Review: Blue Submarine No. 6

However, not all is as it may seem. Firstly, Zorndyke's agenda may not be as straightforwardly villainous as many believe. Secondly, the captain has chosen, for whatever reason, to recruit Hayami, a misfit pilot who always seems to do the right things for the wrong reasons... and Hayami's copilot, the inexperienced by-the-book young womaan Kino, does not appreciate it.

With the future of humanity teetering on the brink and the human forces hard-pressed, who will hold the ultimate victory?

On to the review.

Classy. Blue Sub No. 6 just oozes class. Animation is top-notch - of similar, if not better, quality, than titles such as Akira and Perfect Blue. In many ways the cel animation is strongly reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell.

While the plot is not nearly as sophisticated as the other efforts mentioned, this is still pretty watchable. First and foremost it's an action movie, so expecting sophisticated character development would be silly, but what is sketched in is solid. However, it's driven by the action sequences.

Which, it must be said, are quite good. This is submarine warfare the way you wish it was - dogfights in slow motion (and at times, not very slow motion). Both the mecha designs and the organics are interesting.

The plot is driven at times by the need for the submarince and its crew to survive, but it still carries some surprises, particularly towards the end. The only real downside is that the crew of the "Phantom Ship" - particularly the captain, who is pretty clearly modelled after a shark - seem at times to be deliberate caricatures of themselves, which distracts from the otherwise sympathetic view given to the "villains".

The ethics of the protagonists are also kept a little murky; the "villains" have some claim to the moral high ground. Not much of a claim in my opinion (basically it's the ecoterrorist "forced return of the world to nature") but still some. It makes for an occasionally confusing but generally well constructed narrative.

Quality of the animation is high throughout. There are places where the juxtaposition of cel animation and CGI doesn't quite work, but these are relatively few. The main problems with the CGI are with the above-water scenes. The underwater scenes conceal the too-smooth finishes typical of CGI with murkiness and low light levels, and as a result work quite well. The above-water scenes are too clean and bright to be believable.

English dub is quite decent (although the VA for Kino reminds me far too much of the VA for Nene in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 - basically she sounds a little to whiney). The Japanese dub is a little better, and uses full surround sound rather than the straight stereo of the English track. However, the usefulness of the Japanese track is severely eroded by the lack of subtitles (except in the closing song).

Packaging uses a standard DVD case with the pain-in-the-neck "flower clip" to hold the hub. Cover designs are attractive but low-key.