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Title (English) Argento Soma

Title (Japanese) Argento Soma

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Fantasy Novel

Notes Also on R2 DVD

Classification -

Synopsis Synopsis of episodes 1 & 2: Some fifty or so years from now the earth has been getting assaulted by huge, powerful bio mechas from outer space. Various specialist forces have been developed to keep the invasions in check and to try to figure out ways to understand what is going on. At the very first part of episode one, a giant alien mecha enters Earth's atmosphere, passing the ruins of some older space stations and a new one that is tracking it. As the mecha descends two UN aircraft scream into the sky and launch thermonuclear warheads at the mecha. The warheads explode but the mecha's shield holds and the mecha attacks the two aircraft, destroying them. But while the mecha finishes off the final aircraft, a giant AWACS-type aircraft fires a laser or particle beam weapon at the mecha, blowing it apart. The UN army forces find the pieces of the mecha, but people from another mysterious agency called Morogue appear in a giant VSTOL aircraft and with the proper authorization, take the pieces away.
In the meanwhile, Takt, a university student, sits in his dorm room, listening to a taped conversation with his girlfriend Maki while brooding over the fact that she is too busy to be with him even though he bought her a birthday gift. Takt then gets an email message telling him to go to the university where he doesn't find Maki in her professor's office as he expected, but does get another message from her. He then gets taken by some military police and brought to a desolate site where a large, hanger type building sits. There he finds Maki and her professor, who have been re-assembling the alien mecha. They need Takt to assist, and although Takt is still mad at Maki, he agrees and they attempt to revive the reassembled monster. Of course, you know what happens next. The episode ends with the site totally destroyed, the alien biomecha gone and a badly injured Takt the only person left alive.
Episode 2 opens up with an almost pastoral scene, as 13 year old Harriet is out in the Montana woods with her dog Walton. Harriet sees her "fairy" again momentarily. The "fairy", is of course, the alien mecha that escaped the Morogue facility. Harriet goes back to the log cabin where she lives with her uncle who is a wood craftsman, who is talking to a sneaky looking State Trooper and a nervous looking MIB who is aiming a briefcase camera at everything around, including Harriet. Harriet's uncle chases the two suspicious characters away, but as they drive off they see Harriet sitting in a field of flowers with her dog. They attempt to take Harriet away but the dog bites the State Trooper and Harriet and Walton run off to the place where Harriet last saw her "fairy".
In the meanwhile, another mysterious group, this time called Funeral arrives at the scene of the escape of the giant alien mecha. They start to track the mecha in a giant bomber type airplane that carries three special flying craft. Their initial searches over the Montana area where they suspect the alien mecha is hiding turn up nothing. At this point, Harriet has made a hula-hoop sized ring of branches and flowers and wants to give it to her "fairy", but slips into the lake where she last saw it, and sees it once again underwater. The mecha saves Harriet, and she puts the "ring" onto the mecha's finger ( echoing the last scene in episode 1 where we see Maki's lifeless hand sticking out of a pile of rubble, the ring that Takt gave her on her hand ). The alien mecha puts Harriet down on land and disappears again as the State Policeman and MIB show up to try to drag Harriet away. This time the mecha ( called "Frank" in the booklet in the DVD package ) comes out of the water and starts to chase the Policeman and MIB who run away, dragging Harriet with them.
At this point a new golden alien mecha appears in orbit and swiftly descends to where "Frank" is slowly chasing the humans. The State Trooper stops to uselessly fire his shotgun at the new mecha, which starts to send out green light beams which track the humans just before an energy gun blasts them into nothingness. Harriet suddenly remembers back to her childhood when her city was attacked by other alien mechas and her parents were killed in the same manner. First the State Trooper, then the MIB are killed. Harriet's uncle comes up by that time, armed with an automatic weapon. ( Before he left to find Harriet, we saw old photos of him in uniform with another anti-alien team. ) Harriet's uncle tries to distract the new mecha, but it destroys him too. Harriet is too stunned by all this to move and just sits as the new alien targets her, but suddenly "Frank" lunges at the new mecha and makes it miss Harriet. A swift and spectacular fight then occurs and "Frank" destroys the second mecha. Frank then tries to communicate with the almost comatose Harriet and shows her the "ring" on it's finger, at which point Harriet starts to sing a sad song.
Meanwhile, the pilot of the Funeral flyer finally finds "Frank" and starts to report in for an attack, when he sees Harriet being carried along in Frank's open hand, singing a song. Thus ends episode 2.

