Thoughts on Gall Force

[severanced]

Hi everyone,

I found this site from the Gall Force wikipedia entry, which I sort of babysit and add to. I'm a big deal Gall Force fan as detailed in a review I did of it here. And I was really impressed with what you guys have put together. It seems you guys have a ton of stuff already connected with Gall Force, but I'd really like to help however I can. I've got original resin kits, soundtracks, drama cds, and artbooks galore on the series, all of which I tried to put together in my own Gall Force site (which has mysteriously disappeared off of Brinkster).

Do you guys have a list of things that you'd like to complete the Gall Force section?

[Tachyon]

Hello, severanced. It's always nice to talk to another Gall Force fan.

Thanks for watching over the Gall Force Wikipedia entry. I used some old books I bought in Tokyo to work on the Gall Force pages here. I see the Gall Force pages I've put together as being incomplete. I don't have a list of what's lacking but I'd appreciate you looking over the pages and recommending what we could add.

Thanks!

EDIT
Do you have the Gall Force 2 and 3 soundtracks? I've never been able to find them anywhere.

[severanced]

Well after looking through some of the Gall Force pages, it seems that it could use some of the original picture comics that inspired the show. Unfortunately the only one I have is the one used in Gall Force Starfront (which was done in English by the way!). I'm really trying to find issues of Model Grafix from 1985-86 for some of those originals. Also, maybe a section on the resin kits since that's what the show was sort of based on (I'm not sure if you have any, I have several from the original run and some soft vinyls from around the same time).

I also happen to have the old Gall Force LP which has an excellent cover which may have been used in the artbooks (it was the one of Rabby and Lufy) rocking out with the rest of the team as band members in the background.

I'm sure there's more I could think of. I was thinking of putting together my own Gall Force fan site, since I actually own www.gallforce.com but I can't seem to get the thing off the ground .

Also, as for the Gall Force 2 and 3 sound tracks. I'm almost positive they never made any since the only difference, largely, was in the ending song while all the rest were the same BGMs used in the previous movie, and those BGSs are available in one gigantically long track on the LP which has all of them together.

I do have those songs from the original series if anyone's interested.

As a side note: I also happen to have some more obscure Gall Force books, some of which have manga in them about the girls. One in particular has a side story on Lufy. I'm pretty sure it's set before the OAV series and details her life in the military and her girlfriend in hospital (well, duh, they are all lesbians).

[Tachyon]

severanced, your suggestions are great. I look forward to any text or material you'd like to submit. You've got some rare Gall Force books. I'm a little jealous. Here's how to contact me:

CONTACT INFO:
http://www.gearsonline.net/contact/
(just look for Tachyon)

PERSONAL INFO:
http://www.gearsonline.net/aboutgears/author/

I have the soundtrack CD for Eternal Story. I'll stop looking for Destruction and Stardust War soundtracks.

You own www.gallforce.com ? That is so cool! Don't let that go to waste! If you need any help just ask.

I listened to your podcast. Great show! It's great that you presented Gall Force again to anime fans out there. I should write a post this week with my own thoughts on Gall Force.

[Daishikaze]

(well, duh, they are all lesbians).

I have to say, I don't think they were. The scene after the dream sequence makes me think that they know nothing about such things. If they were all lesbians, wouldn't they know something about love and how it feels to be in love? They had no clue what it was they were feeling after that dream, and it made Rabby think that maybe it was a psychological attack from the enemy.

I think their relationship was more about comraderie and friendship, rather than anything sexual. That vibe just isn't there IMO.

[severanced]

(well, duh, they are all lesbians).

I have to say, I don't think they were. The scene after the dream sequence makes me think that they know nothing about such things.

Nah, you're right there, Rumy did say that she felt a feeling in her heart she'd never felt before, so it's very likely that they don't have any feelings of love. Which makes the manga side story sort of interesting because Lufy does visit a girl in the hospital which, I believe, she's in love with as they kiss (well, Lufy kisses her at least). Maybe I can get that translated some day and figure it out.

[Daishikaze]

Is that manga canon? it could just be wishful thinking on the author's part.

