Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

TO Blu-ray Movie Review

O strange new worlds, that have such humans in them!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 29, 2011

Scheherazade kept herself alive by telling the Arabian tales of 1001 Nights, so it’s perhaps only fitting that the space age should have spawned another collection, in this case a manga entitled 2001 Nights. Allusions to the iconic Kubrick film aside, 2001 Nights was an amalgamation of short tales with a number of cross relationships which spanned several hundred years and dealt with mankind’s exploration and colonization of space. Two of the stories have been adapted into this often very exciting OVA by famed producer-director Fumihiko Sori (Vexille, Appleseed). Released under the sort of odd title TO, the OVA presents two different “nights” from 2001, Elliptical Orbit and Symbiotic Planet. Animated with the clean and shiny look that fans of Vexille, Appleseed or even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within might recognize, the project is perhaps hampered by its relative brevity, but it offers some fantastic visuals, interesting characters, and thought provoking storylines that augurs well for the entire aggregation of 2001 stories being animated, should Sori want to proceed with the project.

Elliptical Orbit

Elliptical Orbit is unquestionably the weaker of the two properties animated under the catchall TO title. Though it offers a nice little twist at its closing moment, the bulk of Elliptical Orbit plays out like a sort of space version of Die Hard, with an outpost taken over by terrorists and a few brave souls standing between the villains and life as we know it. This episode is full of a lot of scientific babble, including a major plot point about energy use, but it’s a fairly tame outing that is further hampered by characters about whom there is little to latch on to on care about.

A mysterious spaceship known as The Flying Dutchman arrives at a moon space station and requests permission to dock. They have a shipment of “liquid protons” from a far off planet, a highly concentrated energy source which can power megalopolises for months. Earth itself is in a state of ruin, and evidently Man’s best hope now lies with settlements on the Moon. Unbeknownst (at least for a little while) to the crew of the Dutchman, a brigade of space pirates is secreted in a large crate they’re bringing on board. And so the drama begins.

Part of Elliptical Orbit’s problem is that it is hampered, probably much more than its sibling Symbiotic Planet is, by the brevity of its presentation. We are left to glean a lot about several relationships, including that between the hero, Commander Dan, and a woman you’re led to believe is his assistant, Maria, as well as a lecherous Engineer who has his sights on Maria as well. In fact, Maria seems to be getting around, at least insofar as this “quick and dirty” scenario would have you believe, until the admittedly sweet twist at the end.

But too much of Elliptical Orbit happens too quickly to ever develop any drama or suspense, and in fact the main showdown between the crew of the Dutchman and the terrorists is handled in a bizarrely off the cuff manner where one of the big victories of the crew isn’t even depicted on screen, we’re simply informed about it in some passing dialogue. Elliptical Orbit is a fairly slow slog, albeit with some great visuals, but it does have the saving grace of a very clever denouement which few if any will see coming (and believe me, I’m an “expert” at guessing twists).

Symbiotic Planet

Symbiotic Planet is an exciting little space opera that takes elements of Romeo and Juliet and blends them in a sort of quasi-Alien setting that is both unusual and highly effective. On a distant planet in the Beta Hydri system, two colonies, one “Eurasian” and the other American, are trying to get a foothold, leading of course to conflict and perhaps even an outbreak of hostilities. We have a pair of young lovers, Ion, an American, and Alena, a Eurasian, who are both warned to stay away from each other, Romeo and Juliet style. Two other subplots play out against this star-crossed affair, including an incoming delegation meant to help calm hostilities between the two camps, as well as a scientific exploration of a strange white fungus that has grown over the entire planet and which needs to be eradicated before colonization can really take off.

This episode is much brisker and more involving than Elliptical Orbit, as well as being perhaps even more visually impressive than the first outing. The alien planet is awash in white dust, which turns out to be spores (perhaps dangerous), which waft and float about in some amazing imagery. The planet is also home to giant floating jellyfish like creatures which Ion has perhaps cheekily named Picards (as in Jean-Luc, one assumes). A major plot point occurs when Ion is exposed to the fungus, setting a chain of events into motion which, as in any good Star Trek episode, shows that things like fungi aren’t necessarily mindless organisms.

While the coda to Symbiotic Planet is perhaps a little too touchy-feely for its own good, the rest of the episode plays out with a fair degree of drama and interest. What’s actually interesting about both of these offerings is how anti-Star Trek they are, in terms of showing humans still acting in a fairly primal, warlike manner. Even the interactions between individuals supposedly on the same “side” are often violent and unbridled, giving a slightly violent underpinning to both of these stories.

Both of these episodes could have benefited from a bit more time to fully develop their characters and their storylines. Elliptical Orbit especially suffers from too haphazard a treatment of its themes, especially the one conceit that turns out to be part of the eventual twist at the end. Symbiotic Planet definitely fares much better, though it, too, would have been better with a little bit more time to get to its endgame. Nevertheless, these are both highly enjoyable outings, filled with Sori’s inventive approach toward animation and with a nice, timeless quality that ably evokes their manga source material.

TO Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

TO arrives on Blu-ray with a pristine AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As befits animation done entirely in the digital domain, this is a sharp and crystal clear presentation. Anyone who has seen any of Sori's previous CGI work knows that the director likes a smooth, relatively featureless look with regard to his human characters, and that approach is once again on display here. While each of the characters is very distinct and even distinctive, there's not the same sort of depth of detail that is sometimes on display in Western outings. The backgrounds here are what give TO its real visual edge, especially in Symbiotic Planet, which is filled with a very inventive alien topography. Colors are often gorgeous, if somewhat muted at times, featuring beautiful gradations especially within the gray scale of Symbiotic Planet. While this may be too "smooth" a look for some, it's inviting and unique and it is very well reproduced on this Blu-ray.

TO Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both of the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks included on this Blu-ray are fairly interchangeable, other than one being in the original Japanese and the other in English. Effects, underscore and overall balances are similar if not identical on these two. Both feature excellent voicework. Immersion is not overwhelming, but both episodes feature at least some sequences of excellent surround activity. Elliptical Orbit has a nice outer space gun battle which features some good discrete channel utilization, and there are some nice, if somewhat more subtle, moments featuring some of the planetary landscapes in Symbiotic Planet. Fidelity is excellent throughout both tracks.

TO Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Special Interview with Director Fumihiko Sori, Akio Ohtsuka and Romi Park (1080i; 30:17). Sori talks quite a bit about the style of TO, which he calls 3D live anime, full CG animation with the feeling of cel images. The two lead voice actors discuss their history with Sori, which also includes working with him on the fanstastic Vexille.
• Special Interview with Director Fumihiko Sori, Jun Fukuyama and Aya Hirano (1080i; 30:23). Sori explains what he meant by naming this enterprise TO, wanting to indicate forward momentum. The two voice actors discuss their characters and what it was like to work with the iconic director.
• Elliptical Orbit trailer (SD; 1:10)
• Symbiotic Planet trailer (SD; 1:18)
• Promo Video (Rental) (SD; 2:08)
• Promo Video (Sale) (SD; 2:29)
• TV Spots (SD; 00:49)
• Teaser (SD; 1:32)
• DVD Copy

TO Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Once again Fumihiko Sori proves that he's one of the most innovative and visually ingenious directors currently working in anime. TO would have benefited immensely from another 30 minutes or so of content, just enough to fill in some blanks and develop backstories and character motivations. Otherwise, though, this is a fantastic looking outing that has a number of really intriguing story aspects that should enchant science fiction lovers. Highly recommended.