Vandread

In Vandread, men are from Mars and women are from Venus! Well, not quite. Technology has allowed mankind to colonize the entire Milky Way galaxy, and in one star system, the men and women live on two different planets, Taraak and Mejere. A bitter and very literal gender war rages, to the point where they don't even see each other as the sames species anymore!

Hibiki Tokai, a male third-class laborer from Taraak, ends up stuck on a battleship after a botched attempt at stealing a robot. When female pirates capture the Taraakian Vanguard, things don't look like they could get any worse for Hibiki. Unfortunately, they do; when the male crew of the Vanguard fire on their captured vessel out of desperation, they created a giant wormhole, which sucks the Vanguard and the Mejeran pirate's ships into itself! Now, stuck far away from their home planets, these men and women must learn to work together if they ever wish to make it back home.

Liebely, Dita Main

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Tokai, Hibiki Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Gisborn, Meia Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Elden, Jura Basil Main

Asakawa, Yuu Japanese

Orangello, Barnette Supporting

Neya, Michiko Japanese

Balblair, Parfet Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Pyoro Supporting

Iwata, Mitsuo Japanese

Rheingau, Gascogne Supporting

Asano, Mayumi Japanese

McFile, Duelo Supporting

Tasaka, Hideki Japanese

Calessa, Buzam A. Supporting

Soumi, Youko Japanese

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Nagata, Katsuharu Producer

Mori, Takeshi Director, Script, Storyboard, Planning, Original Creator

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Jul 21, 2007

jet2r0cks

Recommended

While there is a lot of ecchi embedded in the plot (usual panty flashes, touching, talking about reproductive organs) there is something to the story of Vandread. I like the idea of men and women not getting along together, then throughout the series they learn to work with each other and win their battles. There’s also the theme of making a difference to prove you’ve existed, which is Hibiki’s goal throughout the series.

Now that I mentioned battles, I’m really not good when it comes to mecha battles. Intergalactic wars tend to either confuse or bore me, but because of the CG I was a bit ... captivated. The battle scenes did look a bit busy, I wasn’t sure on what was happening all the time. The technical dialogue kind of made it worse, but compared to other mecha series I’ve watched, Vandread wasn’t so bad. I did watch it more than twice.

One of the reasons why I like Vandread is the cast of characters. I was impressed that everyone was able to get a good amount of screen time, even for the supporting characters such as Ezra and Paiway. That’s always difficult to accomplish, especially for an anime with so many characters. Also, Hibiki and Dita probably makes up one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever seen in anime. I think it’s because of their innocence.

Like I said, the CG was quite good. It blended with the hand drawn scenes very well and it wasn’t overwhelming. The color coordination was really good too – there was a myriad of colors that made the visuals of Vandread even more stunning. I have to note that the drawing styles would waver a bit, like for example, the characters’ designs have noticeably changed from the first episode to the second episode. At the middle of the series, I have noticed that the art became more consistent though.

The voice acting was actually good, but I prefer it if Tomokazu Seki was Hibiki instead of Bart. I’m not saying Hiroyuki Yoshino did a terrible job of playing Hibiki, but Tomokazu Seki is one of my favorite seiyuus. I also noticed that a lot of the major voice actors in Vandread also worked on Eureka 7 – another mecha anime I like.

The music was very poppy and upbeat, and it fit the theme of Vandread really well. Both tracks are very contemporary and they both show different aspects of the anime. I like the opening “trust” by Salia as well as “Himegoto” by SiLC. The BGM was equally impressive – I always like it when there are plenty of BGM tracks so that the mood and feel of a certain scene are heightened and conveyed at its best.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not really a huge mecha fan. Vandread, however, is different because it’s got a lot to offer. Whether you’re into comedic anime, a mecha addict, a harem anime enthusiast, or just an ecchi fan, Vandread’s for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by jet2r0cks (79)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jan 5, 2021

vesheljinn

Mixed Feelings

tl;dr Was a very nostalgic series for me. Hoewever, now that I've taken the obligatory trip down memory lane, I kinda wish I hadn't. 5/10

Story - 5
Men and women fighting each other was a great concept when I was 8 - we all know the classic chant "BOYS WIN, GIRLS IN THE BIN!". However, 15 years later I sit here and think there's got to be more to do with this premise than what Vandread gave us. After this point was visited and abandoned for all intents and purposes, the real big bad of the show is fairly vague and 100% irredeemably evil. However, it ... doesn't seem much better or worse than an average silver age Spider-Man villain - looking at you Thumper. Though this all would be forgivable in my books for 20 minutes of midless entertainment. That is if I could watch it mindlessly.
Certain professions have certain delights ruined for them - in my case, studying physics, particularly relativity, has forever ruined sci-fi space travel and the concept of galactic empires. Some episodes make my physicist brain twist and tremble in pain (such as the Christmas special), while others are just mildly inconvenient. Nevertheless, I've seen worse.

