Cheap Argentosoma - Another Reality (Vol. 1) (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Argentosoma - Another Reality (Vol. 1)

A TAD TOO MUCH STRANGENESS
Ok, see if this sounds familiar. In the future there was a first impact caused by a alien which started a war in which these giant weird sounding weird looking robots/aliens come down one by one for no apparent reason and this one task force sends out equally big mecha based on the alien technology they don't really understand to combat them. Hmmmmm.....Neon Genesis??? Unfortunately, I am describing Argentosoma, which is such a mishmash of such disparate stories as King Kong, Battle of the Planets, Frankenstein, Moby Dick, and Evangelion that it really has no hope of being a unique expression of art.

At the beginning of the first episode an alien is blown up by the Earth defenses but reassembled and reactivated by a scientist. First mistake...do not reassemble a hostile alien!!
In the process the alien, called "Frank" (oh, the irony) kills everyone at the research facility....except Takuto Kaneshiro, a college student who had shown up there looking for his girlfriend, who worked with the scientist. After Frank leaves the compound, he meets a young girl, Harriet, and surprisingly becomes her protector, saving her life from another alien who had arrived on the scene. FUNERAL, the anti-alien taskforce decides that the girl might just be useful after all. The physically scarred Takuto is meanwhile being rehabilitated by a slightly psycho doctor with his own agenda. Takuto vows to kill Frank and the doctor gives him a new identity, Lt.Ryu Soma, in order to infiltrate FUNERAL and get close enough to take his revenge.

This series is just a little too goofy and derivative to me. The scarred Ryu looks like a dumb Two-Face. What's with the names too? I mean, really, FUNERAL?? When the mecha start fighting with each other, you could just put in Evangelion. To me Frank even resembled the main Eva. Its resemblance to Neo Ranga also cannot be overlooked. The analogies are just to blatant, especially the overt christian symbols, such as a crucifixion pose done by one of the aliens, etc or the biblical rants of the doctor. Also, the leader of FUNERAL is obviously a female vulcan. The more I write about this the more I dislike what I just watched. I will admit it had bizarreness going for it. When I saw Takuto's new hair style, I just pictured Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary when her hair sticks up with that hair gel. In the end, this dvd was a joke.

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Good mecha!!
I think that despite some of it's similarities with past mecha series, this series is truely remarkable. The fact that it is probably going to remind alot of anime fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion still remains, however there are many differences between the two series.

The storyline is centered around an ongoing battle between Aliens and Humanity. The heavily Military influenced Galactic University has taken parts from the aliens to develop the earths counter-weapon. The funny thing is that our the earth's counter weapon is sort of a Frankenstien made up of recovered alien parts. When the experiments to wake up this re-developed alien (later to be known as "Frank" or the Extra 1) go terribly wrong the our main character, Takuto Kaneshiro, of the series looses someone very close to him, Maki Agata who was invloved with this experiment.

Takuto Kaneshiro, later to be known as Lieutenant Ryu Soma, decides to join an organization called Funeral where the Extra 1 or Frank has been taken to battle the aliens. The series revolves around Ryu Soma and his hatred towards the Extra 1 for taking Maki's life. At the funeral base the other key characters are introduced as a plot begins to develop.

I have watched this whole series and I have to say that once you get through the first couple volumes of the series, the story get much better. Trust me, the whole series is not as borring as the first couple episodes of this series may seem. There is actually more to the plot than just a silly little Frankenstien take on a Mecha series.

Other recomendations:
RahXephon, Vandread, Escaflowne, and the ever soooo popular Neon Genesis Evangelion (If you havn't seen it yet but who hasn't seen Evangelion!!).

DEFFINATLY CHECK THIS ONE OUT!! :)

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Frankenstein... with mecha and aliens...
I suppose the older I get the more I appreciate a slower-paced story. I like to discover characters and motivations over time. I enjoy stories that unfold over the full length of a show's run rather than dump the entire plot on me in the first two episodes and then all there is left to do is watch it unfold in the already known and predictable way... Thankfully, ARGENTOSOMA doesn't do that - yet I'm not lost either. There is mystery and confusion and loose ends, but then, there's supposed to be at this point in the story... Of course, I've only viewed the first three disks... so I'm hoping they wrap everything up by series end, but so far I'm hooked.

The mecha designs are kind of oddly unfinished-looking for the humans... variations of the alien technology, but modified to assuage civilian fears... The style not stellar, but at least interesting. I actually think the mecha take a back seat in this show. Of far more interest are the alien invaders and their motivations... who are they... and why did they come in the first place if not precisely to conquer?

I've heard plenty of sneering comparisons that paint every alien-invasion-mecha-suit show that comes along as a pale copy of Evangelion and frankly I'm tired of it. They're all just modernizations of scientifically-enhanced group stories anyway. (Go watch the 70's Gatchaman again and tell me I'm wrong...) It's a GENRE now people... get over it!

That said... I try to take each series on it's own - as long as it brings something interesting to the table. Argentosoma intrigues me because it's a twist on the venerable Frankenstein tale and they've given us a 'hero' who isn't just confused or reluctant... he's actively vengeful - perhaps to the detriment of the world's survival...

No, Ryu Soma isn't exactly the most likeable character. He's tempermental, shallow, obsessive, incredibly intelligent and bitter. He throws away a genius career as a metallurgical designer and becomes a fighter pilot in pursuit of his revenge. He chooses to remain horribly scarred for that same reason. The few 'poignant' flashbacks to his relationship with his girlfriend - the one he's seeking revenge for - don't always paint him in the most sympathetic light either. He's been an odd one all along, it seems, perhaps due to his genius, and his tragic loss, so far, hasn't improved him... yet there are signs, later on in the series, that his thirst for revenge isn't as all-consuming as it seems at first...

This is just the first disk - five episodes that set-up the situation/world of Argentosoma. There is much more to come... the most intriguing thing to me is what are the aliens are after in their single-minded treks toward Pilgramage Point... and what part will Frank really end up playing... and will Ryu Soma be able to rise above his own need for revenge as it becomes clear that Frank is needed to protect the human race from further destruction?