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: 2003-06-22

Sol Bianca doesn't have much new in the way of plot (this review is probably longer than the movie) and the characters are pretty familiar, but a few little things set it apart, and above all else, Sol Bianca is 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. But one amusing thing about the plot is that the good guys really weren't all that bright, and even the bad guy was 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 was to just walk into a situation and assume either their physical prowess or really impressive hardware would get them out of it (which seemed 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 at least the story wasn't really unrealistic--it's just that nobody was very clever. (Actually, I sort of enjoyed the under-preparedness of the Sol Bianca's crew.)

Still, a functional if a bit dim-witted plot isn't enough to win Sol Bianca any awards (which it has done), or what made 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 may look small but pack enough of a 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 was over too quickly, but you can't have everything.

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. There were a few additional touches of detail, like the fact that the people of Tres were really tall.

I really loved the action and the technology, but those aren't the real reason Sol Bianca stands out in my personal anime collection. There were two other things that set this one out from the pack for me. A lesser feature was that the story had that air of there being more to it than we're being told. There were a few things that showed up and were never fully explained, and a couple of points (like the origin of the Sol Bianca) that you got the feeling there was more to than was ever explained. I enjoy that sort of storytelling, and although there was a LOT more of it in the sequel, this movie had a bit too.

But the one thing that really set Sol Bianca apart in my mind was the characters. They more or less fit into standard molds, but they were distinct and there seemed to be just a little more to them than their stereotypes. Not that they were masterworks of subtlety or something, but they felt a little more three-dimensional than I was expecting, and there was a dynamic with the group that I enjoyed. I also liked that they seemed a bit more realistic than standard action anime characters; they may have been space pirates, but I caught a whiff of "realness" to them that I found appealing. Past that, I can't really put my finger on what it is that I like about the group, but there is something, and after I saw the sequel (which, if you like the characters, I recommend), I felt vindicated--that movie definitely confirmed that whatever it was I liked about the characters in this one wasn't an accident.

The final piece of the appeal of Sol Bianca, and probably what distinguishes it above all else, is the visuals. The character designs are attractive, memorable, and unusual; in keeping with the somewhat surprising realism of their personalities, they also looked more realistic than most anime, with almost realistically proportioned eyes. The rest of the world, though not quite as good, also has a distinct look to it, with a few nice locations and some neat mechanical design (the Sol Bianca in particular was really cool). Unfortunately, the animation isn't terribly smooth, but some of the character animation was well done, and the action sequences looked slick for the most part. The music also wasn't particularly notable, but there was a decent action theme that showed up a couple of times, and I thought the end theme was quite pretty.

The acting in Sol Bianca stood out, too (at least in the Japanese version, which is all I can speak for). The few minor parts weren't noteworthy at all, but Batros was very well cast and voiced with a proper amount of flair by Aono Takeshi, and the five women were all distinct and solidly acted. There may not have been much in the way of drama, but there was a sense of normalness to the acting and voices of the five women that I thought was quite appealing (to be honest, this is one of my all time favorite anime casts), and it also set them apart from a lot of anime heroines. It also went quite a way toward making them believable, as I mentioned above. Note, though, that ADV's creative translation bears part of the responsibility for some of the overly sentimental or awkward dialogue (not to mention a lot of profanity, though not really out of character).

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