themusicandcoffee
This a biased and a non-biased review here, since Gall Force: Eternal Story was the first anime I've watched and thoroughly enjoyed as a 4-year-old kid.The story's simple. The Solnoids, an all female race, has been on war with the Paranoids, an amoeba-like life form, for many years (aprox 100). We as viewers, follow the last adventure of a heavily damaged battle ship the Star Leaf, with its remaining survivors traveling to planet Chaos, where the last battle will take place.
The malfunctioning ship however, ends up travelling way ahead of the other units, resulting into the crew fighting alone the upcoming challenges, one of them being the secret plan of eternal peace between the two races, which is the creation of a third one, between Paranoids and Solnoids.The story is quiet simple. However, it gets more complicated during its short movie run. Eternal Story is a movie which is not self-explanatory enough, since it's one of the three of the space Arc. Early on in the movie, we hear Rumy being surprised over the completion of the Planet Destroyer, and we no longer hear for it there on. However, this little information will help in the story's outcome.Gall Force Eternal Story, is in general a rather quick-paced space opera. The characters, each have their own personality making them memorable for different reasons. The biggest flow of Gall Force: Eternal Story is quiet frankly its time duration. However, it manages to at least present its character's with their unique traits by over-exaggerating them while they're on screen.-Eluza is without a doubt a born leader, a brave collected woman, who believes in this war and a true patriot, the latter one bringing her own demise.-Patty, is more of a follower, not taking initiative in the biggest part of the movie. She is calm and collected as well as little bit shy. However, her acceptance of the impregnation from the Paranoids, showcase that she is more accepting than most of the crew towards them. Even though she fights against them for so many years, she subconsciously does not loath them, and indeed she would want to see a peaceful future between the Solnoids and Paranoids. The fact that in the most part of the movie she does not take initiative actions, dramatically changes when she becomes a mother, begging and stopping Rabby from killing her child.-Pony is the crew's geek and lil coward, that only to change later on. From the beginning she is shown as this computer whiz who just can't get herself into fights and is actually pretty cowardice. She also seems to deeply care about the crew members. Deeply to the point that she decides to go to the back ship, while it's set to explode, and learn the truth about Catty and pass on the truth as her last message.-Rumy. From the get-go she is that young-looking short girl (also a happy nod for lolis from the creator himself), who is mostly there as a comedy relief. She seems and is rather naïve, and barely finishes her task while being yelled at. Her happy-go-lucky character makes the whole set in tense moments more light-hearted but at the same time she breaks your heart since she cries louder than any other when a comrade dies. She truly has the mentality of a kid, and even though she seems like the least important character, she ends up being the sole Solnoid survivor of Star Leaf.-Catty. Mostly silent and mysterious, with her eyes having always this sad look in them. Catty remains a mystery even after the end of the movie, hence why Eternal Story is an organic part of a trilogy, not a stand-alone movie. Smart directing unveils certain parts of her, which can make you suspicious of her actions until the moment she sacrifices herself for the crew's escape.-Lufy. Perhaps my favourite character. She has intense characteristics of masculinity compared to the other characters. Without a doubt she rocks her "lesbian" vibes. Loud, foul-mouthed, stubborn who doesn't hesitate to talk back even to higher-ups. A person who has learned surviving on its own in the battle no matter what. Despite her overall cold attitude towards the crew member, she shows subtle emotions of caring about the others. Lufy, like Eluza believes in this war but in the end she chooses to save Rabby instead of her own life, proving that she cared more than anyone could tell about the crew of Star Leaf, and most importantly for Rabby though they were fighting with each other a lot.