Sol Bianca

Original Title: same
Romanized: Sol Bianca
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Somewhere in the distant future, the mysterious Sol Bianca and its crew of five (female, of course) space pirates ply their trade on the space lanes. There's Janny, the violent one, Feb, their drunken leader, April, idealistic and vengeful, May, who even though she's still a child tools around in a missile-packin' mech, and June, the ship's resident technical genius.

Things get interesting for them when, along with some loot, they pick up a young stowaway, Rim Delapaz. As it turns out, the boy is trying to get to Uno, his homeworld, now occupied by the forces of Batros, the despotic dictator of the nearby planet Tres. These war-torn, backwater planets wouldn't be of much interest to the crew of the Sol Bianca, except for the fact that Rim also happens to know of a treasure held somewhere on Tres, the Golden Box--rumored to hold all the knowledge in the universe and God-like power. This is too much for these pirates to overlook, and so off they go for lots of action...

Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2008-06-01

Sol Bianca doesn't have much new in the way of plot (this review is probably longer than the movie) and the characters are a familiar set, but something about this movie I can't quite pin down carved it a spot on my favorites list. If nothing else, it's good old-fashioned fun.

The storyline is almost non-existent: You've got some space pirates, they help out a kid, they blow up the bad guys. That much is definite. Amusingly, the good guys really aren't all that bright, and even the bad guy is just a two-bit dictator on a backwater planet. Instead of using a variety of clever plans to outsmart a vastly superior enemy, the five women's general strategy is to just strut into a situation and assume either their physical prowess or really impressive hardware will get them out of it (and this seems effective enough). Fans of more intelligent action movies will probably be annoyed by this, and even I was a tad put off by some of the extreme moments of good-guy-supremacy, but I enjoyed the under-preparedness of the Sol Bianca's crew and it's not really unrealistic--it's just that nobody is very clever.

Still, a functional if dim-witted plot isn't enough to win Sol Bianca any awards (which it has), or what makes it memorable. What does stand out (and most likely the reason it was so popular in its time) is the action. It's not the fastest or most gripping action I've ever seen, but it's creative and a lot of fun. There's a great airborne chase, plenty of gunfights (with pistols that pack enough wallop for a bazooka), a couple of slick space battles, and my personal all-time-second-favorite anime weapon (for my favorite, see Project A-ko): a laser sniper rifle with enough range to pick people off from orbit (which is exactly what Feb does with it). When it gets going, the action is so much fun, you'll probably wish there was more of it--my only real complaint is that the whole thing is over too quickly.

Speaking of all those cool guns, another thing that stands out in Sol Bianca is the technology. There are the above-mentioned archaic-looking (but super-powerful) pistols and laser rifle, neat laser whips, and the Sol Bianca itself, with an onboard park, dimension diving capability, a variety of interesting weapons, and a generally unique design.

I loved the action and the technology, but there's something more that makes Sol Bianca stands out in my personal anime collection, and it's hard to put my finger on exactly what. Part of it is the sense that there's more to the story than what we're being told. The backstory, particularly the origin of the Sol Bianca, is left noticeably open, which I enjoyed. It's not an accident, either; there's a lot more in the way of mysterious hints in the sequel.

The one thing that really sets Sol Bianca apart in my mind is the characters--both the five women individually and their interesting dynamic as a group. They more or less fit into standard molds, and while they're not going to be accused of being masterworks of subtlety, but they feel more three-dimensional and less stereotypical than you'd expect. They also feel a little more real than I'd expect; they may be space pirates, but I caught a whiff of appealing normalcy. Past that, I can't really put my finger on what it is that I like about the group, but again the sequel (which, if you like the characters, I recommend) confirmed that whatever it is wasn't an accident.

The Japanese acting is a significant component of this. The five women are among my all-time favorite anime ensemble casts. There may not be much in the way of drama, but they're distinctively cast and there's a sense of casual reality to the performances that contributes to their believability, something I found quite appealing. The only other actor worth mentioning is Aono Takeshi, who voices the villain Batros with a proper amount of flair. ADV's "creative" translation, by the way, deserves some of the blame for the overly sentimental or awkward dialogue (not to mention a lot of profanity, though that's not really out of character).

The final piece of the appeal of Sol Bianca is the visuals. The character designs are attractive, memorable, and unusual; in keeping with their more realistic personalities, they're less exaggerated than anime standard, with near-realistically proportioned eyes. The rest of the world has a distinctive look to it, with a few nice locations and some neat mechanical design (the gracefully-arcing design of the Sol Bianca in particular is very cool). There are also a few nice little touches, like the people of Tres being unusually tall. Unfortunately, the frame rate of the animation isn't terribly smooth, but some of the character animation is well done, and the action sequences are still very good. The music also isn't particularly notable, but there is a decent action theme and I thought the end theme was quite pretty.

In all, it may not be exquisite cinema, and it's not even the best action flick you'll ever see, but Sol Bianca has its charms: plenty of action, cool technology, unusual character designs, and characters that feel a little more nuanced than the archetypes they're based on. And, if nothing else, Sol Bianca is lots of fun.

Related Recommendations

Somewhat similar to Plastic Little, though Plastic Little is much cheesier. There's also a sequel (Sol Bianca 2), which has less action and more character interaction, and a prequel OAV series, Sol Bianca: The Legacy, which is high budget but very inconsistent.

US DVD Review

None available yet.

Content Guide

Violent and has some bad language, but not over the top in either case, making ADV's 12-up more or less appropriate.

Violence: 3 - A bloody execution, plenty of gunfights, and some mass destruction.

Nudity: 1 - One very brief shot.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Nothing at all.

Language: 3 - A fair amount of expletives, though at least nothing out of character.

Notes and Trivia

It's not a big deal, but ADV did something nice with the credits on the old VHS release, having the English credits matched to the Japanese ones underneath (wish I'd see that these days).

Availability

Formerly available in the US from AD Vision on subtitled or dubbed VHS, or a subtitled CAV LaserDisc. All are long out of print.

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