Vandread

[TrueTenguMan]

Lets get to the point...

Set in a universe where humans have colonized the galaxy, and in one star system, men and women are completely segregated (on completely different planets: Mejere by the women, Taraak by the men) causing the gender war to be more than just a metaphor.
Male protagonist Hibiki Tokai, a third-class laborer, takes up a bet to steal a high-tech humanoid robot, known as a Vanguard, from a male attack force battleship about to fight the "evil females". Still on board when the battleship takes off, Hibiki is caught in a battle with female pirates that causes all of the ship's crew to evacuate, except for Hibiki, Duelo McFile, and Bart Garsus. Stuck on board and held as prisoners by female pirates, things seem to have hit an all-time low for Hibiki until the retreating males retaliate by firing torpedoes at the ship to prevent it from falling into women's hands. The Paksis Pragma, the mysterious, living core of the battleship, eradicates the missile, forming a wormhole that sends the pirates and warship to a distant part of the galaxy, fusing the battleship with the female pirates' vessel. The fusion results in a quirky ship with very smooth lines, a host of technical problems, and various hidden capabilities that become apparent later on. The Vanguard Hibiki attempted to steal has also been altered along with three of the women's fighters, known as Dreads, allowing the separate ships to combine. The fusion of Hibiki's mecha with one of the fighters is called a Vandread, the eponymous mecha.
====================================================
The story of the first season revolves around the crew's trip back to the system where their respective home worlds are. Along the way, they encounter strange, robotic machines, both enigmatic and rather Borg-like, though they do not communicate at all. After a few sorties with the unknown enemy, the crew manages to take some alien data samples from a desert planet. The data is read out: "Blood platelets, white blood cells, red blood cells..." Their alien enemies kills human beings and harvests their body parts from them. Not only this, but a later encounter with the flagship of the "Harvesters", the name given to the enemy, reveals that the robots were sent out by the people of Earth, the same planet humans originated from, whose colonists would eventually colonize Mejere, Taraak, and countless other planets.

The anime itself consist of 26 episodes in total ((First Stage 13 ep and Second stage 13 ep)) and possibly one of the few anime in 2000 and 2001 to combined CG and cell shaded styles together very consistently. The one thing that really interested me was how it differs from your typical space opera/mecha based anime and comes out with a complete separation of humans across the galaxy where one majority segregates them from another gender. The ideal of the settlement of both gender colonies seems spot on, from technological advances in either machinery or artillery to even medical differences... course thats just one reason why I love this series.

The other seems to revolve around the main baddie of series which calls itself "The Harvest" Or "Teran" in the JP version who only loon in space to literally harvest humans for different body parts. I won't explain anything else or even mention the reason as to why these guys are doing it, course I will say that any sudden thoughts of "Human observation" should immediately be repressed as that isn't close to why they want a Spinal cord or even the human skin.
In any case I'd say give it a chance. It's by far the most underrated of the mecha anime only because it doesn't fathom to the greatness of Gurren Lagann, Gundam, or Macross but it's by far NOT a bad anime by any means.

I will admit this... Manga Dita is LESS annoying than her Anime Counterpart. You'll know what I mean...
((If you want to take a few peeks at it, animefreak.tv has them in their list. That and Funimation has the SUBs in their page on Youtube))

Well discuss mortals...

 

[Ice]

I skimmed through the post, and what I gather is that there's some kind of war between males and females. How do they reproduce, now?

 

[TrueTenguMan]

I skimmed through the post, and what I gather is that there's some kind of war between males and females. How do they reproduce, now?

The first few episodes actually explain all of that if not in pieces, course men have created machines to create babies from the male seed and women, if I remember correctly, pass on an egg to one who wishes to become a mother.

Regarding women, it seems they have either evolved where fertilization is no longer needed. Ezra in episode 3 summarizes it better than I can...

 

[Steelie]

Looking at the robot at the BG, I can say that it will something like EXO-FORCE or even Dynasty Warriors: Gundam...

 

[TrueTenguMan]

Looking at the robot at the BG, I can say that it will something like EXO-FORCE or even Dynasty Warriors: Gundam...

Elaborate. Are you referring to designs or plot?

 

[Steelie]

Of course the design.

 

[TrueTenguMan]

Of course the design.

Eh I think Zone of the Enders fits a better comparison...

====================================

((Vandread))