Art - 8
Can't fault the art - all the ecchi parts look appropriately bouncy, the faces are expressive, and technology looks about as cartoony as you'd expect from any decent anime. I was genuinely surprised finding out that this anime is more than 20 years old at this point.

Sound - 6
No complaints here, nothing too offensive nor spectacular - apart from the ending which reminds me of trashy early 00's MTV pop and therefore is an automatic banger.

Characters - 5
Ibiki is the angsty protagonist, Dita is the simple-minded love interest/interested party, others are all side characters. Seen any anime with a good amount of ecchi elements? Cool, you've seen these characters before. As the series is episodic with a loose overarching plot, side character development takes place on a case by case basis each episode and is more or less forgotten by the time you watch the next one.

Enjoyment - 9
I must hate this anime, right? Nah, I fucking love it. Although I can't in good faith give it a higher overall rating than I have, I found going back to my primary school days and reliving my first ecchi experience as a full-grown weeb simply delectable. Your mileage may (and likely will) vary.

Overall - 5
Finishing the first series didn't feel as good as it did 15 years ago. Sitting in front of the closing credits for the 13th time in 3 days, vibing to the lovely tunes and images on my screen, I didn't really feel the same sense of awe and wonder that space anime tiddies brought to me back then. It's not that no anime tiddy will ever be the same, it's just that these particular sets of cartoon mammaries should have remained in my childhood memories.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by vesheljinn (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Apr 13, 2010

randomvoice

Not Recommended

Vandread is a poor excuse for an anime.

I think the least an anime series should do is have some reason for existing. Vandread doesn't. It doesn't try to be an intelligent sci-fi series; it doesn't try to be a heartwarming, iyashikei slice-of-life one; it's even too weak to be considered a harem romance anime. All you get with Vandread is episode after episode of pointlessness.

(And if you're wondering, I only watched it because it was being screened at an anime society. Oh, hours of my life that I'll never get back.)

Story [2/10]
The men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus premise, while cheesy, could have gone somewhere. In theory. In practice it ... was an excuse to have a harem-style setup in space.

There are unexciting space battles which exist so viewers can giggle about the innuendo involved in combining mechs. There are episodes of ~wacky hijinks~ that just turn out tedious.

Art [6/10]
The art in Vandread, while not hideous, does suffer from character design inconsistency and an obviously low budget - in some cases it's so bad that attempts at fanservice fall pathetically flat.

The use of CGI is also jarring, but I'll be kind and chalk that up to the year of production.

Sound [6/10]
I don't remember anything about the use of sound, but since this was a series without much tension or drama, that seems fair enough. It had pretty good opening and ending songs, though. The voice-acting was serviceable, but again, this is not the type of series which requires the expression of deep emotions.

Character [3/10]
What character? I think that one of the characters (the Ayanami Rei stock type) got a character development arc, and even that was woefully predictable. The rest of the characters were basically stock types (bubbly airheaded girl, comic relief dude) without believable motivations (if any).

Enjoyment [2/10]
Tedious, mind-numbingly stupid, and not even visually engaging enough to make up for that. If you're watching this for the fanservice (and come on, why else would you waste your time on this), then maybe you'd enjoy it more.

I heard that the Vandread: The Second Stage season is much better, in that it actually has some character development and perhaps a plot. It's just a pity the first season had to exist.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by randomvoice (4)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Travel Beyond Earth

by Estefan

34 Entries · 12 Restacks

Trans Anime part 2

by Keizakomu

50 Entries · 63 Restacks

Super Robot Wars: 2000's Part 1

by AcidTyphoon

45 Entries · 31 Restacks

	Poll: Vandread Episode 13 Discussion ShanaFlame - Nov 8, 2009	12 replies	by Eva_PhoenixAnime »» Nov 15, 3:32 AM
	Poll: Vandread Episode 12 Discussion ShanaFlame - Dec 11, 2009	5 replies	by Eva_PhoenixAnime »» Nov 15, 3:05 AM
	Poll: Vandread Episode 11 Discussion ShanaFlame - Dec 11, 2009	6 replies	by Eva_PhoenixAnime »» Nov 15, 2:43 AM
	Poll: Vandread Episode 10 Discussion ShanaFlame - Dec 11, 2009	10 replies	by Eva_PhoenixAnime »» Nov 11, 4:06 AM
	Poll: Vandread Episode 8 Discussion ShanaFlame - Dec 11, 2009	4 replies	by Eva_PhoenixAnime »» Nov 9, 5:17 AM

Top 15 Anime Pirate Characters

While pirates are still a very real threat even today, the timeless idea of the pirate has been somewhat romanticized in modern media. Here are 15 of the best and most renowned.

by NicWat10

121,146 views

Collection

Top 15 Best Anime Spaceships

Park the Enterprise and power down the X-Wing because our anime spaceships are coming in for a landing. These ships may not be blowing up Death Stars or battling the Borg Cube but they are each taking mankind (and sometimes also aliens) where they have never gone before.

by NicWat10

174,266 views

Collection