Publisher: ADV Films (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes (Funimation re-release)
Story Outline: Mountain climbing buddies Gorou Saruwatari and Jack "Lostman" Woodbridge finally achieve their goal of climbing Mount Everest. There on that clear day, they witness the International Space Agency’s orbiting space station passing overhead. Then and there they decide to become astronauts. Lostman goes back to his job of being a US Navy pilot, but almost doesn’t make it due to second Gulf war. Goro takes a different approach and becomes a construction worker, gaining licences for a multitude of related machinery. Both are soon on their way into space, however on very different paths.
Mini Review: Seriously, why don’t they just call this show “Astronauts who like to Root”? I believe this show is from a seinen comic anthology, and it shows. All those bored salarymen who want to escape their dull corporate and family life, huh? Dreaming of being an astronaut and buggering everything with a vagina, huh? This stuff is quite common in comics for that demographic, but I got damned sick of it. In the end I was like “Oh Christ, he’s fucking her too!”. I can’t recall any woman in the show not being boned by either one of the leads. Sure the sex scenes are really very short (10 seconds or less at times) and weren’t usually gratuitous, it was distracting and didn’t add to the plot (other than showing the two leads are sex maniacs). While the sexual conquest stuff wasn’t my thing, I was loving the space drama. Surprisingly it’s treated fairly realistic. However there are some elements which didn’t ring true, especially with equipment failures and spacecraft used. Judging from comments made by one astronauts, this show is supposed to be set in the 2020’s or so, but then the second Gulf war is mentioned. It was a bit confusing as to what the actual time period was. I couldn’t help but dislike both leads. Goro is an overconfident Japanese bogan who roots anything he can lay his paws on. Lostman is also an overconfident jerk, but even more so than Goro. There isn’t much here at all which makes him the tiniest bit likable. One of the things ADV didn’t translate fully was the title card which in part says “1st Season”. So not only does this show end abruptly, the very first scene of the first episode makes no bloody sense when viewing all three DVDs. I really can’t see Funimation releasing the second half of this. Bit of a shame really. However the hard sci-fi seems to have been dumped for more fantastical elements. 6.5 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 17 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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