Review So you say, you've seen this all before in lots of other shows, not just "EVA", "Brain Powerd" and "Betterman". True, but the panache shown by Sunrise in the direction, animation, music, acting and characterization, as well as the way they blend all the various plot elements together is amazing! ( BTW - AIC provided some animation support. ) So I really enjoyed the first two episodes, I will definitely now order the rest of the DVD's as they come out, and I'm really pissed that this show wasn't broadcast in the Kansai region so that my friend could have taped it and so I wouldn't have to wait so long to see the entire series.
"Argento Soma" is a "must see" series! (Dave Baranyi)
This is Sunrise's second kick at the can as far as EVA clones go (the first was Brain Powerd). Powerful, giant aliens started to invade the Earth in the middle of the Twenty-first Century and humans have developed a number of technologies to fight back, including re-building an alien out of bits and pieces of ones they have destroyed. But this is not just another Sunrise mecha series, and the combination of mysterious goings-on and characters makes it quite intriguing. I've seen the first 6 episodes so far and have more on order as they are released. Rating: a must see for end of the world story fans.
(Dave Baranyi)

Credits Prod: Sunrise
Dir: Kazuyoshi Katayama

Episodes 25

Release Jap:DVD, US:DVD

TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.

Date 2000 October 6 -

Production Sunrise

Broadcaster TV Tokyo

Animation

References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

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Information
Title (English)	Argento Soma
Title (Japanese)	Argento Soma
Advertising Fantasy Novel
Notes	Also on R2 DVD
Classification	-
Synopsis	Synopsis of episodes 1 & 2: Some fifty or so years from now the earth has been getting assaulted by huge, powerful bio mechas from outer space. Various specialist forces have been developed to keep the invasions in check and to try to figure out ways to understand what is going on. At the very first part of episode one, a giant alien mecha enters Earth's atmosphere, passing the ruins of some older space stations and a new one that is tracking it. As the mecha descends two UN aircraft scream into the sky and launch thermonuclear warheads at the mecha. The warheads explode but the mecha's shield holds and the mecha attacks the two aircraft, destroying them. But while the mecha finishes off the final aircraft, a giant AWACS-type aircraft fires a laser or particle beam weapon at the mecha, blowing it apart. The UN army forces find the pieces of the mecha, but people from another mysterious agency called Morogue appear in a giant VSTOL aircraft and with the proper authorization, take the pieces away. In the meanwhile, Takt, a university student, sits in his dorm room, listening to a taped conversation with his girlfriend Maki while brooding over the fact that she is too busy to be with him even though he bought her a birthday gift. Takt then gets an email message telling him to go to the university where he doesn't find Maki in her professor's office as he expected, but does get another message from her. He then gets taken by some military police and brought to a desolate site where a large, hanger type building sits. There he finds Maki and her professor, who have been re-assembling the alien mecha. They need Takt to assist, and although Takt is still mad at Maki, he agrees and they attempt to revive the reassembled monster. Of course, you know what happens next. The episode ends with the site totally destroyed, the alien biomecha gone and a badly injured Takt the only person left alive. Episode 2 opens up with an almost pastoral scene, as 13 year old Harriet is out in the Montana woods with her dog Walton. Harriet sees her "fairy" again momentarily. The "fairy", is of course, the alien mecha that escaped the Morogue facility. Harriet goes back to the log cabin where she lives with her uncle who is a wood craftsman, who is talking to a sneaky looking State Trooper and a nervous looking MIB who is aiming a briefcase camera at everything around, including Harriet. Harriet's uncle chases the two suspicious characters away, but as they drive off they see