Soukou no Strain

Eleven-year-old Sara Werec's elder brother, Ralph, was sent to the frontlines of an interstellar war 130 light years away, and Sara vowed to reunite with him one day as a comrade. Five years later, Sara is a student at Grapera Space Armed Soldier Academy, training to become a Reasoner, a pilot of an advanced weapons system called a "Strain."

When the academy is suddenly attacked by enemy forces, Sara enters battle against a Strain that quickly overpowers her. After incapacitating her, the pilot reveals himself to be her Ralph. Killing all the other students and destroying the school, he disappears, leaving Sara to question everything she has ever known. Soukou no Strain is the story of Sara as she reenters training under a new name, now determined to confront her brother and make sense of her brother's actions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Werec, Sara Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Werec, Ralph Main

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Gelh, Lotti Main

Yukana Japanese

Emily Supporting

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Reberth, Lavinia Supporting

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Jeanette Supporting

Saitou, Kimiko Japanese

Jake Supporting

Iijima, Hajime Japanese

Hobbs Supporting

Imaruoka, Atsushi Japanese

Mariette Supporting

Tanii, Asuka Japanese

Havisham Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Tsukino, Masashi Producer, Storyboard

Watanabe, Tetsuya Director, Episode Director

Kameyama, Toshiki Sound Director

Reviews

Jul 1, 2007

MrGaz

Recommended

Soukou no Strain is without a doubt one of the best sci-fiction series out there. The series isn\'t heavily focused on the war itself and between regular mecha battles but instead its primarily focus is on Sara Werc, on how she cope with the loss of her friends and the betrayal of her brother.

Clearly the first episode is what drives us towards the edge of our seats. With the lost of Sara friends and the shocking revelation of being betrayed by her own brother, it instantly give us the questions into why he betrayed her? what made him betrayed her? etc. and in addition, who ... is the strange \"cute\" girl being taken by her brother? what is his intentions with her? whats his purpose in taking her? etc. etc. All these questions and many more are being answered constantly as we progress throughout each episode while new questions are being brought out and answered towards the very end.

The storyline is excellent! We can not ask for a better storyline (with no cliche) full with drama and thrills and seeing there are no \'fillers\' along the way, there is never a dull moment from start to finish.

While the series may not be for everyones taste or it does not live up to your average mecha series, I sincerely hope you give ep. 1 a try because it intensity reaches at a climax point towards the end. With great character development and full of mysteries and suprises ahead, the series lives up towards it hype and no viewer will walk away without a smile on their face.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 16, 2009

tentacle_raep

Mixed Feelings

In the future there are giant robots (shocking, eh?). Humanity has been forced into a civil war (for some reason) and is battling each other in space (wow). There are two factions, arbitrarily named the Union and the Deague; about the only noticeable difference is that the Union uses robots called Strains, which have to be piloted by a cannon-fodder teenager--in this series named after characters from The Little Princess. The Deague is smarter and uses unmanned drones. Oh, yes, to pilot a Strain, you also need a mysterious black box which is the crucial plot element in this story.

So, there's Sara Crews, Cruz, Werec, ... whatever. She wants to be a strain pilot. Her dream is dashed when her batshit crazy brother, Ralph, steals something from a research facility, pwns her and starts off a rather amusing trend of killing off characters you've just met. So Sara goes into space, now piloting a more ghetto cannon fodder robot, because she can't use her black box thingy, in search of her brother for revenge, reconciliation, big brother complex, whatever.

What's more to say.

There are stock characters with names from the Little Princess who otherwise share no commonality with the book, unless the part about giant robots was left out by my mother when she read it to me. There's an entire lesbian episode that does nothing to further the plot. Sara is obsessed with a mysterious doll she finds, which along with a superpowered Strain collecting dust in the ship seem to be the most coveniently placed deus ex machina elements in the story.

The plot is clumsy and vascillates between people hating Sara, Sara being emo and withdrawn, pining for her brother, obsessing over her doll, and of course space battles which rely on a creative misiterpretation of time dilation. We're supposed to care, but with the throwaway chracters, lesbianity and streaking coming out of nowhere in a "serious" anime, and the critical plot "twist" of why Ralph went batshit insane in the first place which is poorly paced and thrown in near the end, and the show all falls apart.

Sara and Ralph, and the rest of the cast, are terribly one dimensional. Oh, yes, and then there's the lolis.

Without adding spoilers, there are these mysterious space lolis and how the show deals with that element is also cliched and tries to teach a lesson about humanity that is an overused and recurrent theme.

This is a casual space robot jockey anime pretending to be serious. It'll make you laugh at all of the wrong times. It's beautifully drawn, tho, and the Strains are a strange and new mech design.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 24, 2022

Azurefire17

Not Recommended

Soukou no Strain is one of those rare shows I wish I never wasted my time watching it. The show is slow and boring and devoid of anything worthwhile. The characters are not interesting or fun the story barely tries and fails to be compelling in any regard. The animation is passable I guess but battles(for as rare as they happen) are dull. The music is bland or forgettable and the dub while yes not the worst one I've heard just being kinda eh at best. There's ideas of something that could have been good but the show either only mentions off handedly or brought ... up too late to mean anything or just you know not done properly.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Soukou no Strain Episode 9 Discussion martino - Jan 4, 2007	4 replies	by metalrain_15 »» May 2, 6:27 PM
	Poll: Soukou no Strain Episode 10 Discussion blackfeather_58 - Aug 7, 2008	7 replies	by Dekom »» Apr 23, 4:49 PM
	Poll: Soukou no Strain Episode 3 Discussion blackfeather_58 - Aug 6, 2008	8 replies	by Dekom »» Apr 15, 4:02 PM
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