Soko no Strain
Encyclopedia
is a mecha
anime
series by Studio Fantasia
. It premiered across Japan on WOWOW
from November 1, 2006. A manga adaptation is being serialized in the Dragon Age magazine. The concept of the series is loosely based upon Frances Hodgson Burnett
's novels, most notably A Little Princess
, but also Little Lord Fauntleroy
and The Secret Garden
. On May 15, 2008, Texas
-based licensor FUNimation Entertainment
announced its licensing of Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry (also known as Soko no Strain or Soukou no Strain). The anime was available in a complete DVD release on January 27, 2009 across North America.
Sara Werec, an orphan
, is the focus of the story. In Episode 1, she despairs that her older brother Ralph, an incredible Reasoner, will be going 130 lightyears away to the front lines, and, according to general relativity
, even if he does survive, she'll be long dead when he returns home. She decides that when she grows up, she will join the war as well, just to see her brother again.
Sara grows up to be the star Reasoner of her Academy. One day, the Academy's planet is suddenly attacked by the Deague. The enemy force is headed by a powerful Strain, whom Sara attempts to engage. The pilot takes out Sara, destroying her Strain and Mimic; obliterates the Academy; and kills all of her friends. Sara escapes from her Strain alive and follows the enemy pilot into a forgotten lab near the Academy. The pilot retrieves a little girl in stasis, and Sara recognizes the pilot as Ralph. She calls out to him, but he barely seems to recognize his sister as he returns to his Strain and leaves. She then resolves to find out the truth of what caused her brother's betrayal.
Stripped of her ability to control a Strain, she devotes herself to training under the pseudonym "Sara Cruz". She seems to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder throughout most of the series from this point on. She becomes very quiet, allows people to bully her, and seems very uncomfortable with people. She is repeatedly haunted by memories of her brother, and of her dead friends. Part of her antisocial behavior also seems to be a fear of connecting with anyone, then losing them like in Episode 1.
At first, Sara is rejected by the other pilots. Because she no longer has a Mimic, she cannot pilot a Strain, so she is forced to join the Gambee unit. Because of her [antisocial behavior]], obsessive training, and talent that seems to come from nowhere, she is disliked and bullied by the other Gambee pilots. Everyone seems attracted to her both for the mystery of who she is and for their jealousy towards her.
Eventually, Sara is taken under the wing of a very talented and headstrong Reasoner named Lottie, despite the fact that Sara is not (or, to be more precise, no longer) a Reasoner. Being rejected and not quite feeling like she fits in with anyone, she spends much of her time in a storeroom filled with junk. It is in here that she finds a doll that she calls Emily. This doll, being human-like, seems to be a safe thing for her to connect with and she spends a lot of time talking to it and taking care of it (which, in turn makes her even stranger and more disliked by her crewmates).
In the same storeroom, Sara later meets Melchi and Carmichael, who are rebuilding a ruined Strain called Ram-Dass. Sara discovers that Melchi found a Mimic and created the Emily doll around it. When the two are ready to test the Strain, they use Emily as the Mimic and Sara as the pilot. Somehow, she is able to connect with the Strain despite the fact that is isn't "her" Mimic. Despite some initial resistance from command, she is allowed to be a Strain pilot for the army. This causes even more resentment from the other Gambee pilots, since being a Strain pilot is seen as more prestigious and it feels to them as though she cheated to get it; and also because her abilities piloting a Strain could have saved lives.
In later episodes, it is discovered that the little girl whom Ralph had taken is named Emily as well. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that this Emily is a member of an alien race that lived 600 years ago. Due to the effect of sub-lightspeed travel, Ralph was able to actually witness the race when it was alive. The race consisted of pale-skinned identical girls, all of whom had a sort of telepathic connection to one another. When this race was discovered, all the girls were kidnapped and most were dissected to study their telepathic connection. Some, like Ralph's Emily, were put into stasis and were long-forgotten. The Deague are after all dead and living samples of the Emilys. It is for this reason that Ralph later chases Sara's crew and ship, because the Emily Mimic that Sara found, contains the mind of one of the Emily's and is detected by Ralph's Emily.
