Admin's Anime Review : Soul Link

Title : Soul Link

Studio : NAVEL , Picture Magic

Genre : Seinen , Ecchi , Science Fiction , Action , Drama .

Original Run : April 1 - June 24 , 2006

Episodes : 12

Director : Tokoro Tokomazu

Character Design : Watanabe Yoshihiro

Original Character Design : Suzuhira Hiro

Admin's Score

Story : 85

Character Development : 85

Artwork : 87

Songs : 83

Battle Depiction / Animation : 75

Soul Link Stars : (from left side and right side up to down ) : Aizawa Shuuhei , Nao Morisaki , Sayaka Nagase , Aki , Aizawa Ryota and Yuu Yamanami .

Soul Link is adapted from a visual nove eroge with the same name made by NAVEL . It's about a group of military cadets' adventure aboard a space hotel named Aries . Released in December 17, 2004 . A PS2 game with the name Soul Link Extension was also released in June 29 , 2006 .

Synopsis

Ryota Aizawa and Sayaka Nagase were military cadets that began their training in space in a space station hotel Aries . As soon as they arrived , they underwent their training immediately . But later , only in a short span of time , a conspiracy were on the progress . Aries were attacked by a terrorist group named Harallax , that also carried nukes in their spaceship . All of the civilians are evacuated , however , all of the military people who didn't got a chance to escape were captured by Harallax . Some of the cadets , including Ryota and Sayaka , were also trapped in Aries . They form a group consist of several people including a mercenary , Yuu , whose idetities remained unrevealed until late story . Then , this group formulate a lot of tactics to buy time from the Harallax , as they can't escape to the surface ( the Earth) , also knowing their power is nothing to fight a bunch of armed terrorist . Their tactics bought them a lot of time , however , once again , a conspiracy was plotted by someone , turning the terrorist into an unexpected condition . Ryota and the others must fight against betrayal , loss of beloved one , never-ending conspiracy and a mutated form of living things , the Skylla...

Strength : Nicely done artwork & character design . Tactical plots that made a thriller sensation when watching . Unexpected /unpredictable plots that enfolds in every part of the story . Meaningful drama that depicts slices of life , contained a lot of moral message .

Weakness : Bad animation that create some pauses or unneeded animation in particular parts , also made the action looking so lame . Some acts of the character that seemed odd and not in their place , make the plot contained a lot of defects , these acts also waste a lot of time span and also made the story become boring and flat . Too many dialogues and slice of life may cause boredom to the audience . Some flaw in artwork in some parts . The role of the main character is blur and so little , and doesn't fit the requirement for the main character , which can made a confusion in distinguishing who is the main character . The character chosen for the main character , Ryota , also can't play his role well and isn't suited for the position .

Screenshots :

Shooting training of the military cadets in Aries . The left , Ryota , the right one , Kazuhiko , the best cadet among the others , skilled in a lot of things .

Space station hotel , Aries , floating above the earth . On the left side is the spaceship of Harallax , attached to a module of Aries .

Technical meeting conducted by Ryota & the others . You'll find a lot of this scene in the anime , as they always plot their strategy before doing the action .

Karen , one of the Harallax member's , the sub-leader , fight against a Skylla-infected soldier .