Sol Bianca - The Legacy is a remake/addition/retelling
of 2 part OVA released in 1990 by AIC. In 2000 AIC produced a new Sol Bianca which
is reviewed here. Sol Bianca is a 6 part OVA that follows the Captain "April",
crew, and stowaway of the Sol Bianca ship and their adventures and the one underlying
plot following the stowaway "Mayo" wanting to find her parents. The
story of Sol Bianca has some good high points but they are far and few
between and the viewer ends up loosing interest in the series. The animation is
top notch stuff from AIC being digitally animated with some flaws in CG (the ship
entering/in lightspeed). The music is unique which is what kept me in the series,
it has electronic, Latin/Spanish influences, in a big orchestrated melting pot.
Its an underrated anime that had a lot of potentials but missed the mark.
Stupendous computer animation and a 5.1 soundtrack with great
music (on DVD) accentuate this 6-part OVA. Had they made this series into a 13
episode series it may have gotten 5 stars from me. It started off good and could
have used more main storyline episodes instead of the filler episodes like episodes
2 and 3. Although those episodes were good, they really hurt the series in the
long run. The last episode tries to go too many ways and they may have been able
to flesh out a lot had they changed the fillers into main storyline-based episodes
instead. It was also very hard to feel anything for the characters as they were
not really fleshed out. Sol Bianca is too short for it's own good…but
the ride with sound and animation was great while it lasted. Recommended as a
video and sound benchmark.
While Sol Bianca can be engrossing at times, it's primarily
mediocre. The story is poorly paced, and is a letdown in the end. On the art side
of things Sol Bianca uses lots of digital effects, which are a mixed bag.
In the end Sol Bianca was a pretty hollow experience.
(3.3)
