Simoun - 01

Is girl x girl kissing the fuel of the future? Will sex changes happen by drinking some sparkly water? According to Simoun it is! Take flight with lesbians in training as they kill other lesbians in respirators. Be awed how out of place the CG looks and how amazingly forgettable all the characters are!



The premise of Simoun is interesting or just an excuse for some lesbian tongue wrestling. Everyone is female until they reach a certain age and then they can drink from a spring to change their sex if they wish. But of course once they change sex, they cannot pilot a Simoun (apparently a craft of the devil) and become an adult. From what I can gather from the overly confusing plot, the girls who pilot the Simoun crafts - do not wish to become male or have some special ability that can get around this. They are known as Simula.
Another interesting factor is that the first episode is narrated by the 'enemy' who is one of the many pilots wearing a respirator ala Darth Vader. Mamiko Noto is by far the most superior VA and using her Jigoku Shoujo style narration is made out of win! ;)
But let's get back to the actual plot..



Two countries are at war fighting over technology to give the country in question an upper hand. Neville and her partner Ameria are off to battle some badguys in their Simoun craft, along with a few other girls who barely get a mention. To spice things up, the creators thought that lesbian kissing was truly electric! The girls kiss their co-pilots and then spread the germs onto the green sparkly jewel for power. Think how much bacteria and saliva it uses up! Mamiko Noto explains via some narrative about the Simoun itself but I still don't get all the terminology.
The Simoun gang then battle in the air against the Darth Vader like enemy. They are outnumbered, so everyone goes into an attack pattern by shooting out lines from the back of their craft aka Remergion. When they are done it's up to the final pair (Neville and Ameria) to complete this pattern - but it FAILS.



So all that lesbian kissing for nothing? So it seems! Ameria shouts to Neville that she wants MOAR POWER - even if it means using up their life force. She hesitantly agrees and it goes wrong as she looks into the eyes of the enemy pilot narrating this episode. Some big explosions later and the Simoun gang are on the retreat but not before revealing a tint of green hair from the enemy pilot..
Back at the base, Ameria is presumed missing and the rest are contemplating their future. Who will help them fight if Neville is in angst mode and without a partner? A young girl is found on the premises - which is brought to the attention of the commander. She lets her join the group as they are getting short on pilots. She has green hair! Which means she was the one shot on the enemy craft? Probably!



A 'hero' barges in on the meeting and annouces herself as Aeru - 1337 pilot extrodonaire. She doesn't give a crap about the situation as long as she kills some badguys. So in and out like a whirlwind and jumps into a Simoun without a co-pilot. I have no idea why they decided to throw in such an annoying main character like that without some background first. Mind you, most of the characters are just as bad! So we have loli-evil girl who was the narrator of this episode, Aeru, the rest of the forgettables and the best character Neville who is throwing herself into the spring to change into a man. Life without her fellow co-pilot is like being a man - terrible. :P



It's easy to disregard this anime into the WTF and trying too hard pile. The plot is confusing to follow due to lack of explanation on the terminology. The lesbian kisses are possibly a cheap excuse to attract attention - even if they hold some purpose (powering up the ships). So many characters are introduced that I can only remember a handful of names. It's obvious that Aeru and Neville will pair up in the future and that the green-haired girl has some motive depsite her innocent looks.
Simoun has potential to be good, but judging by this episode - It will need to straighten out it's plot and explain some more about their world. The animation was nice and the characters was colourful - if looking suspciously a bit Mai-Otome like. The CG that was used was out of place and sometimes the drawn backgrounds was a bit plain for my liking. The music was a so-so affair - I'm not really keen on the jazzy aspects but the opening was decent.
I'll stick with this for another 1 or 2 episodes but until then it's slightly above average.

Overall: 6/10

Talk about confusing!