Fafner Exodus - anime review

Every season, it seems an anime show passes by that grabs your attention even though you didn`t hear of it before.  Past winter quarter, that was Fafner Exodus, or as it is fully called *holds breath* Fafner in the Azure Dead Agressor - Exodus.

A mecha anime, this series puts humanity up against an alien race called Festum`s.

The first series consisted of 13 episodes, and focusses on how `D-Island` is discovered by the Human army.  This island, which contains some of the most advanced Fafner`s in existence, has chosen voluntary isolation to hide from both the Fetsum`s as well as the world`s problems.

Their discovery leads to it becoming under attack from a Festum called `the Walker`, and while a prat of the island`s expert troops set out to discover and reconnect with the known world, the others keep defending the sanctuary of peace and hope, even at high costs on the pilots bodies and minds.

When the expedition force gets in trouble, the two top ace pilots are send out to lend a hand, and soon it is shown they are far above the level of other pilots, taking down one of the large Azazel type Festums and saving a city and it`s controlling entity called a `Mir`.

The series comes from the hands of people that have also worked on Gundam SEED Destiny, with the titular character Kazuki looking exactly like Athrun Zala, while look a likes of Ray LeCreuzet and Kira Yamato are also present.  The Fafner`s though are far away from the Gundams in style, being hybrids of a sort of special `assimilation crystal` and mecha`s.

When the pilots though start `believing` in themselves and their machines, the power levels increase exponentially and the Core of D-Island reveals it is all an harmonic of willpower and the Fafner... and they might be just in time to be prepared for the arrival of an entity called `the Altair` from outer space.

A welcome surpise, I will hapily wait out for the series to continue, and in the meantime can keep enjoying the very strong opening track, Shangri-la performed by Angela (the same artist that did Sidonia no Kishi`s epic opening last year).