Geneshaft, Vol. 1: Ring (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Created by Satelight and Kazuki Akane
Screenplay by Sho Tokimura and Miya Asakawa
Directed by Kazuki Akane
Voices by Kumiko Higa, Takahiro Sakurai, Yumi Kakazu, Shinji Kawada, Dominic Armato, Amanda Winn Lee, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Crispin Freeman

Features:

• Character gallery
  
• Glossary
  
• Bilkis programs explained
  
• Pilot Film
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Animated violence
• Not enough bishonen
• Not as much fan service as you’d think, which is good
• Annoying characters
• Murky motivations

Released by: Bandai
Region: 1
Rating: 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Get it today.

In what appears to be one of this year’s best new anime titles, Geneshaft combines a lot of what we watch anime for: adventure, action, cute people, good characters, redeeming social messages, and great art.

Taking a page from ensemble science-fiction titles like Nadesico and Tenchi in Space, Geneshaft takes place in the not-too-distant future. Humanity has nearly destroyed the earth and themselves, and in desperation, they bioengineer themselves to a ratio of one man for every nine women, hoping that reducing the typical male aggression will create a more peaceful world. Humans can also manipulate DNA to create perfectly skilled and healthy individuals; at approximately ten years of age, a gene type evinces itself, and is coded to one of the colors of the spectrum. Our heroine Mika, however, has not yet expressed her genetic color--either that, or she is a new adult type, a White, maintaining the ultimate possibility of childhood. Into this gene-dependent society comes a mysterious artifact, a giant ring in space that no one understands or can identify. A special group of people is assembled to study and destroy the ring and trace it back to its alien origins.

The characters are very interesting; Mika with her constant worry about who and what she is and what her real skills are is a wonderful main character, and is perfectly balanced by the more settled and spunky Sofia. The ice queen, Mir, is the character you’ll love to hate, and live for those all-too-few moments when Sofia tells her off. The token men on the ship are interesting; they seem to reflect opposite sides of the new male possibilities, and it will be fun to see how their roles play out in this Brave New World. The only real downside to this title is that it falls prey to the typical need for there to be at least one extremely annoying child in any given cast. Here, we have not one, but two such little girls, but at least the second one doesn’t show up until the very end. Even the staff’s requisite bookish character, Remmy, is annoying in her blind adulation of Mir and is thus far probably the most one-dimensional character on the show.

The features list is nice enough, including a "pilot film" which is something of a music video showing off the animation of the show and some of the characters. The character gallery is extensive, showing the various costumes and details of all the characters to whom we have been introduced on this disc. The glossary is the real special feature here, though, and is a wonderful way to de-confuse yourself about the many important details in this first selection of episodes. You’ll learn more about everything from how the gene type colors work to who was behind the idea in the first place. Finally, the notoriously buggy (Microsoft anyone?) Bilkis programs running the ships and mecha are explained; if you want to know which program is giving Mika trouble at every turn, then look here. That’s a very clever and useful feature. Kudos to Bandai.

The audio and video quality are both very high here. The show combines CGI with cel animation rather beautifully, and the result is amazing. The cast does a great job, and the English dub manages to reduce some of the more annoying aspects of Tiki and Dolce’s voices.

If you enjoy character-driven science fiction, anime or not, then you’ll love Geneshaft. It’s not perfect, but the first few episodes of a show rarely are; we can only hope that Tiki becomes less irritating and that Mir either dies, settles down, or emerges as the real villain she probably is. Keep an eye on this one.