"THEIR PARADISE WAS A DECEPTION…
The youth of Tatsumiya Island believed that they had ordinary lives - until the advent of the Festum, extraterrestrial intelligent life forms intent on 'assimilating' all humans. Abruptly, their once peaceful island transforms into a high-tech military fortress to counter-attack the hostile aliens. Their shock intensifies when they learn that only they can pilot the Fafner, a class of humanoid-type robots that represent the final and only weapon against the Festums and their divine powers."

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 The lead character is Kazuki, a high school kid that is no stranger to a fight and generally seems slightly withdrawn.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).

More than just a fight the robot show, Fafner zeroed in on the characters very quickly after establishing the overall background and setting of the series. With the first four episodes being 1: Beginning (Paradise), 2: Life (Confession), 3: Truth (Labyrinth, and 4: Departure (Escape, the series got off to a quick start but barely seemed to scratch the surface of the various people initially introduced in the volume. Leaving me with more questions than answers, Fafner 1: Arcadian Project may well be one of those rare breed of shows from Japan that transcend the genre or it could quickly digress into yet another wannabe, depending solely on the writing and creativity displayed in forthcoming chapters. That said, it was fun, had plenty of excitement, and seemed to be a cut above the majority of what you'll find available these days, and let's face it; there's actually a lot of good series available if you like the genre as much as I do.

One of the factors I liked about the show was how the lead pilot, in this case being Kazuki, was not the pacifist recluse who refused to fight until nearly everything he held dead was lost to the invasion. That one aspect alone made the show seem fresh because it got old fifteen years ago for me. I wasn't as enthusiastic of the nearly invincible Festum all of a sudden crumbling at the hands of a first time pilot (this is also overdone) but the level of action managed to override this by seeming to offer something different (in about as much a tribute to RahXephon as possible without paying royalties). In short, I liked this one a lot and I'm going to push my thumb on the scale a bit and rate it as Highly Recommended for the levels of quality in all the mentioned aspects (and a few that would lead to spoilers which I left out).

Picture: Fafner 1: Arcadian Project 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: With four episodes on the DVD, I didn't expect a lot of extras given the industry practices currently employed these days. There was a creditless opening, closing, and some trailers as well as a reversible cover with some artwork and a schedule of the DVD volumes over the next year (and a CD that probably sounds great given the soundtrack here).

Final Thoughts: Fafner 1: Arcadian Project had a familiar feel to it but still seemed to stray off the beaten path with some interesting ideas on this time tested convention of giant robots with youthful pilots fighting off alien invaders. If it even lives up to half its potential, I'll enjoy the series a whole lot since the writing, characterizations, and artwork combined with the solid music, vocals, and premise all seemed to fit just right. Fafner 1: Arcadian Project looks to be one of the shining series of the next year as the adventures of the cast provide some more thrills as we get to know them.

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