Kenran Butou Sai: The Mars Daybreak

Synopsis:

Characters:

• Lauren, Vestemona (Main) - Voice Actors: Kuwashima, Houko, Fahn, Melissa
• River, Gram (Main) - Voice Actors: Seki, Tomokazu, Bosch, Johnny Yong
• Taft, Enora (Main) - Voice Actors: O'Shaughnessey, Colleen, Murata, Akino
• Arian, Yagami (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Blum, Steven, Yamanoi, Jin
• Bon (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Aikawa, Rikako
• de Sirene, Clara (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hyoudou, Mako
• Ein Astrada, Ester (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Orikasa, Fumiko, Higgins, Kate
• Higashibara, Megumi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Horie, Yui
• Junior (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Lowenthal, Yuri, Sakaguchi, Daisuke
• Kubernes (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Fujiwara, Keiji
• Liati, Elizabeth (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Goodson, Barbara, Ichijou, Miyuki
• Milch, Chrysalis (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Price, Jamieson, Yanada, Kiyoyuki
• Poipoider (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yanaka, Hiroshi
• Polandwood, Achilles (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yamazaki, Takumi, Davies, Erik
• Shie (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Teppouzuka, Yoko

Staff:

• Minami, Masahiko (Producer)
• Nakayama, Koutarou (Producer)
• Yamanishi, Tahei (Producer)
• Mori, Kunihiro (Director, Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Tsuruoka, Youta (Sound Director)
• Asami, Matsuo (Episode Director)
• Kyouda, Tomoki (Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Miyaji, Masayuki (Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Murata, Kazuya (Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Sasaki, Shinsaku (Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Satou, Ikurou (Episode Director)
• Yasukawa, Masaru (Episode Director, Storyboard)
• Asakawa, Miya (Script)
• Nomura, Yuuichi (Script)
• Satou, Dai (Script)
• Shimizu, Megumi (Script)
• Walsh, David (Script)
• Muraki, Yasushi (Storyboard)
• Sunaga, Tsukasa (Storyboard)
• Yokoyama, Akitoshi (Storyboard)
• Muto, Seiji (Theme Song Arrangement)
• Nakanishi, Ryousuke (Theme Song Arrangement)
• Awai, Shigeki (Animation Director)
• Chiba, Yuriko (Animation Director)
• Higuchi, Satomi (Key Animation)
• Iguchi, Chuuichi (Animation Director)
• Imaizumi, Kenichi (Animation Director)
• Itou, Hidetsugu (Key Animation)
• Iwasawa, Reiko (Color Design)
• Kawamoto, Toshihiro (Animation Director)
• Kawazoe, Masakazu (Key Animation)
• Kazui, Hiroko (Animation Director)
• Kimura, Toshiya (Director of Photography)
• Kodaira, Yoshiyuki (Animation Director)
• Komori, Takahiro (Key Animation)
• Kurashima, Ayumi (Animation Director)
• Mitsunaka, Susumu (Key Animation)
• Miwa, Kazuhiro (Key Animation)
• Mizuhata, Kenji (Animation Director)
• Morikawa, Atsushi (Art Director)
• Nishida, Asako (Key Animation)
• Nozaki, Atsuko (Key Animation, In-Between Animation)
• Osaka, Hiroshi (Chief Animation Director, Character Design, Animation Director)
• Saitou, Tsunenori (Animation Director)
• Sayama, Yoshinori (Mechanical Design)
• Stone, Jimmy (Key Animation)
• Takahashi, Akira (Animation Director)
• Tanaka, Masaki (Animation Director)
• Wada, Kaoru (Music)
• Yamamori, Shigeyuki (Editing)

Reviews:

