Geneshaft

[TakaTahuNuva]

Brought this up on /m/ a couple of weeks ago but didn't get much of a response (well, to be more accurate I did get the typical /m/ responses - "whew, that's a LEWD bodysuit!")

Anyway, Geneshaft. A somewhat obscure mecha show - look it up if you haven't seen it. It's... surprisingly good.

Other than the unique opening song, and in general the entire OST, this show has a lot of qualities I didn't expect from an early-00s-show-nobody's-heard-of... Such as compelling characters, a very interesting sci-fi setting (human population has a 9:1 female-to-male ratio), mecha design that's different from the norm, and interesting direction in certain scenes. You might've heard about the director, Kazuki Akane - known for hits such as Escaflowne, Heat Guy J, the new Code Geass: Akito OVAs and so on.

Unfortunately, it also has a lot of problems. This is one of Satelight's earliest shows, and the animation quality is what you'd expect from a new studio who's just getting the hang of CG and the move from cel animation. Also, for you people who favor dub over sub... there's not much to look for here. The captain of the ship is voiced by a guy so wooden I'm thinking he was told to underact, there's an enemy commander for a couple of episodes who talks in the WHINIEST BRATTIEST ANNOYINGEST VOICE YOU CAN IMAGINE, and there's a computer hacker whose actress screams into the microphone really fast in an extremely high-pitched voice, that you can't understand a thing she's saying. Crispin Freeman and Amanda Winn-Lee are okay here, I guess.

But the worst part about the show, IMO, is the length. For being a 13-episode show that brings up so many concepts and characters, it's just too damn short. I only just got to know and care about the cast, and already the show ended. They barely had time for filler episodes - I really think it would've benefited from a few more episodes where the crew just hangs around the ship, talks about whatever, maybe a flashback here or there about their lives before the events of the show, a bit more of an explanation about what's life on Earth is like. But nope. The show does its thing, introduce plot points, resolves said plot points, and just ends without expanding on anything.

WHICH IS WHERE THIS THREAD COMES IN

Has anyone read its manga adaption, Lunashaft? Is it any good? Does it have the same plot, or a better version of the plot, or is it completely unrelated? I've been looking all over the interwebs and I can't find a single thing about it. Not even pictures - just thumbnails where you can just barely kind-of see that there's maybe some new mecha designs. I'm dying for any info you guys can get your hands on - maybe some artbooks or magazine scans or something? Surely there must be at least one person on Mechatalk who knows what I'm talking about!

I hope :ם

[Compass]

Can you elaborate on the plot?

[TakaTahuNuva]

Can you elaborate on the plot?

Well, you could say it is a future where ZAFT won the war and everybody are now Coordinators. Genetically-enhanced, grow in tubes, the whole shtick.

Suddenly, mysterious ring-shaped objects appear outside the Earth orbit! It's up to the crew of the Bilkis to find out where they came from, what is their purpose, and why they are attacking Earth! Using the state-of-the-art machine called the Shaft, our heroine Mika Seido has to cope with being far away from home on a ship filled with friends and enemies alike!

...sorry, got carried away a bit, but that's the gist of it

[Amion]

Yeah, that's the gist of it alright. You forgot to mention the mecha is pretty darn awesome looking and nothing like anything I've seen in recent mecha shows.

I didn't mind the overall CGI at all. As a matter of fact I thought it was quite good considering the time of production, but I'm no expert.

Oddly there's no corpulent amounts of fanservice.

Yet. But it's bound to come at some point. They would rather die than take the chance they've got here.

Overall it seems interesting, I think I might have to stick with it a while longer and see if it stays good.

[zerogradius]

I saw Geneshaft years ago. It used to air on TechTv's Anime Unleashed block. It's been almost a decade since I last saw it but I remember that it had a good story and characters. Death count was surprisingly high, too. I definitely should re-watch this.

[JDogindy]

Wow, I'm glad somebody brought it up. I never thought anybody would mention this.

To me, it's a very good series for its limitations (the mecha I could tolerate more than the mecha of Divergence Eve, which were really pathetic, and this show was 3+ years before Divergence Eve), and the story it presented would've worked better if they had more episodes.

I, to, would like to see anything from Lunashaft.