First Squad: The Moment Of Truth

Title:First Squad: The Moment Of Truth
Первый отряд (Russian)
ファーストスクワッド (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Studio 4°C
It is 1942. The Red Army is putting up a violent and effective resistance against the German invaders. 14 year-old Nadya is a medium. In a deadly air raid the girl is shell-shocked. Recovering from her concussion, Nadya discovers her new gift – the ability to foresee the “Moments of Truth” - the most critical moments of future combat encounters, in which one person’s actions will decide the outcome one way or the other.

Nadya’s ability is indispensable for the classified 6th Division of the Russian Military Intelligence, which is waging a secret war against the “Ahnenerbe” – an occult order within the SS. The Ahnenerbe summons from the realm of the dead the powerful prince of darkness, Baron von Wolff. With him on their side they hope to change the course of history and achieve world domination. To oppose the Baron Nadya decides to enlist the support of her old friends from the beyond – the Pioneers of the First Squad

Story created/developed by a Canadian company and animated by Studio 4°C. First Squad: The Moment of Truth is being directed by Mind Game and Tweeny Witches' Yoshiharu Ashino. Hirofumi Nakata, who recently worked on the Batman: Gotham Knight anthology video, is designing the characters, and Studio 4°C head Eiko Tanaka, whose credits include both The Animatrix and Tekkonkinkreet, will be one of the producers along with Molot's Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov.

(as reported in ANN)

New Movie to be released on 05.13.2009

YouTube trailer - First Squad.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 9 9 9 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:1885#1552]
Another experimental one-shot OVA from the minds of Studio 4C, First Squad portrays an alternate history scenario of World War II era Soviet Union where a group of teenagers with special abilities clash with a cult of Nazis trying to resurrect a 12th century crusader army from the dead to join their cause. The anime is pretty standard with story progression as our lead Nadya is recouping from the loss of her comrades and has to enter the land of the dead to have them fight at her side again against the plans of the Nazis, but there isn't enough focus on Nadya and her comrades to care for them individually as characters. The animation is high quality caliber with detailed scenery and character designs, with fluid movement coming out of many of the title's animated sequences that include a chase atop a moving train and the final battle in the anime between Russian and Nazi forces. Still beyond its great animation, First Squad doesn't have much else that makes it memorable as its plot and characters have little memorable that make it worth nothing more than a rental.

Last updated Saturday, September 17 2016. Created Saturday, September 17 2016.
Rent 8 8 7 0 7 KBanger1 [series:1885#1694]
Without spoiling the entire anime, I will not summarize the plot since I can't really do so because it jumps right into the story. It'll be better explained through my review.

My first observation on this anime was about the main protagonist, Nadya. From the picture above, she's the one wielding the katana. I asked myself, "This is set in WWII in Russia. Why the hell does she have a katana?" Storywise, it's okay at best. It's certainly a twist from a an average WWII type of story. It centers around a thing called "Moments of Truth" which is explained in the top. It's basically a critical point where the outcome of a battle can change the tide of a war. In First Squad, Nadya inherits the power to foresee future moments of truth from her parents. From this point, her past is kind of distorted due to fact she suffered a concussion which made her forget her memories. Following along, the story unravels itself and starts to make sense. Unfortunately, it takes about half of the anime to get to that point. I believe that this anime could be a series. It just feels so short and underdeveloped for an anime. It does have it's moments as far as action goes, but not enough to really say it's well worth the buy rating. Art/animation is well done but not really eye catching. The character design is par at best. I didn't really care for them much except for maybe one character, Baron Von Wolfe.

What I took out of this anime was that it was dubbed in Russian and I watched some of it in that language. I actually enjoyed it more in Russian than Japanese or English. If I had to rate the dubbing, it would be Russian at the top and English dead last. It's not at all completely butchered but it's weird when you hear "comrade" in English or any other word that relates to its native language. Of course, it's up to the individual on how they would like to watch. I usually prefer the 'engdub' since I grew up with that but native language is always the best.

Overall, First Squad is certainly a nice twist to the average war story, but it doesn't hold much more than that twist. If you like supernatural anime with a side of WWII nostalgia, give it a try.

Last updated Tuesday, April 17 2012. Created Tuesday, April 17 2012.
Watch 10 9 9 9 8 8 Dreamer [series:1885#2279]
Does this really count as an anime? That was my first thought as I sat watching the first few minutes.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork really shines here. Details are extremely high with rich colors. Character designs were extremely well done as well and with a high level of details. Animation is silky smooth and really enhances the overall art.

Music
Music, rather the OP was dramatic! It had the the aura of a James Bond-ish piece with dramatic drums, sharp symbols and cliff-hanger effects. Well done. The ED was an excellent piece. A dramatic electronic / techno beat with a sequence of animations that do it further justice.

Series and Episode Story
So I'm not sure if this series should be classified as an anime. For one, the whole series was in Russian..... or I think it was since I don't really know how Russian should sound. Second, the artwork as very western.... everything about it was western, including the setting.... Europe. And third, the plot was purely western.

Regardless, this OVA was good. Because of the fact that we have a single OVA, I felt the plot was rushed even though it was almost an hour long. I think this is because we have a good plot that should have been given more time to develop and flush out. Because didn't have time, we miss our protagonists back story, as well as her partners.... which would have made for some interesting watch. We also get a slight hint of a relationship between our protagonist and one her partners but due to time, we don't get to explore that any further.

Overall, it's a good watch. It's fast pace, serious and dramatic.

Last updated Saturday, November 05 2011. Created Saturday, November 05 2011.

Other Sites
NameURL
English Language Series Web Site http://www.first-squad.com

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