Alternative Titles
Vandread Stage One
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 13
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 3, 2000 to Dec 19, 2000
Duration:
22 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.561 (scored by 4168 users)
Ranked: #6362
Popularity: #267
Members: 6,319
Favorites: 79 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action comedy mecha sci-fi |
SynopsisLife sucks for Hibiki. Intergalactic society has broken into civil war between males and females; he`s stuck on the assembly line for war mecha, relentlessly teased by his co-workers and unable to pursue his dreams of building his own mecha one day. He finally decides he`s had enough though, and attempts to break in and steal a mech for his own purposes; this turns out to be a bad idea, thrusting him into the middle of a fever-pitch space battle that brings him face to face with the enemy and launches him into an adventure that will change his mundane life forever.
(Description from AnimeNfo) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Vandread
Sequel: Vandread: The Second Stage
Summary: Vandread Taidouhen
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Recommendations
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One ship against alien army in space with mecha battles. The main lead being a guy with harem and a girl with obsession over the "harem" guy who doesn't seem to care...atleast not at the beginning ;).
Martian Successor Nadesico and Vandread are both comic stories focused on the crew and mecha pilots of one particular spaceship. They're also both cleverer than they let on, though this is much more pronounced in Nadesico's case.
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the story plot is the same, two races that hate each other and tries to kill each other, but later combine power to kill the enemy that tries to wipe out their planet. in tengen its the humans and beastmen, in vandread, its man and women. similar story plot
oh ya theres a lot of mecha in vandread too, so much better than tengen must see
Both are about Mechas, and combining Mechas.. and nobody knows/understands anything at first.. Rasen Energy for Gurren, and the Paxis System for Vandread.
Both main characters also have low self esteem in the beginning, and realize the importance of friends later..
However, Vandread is not as crazy and random as gurren lagann.. and it also has a more developed and realistic plot.
unfortunately, vandread is missing Yoko, so i wont recommend it for hardcore yoko fans. However, it has 3 main female characters, and another 1 maybe who make up a lot for Yoko.. a hyperactive redhead, a silent, coldhearted-looking bishoujo (yuki nagato comparison), and a weird tsundere blondy..
Overall, i kind of prefer vandread over gurren.. gurren is intense and too random (mainly because of kamina).. while vandread makes good sense and gives u something to think about..
And i prefer the girls in Vandread over Yoko too.. the only thing i really like about Yoko is her skeleton hairpin.. lol..
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Reviews
| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
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Jul 21, 200713 of 13 episodes seen 34 of 43 people found this review helpful 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 r...eally 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. read more
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
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Jun 8, 200813 of 13 episodes seen 4 of 6 people found this review helpful Vandread is an excellent space/sci fi/mech/comedy anime with a premise not found in any other show (that i am aware of anyway) and that is that men and women live on different planets and know nothing about eachother.
With that set in, the character interactions are amazing and comical. The show is more comical than serious, but it definitely has its moments of seriousness. The animation is done amazingly well with a mix of drawn anime and CGI space battles. Normally when the t...wo mix it turns out pretty bad (Divergence Eve) but Gonzo managed to pull it off.
The story is nothing to intricate but as it progresses, its gets deeper and deeper which brings a lot more action and battles into play. The character development is pretty good as well, no empty characters are really present (with exception of the third tier people you see occasionally)
Some plot holes are presented but if you watch the entire show (by that i mean season two) then everything will be answered and there are some pretty good twists in it to make it extra enjoyable. I have seen both the english and japanese versions and i have to say the dub actually isn't bad, but i would go with the japanese.
I would say this is one of my top rated shows, definitely worth watching.
Oh and something worth mentioning is the awesome soundtrack, keep the volume up during battles, the music rocks.
read more
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
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Nov 11, 200813 of 13 episodes seen 4 of 9 people found this review helpful After managing to get the OOP box set for £26, I started watching my Vandread DVDs a few days ago.
After watching the first season, while happy with the quality of the series for what I paid, the shallowness of Vandread makes me happy I didn't pay a huge amount for it.
Plot: 7/10
Women are an alien species; we men know this much already. Vandread takes what we know a step further, really making men and women aliens by putting them on dif...ferent planets.
