wenty-nine years ago, Japan was destroyed during a devastating alien invasion by Festum, a force that, at least according to volume 1 of Fafner, wants to assimilate all mankind. But even before Japan fell, a group of people retreated to an armed fortress called Tatsumiya Island and used camouflage shields and super-technology to hide themselves from aliens and mankind alike. Since then, they've lived in a gorgeous, isolated paradise of blue skies and quaint island villages.
But the sky is artificial, and the war is still going on around them. As the first episode of Fafner begins, a glowing gold alien closes in on the island, and the adult inhabitants calmly make their way to shelter as the younger generation tries to figure out what's going on. The entire island transforms for battle, and the commanders prepare to send out their secret weapon, a mecha called Fafner, after the giant/dragon of Wagnerian opera. But the teen pilot dies on the way to her ship, and naturally it's necessary to call up a new prodigy who's never set eyes on Fafner and knows nothing about Festum.
From there, Fafner proceeds much like Neon Genesis Evangelion and its countless other followers. Floating creatures with strange powers and unclear intentions attack. Single father/island defense commander Fumihako Makabe sends his untried son Kazuki into combat based on his projected ability to merge with Fafner. More recruits are gathered, Kazuki both clashes and partners with a classmate who knows far more about what's really going on, and a creepy but key experiment turns up in the basement.
Still, there's more going on than just an Evangelion redux, as becomes apparent when Tatsumiya's leaders decide to fire up the Brunhilde System and move the island elsewhere to avoid discovery. Unfortunately for them, Kazuki
boldly decides that saving the life of the Neo U.N. fighter pilot in the area is more important than maintaining secrecy, and he blows the island's cover, setting the stage for a new direction in the story.
Fast ships, slow series launch
Fafner sinks a lot of runtime into technobabble—like many fighting-mecha series, it can't get through an episode without at least five minutes of machines connecting, transporting and preparing, while generic female techs say things like "Live oscillatory wave confirmed."
This gets tedious, especially in a series that devotes so little time to its characters. All the adults on Tatsumiya Island seem prepared for catastrophe, and they react stoically and nearly silently to most new developments, at least until it's time to send their kids off to war. Those kids are pretty resilient—initially, at least, none of them reacts to all the upheaval with more than a muttered "Why didn't they tell us?" or "Why won't you answer our questions?" With so little conversation going on, there isn't much opportunity for anyone to develop a notable character.
Fafner does have other draws, notably gorgeous music, the promise of unfolding mysteries—who's the floating naked ghost-girl, and what does she want with Kazuki?—and the incredibly high-gloss CGI-assisted animation, which is heavy on swooping, smooth camera motion and sharp-edged extreme clarity. The many shots of cloud-filled blue sky (real sky and shield-illusion alike) are particularly striking, though Kazuki makes it a little harder to enjoy them when he indulges in a bit of trite monologue: "I wonder when people started to forget how to fly the sky. No. We didn't forget. We became scared. Because the sky on this planet doesn't belong to people anymore. We spread our wings in such sky."
But such personally revealing speeches are far from the norm. So far, it almost feels like there's been no dialogue at all, simply because so little of importance has been said. The series is good at emotional shorthand—the look Kazuki shoots at a photo of his mother and his younger self, or the grim nod his father gives when informed it's time for Kazuki to pilot Fafner, say volumes. Still, at the close of this initial DVD, Fafner feels like it's barely begun.
This would have been a good series for an ADV Films-style set of deluxe info packaging, introducing the many characters who are basically ciphers in the opening episodes, and explaining a little more about the world to differentiate it from the dozens of other series like it. It's not that Fafner comes across as badly written, directed or animated, it just doesn't do much in this first installment to keep viewers coming back, or to convince them that it's going anywhere new or unusual.
— Tasha
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