The manga
serialized in Dragon Age Magazine focuses on Lottie's background, stopping once Sara joins the team.
.
Ending
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series by Studio Fantasia
Studio Fantasia
is a Japanese animation studio. It was founded on October 12, 1983 by Tomohisa Iizuka, then an employee of Tsuchida Production, 3 years before that company went bankrupt.Its headquarters are situated in Nerima, Tokyo.- OVA :...
. It premiered across Japan on WOWOW
WOWOW
WOWOW was the first private satellite broadcasting and pay TV station in Japan. It has its headquarters on the 21st floor of the Akasaka Park Building in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo...
from November 1, 2006. A manga adaptation is being serialized in the Dragon Age magazine. The concept of the series is loosely based upon Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
's novels, most notably A Little Princess
A Little Princess
A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's Boarding School, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.According to Burnett, she...
, but also Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886...
and The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial format starting in the autumn of 1910, and was first published in its entirety in 1911. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is considered to be a classic of English children's...
. On May 15, 2008, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-based licensor FUNimation Entertainment
FUNimation Entertainment
Funimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...
announced its licensing of Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry (also known as Soko no Strain or Soukou no Strain). The anime was available in a complete DVD release on January 27, 2009 across North America.
Plot
In the distant future, the Galactic Union is at war with the mysterious Deague. The Union's strongest force is made up of mecha called Strains, short for Strategic Armored Infantry, operated by users called Reasoners. These Strains, as well as many other ships, are capable of going into "sub-lightspeed travel". To be a Reasoner, one must have a Mimic, a machine fused with the brain cells from the Reasoner before birth.Sara Werec, an orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
, is the focus of the story. In Episode 1, she despairs that her older brother Ralph, an incredible Reasoner, will be going 130 lightyears away to the front lines, and, according to general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
, even if he does survive, she'll be long dead when he returns home. She decides that when she grows up, she will join the war as well, just to see her brother again.
Sara grows up to be the star Reasoner of her Academy. One day, the Academy's planet is suddenly attacked by the Deague. The enemy force is headed by a powerful Strain, whom Sara attempts to engage. The pilot takes out Sara, destroying her Strain and Mimic; obliterates the Academy; and kills all of her friends. Sara escapes from her Strain alive and follows the enemy pilot into a forgotten lab near the Academy. The pilot retrieves a little girl in stasis, and Sara recognizes the pilot as Ralph. She calls out to him, but he barely seems to recognize his sister as he returns to his Strain and leaves. She then resolves to find out the truth of what caused her brother's betrayal.
Stripped of her ability to control a Strain, she devotes herself to training under the pseudonym "Sara Cruz". She seems to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder throughout most of the series from this point on. She becomes very quiet, allows people to bully her, and seems very uncomfortable with people. She is repeatedly haunted by memories of her brother, and of her dead friends. Part of her antisocial behavior also seems to be a fear of connecting with anyone, then losing them like in Episode 1.
At first, Sara is rejected by the other pilots. Because she no longer has a Mimic, she cannot pilot a Strain, so she is forced to join the Gambee unit. Because of her [antisocial behavior]], obsessive training, and talent that seems to come from nowhere, she is disliked and bullied by the other Gambee pilots. Everyone seems attracted to her both for the mystery of who she is and for their jealousy towards her.
Eventually, Sara is taken under the wing of a very talented and headstrong Reasoner named Lottie, despite the fact that Sara is not (or, to be more precise, no longer) a Reasoner. Being rejected and not quite feeling like she fits in with anyone, she spends much of her time in a storeroom filled with junk. It is in here that she finds a doll that she calls Emily. This doll, being human-like, seems to be a safe thing for her to connect with and she spends a lot of time talking to it and taking care of it (which, in turn makes her even stranger and more disliked by her crewmates).
In the same storeroom, Sara later meets Melchi and Carmichael, who are rebuilding a ruined Strain called Ram-Dass. Sara discovers that Melchi found a Mimic and created the Emily doll around it. When the two are ready to test the Strain, they use Emily as the Mimic and Sara as the pilot. Somehow, she is able to connect with the Strain despite the fact that is isn't "her" Mimic. Despite some initial resistance from command, she is allowed to be a Strain pilot for the army. This causes even more resentment from the other Gambee pilots, since being a Strain pilot is seen as more prestigious and it feels to them as though she cheated to get it; and also because her abilities piloting a Strain could have saved lives.