• User Huntsman (Score: 8/10):
  Mars of the future has become a flooded, ice-covered planet where humanity lives in drifting city-ships. The economy has turned bad since the end of an off-world war reduced demand for water, the planet's main export, making work hard to get for Gram and his friends, and governmental corruption only worsens the situation. The environment makes a perfect setting for pirates using futuristic submarines, who regularly raid the city-ships for supplies. The most renowned and feared of the pirate vessels is the Ship of Aurora, which makes a habit of reselling its booty cheap so that it can be redistributed to less fortunate folk. Sucha problem do the pirates pose that the Earth government, which still controls Mars, has dispatched an elite team of fresh military recruits to help deal with their threat. The story follows Gram River who joins the pirate ship Aurora and his ex girl friend Vestemona Lauren who is part of the military out to get Gram and the crew of the Aurora.nnI really enjoyed this anime. Though the overall story wasn't original it did bring a few new ideas. For example, Mars covered in water, and the design of the Mecha used in the anime. The story also did a great job mixing the elements of drama, action, romance, and a little comedy. The characters were also great, Gram River, Chrysalis Milch, Enora Taft and all the rest. They brought the anime to life. The animation was done by BONES. I was disappointed with them, after all their the ones who did RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Eureka Seven. Though it was still good, it just didn't live up to their standards. Another small problem I had was the music, which lacked emotion to add to the series.nnOverall a very good anime, that's worth checking out.
• User Purjoloek (Score: 7/10):
  Mars Daybreak is a 26-episode series that aired between April 1st to September 23, 2004. The genres include: Adventure, Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance. Story Pretty interesting. Mars is covered by water, and the economy is really lousy. Gram tries his best to live a good life, but everything changes for him when he is accidentally brought onto the pirate ship "Aurora", and being a pirate on "Aurora" becomes his new profession. The story follows this merry group of pirates on their travels, as they reveal secrets that could change Mars forever, and a team sent from Earth to catch the pirates. It starts of very nice and entertaining,but as the series progresses, the plot gets weaker, and starts to rely on filler-ish episodes, abandoning the initial story.nnAnimationnSeeing as this was made by Bones (also did Fullmetal Alchemist and Darker than Black), i was expecting awesome animation. I was disappointed. The character designs are bland and the animation looks awkward sometimes.nnSoundnDecent. Most of the voice actors were pretty bad, actually (the only really good one being Tomokazu Seki), the BGM was nothing special and the OP/ED were so-so.nnCharacternBest thing about this series. The characters are great: there's the over-the-top Captain, the nonchalant "pilot ace", the little brat, a talking cat, a childhood friend. The cliché stuff(pretty much the greatest cliché characters since I watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Oh wait, there's also a talking dolphin in a weird suit(yeah, you guessed it, he can talk). The two characters that stand out (apart from the talking dolphin) are Gram, your shounen hero, cool to the max, making the ladies fall for him(really enjoyed him though) and Enora, the spoiled girl that tags along the ragtag pirate crew.nnEnjoymentnAs I said earlier, Mars Daybreak starts off greatly. It's fun, exiting and interesting. You actually get mecha-fighting under water. It's awesome. You want more. Then it goes all Eureka Seven on you, and apart from E7's emo awesomeness, Mars Daybreak fails miserably when it comes to the drama, just making it pathetic. I talked about the transition to fillers earlier, and after these so called fillers end, the story just spirals towards it's doom, becoming predictable, boring, and even screwing up the comedy. nnOverall: 7/10nNot a series i would really recommend, but those who liked Eureka Seven might like this, seing as it's like E7, except underwater, with a lighter take on life than it's rawer cousin.
• User ggultra2764 (Score: 5/10):
  This is about as cookie cutter as you can get. Mars Daybreak features our carefree and free-spirited male lead Gram finding his own mecha that gets attracted to him for whatever reason and he tags along with the pirate crew aboard the Ship of Aurora in the hunt for ancient treasure on the planet of Mars. Basically, the series mixes around adventure and comedy in its focus on Gram and the Ship of Aurora crew as they usually run into combat situations against rival pirate Kubernes and Earth Forces, as well as having episodes focused around a different member of the crew. It's a decentstorytelling approach, but the series doesn't really bother going into great detail on the backgrounds of each character and how they became part of the pirate crew, especially when you have a talking cat and dolphin among the crew who never get any fleshing out. Pretty much, the majority of characters in the series are archetypes you would see in one form or another in different adventure titles similar in premise to Mars Daybreak and they never really grow out of them, with only one major character in the series getting any significant character development.nnThe lack of depth also rings true for many elements of the show's storyline and the title's world-building. The series seemed to be dropping hints that Gram might have a past connection to the earliest humans who colonized Mars in the first half of the show, yet this builds up to nothing. There are hostilities between Mars and Earth for the latter's occupancy and influence being felt on Mars and contributing to large amounts of poverty and crime to occur, yet this is mostly a backdrop to the adventures of Gram and the Ship of Aurora. No explanation is given as to why all of Mars is covered in water. Ester makes mention of being part of a race of beings called the Nautical Witches, yet the show never bothers telling us what they are. Nothing is revealed over how an RB is able to come under Gram's control. I could go on and on pointing out the lack of depth and explanation that Mars Daybreak has for many elements to its plot and world.nnI suppose the best way you could enjoy this series is if you don't ask questions and just enjoy the comedy and adventure. But many comedic moments in Mars Daybreak fell flat for me and the adventure element has its setbacks thanks to the character-focused episodes feeling like padding that add nothing to the show since we don't learn much about the characters anyway and even then, most of the developments of the adventure are cliched and quite predictable if you've seen enough titles like this. You know that the Ship of Aurora crew will prevail in many of their missions unless the plot demands for a twist in developments, which occur in the final episodes of the show. Even then, said twist is very predictable considering you…
• ... and 2 more reviews

Forum Topics:

• Mars Daybreak Episode 5 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 15 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 13 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 11 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 7 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 26 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 12 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 1 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 20 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 4 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 14 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 10 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 3 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 24 Discussion
• Mars Daybreak Episode 23 Discussion

External Links:

• Official Site
• AniDB
• ANN
• Wikipedia