Gall Force: Eternal Story Anime Review
Gall Force: Eternal Story
/ Movie / Action / 13-up
Bottom Line
The scope and a few interesting touches raise Gall Force above its cheese-mired roots.
It’s Like...
...Alien meets Gundam with a big slice of cheese on top.
Vital Stats
Original Title
ガルフォース
Romanized Title
Gall Force
Animation Studio
AIC
US Release By
Genre
All Female Space Opera Action
Series Type
Movie
Length
86 minutes
Production Date
1986-07-26
What's In It
Categories
Look For
- Autonomous Space Mecha
- Space Ships of Every Shape and Size
- Planet-scale Destruction
- Skin
- Ugly Aliens
- Pretty Aliens
Objectionable Content
- Violence: 3 (significant)
- Nudity: 3 (significant)
- Sex: 1 (mild)
- Language: 2 (moderate)
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.
Quick Review
Switch to Full ReviewGall 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 classic anime 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. Its strength comes partly from that it rips off so many Hollywood and anime sci-fi standbys that it's almost original; it opens with a sort of Star Wars, the middle section is ripped straight from Alien, and the end is a desperate planet-side battle. A couple of the characters are also memorable, particularly Lufy--memorably voiced by Hiromi Tsuru, her jaded devotion to the cause ends up giving her the most poignant scene in the film. The look is dated, but holds up reasonably well given its age.
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.
Full Review
Switch to Quick ReviewGall 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 H. R. Giger 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 sci-fi "last stand at the Alamo," 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. It also has no qualms at all about killing off main characters, giving it a bit more edge than you might expect. 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 angry, honorable warrior role well. She's also the most interesting character of the lot, and ends up with by far the most poignant scene in the film.1 Rabby--the main character--is passably competent, which is a pleasant change from the norm for a lot of similar flicks. 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 somewhat 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 Kenichi Sonoda'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 talented 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. Consummate veteran Hiromi Tsuru, however, is the real standout as jaded fighter pilot Lufy, 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.
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Related Recommendations
Aside from all the series it borrows from 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.
Notes and Trivia
Gall Force is an original concept by studio Artmic that started off as a series of photoshoots of detailed models published in Model Graphix magazine. It eventually lead to this film and a number of sequel films and OVAs through the latter half of the '80s. Of the assorted sequels, 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. All but "Revolution," a short OVA series reboot, were available in the US from USM when the company was in business. There is also "Ten Little Gall Force," an SD "behind-the-scenes" parody of this movie, which was available in the US from AnimEigo as part of a VHS double-feature a very long time ago.
The character designs for the anime adaptation are by Kenichi Sonoda, who worked at Artmic at the time. He later went on to become an independent manga artist/writer, most notably the series Gunsmith Cats and Cannon God Exaxxion.
The only real Gall Force manga adaptation is 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 book format.
There was also "film comic" produced for the Japanese market at one point, as well as a single book of illustrations, information, and other material called "Privates Live" drawn by Kenichi Sonoda. Neither was ever available in English. There were also a series of novelizations written by Sukehiro Tomita throughout the late '80s.
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.
Notably, despite the Solenoid race being entirely female, Gall Force doesn't really qualify as yuri, as there isn't any romantic or sexual relationships implied between any of the characters that we see.
Footnote 1: Major spoiler: If you watch the sequel, it's not much of a surprise that she's the one the writers decided to resurrect.
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 (not anamorphic widescreen) 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 later releases, the case isn't transparent, so you wouldn't think to look there if you didn't read the fine print on the back (and of course you have to pull the paper out to read what's on the other side). 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.
Parental 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.
Staff & Cast
Original Japanese Cast
Eluza: Maria Kawamura
Rabby: Naoko Matsui
Rumy: Yuriko Yamamoto
Lufy: Hiromi Tsuru
Pony: Michie Tomizawa
Patty: Eriko Hara
Catty: Naoko Watanabe
Exanion: Kei Tomiyama
OX-11: Toshio Furukawa
TOIL: Tomiko Suzuki
AIL: Kyoko Hamura
The Boy: Hidehiro Kikuchi
Akon Kagu'ya Captain: Yoshino Ohtori
Paranoid Commander: Yusaku Yara
Cetral Guard Captian: Kazuko Yanaga
Paranoid Adjutants: Susumu Kotaki, Michitaka Kobayashi
Solnoid Bridge Crew: Seiko Nakano, Arisa Ando
Crew
Original Story: Hideki Kakinuma
Director: Katsuhiko Akiyama
Art Director: Junichi Azuma
Character Design: Kenichi Sonoda
Music: Ichizo Seo
Availability
Formerly available in North America from the late US Manga Corps on remastered bilingual DVD, either alone or as part of a set with three of the sequel films. Prior to that release it was available on one of their earliest bilingual DVDs, and before that on subtitled and dubbed VHS and subtitled laserdisc.
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