Search - Vandread and Vandread the Second Stage: Complete Collection on DVD

The battle of the sexes goes galactic

trashcanman | Hanford, CA United States | 05/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quite an original idea for an animated series I must say. When humanity leaves earth men and women decide to go their seperate ways and the eventual result, of course, is war. Men are taught to believe that women are heartless, evil monsters and that is where we begin. When our male protagonists' ship is attacked by a group of fearsome female pirates the star of the show, Hibiki, is captured along with two others and brought aboard the ship "Nirvana". Having never encountered each other before, the men and women are about to get a serious education that may change the universe as they know it. "Vandread" is a fantastic series about the lack of understanding between the two genders. The men's world is a practical one, bland and macho with only tastless military rations to eat and the soldiers fight in vanguards, powerful flying robots. The women, on the other hand, are obsessed with aesthetics, serve their crew home-cooked meals, and fly elegant spaceships, dreadnaughts, into battle. There is a great episode where Hibiki and his main love interest, the adorably ditzy Dita, are seen by the crew's spy in an out of context situation where Dita is crying. Soon, the whole ship is in an uproar when the gossip spreads and the situation is blown entirely out of proportion as the story is retold and reinterpretted through every girl on the ship. Hibiki is absolutely dumbstruck at this phenomenon, being that men don't gossip in this way, and the result is a hilarious episode that riffs on the differences between male and female communication. Much of the first half of the series is like this; men and women discovering each other and the misunderstandings that come from their inherent differences. Soon, however, a malevolent galactic entity is discovered by our heroines and the fight is on to warn both men and women of the common foe that threatens their very existence. With the two sides unwilling to talk, it falls on the small alliance of the pirate crew and their captives to battle this force until the two sides can be convinced of their need to cooperate. The Nirvana's crew has a secret weapon: when Hibiki's vanguard combines with a girl's dreadnaught the result is a superpowered vehicle dubbed (say it with me, now) "vandread". The vandread serves it's purpose as an allegory for male/female cooperation and as a metaphor for sex nicely. The space battles are done is an interesting CG style that was a bit clumsy in season one, but for "Second Stage" the animation for these scenes received a massive upgrade. Sadly, the best stories were in the first season though there are some pretty massive twists in the second. Overall I wouldn't miss this series, it's full of colorful characters, situational comedy, giant robot and spaceship action, and plenty of illustrations about why men and women just don't get each other, but nontheless need each other. It's a one of a kind series and a lot of fun."