-Rabby. The red-haired beauty. The one with the most complex character. Even though at first she seems like a rather shallow character, she ends up being the one with the more character development. She like Lufy, is a rather hot-headed person, something which comes into contrast when she acts calmly in tense situations. Many things showcase that she probably is bipolar. Her emotions seem to greatly influence her on what action she should take. Later on, when she learns the truth about the plan of creating a third race in order to ensure the peace between Solnoids and Paranoids, she acts rather unexpectedly. Letting her anger get the better of her, after realizing that she has been played by the likes of the Solnoids and Paranoids, and all this loss she has suffered because of them, she decides to kill Patty's baby, only to stop at the last minute, unable to do so, since the child resembles her comrade way more than she expected. There on, she makes a life-changing decision. Unable to follow the likes of the two races, she decides to protect the child, and even kill her higher-ups in the Akongaguya ship alongside with the Paranoids who want to take the child. Her plan though will result in the utter destruction of Chaos, saving only Rumy and Patty's child, sending them off to Terra while the last battle begins.Overall conclusion on characters: The movie's biggest flaw is the short run time it has, when at the same time it wants to convey so many things. However, through smart over-exaggeration of the characters it manages to give us a good grip of who they are and what they seek. From the weird haircuts to their dialogues and body language, Gall Force Eternal Story manages to convey into its audience its characters perspective and personality. For Pony the truth in order to do not vile the memory of a comrade was the most important thing, Catty would sacrifice herself for her child and subconsciously doesn't loathe the Paranoids etc etc. Even though its doesn't manage to establish a strong bond with its audience through its characters, since one by one is wiped out from the movie, the final conclusion of it makes you feel for these characters and suddenly you realize why their loss was not something as minor as it seemed, even for the more short-lived ones. Even the robots were likeable to the point of their sacrifice being kinda..hurtful.Music: I think that one of the best things in this movie is quiet frankly its music. Its up-beat as well as dark tones make you become one with Gall Force's universe. From the emotional songs to the battle soundtracks, the music of Gall Force is something which resonates within me up to this day, making its soundtracks and its main theme quiet unforgettable. The soundtracks themselves are made in the form of story-telling and following up greatly with the story. Each change and undertone that is happening helps in the smooth transition of imagery becoming a method to also convey the feelings of the characters to its audience with a more impactful way.Animation: Since it's an animated movie it would be impossible to not talk about the animation on this one. And it's quiet splendidly done. Of course, as most of the Japanese animations of the 80s, it follows up the signature style of the era. Some animated moves are more smooth and others more rough. But combining smart cinematography with a smart scene sequence change, everything unfolds rather naturally. Another things that the movie manages in regards of animation is the transition between space and land. Every scene and sequence that takes place on outer space makes you feel emerged in them but manages to do the same thing when the crew goes on land. The sudden environmental change does not make you feel like you're watching a different movie, even though you can deeply feel the sudden change of set. The tropical climate is truthfully well-drawn giving off the atmosphere of this planet and what also helps into feel like all this natural is even the moves, and clothes of the characters themselves.
The battle scenes are also nice well-drawn and well put in regards of choreography following the music and all this helps to enhance its space opera feeling and vibe. The technological aspects also seem plausible by the realistic way they're drawn and animated through-out the movie. And I think that the battle ships were the most well-drawn parts of the movie in general. Of course there are two parts where they reused animation scenes from the rest of the film, but it's something that goes unnoticeable unless you watch it more than once.Flaws: As I've claimed earlier, one of its biggest flaws is the short run time, since it's a movie that has many things to convey but is cutting short on them. If you watch it as a stand-alone movie, some things are left without any context as of what was the purpose. For example one of the reasons Rabby took her final decision was because of the Planet's Destroyer completion, realizing that the possibility of both sides losing their home would result to total annihilation for both sides, and decided to create a Utopia for both races in memory of her comrades with Patty's child and Rumy in Terra. The things that the robots link themselves to, and bring the destruction of Chaos are also explained at the second movie of Gall Force but not in the first one and seem kinda out of the blue being put there. In general Gall Force: Eternal Story shall not be viewed as a stand-alone movie but rather as an organic part of a trilogy.
