Solty Rei

Three pasts, two hearts, one end.

It's been 12 years since a mysterious even known as "Blast Fall" took numerous victims and left many more injured. The survivors are now equipped with "Resemble," mechanistic parts that provide superior performance -- arms, legs, human organs, whatever was damaged during the incident. This is where we find Roy Revant, a bounty hunter with a broken past. During a fight, he meets a "Resemble" that is 100% machine! After some altercations, Roy becomes "guardian" of Solty.

Solty Rei delivers entertainment, but is somewhat lacking that enticement we normally encounter in Gonzo works (or maybe I was just spoiled after Speed Grapher). The soundtrack is mediocre, but some pieces are rightly befitting. The animation is beautiful as 3D CG visuals and background gracefully intertwine with the non-CG animation.

At the beginning, the whole bounty hunter aspect reminded me of Cowboy Bebop, but that thought was wiped away almost immediately. The series has its moments, but the overall plot is not concrete. If anything, character development got me hooked. Roy, a cold and distant, multi-layered being, is matched up with an optimistic and innocent girl. The 2 extremes of the Roy and Solty relationship and the changes they both make balances any of the otherwise "less perfect" elements. Roy makes my list of favorite characters possibly because he reminds me of me in some ways -- this could be true for Solty as well (as with several other anime characters). But all in all, I wouldn't pass up this series. There's enough originality and flavor to make Solty Rei very entertaining.