[Tachyon]

This discussion touches on some ideas in the Gall Force anime that I thought were very interesting. I don't know about the manga side story so I can't discuss that. Sometimes manga side stories go off in their own direction and ignore aspects of the original show (and sometimes the writer forgets some details).

I watched Gall Force recently subtitled. In one scene of Eternal Story the characters speak of the Paranoid parasite in Patty attaching to (or getting near) her "vestigial organs." Add to that a scene in Stardust War where Catty Nebulart is briefly explaining Paranoid biology to Shildy and her cohorts. She talks about how Solnoids reproduce and it shows a visual of a Solnoid cloning chamber. Solnoids have been cloning for so long that most (or all) of them think that a woman's womb is a vestigial organ - a useless leftover from evolution. Sexual reproduction has fallen out of their common knowledge. Scientific knowledge not related to warfare has been swept so far aside since losing their homeworld that they're losing touch with a lot of things. The military subculture has replaced standard culture. Not completely, since we see Raby looking at magazines in Eternal Story - but mostly!

After watching the anime (I'm talking about the first story arc) it seems like sex has become unknown to the Solnoids. I could be wrong. Maybe the writers just didn't want to deal with it. But after the 2 scenes I mentioned above and the waking from the dream sequence in Eternal Story (before landing on Chaos) I think my argument has some merit. But it isn't totally lost because Rumy adjusts to it with her new friend on Earth after Chaos is razed.

So what happened? How did the Solnoids drift so far from things that we consider as basic and natural as breathing? So many details of the Gall Force universe weren't dealt with in the anime. The history of the conflict, Solnoid origins, etc. Gall Force is just begging for good fan fiction to fill in the gaps. In my opinion, a story could pick up where Stardust War left off. Is it necessary to assume that everyone died in the final conflict? Battles rarely kill everyone on both sides (especially considering how far apart ships can be in space). Plus, you could say that groups of Solnoid and Paranoid weren't able to make it to the final battle.

[severanced]

I think a lot of details of the world of Gall Force were addressed in things like the photo mangas and the different material that came out at the time. Probably a lot of it is addressed in the Gall Force Star Front book I've got too. For example, somewhere out there it says that all the men were wiped out in previous wars. I've not found any official location that said this but a review in Animerica some years ago stated this so it probably exists somewhere.

I guess once Rumy and The Boy were left alone on the planet, nature sort of took over and they ended up with children. I mean, when you think about it, when The Boy first appeared, Rabby thought that they were trying to brainwash them with the child. Makes you wonder how much of their society had been twisted to believe those feelings to be evil.

BTW: I wondered about that magazine that Rabby was reading in the ship in the beginning. The cover of it looks like some sort of hard core fighting book as it has, I think, a fist with spiked bracelets on it, hmmm.

[severanced]

Is that manga canon? it could just be wishful thinking on the author's part.

There's certainly a case for that. The manga was done by Kenichi Sonoda, who did the original character designs. I do believe that he he had something to do with the anime, and that characters like Lufy are sort of his creation. Sonoda does like lesbians and has worked them into his other works like Gunsmith Cats (one of the side characters was a lesbian and had something for Rally), and he had complete creative control over Riding Bean and one of the women in that were lesbians, so that's definitely a possibility.

[Daishikaze]

Ah, but Gall Force was created and written by Hideki Kakinuma, so anything Sonoda writes is his own spin on things IMO.

[Quanto]

Hey guys, I'm an old hardcore Gall Force fan and I noticed the beautiful Gall Force section on this website and thought I'd drop in and say hi.
I used to run the Gall Force site, "Destination Terra" which was around for about two years between 2001 and 2003. I had talked to a few people in the Gall Force fan circle like Fred Harriot and David Diddlemeyer through email, but we were never able to truly discuss our feelings in detail about the series. I've been a fan of Gall Force since about 1998.
Just yesterday I ran a quick Gall Force search to see if any new sites cropped up and lo and behold this one poked out like a beacon. I have to tell you Tachyon, this is one of the single best Gall Force infosite/fansites I've ever come across, the information and detailed sketches you've got here are simply awesome.

