Anime Rebirth

Review - Uchuu Densetsu Ulysses 31

Review by Roriconfan

Prologue
This series is a children’s version of Homer’s Odyssey. Its setting is the 31st century, so instead of having Odysseus facing witches and sea monsters in the ancient Greek Archipelagos, he is dealing with aliens and robots in uncharted regions of space.

Animation & Sound: 7
Quite good, despite their years. There is a lot of fine animation, atmospheric music and cool looking visual effects. Odysseus’s spaceship and laser gun-sword are awesome. The depiction of space, accompanied by gloomy music themes is truly spine chilling. The ever-presence of the Olympic Gods in the form of huge, stale, semi-apparent figures is very imposing. Most monsters are cloaked in an aura of fear. I must say, for a series that is supposed to aim at kids, it is quite scary. Kids watching this may have nightmares at night with so much frightening atmosphere going around.

Story: 3
Just like in Odyssey, Odysseus is cursed by the Olympic Gods and is sent to forever drift in space, without hope of returning home. But he doesn’t give up and continually searches for a way to defeat his fate and reunite with his wife.

Unfortunately, the story is twisted to resemble a fairy tale and everything seems very fake as a whole. As a Greek myself, I thank the producers for advertising our mythology with so many references to several famous Greek myths. But I must also bitch at the fact that Greek myths are not your average fairy tales with too-goody protagonists and a moral message in the end. Epic stories that turn to kiddy shows deserve a lot more attention than what we get to see here. It undermines their importance and insults our intelligence.

Even if you try to look at the story without referring to the original myth, the result is still lame. Story exists only in the first and in the last episode. All other episodes are stand-alones, there is never any on-screen bloodshed despite the numerous battles, there is never a bad thought crossing the heroes’ mind, and everyone acts like immature 10 year olds. There is an ending but it leaves you totally apathetic.

Characters: 4
Besides the strong presence of Odysseus and the Gods in the story, all others are there just to fill the void or offer comic relief. Shallow and stale throughout the series, the characters are truly pathetic. No resemblance with the multi-layered ones from the original myth.

Value: 5
Before the original story, this is a less than pathetic imitation. It can just be seen as a well-made grim fairy tale.

Enjoyment: 7
Story and characters aside, almost all episodes are interesting to watch. The atmosphere, the machines, the monsters and the mystery around them are so imposing that can stick with you for good.