Gall Force: Eternal Story

Original Title: ガルフォース
Romanized: Gall Force
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Two advanced civilizations, the Paranoids (a race of bug-like humanoids) and the Solenoids (who are all women) are waging a war that has gone on for centuries. When the Solenoid fleet leaves a battle to defend an experimentally terraformed world from the Paranoids, one damaged Solenoid ship, the Star Leaf, is separated from the fleet. Only seven women remain alive on the ship: Eluza, the captain, Rabby, the competent soldier, Lufy, the brash pilot, Catty, the mysterious science officer, Pony, the pink-haired ditzy tech, Patty, a loyal crew member, and Remy, the cute one. But they are not alone... their ship is the subject of a Paranoid experiment, and it is up to the remaining crew of the Star Leaf to defend the artificial paradise of Chaos from both the Paranoid fleet and the plans of their own Solenoid leaders.

Review

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-08-10

Gall Force is either an epic space opera gone horribly wrong, or a babes in space flick gone horribly right. Either way it's painfully derivative and spread thick with cheese, but there's something memorable about the package, and when you add in the half-dozen sequels, it becomes the first installment in a sort of low-rent space opera epic.

On the surface, Gall Force is standard babes in outer space fare. The action borrows heavily from an array of classic Hollywood and anime sci-fi--the middle section in particular is ripped straight out of Alien, except with no men and an alien Geiger wouldn't have used for toilet paper. The title pretty much says it all, and the often silly dialogue is about on the same level.

However, despite every indication of being a simple skin/action flick, there is a sort of epic quality to Gall Force that makes it more interesting that the sum of its largely re-used parts. It rips off so many different things that the story almost comes across as mildly original. More than just space opera, it's about one third Star Wars, one third Alien, and one third "last stand" planet defending, with a bit of Robotech/Gundam-style mecha action thrown in for good measure. Original, no, but it certainly hits all the genres.

The progression is at least mildly interesting, in particular a couple of passably dramatic moments and a decent twist of an end. Particularly when you take the sequels into account, I could almost be convinced that there was intended to be more to it from the beginning.

That's where the confusion comes in. If Gall Force was actually somehow intended to be straight space opera, something went terribly wrong--it's far too cheesy (I can't even call it loveably campy) to take seriously. Yet if it was never supposed to be more than babes on a spaceship, there's an awful lot of semi-functional drama ruining the mood, a moderately dark overtone to the story, and a notable lack of skin through most of it.

Either way, some of the archetypal characters have bite to them--Lufy in particular fills the honorable warrior role well. She's the most interesting character of the lot and ends up with by far the most poignant scene in the film. Rabby is a passably competent main character to follow. On the down side, the least interesting members of the crew--the sort that have no business being in the military, and seem even more silly when put next to the more competent folks--are the longest lived.

Visually, Gall Force is a little dated, but the animation is reasonably good (particularly for the era), and there's quite a variety of action--everything from massive space battles to planet-side gunfights. The character art is a bit inconsistent, but at least there's variety in Sonoda Kenichi's character designs (if you're a fan, you've probably already met all the main characters--originality is not one of his strong points).

I can't speak for the dub, but the Japanese acting is a big part of what makes it work as more than just a skin flick. Were this a live action film, it would've starred a lot of semi-skilled actresses picked for their appearances, but the Japanese voice actors are a very talented lot of veterans. Although some of the cast is rather childlike considering the characters' situation (not the actress' fault--the characters are written that way), Maria Kawamura turns in a solid performance as the ship's commander, and Naoko Matsui holds up her end as the serious, solid center of the cast. But veteran Hiromi Tsuru is the real standout as a jaded fighter pilot Lufy, and ends up elevating the parts she's involved in above their cheesy foundation.

In all, Gall Force isn't high art, and is rather dated in a lot of ways, but it does have enough action and variety to keep it interesting. It's a little heavy for a simple babes in space flick, but if you're a fan of classic sci-fi adventure and are willing to overlook a lot of cheese to get caught up in it, you may well love it.

Related Recommendations

Aside from all the series it riffs on and its own sequels (of which Gall Force 2 and 3 are the most similar thematically), it bears some similarity to Outlanders, and in other ways perhaps the original Macross. Other classic not-so-high-quality anime sci-fi series include Garaga, The Humanoid, the vaguely Alien-like Roots Search, and the camp-loaded Space Adventure Cobra.

US DVD Review

The DVD, one of USM's earliest, has since been re-released with a spiffed-up video transfer, which is also available as part of a box set with some of the sequels.

As for the original, old-school disc, the unimpressive-looking video is letterboxed with English and Japanese stereo soundtracks and English subtitles. The simple (if a bit sluggish) menus provide access to language selections, a chapter index, a video introduction to the characters, an ad for the American comic books, and short preview clips of all of U.S. Manga Corps' upcoming DVD releases at the time. The cover design is kinda ugly (very...yellow) and this is one of USM's first releases to print liner notes on the back side of the cover art insert... except unlike with later releases, the case isn't transparent, so you wouldn't think to look there if you didn't read the back of the package (and you have to pull the paper out to read the back). Funny way to save whatever fraction of a cent it would have cost to put that stuff on an insert. Ah, it's probably better to hide it--the notes make Gall Force sound like the greatest sci-fi epic since Star Trek. Yeah, right. On the unfortunate side, in a portent of the early USM DVD era, there's no Japanese cast or untranslated credits at all.

Content Guide

Appropriately rated 13-up by USM on account of violence and some nudity.

Violence: 3 - Nothing really graphic, but plenty of death.

Nudity: 3 - One shower scene and a dream sequence.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A kiss with the one man in the movie (actually, the only man in the galaxy).

Language: 2 - Some profanity.

Notes and Trivia

On the very old subtitled VHS version US Manga Corps had some fun with the credits: The end credits are written first in the same language that they use in the film (really just English with funny looking letters), and then translated into something more readable.

There is a Gall Force comic series, an all-color 4-issue 1995 mini-series created specifically for the American market. It was written and illustrated by Bruce Lewis, and published by CPM Comics in standard US comic format; the issues are out of print but relatively easy to find.

There aren't really any Japanese comic versions of Gall Force, though there was a "film comic" produced at one point, as well as a single book called "Privates Live" drawn by Kenichi Sonoda. There were, however, a series of novelizations written by Sukehiro Tomita throughout the late '80s.

There are a number of sequels and spin offs, but only Gall Force 2 and 3 are closely connected to the plot of this one; the others take place far in the future and are mainly tied together by the concept.

Availability

Available in the US from US Manga Corps on remastered hybrid DVD, either alone or as part of a set with several of the sequel films. Was previously available on one of their earliest hybrid DVDs, and on subtitled and dubbed VHS before that.

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