Sky Girls (TV)

Title:Sky Girls (TV)
スカイガールズ (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - JC Staff
GOTO Saori
HORIE Yui
ITOU Shizuka
KAWASUMI Ayako
Music - MITSUMUNE Shinkichi
Music - TAKAKI Hiroshi
TSUJI Ayumi
In 2122 A.D., Earth is at war with aliens called W.O.R.M. ("Weapon of Raid Machines"), swarms of minute beings that can form monster-sized beings. The war leaves the population of Earth decimated, with young men being the main casualties. The W.O.R.M. were beaten back but their re-emergence heralds the creation of a mecha unit called the Sonic Divers, piloted by three girls (each of them 16 years old) to counter this threat. These pilots-to-be will have to learn military drill, how to pilot their flying exoskeletons named "Sky Divers", and - how to fight in real battle.

A full scale series for a story that Sky Girls (OVA) only showed as one prototype episode (which has no exact position within the series - the first battle against the W.O.R.M. is episode 9 but the move on board of the Koryu ship is episode 12).

[TV series, 2007, 26 episodes; Animation by JC Staff; the DVD version has additional silly-funny special episodes of about 4 min length.]
The title "スカイガールズ" is the Kana sound pattern for "sukai garuzu" = "sky girls".
1:30min Series Opening - YouTube Video
Episode Details 
99
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 8 7 7 7 7 Dreamer [series:1637#2279]
After much procrastination, I finally decided to pick this one up. Hmmm... now that I think of it, not sure if that was a good decision.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork shines here. It had a high level of details and the colors were plenty rich. Lighting was another plus. Character designs were also well done and well detailed. Well, except for our sky girls... who all happened to look like pre-pubescent tweenies.

Music
The OP grew on me after a few episodes in. It was a rock-like piece with female vocals. The good part was the vocals weren't your typical japanese high-pitched squeek of a voice as it's found in many anime. As for the soundtrack, it was hardly noticeable. Just some light pieces, almost background audio filllers much like "elevator music". The ED on the other hand was sorta like a lullaby. Another female vocal driven piece and a bit on the cuter side. Not of my flavor for sure.

Series and Episode Story
Ok, so our sky girls looked like a bunch of little girls barely hitting their 10th bday, but i'm not sure if that's enough to classify it as "lolicon". Oh well, whatever. Aside from that note, I found that this series grew on me. At first, and for the first 3 or 4 episodes, it hardly held my interest. But the plot was slowly developing... and ever so slowly at that. And frankly, I got to liking these cute little girls.... (no, I don't swing that way).

As for the plot, yes I did say it was slowly developing, but that doesn't mean that was a good plot. In fact, I found the plot pretty well stretched in believability.... even for an anime. I just couldn't buy into the whole "worm" thing. And the way these girls were dispatched to knock them out, it seemed a simple fighter jet would do the trick. I mean afterall, these "worms" didn't really put up much of a fight. The conclusion was pretty bland, but then, I didn't expect much anyhow so it wasn't a let down.

Overall, it was a mild entertainment and nothing more. If you're pressed for time, move onto greener pastures.

Last updated Saturday, November 13 2010. Created Friday, November 12 2010.
Watch 7 7 8 7 5 8 Devil Doll [series:1637#752]
[Score: 71%]
  • Drama: Low/Med (more like a game for the pilots at first but this changes over time)
  • Comedy: Low/Med (quite a few funny moments but hardly any ROTFL scenes)
  • Action: Med (piloting those exoskeletons and their battles against W.O.R.M.)
  • SciFi: Med (tech talk about nanoskins and stuff, increasing during the Aisha arc)
  • Ecchi: Low (some pantsu shots and undergarments during early episodes)
Well, whom could I possibly sell this thingy? Shin Seiki Lolicon, anyone? And why do they have to make those 16-year-old pilots look like 10-year-olds, and then permanently show them in their underwear?

8 Points for Characters and Episode Story, meaning that I liked the characters and cared for them: A shy genius girl (in college already after having skipped several grades, admires her ani-ue, is afraid of boys) and a care-free energetic girl (sword fighter, dreams of being a pilot like her father who died in the war against the W.O.R.M. instead of taking over the dohjo of her grandfather) are recruited by some experimental air base where an unsociable but experienced pilot (all three girls of age 16) already flies some prototype exoskeleton. The interaction between these three (later: four resp. five) pilots (questioning their own abilities and goals at times), with their mechanics and some of the higher-ups is the focus of this series - not the battles (which have been boring and repetitive even though the enemies get more dangerous over time, you hardly ever get a real suspense feeling). You just never know whether the next minutes will be closer to depressing Shin Seiki Evangelion or to hilarious Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z... it's just flipping between these two. Stereotypical as they are, these characters gave me all kinds of pleasant emotions throughout this show, and I never became fed up with any single one of them. Which is the good side of this show... well, the only one, unfortunately.

