Context I watched this anime on the SAVE Bluray published by Funimation which also includes the movie Heaven Earth. I reviewed that here.https://anilist.co/review/3123 I place most importance in a storydriven anime on the story if this were a comedy anime the characters would take priority. I enjoy mecha anime so the fact that this is a mecha anime does not mean I automatically hate it. Trust me its got enough problems otherwise. Short Version SpoilerfreeFafner is a barelyanimated 2004 anime series that fails to offer anything worthwhile in its 26 episodes that separate it from many other better alternatives. For me though it is the first time a series has been carried by its music which is amazing. I cannot think of anyone I would recommend this to other than People Who Use Anime To Fill A Void In Their Boring Lives. Long VersionCONTAINS SPOILERSAnime is the Japanese word for Animation. When something is referred to as anime you of course probably first picture the visual aesthetic that is associated with the medium but also think of the fact that it is animated a series of moving images whether hand drawn or computer generated. What Im getting at is that its hard to judge Fafner on animation quality when so little of it is really animated. I dont want to harp too much on this since it can likely be chalked up to lack of funding or a time crunch poor management etc. factors that lie outside of the artists control. But it just feels like theres no effort. There are hundreds of scenes where people just talk to one another with nothing done to spruce it up. Just people with about six frames between them just talking. Some of the fights are entertaining but the thing about the Festum the alien enemies of the show is that they all attack by flashing a purple light that makes the same blackishpurple CG circle appear on things before erasing them... quite literally as if someone just took an eraser to the picture they were looking at. So one thing that makes the story suffer at the start is the confusing first battle. See there are a couple important characters who get killed in the first episode who I did not know immediately had died because their deaths were not properly animated. In fact I dont even know their names even though one of them was a main characters father. So as the story starts with quite a few people being killed you strap in for the melodrama and get ready for characters to start getting offed. The best way for this story to work is with a lot of character development using the looming alien threat as a backdrop for personal conflicts. Not quite. This story has three main characters Kazuki Matabe Soshi Minashiro and Maya Tomi. The supporting cast is rather large almost to a fault. Kazuki is the leading character and his arc consists of him trying to figure out ways to understand the people around him more specifically Soshi his best friend whose eye he cut out when they were children. Soshi has alien powers for reasons mostly left unexplained which scared Kazuki as a child and the story of them becoming friends again is probably the most compelling one in the whole show. Mayas story is also good as she overcomes her fear of fighting and changing or losing her sense of self to become a hero and savior of her friends. Those friends the other Fafner pilots unfortunately take up more screentime and have objectively worse arcs than the mains.Lets start with Shoko shes an invalid whose only clearly defined traits are: shes sick and drumroll please shes in love with Kazuki Onesidedly So when the show focuses on her for a couple episodes you immediately think shes going to die. She does and here is where I think the show best establishes its major theme: its alright to fear change and loss but these things are necessary for survival. Despite that being the only theme I could notice in the whole show Mamorus arc rushed in towards the end of the shows run seems to contradict everyone elses arc. Koyo and Sakura both refuse to change and both suffer greatly as a result tortured from the assimilation phenomenon which slowly kills the pilots as they operate Fafners. Mamoru however gives up his Goubain personality expresses both verbally and in his actions a desire to protect his friends and to change and just when hes become stronger and more selfactualized he dies. This guy undergoes more development than 95 of the supporting cast and his reward is death? Oh are we going to play the nihilism card Tow Ubukata you fing hack? Speaking of terrible writing lets talk about what this show calls worldbuilding and story. I should honestly add about 20 more quotation marks to each side of those words. Very little is of the science of the technology the characters utilize is actually explained which would be fine if it had any discernible rules. How can the Festum read minds? Why can they predict some attacks but not others? Why do the Fafners block the mind reading and why has the technology not been implemented so their island can never be found? How did the humans develop a drug to implant the Festum factor that allows them to be Fafner pilots? How did the Festum sterilize the Japanese? Why? And if that wasnt enough questions lets look at some story elements that raise questions. Shokos grave gets defiled because she self destructs her Fafner. Why are there no consequences to this? How are there Neo U.N. spies on the island? Why do they not initiate a coup? Why does Dr. Bertrand not forcibly take over the island? Exactly how many Festum are there and why do they not reinforce the North Pole more efficiently if it is the backbone of their operations? Who is Tsubaki? Why do she and her older brother have alien powers? How do they teach the Festum things? Why dont all assimilated humans teach them things? Wouldnt the war end after they assimilated like one human? The dialogue is terrible which I think is a crime because there is way too much of it. Despite being a visual medium so much of the show is devoted to just talking which usually falls into one of two categories when it isnt main characters talking. The first is boring crap fluff that seems to only exist to draw out screen time such as romances and miniarcs that are forgettable and add no value to the plot. The second are opaque overly complicated messes of exposition and pseudoscience that just make absolutely no sense. For all I know some of those questions I listed earlier may have been answered but I could not tell you because this story feels like it was written to be as complex as possible which is ironic when you consider the fact that most of the main characters spend their time trying to understand one another better. So to sum up the story and characters together: Most of them are pointless. It all feels like wasted potential. There are so many scenes where I was supposed to feel happy or sad but I didnt because the story just fails to make me feel attached to most of the characters or their fate. One thing that did make me feel emotion consistently however was the score. The music in this show is godtier. Even while the writing fails to make you feel anything the music will do the trick. Even the kicking opening and mellow closer are packed with more emotion than the actual show. As I stated in the short review of this show what kept me invested was the score and its what kept me coming back other than the fact that I spent 20 on the BD. To conclude the only way I can recommend this anime is if you just have nothing else to watch. Trust me youll think of something better to do while youre watching this like going to the DMV or filing your taxes. Thats right dealing with the fing bureaucratic nightmares presented by the American government is more enjoyable than watching this dumpster fire. Final Scores:Animation: 1/2 Story:0/2 Sound: 2/2 Characters: 1/2 Enjoyment: 0/2 Total Score: 4/10