Re: Gall Force

In a message dated 97-01-20 23:49:55 EST, you write:

<< Hello:
<	Mark's journey into Anime continues.  I just rented "Gall Force:
 The
< Eternal Struggle"  and watched about 20-40 minutes of it.  Great space
< combat sequences.  However, I have a few questions that a few of you
< Anime fans might be able to answer.

Fire away.  I know I'm behind the rest of the posting crowd, the
sacrifices
one makes in Federal service and all...

<	1.  Why are their only women on these ships?  What happened to
the men?

Well, I'd normally hold off as it gives away future stories, but it's
already
been commented on....

The Solanoids are all vat-grown.  Somewhere in their past the original
creators decided to go for a single-sex "clone" race (in this case
female).
 Also, this was during the time of the anime/manga "Macho Women With
Guns"
phase (Dirty Pair, Black Magic M-66, Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis to name
a
few....a for the good old days as opposed to the saccarine-laced kawaii
stuff
now).

<	2.  What are these Paranoids, and why are they fighting the
"Amazons
< from Outer Space?"

The Paranoids are a race of amorphous shape-shifters who support their
forms
normally on cybernetic frames.	They also seem to embody the male aspect
of
the series (galactic-scale battle of the sexes).  The Solanoids and
Paranoids
encountered each other during their expansions and went to war over the
scarce amount of useful worlds.

<	3.  Is it my imagination, or do the beam weapons of these ships
actualy
< bend and seek there targets.	Either that, or I am mistaking them for
< missiles.

I do believe that these are missile barrages.  In Gall Force 2 the
Solanoids
barrages detonate away from the Paranoid craft and it is noted that the
Paranoids are using some new, more powerful type of jamming shield that
was
countering the "long-range missiles".	Beam weapons do seem to be used
on
the capital ships (BB's and larger), but the primary anti-ship weapons
seem
to be missiles, fighters, and mecha.

<	4.  Why are there so many shower scenes?  Not that I mind a good
shower
< scene ;-)  I just think it's getting rather gratitous seeing these
< cartoon women running around with no clothes on.

Well, part of this does come from Japanese culture.  Cleanliness is a
big
thing and you'll usually see the hero batheing sometime.  And of course,
yes...it is a chance to get in a little T&A, but social mores are little
bit
different from those in the West.

<	Well I gotta go watch the rest of it.  See ya.

Hope that helped
 
< Later,
< Mark >>

Morgan Keyes
Sine Pari
Airborne All The Way!