Anime Review: Twin Spica (Fansub)

This series is currently being fansubbed and has not yet been licensed.

Overview: Twin Spica is a show about a young girl, who just happens to have befriended this dude that wanders around wearing a lion mascot head and astronaut gloves and boots, and her trials and tribulations as she attempts to become an astronaut against all odds. This series is way cute. It’s the type of feel good stuff that makes you laugh, and makes you cry sometimes too.

Animation: Adequate. This series is by no means groundbreaking. I’ve seen better, but it does the job. The pink spots on Asumi’s cheeks get kind of annoying after a while though, and you also continuously wonder about that lion head thing. I have seen far worse animation, this series looks very… old school compared to some of the things coming out of Japan these days. This might be improved somewhat by a slightly less compressed version of the series.

Soundtrack: Good stuff. The opening song is outstanding. It makes you want to get up and dance and it really hooks you right in. The currently available rip of this series has the gain turned up so darned high that it’s hard to hear the nuances in the music. If you’re way into music.. wait and hope that someone licenses this series.

Subtitles: Are… annoying as all heck. The colors in the current rip make it hard to read what people are saying, and what’s with this karaoke stuff over the title tracks? Yes, we know you can read katakana… thank you very much. The subbers showed off a bit with that, and it really detracts from the titles.

Voice Acting: Good, not superb, but good.

Plot: Here’s where this story actually shines. It keeps you hooked in episode to episode so we can see what happens next. I can’t tell you anymore otherwise I’ll give important things away. Watch it and see for yourself.

Overall… the current rip is crap compared to what Anime Fansubs/Anime Daisuki is capable of. Check out their rip of Macross Zero if you want to see what these guys can really do. If you’re into cutesy anime, Twin Spica has all the bon-bon eating, kleenex grabbing moments you could possibly want and a good story to back it up. But if you want a quality appearance and decent audio, wait for the dvd.