafner's so his loss to the enemy comes as a shock to them all. The coming battle between the forces of the NEO UN and Alvis hinge on a few remarkable discoveries, including the split from the Festum of some of their most recent assimilated pilots that strike a deal with the Commander. While the Festum can read the minds of most humans, Fafner pilots remain untouchable so the two groups attack without sharing much information, seeking to stop the enemy once and for all; a noble goal but nearly impossible to instrument under the recent losses both have suffered. Tsubaki's attempts to teach the Festum emotion seems to have resulted in a bit of a problem as well with the one they picked up on being hatred instead of what she was shooting for though it also brought forth an old friend to fight for them protecting the island while the four remaining Fafner pilots risk everything to save their friend (Soshi) as well as cripple the ability of the Festum to continue their mad assault on humanity. It becomes an all of nothing struggle though as the modified Siegfried System requires them to all remain viable in battle, connecting them to one another. The Festum aren't without a few surprises of their own so they use this limitation to full effect with the help of their nearly full control of Soshi. If you like battle sequences, this is the best of the series to enjoy but with a mere three episodes on hand, I thought the volume was worth a rating of Rent It.

Picture: Fafner: Going Home was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was produced in for Japanese television. I saw no flaws in the picture with the colors looking great, the backgrounds being well handled, the overall detail being solid, and the levels of grain and/or noise barely noticeable. The anime style itself was a combination of the newer CGI and more traditional work now seeing widespread use throughout shows although the CGI was limited to some parts of the island, the shore fortifications, and the like. In all, it looked great which is no surprise considering that the show was just released in Japan.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choice of 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese with English subtitles (the original track of course) or an English language dub. To be fair to both, I liked each of them for various reasons; the original flowed slightly better but the dub was as solid as I'd expect from a new Geneon release. The music and sound effects seemed to be the same this time and there were few flaws in terms of the vocals or miscast actors. There was some decent separation and dynamic range to listen to this time, particularly if you use headphones although they aren't necessary to hear the quality of the audio.

Extras: The only extras this time were the three creditless (clean) endings for the episodes, a clean opening for episode 26, some trailers, the paper insert, and true double sided DVD cover.

Final Thoughts: Fafner: Going Home finished up the loose ends of the Fafner series rather well though it did provide an opening for future spin offs had the series been more financially successful in Japan when it aired on television. The similarities to Neon Genesis Evangelion and others aside, the show was well made if you like the kind of dialogue heavy titles that Geneon is known for. That said, Fafner: Going Home provided a clean closing to the series in a way that allowed for differing points of view to appreciate it, acknowledging that a truce (of sorts) is better than everyone dying out in the end as had been the way the series was leaning almost from the beginning. If you're looking for a complex fable on the horrors of war, you could do a lot worse than Fafner even if it paid a bit too much homage to the shows that went before it.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.