First Impression – Ozuma

Beware of the sun.

Yeah, this is a late Ozuma post. I was supposed to do this last week, but hey, episode two came up the same time I was writing the FI of it (more like the planning)! So I’ll cover both the episodes. Now I know this anime is not my area of expertise. Fantasy? Apocalypses? Ships? Classics? Nope, this is probably Fosh’s, Kyo’s, Jrow’s, and lvlln’s area. However, I’ve realized the beauty of classics and wanted to try the experience of blogging a show like this. So I’ll make lots of mistakes with sloppy judgments, and do correct me when that happens.

Episode 1

The sun, being cruel to this world, leads to the ruin of the earth. Dry oceans, creation of deserts, extinction of species, it’s all the sun’s fault. How? I don’t know. It has the perfect distance from the earth, but I guess some meteor kind of changed the earth’s position or something like that.

If this actually happens, I want it when I’m kickin’ in my graveyard

A young man, roaming around the desert that I suspect is Japan, sees a silver haired woman being chased by government agents. By the way, the leader of the government ship is Char’s relative. Look at his cool mask. Anyhow… his attempt to help her succeeded because Ozuma, a SAND WHALE, appeared out from the sand and scattered the government ships. The young man named Sam carries the silver haired beauty to his ship.

The sexiest man in this show

Half of the episode is all about the beauty named Maya roaming around in the pirate ship, while Sam’s friend Mimei is all jealous about Maya. After a while, Maya is bought to the captain, Bainas, and like every other captain, she loves to defy logic by playing tarots. And it works too, since the government soldiers and Char’s relative, Gido, arrive as Bainas flips the Death card. I wonder if I can do that before my tests?

Now Maya has to choose to surrender or else the soldiers will shoot the crews outside the ship. Empty threats obviously, but since Maya is a dunce, she involuntarily volunteers to go back with Gido… Until Bainas tells her that she’s under Bainas’ protection. Well, she didn’t say it directly like that. The ship disappears… into the sand… It’s a submarine! Or what Gido calls “A Natur ship that can dive.” Now Gido is left with no sand and no Maya. Only him and his cool mask… Damn it, where did he got it? I want that fucking mask.

Things to do to get the boy’s attention in the first episode: 1)”sacrifice self,” 2)wear a dress in the desert…

By the way guys, screenshots of episode 1 is by Tsuki from Emory Anime Club. I have my excuse. Anyway, a college anime club that has its own website? THAT’S SO COOL YO. I need to stop being a blogger hikki and actually open my Google Reader.

Ohhh damn it, I ended up taking my own screenshots. I’m such a WordPress retard.

Episode 2

Lots of technical terms that I don’t get AT ALL here, but I think I get the basic of the tactic. First, Gido uses a sand scanner (that’s what I call it) to somehow detect the noise inside the desert. After pinpointing the area where the submarine might be in, Gido fires missiles into the area, narrowing it down.

Until now, I still don’t get why people don’t use both sides of the headset

After lots of chasing using some kind of noise trick thanks to technology, Gido finally gets the exact location of the submarine and orders the sand anchors to be fired. Kind of the same with missiles, but it gives more damage. Bainas decides to order her crew to turn off the engine so that Theseus army won’t locate the submarine, while risking the submarine’s temperature at the same time. Unfortunately, Maya collapses already even before the submarine became hot. Does she have some kind of disease?

This is just hardcore

The temperature of the submarine rises and Gido still doesn’t leave, even though his second-in-command insists that they should for Maya’s sake. Just as the temperature passes 50 degree Celcius, Gido commands his Theseus soldiers to retreat. Bainas tells her engineers to turn on the engine, and Maya regains her consciousness after the temperature cools down.

Awkward

In Theseus, which I still believe to be Tokyo, Gido reports his failed mission to his commander while telling about a “Natur ship that can dive.” Seems like the commander isn’t so fond of the Naturs. Anyhow, the commander tells Gido that Maya has a different thinking from the rest of them, that she’s not of this world. Because of that, she became hard to take care, which is the reason why she fled. Gido’s commander tells Gido to capture Maya no matter what because she is needed in Theseus.

