AKA: Odin: Koushi Hansen Starlight

Genre: Sci-fi adventure / insomnia obliterator

Length: Movie, 93 minutes

Distributor: VHS and R1 DVD from US Manga Corps out of print.

Content Rating: 10+ (minor violence, danger of dislocating your jaw from yawning)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Watching anything else but this

Notes: None

Rating:

Odin: Photon Space Sailor Starlight

Synopsis

Across many years on Earth, man has travelled uncharted oceans and braved many unknown factors. Now another place to explore has opened up, this being space. The futuristic space ship Starlight is sent on a mission, piloted by a group of wise officers and veterans. During the trip, they meet a mysterious girl by the name of Sarah, who finds a saucer stranded on Oberon (a moon of Uranus both in fantasy and real-life), data from this saucer talks of "Odin" (a planet in the solar system of Canopus), which makes the crew happy enough to call a mutiny and overthrow the captain when he chooses to go back to Earth per commands. This new mission is probably the most daring, if not the most boring.

Review

I love space intensely. I love anime intensely. Knowing this, I think this anime sucked big time.

Odin, as indicated by the name, has some roots in Norse mythology, but unlike fellow Norse mythology rooted anime Ah! My Goddess, Odin is mindbendingly horrid in many ways, starting with the plot. The plot has a good background to it which, if done correctly, could be five star quality, but the way this does it, it's only one star. The movie uses abrupt scenes to try to make the plot happen, but it ruins itself by making no progress whatsoever. Even worse is the massive amount of laughable deus ex machina used. Whenever there's an enemy, the crew is able to fire a cannon unheard of til then. When there's a magnetic storm (and in this anime, there are TONS of them), the crew automatically has access to gravity controls.

Another bad part of the plot is its lack of knowledge in a few sections. For example, the movie mentions Canopus (a star in the constellation we call Carina), a star which turned supernova (even though in today's world, this star is still intact ... as far as we can see), but previously was a brilliant blue. The problem is that Canopus is not blue, but rather a yellowish color. Overall, the plot lacks depth and is really boring for the most part.

Characterwise, this movie never learns. Akira, the only crew member I even remember, is supposedly a flunked student who was overlooked to become a part of the crew, now doing solo flights for some strange reason. Sarah (the mysterious girl who was found by another ship which perished) is a typical case. Amnesiac, unaware of her past, Mary Sue-ish to an extent, all the old things. The higher staff consists of the Captain, who has an empty personality, and a coordinate, who is only noteworthy for threatening to break someone's neck. As for the rest of the crew, you get the obligatory computer wiz, the all-action guy, a doctor, and the usual pilots.

Next up, the art and BOY I'm going to smash it. The ship, while good looking, is marred by the lighting effects, which are some of the absolute worst ever. Apparently, the artists loved the color "Night Vision Green", as you'll see it often, as it is one of only 10 colors that get shoved into your eyes. They got rid of Electric Soldier Porygon because of the seizure inducing, so why not pull this from the shelves since this has lighting gone horribly wrong? Lights such as those in a hall are blinding, so try to imagine an explosion's light production. Lighting aside, the art (other than the ship) is stupid. They lack detail (yes, I know this is from the early 90s, but give me a break) and come off looking goofy. The characters are also done weird, with some of them looking like they are in dire need of a bed (not unlike me after watching this).

Unfortunately, the animation is just as bad as the artwork. Every movement by a character is blurry, making the illusion that the character is moving faster than normal and every time the ship is put to speed (which happens often in odd and goofy ways plagued by the lighting), the ship looks stationary (as if it was held up by a stick) while the background looks panoramic, further digging the grave for this excuse of an anime.

I might as well say this as solid as I can, but the music sucks. Many scenes have this bad music, which is either a cheesy synth song (similar to what I'd expect from a cheap Vangelis imitator), a notoriously cheesy metal song that makes Pat Boone sound like Metallica and the Backyard Dogs theme song sound like Dancing In The Rain, or a horribly misplaced classical song. To comment on the latter, Cosmos (a documentary about space by Carl Sagan) also utilized classical, but at least it made it fit well, which is more than what this anime could do.

Finally, I'll target the voices, which sound bad. Every character sounds like he skipped five days worth of sleep prior to appearing in this movie, which isn't good at the least.

All in all, this movie doesn't try anything interesting and turns into a snorefest for the ages. The art sucks, the music is cheesy, the voices are horrible, the plot is thin, the animation is stupid, and the characters are cliched. Stay away from this one and use that one dollar you were going to spend renting this on a cold soda.

There are many things with better plot, more depth, better voices, and better, more believable characters than this ... like CardCaptors for instance. Odin is THAT bad.) — Jake L Godek

Recommended Audience: Some violence and one unconscious girl at the doctor's checkup (though with no real nudity. Movies like these NEED fan service to introduce SOME level of excitement, but it fails in even THAT. Jesus! *shakes head*)

Also, this movie may insult the Norwegian populace with exceedingly stupid and simplistic links to Norse mythology.