Harriet sitting in a field of flowers with her dog. They attempt to take Harriet away but the dog bites the State Trooper and Harriet and Walton run off to the place where Harriet last saw her "fairy". In the meanwhile, another mysterious group, this time called Funeral arrives at the scene of the escape of the giant alien mecha. They start to track the mecha in a giant bomber type airplane that carries three special flying craft. Their initial searches over the Montana area where they suspect the alien mecha is hiding turn up nothing. At this point, Harriet has made a hula-hoop sized ring of branches and flowers and wants to give it to her "fairy", but slips into the lake where she last saw it, and sees it once again underwater. The mecha saves Harriet, and she puts the "ring" onto the mecha's finger ( echoing the last scene in episode 1 where we see Maki's lifeless hand sticking out of a pile of rubble, the ring that Takt gave her on her hand ). The alien mecha puts Harriet down on land and disappears again as the State Policeman and MIB show up to try to drag Harriet away. This time the mecha ( called "Frank" in the booklet in the DVD package ) comes out of the water and starts to chase the Policeman and MIB who run away, dragging Harriet with them. At this point a new golden alien mecha appears in orbit and swiftly descends to where "Frank" is slowly chasing the humans. The State Trooper stops to uselessly fire his shotgun at the new mecha, which starts to send out green light beams which track the humans just before an energy gun blasts them into nothingness. Harriet suddenly remembers back to her childhood when her city was attacked by other alien mechas and her parents were killed in the same manner. First the State Trooper, then the MIB are killed. Harriet's uncle comes up by that time, armed with an automatic weapon. ( Before he left to find Harriet, we saw old photos of him in uniform with another anti-alien team. ) Harriet's uncle tries to distract the new mecha, but it destroys him too. Harriet is too stunned by all this to move and just sits as the new alien targets her, but suddenly "Frank" lunges at the new mecha and makes it miss Harriet. A swift and spectacular fight then occurs and "Frank" destroys the second mecha. Frank then tries to communicate with the almost comatose Harriet and shows her the "ring" on it's finger, at which point Harriet starts to sing a sad song. Meanwhile, the pilot of the Funeral flyer finally finds "Frank" and starts to report in for an attack, when he sees Harriet being carried along in Frank's open hand, singing a song. Thus ends episode 2.
Review	So you say, you've seen this all before in lots of other shows, not just "EVA", "Brain Powerd" and "Betterman". True, but the panache shown by Sunrise in the direction, animation, music, acting and characterization, as well as the way they blend all the various plot elements together is amazing! ( BTW - AIC provided some animation support. ) So I really enjoyed the first two episodes, I will definitely now order the rest of the DVD's as they come out, and I'm really pissed that this show wasn't broadcast in the Kansai region so that my friend could have taped it and so I wouldn't have to wait so long to see the entire series. "Argento Soma" is a "must see" series! (Dave Baranyi) This is Sunrise's second kick at the can as far as EVA clones go (the first was Brain Powerd). Powerful, giant aliens started to invade the Earth in the middle of the Twenty-first Century and humans have developed a number of technologies to fight back, including re-building an alien out of bits and pieces of ones they have destroyed. But this is not just another Sunrise mecha series, and the combination of mysterious goings-on and characters makes it quite intriguing. I've seen the first 6 episodes so far and have more on order as they are released. Rating: a must see for end of the world story fans. (Dave Baranyi)
Credits	Prod: Sunrise Dir: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Episodes	25
Release	Jap:DVD, US:DVD
TV Showing	See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date	2000 October 6 -
Production	Sunrise
Broadcaster	TV Tokyo
Animation
References & Help	Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information.