Soukou no Strain

Title:Soukou no Strain
S.T.R.A.I.N.: Strategic Armored Infantry
Strain - Strategic Armoured Infantry (R1 Title)
奏光のストレイン
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: R1 License - FUNimation
Sara Werec is a Strain Pilot Candidate (Giant Robot). With 20 hours left until graduation, Sara and her friend Sedi watch the moonlight together. Suddenly a group of Deague (The enemy) attack their school destroying most of it. Sara and her friends get into their Strains and try to fight off this menance, but her 3 friends (including Sedi) are killed by a powerful gold Strain. Sara survives and chases this Strain to a secret lab near the school. She watches a man come out of the school carrying a girl with 2 retina's in each eye. As he leaves Sara realizes the Gold Strain's pilot is her brother Ralph!

In the distant future, mankind has spread out into the universe and formed 2 powers, the Union and the Deague. The Union uses human pilots and their mimics (clones taken from them at the womb) and the Deague uses unmanned Tumors (Diamonds with tails). Those 2 have been fighting for many years without a resolution in sight.


Animation from Studio Fantasia
13 TV episodes
Series first aired on Nov 2, 2006
R1 Licensed by Funimation
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 7 7 6 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:1484#1552]
Strain appeared to be an attempt at a space opera in its focus on Sara Werec trying to figure out the reasons surrounding her brother's betrayal as she undergoes training to become a mecha pilot. While the anime isn't afraid to kill off its major characters and has a decent twist surrounding why Sara's brother went through with his betrayal, the anime is otherwise nothing out of the ordinary for an anime as all the characters have their various character types they play out and the larger battle the series portrays for its war is nothing to be impressed over either. As a result of all this, the show's attempts at drama mostly fall flat and it doesn't have anything in particular that allows it to stick out from any mecha or space opera anime. Overall, a mostly forgettable title.

Last updated Thursday, April 12 2018. Created Sunday, October 09 2011.
Watch Marcus [series:1484#679]
This anime can best be described as combining all the good bits of Stellvia with all the bad bits of Divergence Eve. It features cute female leads, mecha action, flashy animation, and a potentially interesting storyline. So where does it go wrong?? By falling victim to every known anime cliche, making the characters as shallow as possible, and indulging in unnecessary fan-service.

What is so frustrating is that this series had potential. Some of the plot elements (such as fighting a loved one or understanding why a good person turns evil) are well-worn, but are at least interesting. The mecha battles are well-done, with impressive use of CG, and the characters are visually diverse and well animated. What lets the series down big time is the development of the story, which is far too predictable to be engaging. The characters are all cut from standard anime stereotypes, several elements that seem to be intended as shocking plot twists are easily anticipated (OMG the pilot of the evil mecha is...!), and the Big Reason behind Ralph's journey to the dark side isn't very imaginative either.

The series also has no sense of subtelty; its idea of portraying 'dramatic tension' is simply to have the characters yell at each other for five minutes. As such, the actions and motivations of the characters never seem natural; it's as if they're doing what the story requires of them rather than for any meaningful reason of their own. For example, Sara is bullied and abused by fellow pilots, but there's no real reason for her to be; it's more about fulfilling her role as the "Tragic Loner Heroine". Likewise Lavinia, the token lesbian, is infatuated with Sara, but this is solely so she can get into silly and embarassing situations in the name of comedy relief. It's predictable, it's lazy and it becomes annoying. Again, it's so frustrating because there are hints of greater depth during the quieter scenes when the characters can relax and open up a bit. The relationship with Emily, for example, adds warmth to Sara's withdrawn personality. I got the sense I could grow to like these people, if only the story would give them a chance!

This isn't even counting the (again cliched) use of random English words as technical jargon ("Use your REASONER and MIMIC to pilot the STRAIN to defeat the TUMOUR"!), or the completely pointless nudity and fan service, which only serves to futher devalue the characters (how often do these girls shower???). A show with this much potential should not have needed cheesy underwear scenes to sustain interest.

Forget about this series. Stick with Stellvia!

Last updated Wednesday, May 16 2007. Created Tuesday, May 15 2007.
Rent 9 9 9 9 8 9 chibi [series:1484#2380]
Sarah Werec trains hard to follow in the footsteps of her beloved brother, Ralph, who left years ago to pilot the top-of-the-line mecha fighter, the "Strain", in the inter-stellar war between the Union and the Deague. Because of the time dilation of near-lightspeed battles, the only practical way she can stay by her brother's side is to become a Strain pilot, too. But just as she's about to graduate from the academy, it is attacked by Deague drones, led by a powerful Strain that kills many of her classmates as they try to defend the base. Following the enemy Strain, Sarah is shocked to discover it is piloted by her brother Ralph. She attempts to stop him but is defeated, and in the process her "Mimic" -- a mind/machine interface grown from cloned cells of the pilot's brain that is necessary to fly the Strain -- is destroyed. A pilot's Mimic is irreplaceable, and now Sarah can never again pilot a Strain. Without that ability, and with her reputation in the military ruined by her brother's betrayal, how can she solve the mystery of why her brother has turned traitor?

The artwork and character designs are some of the best I've seen, with good use of CG. The series story was engaging, though with some loose ends that the 13-show format probably didn't leave time to tie up. (However, they weren't really material to the main story.) The episodes had lots of action and good character interaction. The biggest reason I didn't give this a "Buy" rating is the ending. It's not a bad ending, just not a very imaginative one, which was a letdown after the very imaginative plot up until that point.

Not licensed yet, fansubs from WinD.

Last updated Sunday, February 25 2007. Created Tuesday, December 05 2006.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1484#1573]
Analysis : 6 Episodes Watched
  • Drama : Med
  • Comedy : Low
  • Action : Med
  • SciFi : High
  • Ecchi : Med
    • Occasion nudity here and there and in the OP
I DEFINTELY like!

What happens when you mix the politics Battle Athletes, the enviroment of Stellvia, the character design of Angelic Layer and the mecha from Vandread?

You get a bunch of pilots training but one of them has a secret, her brother is the enemy, and he is a skilled killer!

Top Notch animation, good CGI, some neat drama, this is probably going to be my 2006 winner since it isn't a comedy.

Last updated Sunday, January 07 2007. Created Wednesday, November 08 2006.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.s-strain.jp/
Funimation (R1 English) web site http://funimation.com/strain/

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