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Soul Link – Anime First Impressions

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The most notable thing about Soul Link is that it’s based off of a game made by the same company that created Shuffle! Does this single fact make Soul Link worthy of having its own anime? Should we really be expecting Shuffle! in space?

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The most notable thing about Soul Link is that it’s based off of a game made by the same company that created Shuffle! Does this single fact make Soul Link worthy of having its own anime? Should we really be expecting Shuffle! in space?

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Judging from the first episode, Soul Link seems to have nothing in common with Shuffle!, other than an OP that sounds nearly identical to the other anime’s OP. The singer for the OP also sang the ED for Shuffle! anime.

Soul Link is pretty much another generic “high school kids in space” anime as far as I’m concerned. In the first episode we’re introduced to the many characters that will reside on the space station Aries. There’s the aforementioned school kids, the busty possible terrorist, the busty megane teacher, the Jet clone, and his hooker companion. It’s a motley crew, but the character designs all look pretty dull. Oh, I almost forgot: there’s also a space butler! This one is not nearly as cool as Excel Saga’s though…

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Plot-wise, there seems to be some kind of conspiracy going on with the busty terrorist and the two military police type people. It could turn out to be interesting; We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Once they’re on the space station, the cadets start training in space. I’m not actually certain what they’re training to do, though. Are they space police? Marines? Their tasks include virtual target practice, picking up boxes with cranes, hacking (which involves very fast typing, apparently), and covering their panties in zero-g.

And now, for a list of Soul Link anime pros and cons:

Pros:

  • Fun Engrish (“Welcome to the space!”)
  • Space Butler!

Cons:

  • Lame Animation
  • Worst eyecatch music ever!
  • Inappropriate CG! (my mortal enemy)

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Like I said earlier, the OP for Soul Link sounds pretty similar to the OP for Shuffle! I’m not talking notes here, but the composition is pretty much a carbon copy. The ED is fairly bad as well. I find the distortion guitars highly inappropriate.

Download the OP “screaming” by Miyuki Hashimoto
Download the ED “dust trail” by Miyuki Hashimoto

Maybe I was setting my expectations too high for this anime by comparing it to Shuffle! What we have in Soul Link is a pretty good example of a generic kids in space anime. I’ll probably be putting this one on the backburner, unless the next episode turns out much, much better.

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4 replies on “Soul Link – Anime First Impressions”

Being entirely fair, Shuffle! took a while (8-12 episodes) to actually pick up plot-wise. Of course, Soul Link is only going to run for 12 or 13 episodes so I’m allowing a 4-5 episode grace period (I’m being very, very lenient). This, of course, may change seeing as I dislike the character designs, hate the voice acting and the badly integrated CG…oh well, I’ll probably watch the entire thing in the end…lol

In all fairness, it is hard for me to judge a storyline after just the first episode (try doing that with Kiminozo and you’ll be dead wrong), but that’s why they’re my first impressions.

And yeah, I don’t like the designs or the CG either. Pretty much the only thing this show has going for it is Space Butler!

I think what really hurts this show… is that Ryota is a pretty boring character (and I don’t think that’ll improve much). Originally in the game, Shuhei is the main character, with Ryota having a short part in the spotlight… and Shuhei’s the much more interesting male lead. Hopefully, focus will shift to him starting next episode, otherwise I think this show is probably doomed…

I personally think Soul Link is a great anime. The animation is so bad compared to shows like avatar or Inyuasha, that’s my opinion and plan to stick to it. The plot is good, a real sci-fi anime, I’ve never seen that before. Some of the characters could be better done but some are really strong. Though I must agree the ending really sucked for the show. All in all I think its an awesome anime.

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