Sol Bianca: The Legacy

Original Title: SOL BIANCA - 太陽の船 ソルビアンカ
Romanized: Taiyou no Fune Sol Bianca
Literal: Ship of the Sun

Plot Synopsis

Sol Bianca and Sol Bianca 2 introduced us to the mysterious pirate ship Sol Bianca and her crew of violent misfit women. The Legacy aims to fill us in on their past. Our story opens some time in the distant future after humanity has explored and colonized distant stars. In fact, old Earth has become little more than a legend, and no one even knows where it is--all that remains are a few artifacts from Earth's distant past.

When the crew of the Sol Bianca sets down on a backwater planet looking to steal back and ancient (and very valuable) pistol that was stolen from April, they set into motion a string of events that will have powerful forces yanking them all over the galaxy, and eventually back to Old Earth itself.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-09

Sol Bianca: The Legacy is a prime example of early 21st century "postmodern" anime--stylish, loaded with pop-culture references, and willfully avant-garde. Throughout its six episodes it covers a lot of ground, but despite a few very good dramatic parts and lots of creative storytelling it never feels comfortable in most of the genres it touches on. The too-silly first two episodes start it off on the wrong foot, and when it swings back toward drama it goes so far that the action is almost unnecessary. The Legacy feels most at home in its emotionally complex, character-driven scenes, which are subtle and realistic (if ill-explained), but you'll have to forget some pretty sour notes and put up with some rather weird plot to get to them. At least it's flat-out gorgeous, and has some very fine acting in both languages, as well as quality music.

You don't need to be a fan of the originals to appreciate Sol Bianca: The Legacy, and indeed you might enjoy it more if you're not due to the character changes and simultaneous shift toward more silly and more moody. Regardless, it's halfway between a very attractive action series and a moody, style-heavy drama, but is so uneven and takes so long to get its footing that I have trouble recommending it even with all its strengths.

US DVD Review

The DVDs are quite nice, but not perfect. The audio is beautiful--a crystal clear and well-separated Dolby Digital 5.1 track in both English and Japanese, and a stereo track to go with each of those for folks without home theater systems. The video isn't quite as impressive--clean and sharp, but showed more compression artifacts than I would have liked to see on an all-digital production like this (mostly in areas of subtle color change, which the dark visuals in the second disc are full of). Unlike a lot of DVDs of the period, they include both the English and Japanese voice credits on the disc (you go, Pioneer! ...er, Geneon).

There are plenty of extra features: Production sketches, test 3D models, and a long music video of clips set to angry techno music. The menus are fancy and animated, and those on the first and third disc are designed to match the control menu of the Sol Bianca itself (we get to see it during the show). It actually looks a little too much like the "real" thing--when the menu of the actual Sol Bianca showed up during the program, I at first thought I bumped the menu button on the remote. The second disc features a completely different menu, this one designed after the heads-up display of Janny's gun.

In all, a solid set of shiny discs.

Content Guide

Some violence and mature themes, but mild enough that Pioneer's 13-up rating is appropriate.

Violence: 2 - Violent, but not graphic.

Nudity: 2 - A small amount of skin.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Some mature themes.

Language: 2 - Not severe.

Notes and Trivia

Based on the two direct-to-video movies that preceded it in release and follow it in storyline, Sol Bianca: The Legacy has an almost completely different production crew, which is obvious.

On that note, I decided to go easy on the direct comparisons in the review, but I'd like to indulge in a few more that may be of interest to fans of the originals. Though Sol Bianca and its sequel were little more than babes-in-space action flicks, there was something in there that made them memorable. The prospect of a continuation--by Pioneer, no less--had me drooling, even if it was disappointingly a prequel instead of a follow-up to the frustratingly inconclusive end of the second movie.

In comparison, the admittedly spectacular action scenes of The Legacy lack the creativity and fun of "the good old days." Character-wise, the same basic personalities are here, and while it's reasonable to expect them to be a little different, the younger Janny is almost scary and June is less the nonchalant brainiac and more of a perky gadget girl. More importantly, the level of banter just isn't the same; the characters feel much deeper individually, but their relationship to each other doesn't feel quite as real or nearly as fun as before.

Feb is worth singling out as a bright point--although she seems much younger (more so than the other four), she has a larger part and we get to see more of her interesting and tumultuous relationship with April.

Availability

Available in the US from Geneon on three hybrid DVDs. The whole series is also available in a slightly less expensive box set. Was originally also available on subtitled or dubbed VHS, now out of print.

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