Art and Animation are okay albeit the girls are awfully thin. The trashy OP song is horrible, the first ED song has some interesting parts but I dislike the childish and Engrish vocals.... and the second ED song from episode 14 on, bringing jazzy big band sound, isn't any better. Then again, the Music during the suspense/action sequences (the "Huge Worms" theme) is just perfect, making these scenes quite an experience for me (this track made it into my Anime Music Collection). While the loli/ecchi elements appeared to be omnipresent in the beginning they're getting ever less important over time as the focus is more on the characters and the story development.

I am not really used to those child-genius-soldier stories but I get a distinct feeling of Narutaru as for the visualization, Uchuu no Stellvia as for the character interaction, and Rahxephon as for the military organization element while I don't see Sky Girls on par with any of these (all of which I gave a "Rent" rating). Definitely a series for a younger audience as the battles are neither bloody nor detailed and no one is actually been harmed. A war without visible casualties, viewed from the perspective of kids who're in charge of operating the weaponry, and with the focus more on these kids than on the war... making this series fluffy instead of violent.

Finally, the Series Story... this is where this series fails, big time. The explanation for the W.O.R.M. not only is ridiculous, it should cause all kinds of problems as for the motivation of the soldiers to continue fighting, a concept that isn't even hinted at (while at the same time motivation plays a major role throughout the series). The ending is even more laughable, not in terms of the turtles but in terms of the consequences of certain actions during the climax. In the end nothing about the course of events made any sense, therefore I can't possibly give this anime the "Rent" rating that I was hoping for until the last but one episode (while episode 26 is sweet). Having said that, I still don't consider it wasted time - it's just a series that might as well have been a school comedy, so why have all that tech stuff in the first place?

Last updated Monday, November 08 2010. Created Monday, July 23 2007.
Watch Stretch [series:1637#628]
(All episodes watched):

I'd heard somewhere that Sky Girls stank to high heaven, but this episode didn't seem all that bad to me. It later dawned on me that that particular comment must have been in reference to the earlier Sky Girls (OVA)--indeed, I nearly started typing this review on that page. Though I'd hardly call it brilliant, I'd say Sky Girls TV gets off to a credible start. Three fairly interesting girls are recruited as test pilots, though it's all too clear that the "Worms" will be back before long and we'll have a Gunbuster-like situation in which the fate of the world rests in their hands. Episode three seemed a bit predictable, with the all too common "underdog-pilot-demonstrates-amazing-skill-to-surprised-superiors" incident; otherwise I thought it kind of neat that some details of the complex training that the candidates are undergoing was shown. Again, episode four was somewhat predictable, this time the "we-meet-a-nice-boy-who-we'll-probably-never-see-again-except-he-shows-up-the-next-day-as-our-fellow-team-member" subplot. The OP song was kind of raucous and freaky, but I really like the ED song. In general, background artwork is impressive (especially in a sunset scene), but character designs seemed a little simplistic for a serious show. Actually, so far Sky Girls strikes me as a pleasing mix of short-term silliness with a more serious long-term plot building--I say this after watching an episode in which the girls try to figure out who is the owner of an impressive bra they found in the laundry room. It's not all that original (so far), but employs tried-and-true plot devices and thus is enjoyable to watch.

It felt like a skillful, dramatic climax was building. But the series fumbled embarassingly with the revelation of the origin of the WORMs. I'm assuming this was supposed to be frightening and switch the series from silly-mode into serious-mode, but it was in fact rather laughable and nonsensical. It discredited the Worms as serious opponents, and I was decidedly disappointed (I had assumed they were from outer space). If this was supposed to be an Eva homage/parody, it was neither horrifying nor amusing--not even very believable. The climactic battle scene was unexceptional (turtles?!), and while the final episode did a little salvaging of the situation it was too little and too late. No serious romance came about, and with the Worms no longer holding my interest, the story just never really went anywhere. Twenty-six episodes for this? Well, for the most part it was fun while it lasted, so I won't complain too much.

Don't get your hopes up in regards to a slam-bang exciting conclusion

Last updated Monday, January 14 2008. Created Tuesday, July 10 2007.

Other Sites
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Japanese Language Series Web Site http://www.konami.jp/visual/skygirls/

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