Solty Rei Volume 1 - MVM (12 )

Gruff-talking grouch, Roy Revant, works as a bounty hunter for Miranda Maverick in a grimy future where a catastrophic event, known only as the Blast Fall, has decimated the population and left many that remain reliant on prosthetic replacements known as Resembles. On a job, Roy finds himself crossing paths with a mysterious young girl, who is more than she originally seems…

Just like Desert Punk last month, Solty Rei is a series that is perfectly content to borrow ideas left right and centre in order to weave a story – but unlike Desert Punk, the end result is lacking punch. Whilst Punk gleefully robbed ideas and presented them with its tongue firmly in its cheek, Solty Rei seems to be proceeding on the assumption that viewers will either not realise all these ideas have been done before, or that they simply won’t mind.

Take the relationship dynamic of our leads, the soon-to-be-named Solty, and Roy, her gruff ward. The ‘big guys adopts frail girl’ is nothing new – and the artwork for this title will probably put many in mind of ADV’s Coyote Ragtime Show. The budding relationship between the innocent and naïve Solty and the harsh Roy is the crux around which all other events take place in this series, and their slow journey to mutual understanding is supposed to provide viewers with a reason to keep returning to the show. It might well work for some, but for many we’re sure that Roy’s bizarre behaviour and cold reactions will make him a fairly unsympathetic character that it is hard to like. As for Solty, she’s equally hard to get to grips with, as at times she resembles a bag of walking anime clichés rather than an actual character. Desperate to please beyond all logic, she fawns simperingly, whilst Roy is equally illogical with his disapproval, and although the pair are supposed to form a weird kind of father / daughter pairing (relying heavily, as is usually the case, on gender stereotypes) that the viewer should be itching to see develop, chances are you’ll be hoping to see Solty shipped off by social services.

Of course, there are no social services in the future – just a glaring division between registered and unregistered citizens, and to a lesser extent, those who have robotic body parts and are known as Resembles, and those who are purely human. Although the catastrophic event which robbed so many of their limbs and lives, the Blast Fall, is alluded to, it is never fully explained on this disc. However, what it does do is provide a handy motivation for Roy to be a gruff, distant sod (he lost his daughter in the event), and for other characters, including Solty, to have otherwise inexplicable powers thanks to the help of Resembles.