Subs of StarOps have been rather rare, so the recent release of eps 5 and 6 by ANBU are a treat indeed. Episode 5 starts off a two-part arc that packs a major punch. I highly recommend that you watch it before reading any further – it’s goooood.
We begin with the Amaterasu heading to the planetary state of Xiu, which has agreed to recognize the ship as part of the “exiled Kibi government”. The government only allowed this because a large portion of the population are fans of the Starship Channel, and wish to have a welcoming ceremony for the crew members. Reporter Dita manages to persuade her boss to support her coverage of this event, as it would be a nice change of pace from all the space-action. Thus, the bridge bunnies are sent off to represent the crew at the ceremonies, while the leaders of the ship meet with the President of Xiu. Meanwhile, the Akiho and Renna go planetside to buy supplies under the watchful eye of a Xiu military escort.
Things are going smoothly at first – the fanboys dig the bridge bunnies, and Akiho’s pumped about being surrounded by cute military guys. Unfortunately, the Kingdom still has a trump card up its sleeves. Having predicted the Amaterasu’s course of action, the Kingdom has been planting the seeds of a coup d’etat in the Xiu military, and has been waiting for the right opportunity to overthrow the government. The Kingdom declares war against Xiu, which forces the President to make a tough choice – he either surrenders to the Kingdom and hands over Amaterasu’s crew members (thereby killing his chances of re-election, since the public loves the Amaterasu), or he can fight the overwhelmingly superior forces of the Kingdom and get his ass handed to him.
Meanwhile, the shady Renna (whom we saw secretly sending messages to an unknown party in previous episodes) has noticed some odd behavior in one of the military escorts, and upon the announcement of war, puts two and two together to deduce that he deserves a smackdown. Her smooth moves earn load of admiration from the sugary-sweet-but-airheaded Akiha, who gushes that she’s “just like a spy!”. Renna admits to actually being a spy in reality, but Akiha doesn’t quite comprehend the gravity in this statement. Luckily for them, the rest of their escort are not rebels, and they cover their escape. The pair change into clerk uniforms to avoid attracting attention, and search for a way out. After running into two friendly officers who recognize the pair, they learn of a back route to the ship. All this time, Akiha is in a perpetual state of bliss, because she feels like she’s in a James Bond movie…
Shinon and company manage to extract themselves from the ceremony-turned-protest, and Arei hotwires a van for them to make their escape. The leaders of the Amaterasu, on the other hand, are held virtual hostage, and former PM Mamiya becomes locked in a tense negotiation with the President to determine the crew’s fate.
Finally, StarOps is delivering the action and suspense that I’ve been looking for. It’s a shame that it’s only going to be 12 episodes though. After a long period of watching shows with crappy animation, I appreciate the luscious production values in this series much more than I used to. The eye-pleasing character designs and the voicework from the star-studded cast are both totally growing on me like out-of-control fungi. I also must mention that the music, scored by the prolific Kenji Kawai, is very “movie soundtrack”-ish in that it doesn’t try to steal the show like Yuki Kajiura’s music, and instead enhances the mood of the scenes with minimal fireworks.
On a sidenote, this rather serious episode did feature some rather lighthearted moments in the beginning. In one scene, Shinon is informed by her crewmates that they are all celebrities due to the Starship Channel, though it doesn’t seem that way. She gets her first taste of the downsides of fame when she catches an exercise equipment commercial on TV featuring….herself and her bridgemates! Naturally this surprises her, since she doesn’t recall ever using an exercise machine while wearing a skimpy bikini, but it turns out that they are just very realistic CG imitations. Apparently their likenesses are now the exclusive property of the Galaxy Network!
Some other memorable moments:
“It wouldn’t hurt if we died in an explosion in outer space, but I’d bet it would hurt a lot if we died from getting shot, right?” – Airheaded Akiha
“The viewers would get bored if all we did was take space footage!” -Dita, trying to convince Peter that getting planetside footage was a good idea
“In case you’ve forgotten, we work for the Starship Channel. Our viewers obviously like watching space.” – Peter’s response
Stay tuned for more conspiracies, drama, and hard-boiled earthbound action in the next episode!
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This post was written by...
Ender – who has written 219 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the original founders, and the first to attempt a coups d'état.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
The nice thing about having CG likenesses of yourself is that you no longer have to deal with paparazzi. That and your CG you can play with CG basketballs!
Hey girls 1-2-3!
Thanks for the good summary, due to my English skill I did not get the whole story…and how can you remember all that names? in my opinion the characters weren’t introduced very good O.o
I can only second what Ender wrote. This is a really really nice show, and I’m GLAD that I won’t have to wait for the R1 release (which I will SO own) for the subs.
I’m currently strapped for time a bit, and I’ll be busy with MH25, but afterwards I’ll try to resume SSO blogging as soon as possible. The series is exactly what I like.
Oh, I forgot to mention something. The series is _at least_ 13 eps, that much is clear (after RAWing through 12). And due to the novel background, I guess there’s some faint hope for a second season too.
The cast of characters is definitely huge, and initially it was very hard to distinguish them. Naturally, as we watch more episodes, each characters gets fleshed out a bit more, and becomes easier to identify. It seems that everyone gets their turn at some point or another…I’m still waiting for the chick with the purple streak in her hair to get some real screen time!
As for a possible second season…one can only hope!
Aw man…I don’t need to be talked into anymore shows at this point. lol Too…much…backlog. But I guess I’ll squeeze this one in and give it a shot.
As discussed previously in many blogs, this series is of the “slow” space genre, akin to PlanetES, Infinite Ryvius, and Crest of the Stars. If you’re anything like Kabitzin, it might not be your cup of tea:)
Hey, I watched Crest of the Stars!
It wasn’t my cup of tea… But before we go about generalizing, let me just inform you that I watched and enjoyed a large portion of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and I think that deserves some respect >=D. Maybe it was the shounen-ai undertones that kept my interest, I don’t know.
BTW, this is unrelated, but I just saw the batch for Avenger available for download. Hahahahahahahaha!
Did you ever finish that series? It definitely was one of the low points in the history of Bee Train.
oh man.. Avenger… I wanted to shoot myself after wasting my time on that POS.
What’s so bad about Avenger? Maybe the ending wasn’t very satisfying but it’s still better than average. The art and the soundtrack/bgm was very nice. If you want to watch a Bee Train series that really sucks, watch “Meine Liebe”. I assume Starship Operators is for people that enjoy Gundam and the like – I rarely enjoy anime with “military” content.
I like how the planet of Xiu == China. Arg, marathoning this now because of you…