Solty Rei: Volume 4

Introduction

Volume 3 of Solty Rei took the show in a harsh direction, one that certainly didn't make for easy viewing, especially given my labelling of the first two volumes as a pleasant but forgettable diversion. That harsh direction certainly made the series live up to its film noir pretensions, and I left volume 3 in part anticipating eagerly, and in part dreading volume 4. Gonzo have a tendency to drop the ball when shows get too dramatic and heavy, preferring instead to focus on the eye-candy. Hopefully Volume 4 doesn't cheapen what has come before.

The Blast Fall devastated the city, a mysterious event twelve years ago that cost the lives of thousands. It's effects are still visible today, an Aurora Shell that arcs overhead, preventing anyone from leaving the ground or even the building of high-rise towers, interfering with communications, as well as the number of cyborgs known as Resembles roaming the city, survivors who have had their bodies repaired with technology. It's the Reestablishment Universe Committee, the RUC that is at the heart of the city's reconstruction and the proliferation of cyborgs. Roy Revant works in this city as a bounty hunter for the Maverick Hunters Company, although his hard-bitten brutal approach means that he pretty much works alone. He's been hunting ever since the Blast Fall, in which his daughter Rita vanished, an event that eventually claimed the life of his wife. The loss and grief still prey on him; he's still looking for his daughter, or maybe just salvation, when one day it literally falls from the sky.


Volume 4 continues the story with four episodes.

SPOILERS: There are spoilers ahead for what has happened in volume 3, so don't say I didn't warn you. Go away now if you still haven't seen it.

15. Safe Haven
Rose's death is bringing everyone down. At the office, Kasha and Miranda are depressed, while Yuto searches half-heartedly for Solty, but Roy is a pale shadow of himself, listless, grief-stricken, refusing to engage with the world. Solty is in the desert. She's run away, unable to deal with Roy's hatred for her, and her trek leaves her exhausted and damaged. Fortunately she collapses where a young man finds her and takes her home. She wakes to find an older man looking down on her, having repaired her. The young boy Will lives with his 'gramps', both having rejected the world, and they take Solty in. Will has a dream though. In this world where the Blast Fall has sealed in the sky, he wants to fly, and he's building an aeroplane to do just that. Gramps is just hiding from his past, refusing to get involved. Meanwhile back at the RUC, Division Chief Ashley is putting his newest recruit through her paces, and Miranda decides to beat some sense into Roy. She's got a mean right hook.


16. Half Kidding
Now Solty has another friend to mourn, but she's handling this loss better. She's determined to fulfil the dream, and fly up in the sky. Roy's nursing a bruise the size of his face, but it looks as he has put some meat on his bones. Miranda has reminded him that he risks losing his sole remaining family if he lets Solty go, and Roy finally gets motivated to find her. At the RUC though, Security Division Chief Ashley is ready to introduce his new recruit to the other girls, although aptitude testing and skill levels means that she will be their new leader. Through the door walks… Rose Anderson?

17. Lady
Roy finally gets to the desert, where Solty has been staying, only for Solty to have returned home to an empty apartment. Before Roy has the chance to leave, the old man holds him back, and tells him something worrying about Solty. Back at the RUC though, Division Chief Ashley's golden girl is putting the rest of the security staff to shame. Rose has no problems with being one of the 'other side' now, and is comfortable fighting her former friends. It's less comfortable for the other girls though. Silvia isn't too pleased with working for a former thief, Accela is removed from a critical research program in favour of Rose, Celica is fired for dereliction of duty, and worse is waiting for Silvia when she goes to Ashley to complain.


18. Welcome Home
Roy's reunion with Solty is as awkward as you would expect, but the two are soon back at work, hunting an absconded embezzler. Meanwhile Rose is being utterly ruthless at the RUC, and Integra, Celica and Accela are on the run, wanted for murder. Integra and Accela decide to hack the RUC mainframe, to look for the evidence to prove their innocence, but Celica is more direct, she buys an arsenal, and starts a war. As mayhem breaks loose at the upper echelons of the RUC, Solty overhears Rose's voice on a rooftop. Stunned, both she and Roy race to find her and be reunited, only to witness Rose committing murder.