A few posts ago, Tachyon mentioned that Gall Force needs some Fan Fictions. Well, it just so happens that Fred Herriot had written one back in 1997 called "Gall Force: The Day After" that was very excellently written and in my personal opinion answers a lot of questions and can nearly pass for Canon material. http://orangeroad.org/MISC/gftda.html
Another very good one that touches on another possible survival scenario is the story, "Gall Force: The Hills of Time" which is a Gall Force/Star Trek crossover, even if you aren't a fan of Star Trek, I think you should check it out as it is also very skilfully written (probably moreso than The Day After.) http://orangeroad.org/MISC/gfthot.html
There was also one written by someone who had crossed over Gall Force and Bubblegum Crisis, a very entertaining read. If you can find it.
I actually wrote one myself but I abandoned it after I began writing an original novel full time.
Fortunately I just finished writing that book and I plan on getting back into fan fiction writing.

Also, Daishikaze, while you definately make a lot of excellent points against the idea of Solnoid lesbianism. I have to side with Severance in that argument. My biggest reason is that I like the idea, but also because it adds a little extra depth to the story, I can hardly imagine a reunion with Rabby and Lufy being anything short of a long kissing sequence. And I think there is at least one moment that at least hints to a semi-lesbian vibe, that scene where Shildy and Catty had that long heart-felt hug, i dunno, there has to be something going on there

Or I could be just stretching it, but hey, a man can dream.

Oh, and before I forget!
Tachyon, the only thing that bothered me about your GearsOnline Gall Force section was in your starship descriptions.
You were calling some ships that only measured about 200meters "Battleships"
You also called the StarLeaf a "Battleship"
The Starleaf is a Kularis Class Cruiser, not a Battleship, but you could also call it a "Cruiser/Carrier Hybrid" as that is truly what it was.

And your "Stout Class" Battleship isn't a Battleship either, its also a Cruiser, its the "Kularis NT" it is less armored than the first Kularis class and it doesn't have fighter bays. So you could actually call it a Light Cruiser.

Probably the only ship in the database you could call a Battleship is the Lorilei and the Akonkaguya. A "Flagship" isn't a class size, it is only the ship that is designated a "Fleet Leader". The Traverser would probably be classified as a "Super Battleship" or a "Dreadnaught"

I'm sure many of the class names you probably received from the books you were getting your scans from, but it kinda erked me to see all these new naming conventions of all these ships that I have known for the past 9 years.

But when classifying your sizes, it would awesome if you could use the standard naval size naming conventions, (Frigate, Destroyer, Light Cruiser, Cruiser, BattleCruiser, Battleship, Super Battleship, Escort Carrier, Carrier, Super Carrier, and Dreadnaught.) I doubt the people who wrote Gall Force had much experience or knowledge in Naval Class naming or Conventions.

Awesome stuff though! Keep it coming

[Daishikaze]

As I said, everything in the series points more to comraderie and friendship rather than anything sexual. Women give each other hugs like that all the time, it doesn't mean they are swapping spit when we aren't looking, it just means they are close friends. If they had been men, then I could agree that something was going on there, since most straight men generally don't have friendships like that, and the thought of hugging another man in any fashion is a threat to their manhood.

Women aren't like that, they know they can give warm hugs and not mean anything sexual. If Kakinuma wanted to make any of them lovers, its not like there would be anything to stop him, Japan is very liberal when it comes to homosexuality, so I have to believe it was not his intention at all. Believe me if he had, we'd have gotten alot more concrete proof of it than a hug (nothing huge mind you, but something that would leave no doubt about it).

[Quanto]

There's always the fanfictions

Yeah, you're probably right. But its a lot more fun to imagine there is something more to it >_>

[Daishikaze]

With that settled, onto a more important topic:

Why isn't Gall Force (or any Artmic work really) very popular anymore? I think its mainly because todays audience doesn't understand it and refuse to pay enough attention to it to see what it is about.

So many reviews I've read prove that the reviewers were not paying attention were more transfixed by the fact that it doesn't look like what they think anime should look like today.

thoughts? comments?