I've got to say, what I've seen of Fumoffu was a bit plot-light, and even the first series had its duller moments, but at thirteen episodes TSR packs so much in! Expect to see more action, faster AS battles, scarier bad guys (seriously... Gates has *issues*).
Unfortunately for fans of Fumoffu, neither Hayashimizu nor Ren Mikihara have speaking parts in this series, although Ren can be seen briefly in one scene. Much of the story takes place aboard TDD-1, and that means more Kurz and Mao, and even a little background on Tessa's family!
The animation is wicked smooth with clean, sharp lines and plenty of background detail. Voice actors for this series are excellent (my personal favourite being Miki Shinchiro, who plays Kurz =^_^=) and towards the end of the series it's hard to believe that the anguish played out by Souske is line drawings and a voice actor in a studio. Completely convincing- good job that man. According to native speakers of Chinese, the voice actors in this series sound a little stiff, and the same is presumably true for Italians, but for the rest of us the diversity of this series is great. (I personally have issues with Mao's pronunciation of the words 'Rock and Roll'... probably not the best choice of words for a Japanese voice actress). ~_~'
Anyway, wicked plot, great pacing, good character expo, awesome character development, particularly for Souske. Spectacular animation. The background music won't survive more that one or two listens out of context, but the energetic and heartfelt 'Minamikaze' (South Wind) of the title theme is excellent, and the slower closing theme has plenty of fans. Look forward to this!
*~Pips~*
