This one is a little strange, with mecha as it’s genre one would probably expect lots of explosions and fighting. However, there were surprisingly little of both instead a lot of developments and talking, perhaps this is the result of a prequel made after the main series. I have yet to see the original since I thought starting from the beginning was a good idea. Despite the lack of action this 55 minutes TV special isn’t all that bad.

The story itself isn’t jaw dropping, a bunch of kids pilot these machine called Fafner on a decoy base in order for their home island not to be discovered, but the developments were good enough and pretty well done, especially in a time span of 55 minutes. The animation itself was clear and crisp, the execution was too, well done; Xebec really deserves a bit of credit here. Although there wasn’t much action, the ones that were present was pleasant to the eye. So in terms of quality for a TV-special, it’s definitely top notch. Characters seems to be done by Hirai Hisashi, which compared to Heroic Age, also animated by Xebec, is superior in terms of quality and the art.

About the actual story itself, there were quite a lot to take in, may be it’s because I haven’t seen the original but some times it got a little confusing. The title actually refers to the plan, which is explained through out the episode, so no need to think too deep into it. The ending (without spoiling too much) was a bit of a mix really, of course it was tragic that Ryou and Yumi didn’t make it but Soushi did sort of see it in an optimistic way. I think this made a pretty solid setting for the series, which is suppose to be a sequel to this.

Perhaps I will need to re-watch this when I’ve finished the TV series but even without seeing it I can say this TV special isn’t that bad, sure it may put some people to sleep but I liked it. More action would have been nice, but I guess it’s hard when you have all this story and developments to fit in when you only have 55 minutes.