vkn
Deep in space, a war is being waged between two races. In the red corner, we have the Solnoid race, consisting entirely of women with day-glo hair. The blue corner is graced by the Planoids, who're actually a kind of ooze that inhabits various mechanical 'shells' to get around. These two races are hell-bent on wiping each other out and have been at war for as long as everyone can remember. During a Solnoid/Planoid space skirmish, the Solnoid ship Star Leaf is badly damaged, leaving only seven Solnoids alive on board. Their orders are to head to planet Chaos, which may provide a safe haven for the Solnoid race. Only getting there won't be easy, with their ship pretty much falling apart, and several other dangers menacing them. The Planoids attack en route and manage to get a strange monster on board the Star Leaf, which further menaces the Solnoids. After the long voyage through space, only three surviving Solnoids make it to planet Chaos, where they eventually discover that they've been used as pawns in a plot of epic scope - to create a hybrid between the two races that may bring an end to the constant, and ultimately suicidal war. However, the results of this experiment are not what the top brass expected (it ought to surprise the viewer a fair bit as well), and everything dissolves into fighting again.The storyline has a lot of strong points. It tries to point out the insane futility of war and violence, there are plenty of atmospheric moments, with a surprise creation theory and sad/hopeful ending thrown in for good measure. With this sort of plot strength, it ought to be a tremendous film. Alas, due to several flaws it just doesn't make that grade.The most obvious shortcoming is the very weak characterisation. Out of our seven Solnoid protagonists, only about two of them show any character trait whatsoever (Rumy is an incompetent whiner, and Lufy is an arrogant butch - hardly fascinatingly rounded characters, in fact). The rest are just a bland bunch who show no distinct personality whatsoever. They really have only their hair colors to distinguish between them. Even Rabby, who gets most of the screen time never becomes more than the one with long, red hair and dangly earrings. If someone asked me to describe her personality, I seriously wouldn't know what to say.And if the characters are mostly dead bland, it knocks away a lot of the story's impact. A lot of them die, which is supposed to be dead tragic, but since almost nothing has been done to make the viewer feel familiar with and sympathetic for most of the victims before their untimely death, it doesn't hit home as hard as it should. Worse yet, a lot of the deaths just seem stupid - "you know what? I'll just stay behind on this exploding ship and get myself killed so you lot can do a few agonised wails and droopy stares for the next two minutes. Yeah, that seems like a good idea!" On at least two occasions, one of our heroines 'heroically sacrifices' herself for a reason that appears really stupid and needless. This extends to other plot elements as well - supposedly lethal threats to our heroines turn out to be all mouth and no trousers and emotional scenes are cut short of any impact. Near the end, the Solnoids send their two droids to activate some kind of gizmo that devastates the whole planet, with almost no hint to the viewer as to what that thing is (did it just pop out of nowhere, or the Solnoids put instant-death gizmos on every planet?), or the reasons why they're going so over-the-top with this drastic last resort. More time spent on building up dramatic situations somewhat, and more insistance on the actual plot behind it all besides the brief explanations would've been nice, rather than letting the viewer do so much distilling by himself.The dated look and even sound of the film are other flaws that drag down the film's promise. While the animation is fluent enough and some very intricate mecha show up, the character designs are awfully simplistic, with hardly any detail to them at all. Facial expressions of shock, anger or any other emotion become a lot less convincing this way, and the lack of finesse and detail on the characters makes them look almost as bland as they behave. An eye-candy banquet this sure is not - in fact, it looks downright sloppy in places. And the music composer strikes some very wrong notes by mixing in awfully cheesy insert songs here and there (complete with very dull, lengthy 'music clips'). The music in general is often badly out of whack with the tone of the on-screen happening. Seriously, who in their right minds would use a joyful plinkety-plonky music for an aerial dogfight scene?It's a shame that such shortcomings stand in the way of an interesting and potentially very deep plot. There are obvious strengths to Gall Force which make it recommendable, but flaws that stick out painfully and will definitely hit a sore spot with many viewers as well. Utter sci-fi diehards may enjoy the film's atmosphere, as well as the hefty borrowing from some big SF names (bit of Alien, bit of Star Wars, and so on - it struck me as rather dopey). It still holds enough interest to be rental-worthy, but do so at your own risk. You may like the good aspects very much, or end up utterly hating it for it's pronounced flaws. The kernel of a strong and tragic story buried in there is worth digging out, if you can muster the effort.(also note that there have been tons of sequels, and Gall Force does impress when you step back and contemplate the big picture painted by all nine films together - individual installments often don't fare very well, however).