In later episodes, it is discovered that the little girl whom Ralph had taken is named Emily as well. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that this Emily is a member of an alien race that lived 600 years ago. Due to the effect of sub-lightspeed travel, Ralph was able to actually witness the race when it was alive. The race consisted of pale-skinned identical girls, all of whom had a sort of telepathic connection to one another. When this race was discovered, all the girls were kidnapped and most were dissected to study their telepathic connection. Some, like Ralph's Emily, were put into stasis and were long-forgotten. The Deague are after all dead and living samples of the Emilys. It is for this reason that Ralph later chases Sara's crew and ship, because the Emily Mimic that Sara found, contains the mind of one of the Emily's and is detected by Ralph's Emily.
The manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
serialized in Dragon Age Magazine focuses on Lottie's background, stopping once Sara joins the team.
Characters
Almost every character has been adapted from a Hodgson Burnett character. Though the first names of many characters are retained from A Little Princess and the other novels, the last names are scrambled, such as Crewe=Werec, or otherwise altered, such as St. John=Johannitz.- She begins a happy, well-liked and bright girl, the star graduate student of the elite Grabera Spatial Armoured Infantry Research Institute. Her parents, James and Annie Werec, are dead and she clings to the notion of seeing her beloved brother again. However, when her friends, her teachers and her Mimic are destroyed by none other than Ralph himself, she becomes a brooding, blunt, taciturn girl reduced to piloting unremarkable Gambee units.
- She appears to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorderPost-traumatic stress disorderPosttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
. Despite her defeat and disgrace instigated by her traitorous brother (which she escapes by cutting her hair, renaming herself Sara Cruz and transferring to another academy) and the bullying she endures from the bitter and confused Gambee pilots, Sara is completely focused on learning the truth. Her most precious possession is a musical pendant given to her by Ralph, until it is stolen (presumably by the jealous Isabella) in episode 2, after which she finds her Emily. Soon afterwards, Sara discovers that, against all expectations, Emily allows her to pilot a Strain again and she takes control of the Ink Strain Ram-Dass. She considers Emily to be her last hope to find out the truth and hopes that Ralph will revert to the kind and loving brother he once was.
- Sara's name comes from the novel's Sara Crewe.
- Ralph was a dutiful soldier, the star student of Grabera Academy and the youngest person ever to pilot a Gloire Strain. Sara last saw him promising on his parents' grave not to let the family down. Six years later, he reappears in disguise with a scar on his face, having done just that and joined the Deague. He even coldly destroys Sara's home, friends and Mimic. Sara is driven by the mystery of why he has done so, and promises to face him again. Ralph's true motivation is partially out of compassion and partially from insanity.
- Ralph Crewe in the novel was Sara's father, who died and his fortune disappeared; this led to Sara Crewe's ruin, as this Ralph's defection did to Sara Werec.
Episode list
The gaps in the air dates are attributed to two two-week hiatuses for a tennis tournament in late December–January, and the early premiere of Rocket GirlsRocket Girls
is a light novel written by Hōsuke Nojiri. Set in the Solomon Islands, it follows the exploits of high-school girl Yukari Morita, who is pressed into service as an astronaut by the Solomon Space Association when it is unable to build a rocket that can lift the weight of an adult male.Rocket Girls...
.
| Episode # | Title | Air Date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Theme songs
Opening- "Message" performed by YokoYoko Uenois a Japanese recording artist. She has performed in the bands, Oranges & Lemons, Vita Nova, Marsh-Mallow, and Zabadak. She is also a notable musical composer, having written music for several anime series, most prominent being .hack//Legend of the Twilight, Azumanga Daioh , and Brigadoon...
Ending
- "Umi no Opal" performed by Sema (episodes 1-8, 10-13)
- "Aurora ~a ray of dawn~" performed by Yoko (episode 9)