At the start of the series, the men of Taraak and women of Mejere are about to start a war. The men are fed up of a group of women space pirates and decide to put a stop to them, telling them to get in the kit...err, unleashing a new battleship against them. However, much to the dismay of the men, the launch of the battleship went badly, with the women space pirates ending up stealing the ship.
During all this, a young 3rd class worker, Hibiki, decided to sneak onto the battleship to steal a Vanguard (male mecha) part, ending up getting stuck on board when it launched. He soon found himself thrown in the brig by the men, just before the women attacked.
After the women took over the ship, the men decided to destroy it rather than let the women have it by firing missiles at the ship. This resulted in the ship *somehow* blocking the missiles and getting sent to a distant part of the galaxy. The men and women onboard the battleship then had to start working together since they soon discovered a new alien race that wants to "harvest" humans...
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The plot did have a lot of potential. If taken seriously, a plot involving a war of the sexes could have been amazing... If turned into a comedy, it had the potential to be insanely funny. Sadly, however, Vandread turned out to be light-hearted, shallow and not very funny.
The plot does not develop much at all once the Nirvana (the battleship mentioned previously) gets warped to a distant part of the galaxy. The crew face battles against their new alien enemy, known only as "harvesters", go down to the mostly deserted planets they pass for supplies, fight with each other, play with each other... In other words, episodic stuff that isn't meaningful.
It's really quite disappointing that the series was taken in such a light-hearted direction when it would've worked much better as a more adult series.
Characters: 7.5/10
The characters, while not exactly being deep or unique, saved the show from being bad.
The main character of Vandread is Hibiki, a young male who wants to prove himself. He's simple minded, direct, bad tempered... The type of lead you see in shounen series on a regular basis. Truth be told, he isn't very interesting, with no background details revealed outside of him being a 3rd class citizen; he has little to no depth.
Dita, the female lead, is much more likeable. She insists on calling Hibiki "Mr. Alien", following him around everywhere due to being curious about the male gender and generally annoying the hell out of Hibiki. She was the most funny character in the first season and by far my favourite, if only for being a redhead with nice boobs.
The other two female main characters, Jura and Meia, were less interesting. Jura is your stereotypical flirtatious woman and Meia is your stereotypical military type, hiding her emotions and commanding the others in battle. Meia had the most development (not that that's saying much...) in the first series since her past gets revealed, but the sequence about her past wasn't designed very well and had little to no impact on me.
The other 3 characters I found to be interesting are male: Bart, a wimpy guy who ended up steering the ship since only a male can, the male doctor Duero and Rabat, a Han Solo type. Rabat will hopefully get fleshed out in the 2nd series, him being one of the few intriguing characters.
Art/Animation: 9/10
For a show that aired back in 2000, Vandread most certainly looks impressive. It was a rather nice surprise to discover that the the DVDs are in widescreen format.
There was no obvious corner cutting on the art and animation side during the first season; everything looked smooth and nice to look at. The colours are bright and eye catching.
CG is used for all of the space battles in Vandread. I'm sure it looked amazing back when Vandread originally aired, but the CG sections haven't survived the test of time and don't impress in this day and age. I didn't really like the speed the CG battles went at since I found it hard to follow what was going on a lot of time... I suppose the idea was to make the CG battles as fast-paced as possible in order to impress more.
Overall, Vandread looks excellent for its age.
Sound: 5/10
The soundtrack was more distracting than anything. The person who created the soundtrack deserves to be shot... That's all there is to say really.
The OP/ED were pretty good. Nothing too memorable but the themes made watching the OP/ED animation more enjoyable.
As ever with Japanese voice acting, the performances were mostly excellent. There was no noticeable bad performances.
Total: 7.3/10
Enjoyable yet disappointing, Vandread is a great show to watch to pass time. Just don't go into it expecting to see the best anime of all time. read more
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Opening Theme"Trust" by Salia
Ending Theme"Himegoto" by SiLC
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Related ClubsMecha Fans, Fumiko Orikasa FC, Anime is Life and Love, Maho-shonen club, Mecha Kingdom メカ王国, HURRAY BOOBIES!!, Crispin Freeman Fan Club, Random Anime & Manga Club, Vandread, English Dub Watchers, Menyeru's club of awesome!!!!, Mecha - trash or paperweight?, * Rica Matsumoto Fanclub *, Hero tv Anime club!, Yocchin Rabu, Anime History Association
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