Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Fafner: Heaven and Earth Blu-ray Movie Review

Some lingering questions are answered, others, not so much.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 31, 2012

Is Fafner a franchise built almost solely upon arcane terminology? Maybe not, but you’d be hard pressed to make a case otherwise if you came uninitiated into either Fafner: Complete Series (the original television anime series) or this later feature film. Both the television show and Fafner: Heaven and Earth are among the talkiest anime ever, and a lot of that talk deals with the sort of techno-babble that is supposed to give a franchise like this some semblance of “scientific” verisimilitude, but which just as often sounds like a bunch of gibberish being spouted by a bunch of talking heads. Adding to this questionable verbosity is the fact that Fafner, as discussed in the review of the television series, culls a lot of its terminology from Der Ring des Nibelungen, as if that instantly gave the enterprise some sort of cultural cachet. Anyone coming to Fafner: Heaven and Earth without a solid foundation in the television show is going to be at least momentarily confused, and maybe even more than that, as this film rushes headlong into furthering some story elements left dangling at the series’ conclusion while never really offering much context or back story for newcomers to find an entrée into the often laboriously tortured dialogue and anachronistic use of terms like Nibelungen, Fafner and Valhalla. The funny thing is, though, Fafner: Heaven and Earth is probably overall a more satisfying experience than the series was. It has a certain emotional depth that the series often lacked, and it also attempts (not always successfully) to make some cogent comments about human nature and the seemingly eternal need for conflict, even when conflict is avoidable. But Fafner: Heaven and Earth also suffers from the pretentiousness that hobbled the series, and even mecha lovers may not find enough in this outing to warrant sitting through the endless “high tech” discussions, even if they have enjoyed the Fafner anime series.

For all of Fafner’s faults, the series had the courage not to play it safe in its closing story arc, casting aside main characters in an almost Lost-esque gleeful frenzy, to the point where some viewers may have been put off by suddenly having some of their supposed main focal points meet their untimely demise. Fafner: Heaven on Earth rather smartly plays upon that very point by anchoring the film around supposedly gone forever Soushi, who is pined after almost romantically by the film’s main character Kazuki. Soushi's rather unexpected connection to the Festum (as the evil attacking aliens are called in this franchise) provided one of the nice twists to the series, and it's something that Fafner: Heaven and Earth utilizes to good effect, especially as Kazuki believes that Soushi may be "out there" somewhere, attempting to return. Meanwhile, the apparent peace (or at least lack of war) that has been enjoyed by the island paradise that is Fafner’s setting is soon set asunder as the film opens, only this time the Festum may have evolved and genetically altered themselves to allow them to better penetrate the island’s battery of defenses.

The Kazuki – Soushi bromance is thrown for a loop when an odd craft shows up carrying a young boy in a weird red gel like substance, a young boy Kazuki initially mistakes for Soushi. When this stranger (ultimately identified as Kurusu) awakens, he seems to have some sort of telepathic ability to contact the Festum, telling them to back off for a while, which of course raises the suspicions not only of Kazuki, but of the ruling elite on the island as well. What plays out turns out to be a situation where, kind of like Soushi in the Fafner series, people aren’t exactly what you might think they are, and motivations are often shaded with a nuance not always a regular feature of mecha anime.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth is at times a frustrating experience. The film often feels like a bunch of set pieces— all battle based, of course—strung together with both effective elements (Kazuki’s quest to figure out what happened to Soushi, and his developing relationship with the strange boy) and just flat out interminable sequences where the supposed scientific talk goes on and on (and on). The film would have been a much better outing had it jettisoned a lot of this techno-babble, most of which is incomprehensible anyway, and simply focused on the human element, which is where ironically enough Fafner: Heaven and Earth really finds its authentic voice and has something decent to say.

The film, like the series, attempts to spread the story around at least partially to other supporting characters, but here the film finds less consistent success if only because the main Kazuki story arc is by far the most interesting and emotionally satisfying one. The film wisely turns to Kazuki for its denouement, and as silly as it may sound, there’s a certain profoundly real feeling to the climax of the film, when at least some of Kazuki’s questioning finds some answers. Getting to that point, though, is often a pretty laborious affair, and my hunch is that even longtime Fafner fans may ultimately feel it wasn’t worth the time and trouble.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fafner: Heaven and Earth is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This high definition presentation is at times as frustrating as the story itself. As fans of Fafner know, the series combines both CGI (especially with regard to the Festum and the Fafner units) with more traditional hand drawn cel animation. A lot of the CGI looks very good indeed, but at other times it's really weirdly soft (take a look at some of the screenshots of the Festum for some good examples). This same inconsistency carries over to the hand drawn elements, where at times line detail is very strong, colors are vivid and the image is nicely sharp. At other times, though, things look distressingly soft and ill defined. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for this, and is perhaps simply due to the choices made by the animating team, but it gives Fafner: Heaven and Earth a weirdly imbalanced feeling that is hard to get used to.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's absolutely no ambiguity about Fafner: Heaven and Earth's two Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, one in the original Japanese and the other an English dub. These are both highly effective mixes featuring expert voice work (see the Supplements section below for some information on the dub cast) and some extremely well done immersion, especially in the battle scenes. Huge clashing sound effects spill through the surrounds in many of these sequences, with some good old fashioned floorboard rattling LFE regularly in evidence. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented and both mixes are very well prioritized.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• U.S. Commentary features Joel McDonald, who identifies himself as the director, by which I assume he means ADR Director (though he's also the voice of Kurusu), along with Micah Solusod (Kazuki). This is a typically chatty FUNimation commentary, though there's some interesting information imparted as well, including McDonald's attempts to "voice match" this outing with the previous Fafner television series' English dub cast (some of whom he evidently couldn't track down, necessitating replacements). There are a lot of anecdotes related about various FUNimation regulars during this commentary which fans of this label may find amusing.


• Commercial Collection (HD; 1:05)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:59)

Fafner: Heaven and Earth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm seriously conflicted about Fafner: Heaven and Earth for the simple reason that on a fundamental level this feature film is better crafted and certainly more compelling than the original series, which often seemed like a none too successful knockoff of other, better mecha franchises (even if Fafner predated at least some of them). But there is simply so much useless verbiage in this film that it's hard to be very enthusiastic about it. The best element here is no doubt the Kazuki – Kurusu – Soushi storyline, which actually manages to work up some unexpected emotional heft by the film's climax and denouement. But a lot of the other supporting stories are left sadly underdeveloped and when every few minutes we get scientists launching into another round of "tech-speak", it can almost make someone wish the Festum would attack, if only to put everyone out of their misery. Rabid Fafner fans will probably want to check this out, if only to find out about Soushi, but others may want to explore other mecha franchises first.