Figure 17

[angelx03]

Here's another series that practically no one talks about. Since I way too tired to write a plot summery, here's one from the Anime News Network:

Tsubasa Shiina is a 10-year-old girl who recently moved to Hokkaido to live with her father. In school, she is very quiet and unsociable with her classmates. Then one night, she witnesses a UFO crash in the forest near her home. She rushes to the scene and finds the pilot, codenamed "D.D.", in a barely stable condition. Also in the scene is a Maguar, a hideous alien that hatched aboard D.D.'s ship. As the Maguar is close to taking Tsubasa's life, an alien lifeform fuses with her body to form the Riberus battle armor Figure 17, which shortly destroys the alien threat. The life form takes the name Hikaru and turns into an identical twin of Tsubasa. As time passes, Tsubasa becomes more open to everyone around her, thanks to her new twin sister Hikaru. However, with Maguar eggs scattered all over Hokkaido, their ability to form Figure 17 is needed to eliminate all hatched Maguars until backup from D.D.'s home planet arrives on Earth.

I have to say the balance between elementary school drama and action-packed alien busting is pretty good. I can almost see why each episode is 46 minutes long since it gives time to develop Tsubasa's character as well as plot development of the aliens. The actions scenes are alright since OLM did implement "final blow" still images like they did in Berserk and Pokemon, but it gets the job done. The English dubbing is pretty good given the fact that the VAs from Bang Zoom! Entertainment knew how to deal with child characters (I can see where Kay Jensen a.k.a Kari Wahlgren got her experience in acting a 10-year old when she played also Sakura in Cardcaptor Sakura).

Oh yea, GENCO (who also did the Please! series, Elfen Lied, Millenium Actress, Azumanga Daioh, and a few others) once again does a VERY good job making the girls cute-looking; Tsubasa and Hikaru is just SO adorable!

Highly recommended!

[Rhyevaln]

Good show, however, even though it has good character development, the battles are very, very, very.... very.....very.... repetitive. After the first few times it is very obvious about what to expect. But the ending really put it in the good anime section for me.

I enjoyed it. Especially the interaction with the other characters while not totally focusing on the battles.

*sniff*... good ending.

[Savia]

I really liked this show up until the last episode. I only dislike that episode because when I was watching at as a marathon at a friend's for the first time, it didn't work, and I've never seen the last episode -_-

[Sentient Satire]

I'm very intrigued by this. thanks for the heads up angelx03... As of late I haven't been able to find the time to watch the market for the new distributing licenses, so this is much appreciated.

[doughboy]

I have the first DVD, I enjoyed it. Probably the only show that's still entertaining when the characters are doing something I could easily just get up and do myself.

What's really annoying is that it's cheaper for me to wait for the box set then it is to buy the rest of volumes individually.

[angelx03]

Now that you mention it, the whole 6 DVD boxset cost only about $70! Dammit!