Picture

Solty Rei gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. The image as you would expect is an NTSC-PAL conversion. It's a pretty good one though, not too soft, prone to ghosting, or plagued with excessive judder. It is sharp and well defined, the animation is fluid and clear, and everything is almost as smooth as silk. Solty Rei is a bright colourful anime, plenty of vibrant colours and daytime scenes, although the future world, while distinctive and accomplished, certainly isn't memorable. The character designs are up to Gonzo's usual standards, while CGI is liberally used to enhance the 2D animation. Some of the mundane objects like cars aren't all that impressive, but when it comes to the fantastic, like mecha and robots, Gonzo's traditional design ethic comes through well.

Sound

Sound comes in the form of DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Japanese along with optional translated subtitles and signs. I found no problems with my usual preference of the Japanese track, while the dub is one of the really good ones, well cast and with distinctive characterisations. I was very impressed with the English voice of Roy Revant. The show gets the usual catchy j-pop themes, while the incidental music owes a fair bit to those old US cop dramas, with a noir-ish edge.

Extras

You get the usual textless credit sequences, and this time there are trailers for Disgaea, and Samurai Deeper Kyo.

Conclusion

Do I really need to reiterate my warning about spoilers? Just in case, consider yourself re-warned. I concluded my previous review, notably impressed at the developments that had occurred, and how the characters reacted to them. The big development was Rose's death, and the reactions were understandable, harsh, and even a tad realistic. I finished with a warning that Volume 4 had better not betray what had just been set up by volume 3, as Gonzo have a tendency to taking a cool plot development, and wasting it in a burst of eye-candy, or by blatantly and obviously playing on audience sensibilities.


The first episode on this disc sees Rose, hearty and hale, strapped into a test chair at RUC, taking part in some bizarre experiment. The second episode sees her in an RUC uniform, put in charge of the security team. A miraculous survival and a last minute bait and switch is the last thing I wanted to see, and you would expect me to be throwing cushions at the television, turning the air blue, and denouncing Gonzo in the strongest possible terms. Oddly enough, by the halfway point, my opinion of Gonzo had only slightly soured (you can't get away from the contrivances in the plot), but the story somehow managed to continue in the dark direction started in the previous volume, and by the end of the disc, was even more enthralling and compelling than the before. In the end, you can't blame Gonzo for not killing the Golden Goose, as Rose Anderson is one of this show's strongest characters, and is even more of a draw than the titular Solty.


Of course Roy and Solty know none of this, and they still have to work through their grief and come to terms with their loss, as well as forgive each other and reconcile. That takes place in the first half of the disc, with Solty off wandering in the desert, and meeting two people who help her understand more about loss, and the inevitability of death. Roy of course has to have sense beaten into him, and it's interesting to learn that Miranda packs a mean punch. In a way Roy's arc is not quite as interesting, after all, he's following a path he has followed once before, and his response to loss is fairly predictable and understandable. For Solty, who is experiencing these feelings for the first time, the story gets more interesting, as she finds she has a choice to make. She winds up among people who have shunned their old lives, and have dropped out of society. She has the same decision, whether to hold on to her past, and her grief, in the hope of rebuilding her life, or whether to throw it all away and start over. There is also back-story built upon here. The old man, Joseph obviously knows Solty's true nature, he's able to repair her when she is damaged, and as the story progresses, it becomes clear he know more about the RUC, the Blast Fall, the city and Division Chief Ashley.


It's around this point that the attention turns to the RUC, the security girls, their chief Ashley and the newest recruit Rose Anderson. Naturally you'll be wondering why and how Rose survived, why she is so cruel to keep Roy and the others unaware, why she has so vehemently changed sides, and why she is acting out of character. Not all of these questions are answered here. Instead, what seemed like a relatively benign organisation turns out to be rotten to the core, the twisted dream of one man in his pursuit of power, and the sheer callousness he brings to bear, to make his dream a reality. Hints, allusions, and indeed revelations abound in this arc, but they all prove to take the story in an even darker direction. While Solty and Roy may be coming to terms with their loss and reconciling, what happens at the RUC is even more chilling and unsettling than what happened in the previous volume.


The last thing I wanted in this volume was a quick resurrection, or a 'Ha, we fooled you!' from the creators, but they gave it to me anyway. But with that, the expected return to bright, shiny, and fun didn't actually happen. Instead Solty Rei continues to venture into dark and ominous territory. It's enough to redeem the character sleight of hand, and keeps Solty Rei in must watch territory. This show has certainly gotten good with the past two volumes, although I'm taking any character demise with a pinch of salt. If one can come back, maybe all of them will.