Trava Fist Planet

And so in order to jolt some life back into this corpse of a blog once again I find myself sitting here (well lying here actually to be honest) attempting to get those dormant creative juices flowing once more in order to write a review of the 2003 OAV by Takeshi Koike, creator of Redline which is generating a huge buzz in the “blogosphere” (I feel dirty) at the moment and the “World Record” section of the Animatrix.

As I have said Trava Fist Planet is a 2003 1 episode OAV which was originally released with the Grasshoppa! Magazine in Japan, a DVD magazine that only ever lasted 4 volumes, and it tells the story of our titular main character Trava, a weird kinda furry dog/elf looking humanoid who also just happens to be an ace ex-military mech pilot and his mechanic friend Shinkai which, well, the best description I can come up for him is some sort of alien/duck/god knows what creature. Well the pair end up stumbling across Mikuru a bodacious amnesiac who they recover from a rescue pod which is apparently from “the last generation’s war” on their way to complete the “marking” of the mysterious planet Fable. Mikuru sticks around with them and it is revealed that they are doing this marking to get some cash together to enter the Fist Planet Tournament the mech fighting competition from which the show gets it’s name, though it only really plays a small part in the story.

So I’m not going to spoil any more of what little plot Trava Fist Planet has because in truth that’s not really the reason you’re coming to it. However that isn’t really to say that the plot is bad but rather that its potential isn’t realised. The show was originally released with a preview of a second episode which was never to be and that really is the most disappointing thing about Trava Fist Planet. However, that isn’t to say that you don’t feel satisfied after watching it, you thankfully aren’t left with a cliffhanger, but rather that you’re just left with a slight bitter taste in your mouth with the knowledge that a second episode or further episodes will probably never happen with the current anime industry.

It is such a stylistic departure from what people would typically recognise as anime that some could be put off from it. However it is so wonderfully fluid and hyperactive it is a pleasure to watch, without a doubt it set the foundations for the future Redline. The main reason some might be put off this show is the character designs, as you probably noticed I struggled to describe Trava and Shinkai, whilst this is in part to do with my lack of descriptive ability it is mostly to do with the fact that the difference between them and the typical Shonen Jump standard is so vast, even Mikuru probably the most “normal” human looking of the group still has MEGAHIPS and a huge scar across her face. To tell the truth though, if you are put off this show based on the character designs alone, well, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.

This show really succeeds in creating an interesting and full world for our characters to inhabit in the limited time that we visit it. That isn’t to say though that information is dumped on you, rather that things are mentioned in passing such as “the last generation’s war”. However it feels that Koike is setting up for a continuation of the story which never ended up happening so it is a bit of a double-edged sword in that way. But hey, we can hope that if Redline ends up being a success, which the internet hype machine would lead you to believe it will, Koike ends up being given the money and freedom to finish what he started.

The thing is that unfortunately Trava Fist Planet is hard enough to get your hands on, it was never licensed in either the States or the UK and there aren’t that many fansubs about for it. It really is worth hunting down though, and I would say that the best way to support it would be to pick up Redline when it’s released early next year, but really what more motivation do you need to pick it up by this point? So go now and watch Trava Fist Planet, because truth be told you’re most likely going to love it!