Ranked #1903

Kenran Butou Sai: The Mars Daybreak

Mars of the future has become a flooded, ice-covered planet where humanity lives in drifting city-ships. The economy has turned bad since the end of an off-world war reduced demand for water, the planet's main export, making work hard to get for Gram and his friends, and governmental corruption only worsens the situation. The environment makes a perfect setting for pirates using futuristic submarines, who regularly raid the city-ships for supplies. The most renowned and feared of the pirate vessels is the Ship of Aurora, which makes a habit of reselling its booty cheap so that it can be redistributed to less fortunate folk. Such a problem do the pirates pose that the Earth government, which still controls Mars, has dispatched an elite team of fresh military recruits to help deal with their threat. The story follows Gram River who joins the pirate ship Aurora and his ex girl friend Vestemona Lauren who is part of the military out to get Gram and the crew of the Aurora.

I really enjoyed this anime. Though the overall story wasn't original it did bring a few new ideas. For example, Mars covered in water, and the design of the Mecha used in the anime. The story also did a great job mixing the elements of drama, action, romance, and a little comedy. The characters were also great, Gram River, Chrysalis Milch, Enora Taft and all the rest. They brought the anime to life. The animation was done by BONES. I was disappointed with them, after all their the ones who did RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Eureka Seven. Though it was still good, it just didn't live up to their standards. Another small problem I had was the music, which lacked emotion to add to the series.

Overall a very good anime, that's worth checking out. read more

Mars Daybreak is a 26-episode series that aired between April 1st to September 23, 2004.

The genres include: Adventure, Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance.

Story
Pretty interesting. Mars is covered by water, and the economy is really lousy. Gram tries his best to live a good life, but everything changes for him when he is accidentally brought onto the pirate ship "Aurora", and being a pirate on "Aurora" becomes his new profession. The story follows this merry group of pirates on their travels, as they reveal secrets that could change Mars forever, and a team sent from Earth to catch the pirates. It starts of very nice and entertaining, but as the series progresses, the plot gets weaker, and starts to rely on filler-ish episodes, abandoning the initial story.

Animation
Seeing as this was made by Bones (also did Fullmetal Alchemist and Darker than Black), i was expecting awesome animation. I was disappointed. The character designs are bland and the animation looks awkward sometimes.

Sound
Decent. Most of the voice actors were pretty bad, actually (the only really good one being Tomokazu Seki), the BGM was nothing special and the OP/ED were so-so.

Character
Best thing about this series. The characters are great: there's the over-the-top Captain, the nonchalant "pilot ace", the little brat, a talking cat, a childhood friend. The cliché stuff(pretty much the greatest cliché characters since I watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Oh wait, there's also a talking dolphin in a weird suit(yeah, you guessed it, he can talk). The two characters that stand out (apart from the talking dolphin) are Gram, your shounen hero, cool to the max, making the ladies fall for him(really enjoyed him though) and Enora, the spoiled girl that tags along the ragtag pirate crew.

Enjoyment
As I said earlier, Mars Daybreak starts off greatly. It's fun, exiting and interesting. You actually get mecha-fighting under water. It's awesome. You want more. Then it goes all Eureka Seven on you, and apart from E7's emo awesomeness, Mars Daybreak fails miserably when it comes to the drama, just making it pathetic. I talked about the transition to fillers earlier, and after these so called fillers end, the story just spirals towards it's doom, becoming predictable, boring, and even screwing up the comedy.

Overall: 7/10
Not a series i would really recommend, but those who liked Eureka Seven might like this, seing as it's like E7, except underwater, with a lighter take on life than it's rawer cousin. read more