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Simply put, the Area 88 OVA is a highly underrated anime series that does nearly everything right.

Story: I don't need to explain the concept too much since it's already on the page. It has two parts to it, an anti-war story and a long-distance romance story. The war story aspect revolves around Shin Kazama's life at Area 88 doing whatever mission he feels like doing. He never wanted to be a soldier, but he got tricked into it by Kanzaki and his whole personality has changed for the worse because of it. He went from a pacifist who just wanted a normal life being an airline pilot and dating the boss's daughter Ryoko. to a man who's learned to accept that he has to kill for a living and has gotten used to his life on Area 88 as he earns his 1.5 million dollar ticket back home to Japan. This comes into play in part 3 in a heartbreaking, yet realistic way. A couple of the missions are unique as well, including the tunnel sequence which was done even better than in the TV series.

The second part of the story revolves around Ryoko trying to find out where Shin is located and bring him home. All the while, Kanzaki is putting his master scheme to take over Yamato Airlines and steal Ryoko into play. Shin cares deeply for Ryoko and she is the driving force that keeps him alive, but the Shin that Ryoko once knew was gone and she doesn't realize it. Kanzaki, on the other hand, is a shrewd businessman who will do anything with money and power. This section of the story provides the emotion behind the story and it works excellently.

The story is attention grabbing with Shin's detatchment with the war and his love for Ryoko, and it only gets better from there.

Characters: Shin is the opposite of the mega manly character that the 80's possessed. (Kenshiro and Goku, to provide examples). He's a caring soul who was hardened and changed by the experienced in the war. He despises the fact that he kills people to survive, but he's the best pilot at Area 88. Mickey Simon is another pilot who knows the effects of war all too well and he's the more lighthearted character foil to Shin. Kanzaki is easily one of the cruelist villians in any anime I've seen. He'll hurt anyone and everyone in the way of his goals. The other minor characters have personalities all their own, from the cocky weapon/other item salesman McCoy to the comic relief character Greg.

Art: Despite the OVA being nearly 25 years old, the animation still looks excellent. The landscapes are well designed, especially in the cities. The dogfights were also well animated, with a great attention to detail placed into all the pieces of the plane that get blasted around once a plane was shot down and the flight sequences also look great considering how old the OVA is. I do think that the character designs are inferior to the TV series and the series does show it's age compared to the newer series.

To wrap up this long review, I've got few complaints with this OVA. The story was full of real emotions, the action was well animated, and each character had something to add to the story. I highly recommend watching this and running at only three hours, it's could hardly count as a waste of time. read more

Suffice it to say, I wasn't too impressed with this show and felt Soukou no Strain was a bunch of wasted potential wrapped into a 13 episode series with an identity crisis.

Story: The main problem with the story was that the show didn't know what it wanted to be until episode 8. Episode 1 was a very dramatic episode that set up the plot in one of the best first episodes I've seen so far. Episodes 2-6 became a comedy-drama revolving around the interactions between Sara Werec and the other pilots on the Union training ship, the Libertad. Episode 7 was nothing more than a shameful, tacked on fanservice episode that was so bad in my mind, that if it wasn't for one plot development at the end, it would have been competely worthless and a waste of time. Episodes 8-13 took a more serious turn and to be honest, the series got better towards the end with some of the motives behind Ralph's actions throughout the series.

If the show had decided that it was going to be a serious mecha anime from episode 1, then maybe the writers would have better explained why the Union is at war with the Deague and why the viewer should want the Union to succeed. Likewise, if the writers wanted to make a fanservice anime with some mech action, then the instances of fanservice may have been thought out better, more original and much funnier. But as it is, Strain's indecisiveness hurt the show, but not as bad as the characters did.

Characters: The lack of character development was the absolute worst problem the show had. Sara's a decent protagonist, but she had no facets to her personality other than her drive to confront Ralph. Lottie was a near carbon copy of Sara. They were both the top Strain pilots, both were driven to kill Ralph Werec because of his actions harming their lives, and Lottie eventually learns to bend the rules for what is right, just like Sara had done since the beginning.
Then there's Lavinia, the token fanservice character. She has pretty much no purpose other than to try to hook up with Sara, which culminated in the awful episode 7. She was a one trick pony with a clearly tacked on lesbian subplot to boot. The other characters really didn't add anything either. The only interesting character was Ralph Werec himself because of the motives behind his actions. It's like the creators didn't care that compelling characters are a big part of the enjoyment of an anime series.

Art: The series used CGI for the fight scenes, and while it looked nice, it felt like they used similar sequencing (or similar camera angles) for the sequenced where the Strains are avoiding the exploding Tumor units, so a lot of the sequences looked the same. I am a fan of the Strain design as it's definitely unique. The 2D animation was blindingly average, so average that there's not much else to say about it. The music had one good song in my opinion, but the rest was forgettable.

Overall, I wouldn't say avoid Soukou no Strain, but I wouldn't recommend it either. Personally, I feel like my time was better spent watching a different mecha series. read more