Sol Bianca: The Legacy is an impressive Japanese animated miniseries about five women embarking upon a journey of self-discovery. The story is set in a fascinating universe imbued with a Spanish flavour, and is punctuated both by grand technology and mythology. The series has a clear focus on ambitious production values and demonstrates the growth of Japanese animation in plot development, and audio and visual style.
You need not have watched the 1991 series in order to understand the story. However, it is written such that the overarching plot is revealed indirectly. Needless to say, the story is powerful and entrancing, if somewhat concealed. Due to its short length of six episodes it is necessary to watch the series at least twice in order to understand the depth of the plot fully. This is the main failing of the anime: that it requires the viewer to piece together the backstory from oblique implications and sometimes seemingly-unrelated events that occur throughout the episodes. Nevertheless, the first viewing is valuable in understanding the intimate stories and relationships of each of the leading characters and their maturation and development.
The series is notable in that it places much weight on the importance of our history and the uniqueness of our planet, with each episode commencing with a quote from a piece of historic literature. Furthermore, the most sought-after items in Sol Bianca's galaxy are artifacts from Earth even our space-faring pirate heroines are after them. The environmental and social messages are powerful and ring true. The series also shows great conceptual creativity, with impressive displays of holographic goddesses and a blossoming computer system. These alone, shown in the first episode, were impressive enough to hook me in to watch the rest of the anime.
This miniseries is well worth watching for its high visual quality, beautiful soundtrack and voice acting, impressive character design and its masterful and contemporary plot. Highly recommended.
You need not have watched the 1991 series in order to understand the story. However, it is written such that the overarching plot is revealed indirectly. Needless to say, the story is powerful and entrancing, if somewhat concealed. Due to its short length of six episodes it is necessary to watch the series at least twice in order to understand the depth of the plot fully. This is the main failing of the anime: that it requires the viewer to piece together the backstory from oblique implications and sometimes seemingly-unrelated events that occur throughout the episodes. Nevertheless, the first viewing is valuable in understanding the intimate stories and relationships of each of the leading characters and their maturation and development.
The series is notable in that it places much weight on the importance of our history and the uniqueness of our planet, with each episode commencing with a quote from a piece of historic literature. Furthermore, the most sought-after items in Sol Bianca's galaxy are artifacts from Earth even our space-faring pirate heroines are after them. The environmental and social messages are powerful and ring true. The series also shows great conceptual creativity, with impressive displays of holographic goddesses and a blossoming computer system. These alone, shown in the first episode, were impressive enough to hook me in to watch the rest of the anime.
This miniseries is well worth watching for its high visual quality, beautiful soundtrack and voice acting, impressive character design and its masterful and contemporary plot. Highly recommended.