I’m much more concerned about where the characters get all these alcoholic drinks while the oceans are all dried up

Meanwhile, in Bardanos (the name of the ship), our puppy in love Sam tries to impress Maya by taking her around the desert (more like into a cave), and just like any other childhood friend, Mimei is not amused. At the same time, Bainas is all being nostalgic until the alcoholic female doctor interrupts Bainas with her report of Maya. Of course, Maya is not just an ordinary woman. She’s special. Duh.

Extra Heat:

Shipping these two like mad now

Of course, there is a dead brother

I don’t know where to start because the two episodes really gave two different feelings. The first episode was somehow dull and anticlimactic. It was weird, because the setting is supposed to be interesting itself with the whole desert thingy. Episode two was a surprise for me, considering how the previous one was. It was full of technical terms and war tactics, which made it fun and exciting. I totally had no idea what the terms are, but that didn’t stop me from feeling the suspense when Bardanos’ engine was being turned off. Everything was just… Entertaining! This, of course, made me realize how sucky the studio was at handling the story execution in episode one. Of course, apocalypse is a common concept to be used in lots of anime (Guilty Crown, etc. etc.). However, I am pretty sure that there is something interesting about this apocalypse.

Unfortunately, the characters did not undergo some kind of drastic change just like the episodes. Not even three episodes and Sam already irritates the hell out of me with his actions. The same goes for Mimei since she’s acting like an annoying childhood friend. Honestly, is there no childhood friend that is just strictly childhood friend? I’m sick of that kind of drama. Nothing is revealed about Maya yet, but I know she’ll be that one character that will just put the group in trouble while doing no shit about it. Just look at her hair. It’s silver! It definitely reminds me of a certain useless character… *cough*Isanami*cough* So yeah, it’s just two episodes and half of the main characters are not promising already. Thankfully, there’s the awesome Gido and Bainas. They look like capable characters, and they have a FABULOUS sense of fashion. I hope the discouraging characters, especially Sam, goes through some kind of character development as the episodes pass by.

Some people said that the animation, especially on the background scenes, are somehow awkward, as if the whole thing is not drawn by one person only. I wasn’t able to notice it due to my megane (yes I’m blaming everything on my megane), however I did notice the animation glitch at some of the characters’ movement. Well, they’re not that noticeable, but it really shown in Gido and Bainas, the only two awesome characters in this series. Every time Gido tilts his head when someone tells him something, it looks as if someone just shifted his head’s position without any movement whatsoever. When Bainas was walking though the ship’s corridor, her walk was very unnatural. It just looks as if it was only her shoulders that moved. She walks like a junkie, I guess? Either way, it was disappointing because I expected the studio to be careful about this series since it’s by Leiji Matsumoto. The animation of the art was not disappointing though. I really love how beautiful the characters turned out to be. Modern animation and classical artwork makes a great match. They should get married or something like that. My most favorite part is when the line thickens every time the scene shows the close-up of the character’s face. It’s just… Unique. I don’t think I could ever get used to the noses, but I can ignore that.

I still don’t know whether I’m liking this anime or not yet, because it seems that some of the episodes will be unpredictably… Boring… Or… Fun… I’ll just go along with the flow and see how it will be. There are some explanations I want to get, such as the meaning of Natur (I suspect they’re humans that did not have the same technology as Theseus City’s) and who Maya actually is (My theory is that she’s a mix of a Natur and a Theseus City citizen. Or… She might be an alien!). Either way, I hope the rest of the episodes won’t be dull like episode one. Oh, and better animation on Gido and Bainas please. I totally dig them now.

Preview: From the narration, it seems that an internal fight will break out among the crews, possibly about Maya. Thousad Years Trust? I suspect that has something to do with Maya too.

About anaaga

Have read 418 BL manga and continuing.