Soukou no Strain

[Zati]

Episode 1 - Shinsen

In the distant future, the mankind is divided into two powers; Union and Deague. They have continued long war that no one is sure when it began. Union uses manned weapons, Strain, as the main military power, while Deague uses unmmand weapons Tumoru.
Sara Viereck, a daughter of a good family, is a Union’s 16-year-old girl who goes to Grapera Space Armed Soldier Academy locates in Cranial Solar System in order to become a full-fledged Reasoner (a pilot of Strain).
Her brother, Ralph Viereck, was sent to the front line 130 light years away to accomplish a special mission when she was 11 years old. It takes 400 years of objective time even by the fastest sub-light speed space craft of Union. However, according to relativist theory, it corresponds to two subjective years (the time crews experiences). Therefore, Sara needs to go to the same battle field to meet her brother.
Because they lost their parents when they were quite young, Sara thinks of her brother as a guy dearer than a sibling, and she lives for their reunion.
One day, the planet Sara lives is suddenly assaulted by Deague. Surprisingly, it was her brother Ralph that takes away a mysterious girl sleeping in a capsule.
To search the truth, Sara gets in Strain and runs after him. However, she receives an attack from Ralph, and the Mimic is broken. The Mimic is a copy of the pilot’s brain, and it is an essential part to control the Strain.
Taken from Animenfo

http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.p...anime&aid=4556
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3...no_strain.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...me.php?id=6829
http://www.s-strain.jp/

[Kraco]

Her brother, Ralph Viereck, was sent to the front line 130 light years away to accomplish a special mission when she was 11 years old. It takes 400 years of objective time even by the fastest sub-light speed space craft of Union. However, according to relativist theory, it corresponds to two subjective years (the time crews experiences).

You would think the technology would be quite obsolete once it gets to the destination after 400 years of travelling... >_>

How was the first episosde? Did you check it out?

[Zati]

The first episode was pretty good, looks like another nice new mecha series, and I was quite impressed. The second half of the episode was unexpected, I was surprised what happened to all her friends in just the first episode, and makes you root for the female lead. If you like Code Geass, give this a try, you might like it.

[Kraco]

DF should have a look at this. While Sara's not Saber, she's still a blond and voice acted by Ayako Kawasumi...



Anyway, it looked like a decent series although I'm not the greatest fan of characters suffering from serious brother (or sister) complexes. It's just simply annoying and feels like a plot device, no matter how tragic and orphaned childhood such characters might have had. Perhaps it was natural for little Sara, who had nobody else left than her big brother, but that she's still like that when she's a cadet already is questionable. Is she dreaming of marrying her brother or what?

Well, fortunately the brother didn't have such emotional problems, and returned her warm feelings by almost killing her...

Edit: The next ep already got released:

Episode 2 - Shinsen

[Zati]

Just released again!

Episode 2 - Shinsen

Edit : The first two episodes were aired on the same day, like a doubleheader/twin-bill opener, which I think more series should try.

[Kraco]

A pretty good episode. A lot better than the first one, in my opinion. Even if Sara hasn't yet spoken aloud her desire to kill her brother, she's otherwise assumed quite a few Sasuke characteristics. She also sounds a lot more like Saber in this episode than in the previous one, in which she was still a somewhat happy and easy-going person, despite her obsessive dream of meeting her far away brother again. Now, when she's at the bottom, deadly determined, and being bullied because of that, I guess the required edge is a tone like Saber had.

[Yukimura]

This show looks interesting, when the main characters friends all die in the first episode you have to give it props. Unfortunately even with that surprise I've still been noticing the trends and clichés a lot more recently, which means I may have finally watched too much anime.

Sara reminds me of several different characters, but at her root she's Shima Katase, but with a lot less crying and a lot more attitude and fanservice (both things Shima Katase desperately needed). The bitchy girl and her posse are just as irritating as every other bitchy girl and bitchy girl posse but with any luck our heroine won't be brought down by earning their respect or some nonsense. I foresee that she'll get into that Gundam level suit soon, but she might end up becoming friends with the short girl and backing her up instead (at least it would be a new idea).

[Zati]

WinD release, it's Episode 1-3 batch torrent :

Episode 1-3 - WinD

[Kraco]

I noticed no problems in the WinD release. Seemed like solid subbing work.

