Soukyuu の Fafner: Right of Left (OVA)

Last weekend I watched the Fafner OVA, called Right of Left. It is a prequel to the original series (review here). If you intend to watch the series at all, you should watch the OVA only after you have completed the original series, since there are plot elements here that you are not suppose to know about until later on in the series.

On the other hand, if you are not interested in watching the series, then I think that Right of Left has enough weight to be watched on its own (although having watched the series would certainly increase your enjoyment of the OVA). The key point is that Right of Left does not try to resolve the loose ends left in the series. Even more importantly it does not try to reveal any more information than what the fans of the show already knows, thus avoiding the pitfall of generating more questions than answers.

One thing that was done really well is that all the main characters in the series make a returning appearance... (hmm, I guess you don't really call it "returning" since this is a prequel). In other prequels, very often the scenes with the "returning" characters feels forcefully slotted in and makes you feel like life is just one coincident after another (as much as I love B5, I've to say its prequel "In the Beginning" comes to mind here). Right of Left felt very natural in the way it handled this.

The bottom line is, people who've watched the series will enjoy the revisit to the Fafner universe and seeing the main characters again, at the same time newbies can also enjoy it as a stand-alone story without being burdened with the background information on the series.

My rating: 8/10