What comes to the plot itself, it continued the line of few surprises or anything unique, but according to the preview Sara is descending the ladder to the dark pits of vengeance, so all is well. This looks like a series definitely worth watching, if space scifi is of any interest.

[Kraco]

The third episode did end with a nice cliffhanger, so lets give Sara one more chance to prove her worth:

Episode 4 xvid - WinD
Episode 4 h264 - WinD

Edit: Quite an interesting episode. And another brother complex character... Well, at least she had a bit better reason for that, seeing how her brother was killed, but still. Well, anyway, it was a good fight, and nicely ruthless. And it looks like Sara's fights aren't over even among the crew that's supposed to be her side... It seems her decision to use a fake name was a reasonable one; no doubt revealing the truth would increase the number of her close enemies even more.

[Yukimura]

Wow, even after saving pretty much the whole ship she's still got to deal with the high school drama queen dream team. I was hoping that they'd disband or go away since the blue haired girl bought it, but instead they'll probably do something stupid like threaten her mimic to try and bring her back down to their level. It's sad that such immature mindsets exist in the cadets of their military, but it wouldn't be a drama if there weren't any stupid bullies to pick on the main character.

[Aeon]

This show is freaking incredible. This has got to be the best mech combat I've ever seen. Watching this really makes me wanna play Zone Of The Enders again. I'm surprised nobody com system picked up on Sara calling the enemy suit her brother.

[Besu]

Yeah I would have figured that atleast the bridge would have heard it as there must have been scanning all com channels

[Darknodin]

Yeah I would have figured that atleast the bridge would have heard it as there must have been scanning all com channels

actually, in the ep before, they said communications don't work at that speed. seems like they have to touch one another (or at least be real close) to talk.

pretty good last two eps. my biggest question right now is... what is the blue-haired kid? he seems very important. is it only because of skill or is there something else?

[Besu]

Duh, I should really pay more attention.

[Zati]

Just released!

Episode 5 (XviD) - WinD
Episode 5 (h264) - WinD

[Kraco]

An interesting episode, although not much action was involved. First they sharpened Sara's solitudinous tendency to the maximum, and then slam it against a wall. Although this episode didn't yet tell if that was succesful, but I suppose it will be, since things like this are not altogether uncommon in anime. While her detachment was kind of cool, it was also taken to a bit ridicule measures in this episode, so I hope she will back down a little bit and start to interact also with other characters than one brain-in-a-can.

[animus]

Is it only me? The h264 releases' audio and video aren't synched. There's like a lag and they don't match up.

Anyways, they keep saying that Sara never used another mimic before. But in episode 1, where her brother destroys her strain and she goes down. She jumps into another strain that's grounded, with the pilot knocked out. I guess it's still "activated" by that other pilot and she can use it? Wtfux. Also it seems like this series a cesspool of random fetishes. Female Harem, Lolicon, French Maid Doll Lolicon, Sibling Complexes, etc. And after watching episode 5, jesus christ, am I annoyed. How anti-social do you need to be?

[Deadfire]

Also it seems like this series a cesspool of random fetishes. Female Harem, Lolicon, French Maid Doll Lolicon, Sibling Complexes, etc. And after watching episode 5, jesus christ, am I annoyed. How anti-social do you need to be?

God I love anime

I'm still undecided on this anime, nice action, nice story (or that part that makes sense), however Sara (Although I adore the voice actress) is starting to piss me off. THis anti-social, win at all costs, nii-san adoring (anyone else note how they make that relationship seem a little too close..or is it just me?) bullshit has to really stop it's alright we got it about 3 Eps ago. Once she becomes better of a charactor or there is more action then I'll love this series.

[kooshi]

Finally got around to watching the 5 episodes that are out so far and this seems like a good series to watch. The only bad thing about the show is (which everybody seems to agree on) is Sara's anti-social and brother-obsession personality.
I really like how they kill characters that are possible candidates of becoming a main part of the story (ie. Sara's friends in ep1 and Isabella). I seriously thought that Isabella was going to stick around for quite a while before either getting killed or becoming friends with Sara for some strange reason. If this keeps up, we'll probably see the deaths of characters who stand out easily almost every few episodes.
The thing that impresses me the most is the CG during the fight scenes. Hot damn, so damn smooth, fast, and kickass! All mechas should follow this format, hahaha.