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September 06, 2010

Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club


Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club is a remake of the 1992 OVA Spirit of Wonder, which was adapted after the Manga. This OVA runs two episodes in length at about 30 minutes each. The premise behind the entire story is regarding the ability to discover life on Mars and allow mankind to travel there. The story is set in the late 1950s with three men who remain in a childhood astronomy club that they formed 50 years prior. Their primary goal has been to go to Mars. Given that the time period when this film occurred, the idea of traveling to space was unheard of. The three men enlist the help of one of the scientist's daughter and her husband to help them realize their goal. The daughter, Windy, is considered an expert in the field of Etherial currents and has put her work to rest due to lack of professional interest by others in the field. It turns out the Windy's work proves to be useful in allowing the Scientific Boys Club to complete their journey to Mars.

What brings this story about is during the opening of the OVA when a panel of astronomers and scientists are awaiting the video results of the first Mars landing in the 1970s. They come across a flag that says "Scientific Boys Club 1958" on Mars which sparks confusion and curiosity. This is how we are brought to the story of these three aspiring scientists.

The story itself was very lighthearted. It was refreshing to watch and very easy to follow. There was a good balance of comedy and slice of life. During many of the more technical parts when scientific concepts were being referred to, it was easy enough for non-astronomical person to follow. The characters were developed in a way that made them easy to relate to. This was very important since the story rested so heavily on the dynamics between the characters and their goals through the story.

The animation style in this film was beautiful. The animation lines were very clean, colours were crisp and sharp, and the CG effects were used perfectly. One of the stronger aspects of this OVA was that the CG was not overused. Because of the very nice effects that CG creates, I tend to find it overused at times in some anime. In some sequences the ship that the characters depart to Mars on is heavily CG enhanced and given a lifelike appearance, while other times the effects are toned down and the ship becomes more connected to the scene. The animators of this film did an excellent job with determining when certain elements in the scenes should be emphasized and when they should remain in the background.

The music in Spirit of Wonder did not stand out as being anything exceptional. For the most part the music fit with the scenes, but I don't think I will be rushing out to get the soundtrack.

As a whole, this film was excellent. It provided enough content to keep me entertained for the hour in change that it ran, but not providing so many details that I felt the story was incomplete or even pushing me to the point of expecting to see more. I would recommend adding this one to your collection if you are in the mood for a lighthearted and thought provoking film.

9 comments:

  1. I really liked this series and I agree with everything you said in your post. So instead of going over that, I am going to mention the concepts I liked. This series to me is really about The spirit of science. Pun intended. Yet its true. This series is about following your dreams, no matter what other people say or think as well as the importance of friendship.
    People said the world was flat and the Earth was the center of the universe. The visionaries who spoke out against those concepts were often persecuted. Men like Galileo, but it is the spirit of science to question and then to find. The series seems to speak more about the spirit side of things rather than fact, but that’s fine. They are coming at it from the “be a visionary”, push yourself and if your ideas wrong then its wrong, but you tried and you actually did something.
    I think that way when I look at the series because they focus so much on Percival Lowell. Ok I can’t help myself. Here we go. Lowell was an amazing individual. A absolute true visionary and a man of extreme intelligence, which just goes to prove that even if your brilliant that you can still totally get it wrong. He was very good at mathematics and was given honoree degrees on top of his Harvard degree which he earned. He travelled a lot, especially in the far east, but it was astronomy that ended up being his real passion and Mars in particular.
    Lowell built his observatory in Flagstaff Arizona, this is important as it seems to be the first time that a observatory was built specifically away from major areas and high up. This today makes sense as city lights make it harder to view the stars. The Hubble space telescope is really an extension of that ideal.
    Lowell became obsessed with Mars and he became focused on one idea. Canale! Fueled by Schiaparelli an Italian astronomer who thought he had viewed Canale, these he interpreted these as channels which can be of natural manufacture, canals on the other hand can not. Lowell became convinced that what he saw through his telescope was canals. His telescope was grand for the day, but in the late 1800’s was poor by today’s standards. Mars would shimmer in the lens, becoming clear for only a few brief seconds. Night after night he pondered and watched.
    He became sure that he was looking a dead world which had once contained a vast and advanced civilization. A planet that that had let itself go out of control and had lost a fundamental resource…water. That in a last ditch bid to save themselves, Martians built a massive and intricate canal system, bring water from the polar caps and into the cities that so needed to survive, but something went wrong and the civilization collapsed and the Martian race became extinct. Now today we know that he was dead wrong. There are no canals and there is no extinct Martian race, but he was still a visionary. He truly grasped the spirit of science and I think that in part is why the show lent so heavily on him and his memory. The globe in the series is Lowell canal system which he outlined and drew, and it is quite a feat what he did.
    At the face of it the idea of spending so many years on such a wrong concept is spectacularly tragic, but out of it came much good. His funds from his estate funded further research into our solar system and it was a astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh who was involved in the Lowell Observatory program in 1930 [14 years after Lowells death.] was instrumental in discovering the Dwarf Planet Pluto. In part the choice of the name Pluto was a deliberate homage to Percival Lowell and his quest for knowledge. His initials are the first part of the planets name. Lowell may have been wrong, but his spirit was true and he set the pathway for many others to follow, and astronomy wouldn’t be in my opinion where it is today, without men like him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really liked this series and I agree with everything you said in your post. So instead of going over that, I am going to mention the concepts I liked. This series to me is really about The spirit of science. Pun intended. Yet its true. This series is about following your dreams, no matter what other people say or think as well as the importance of friendship.
    People said the world was flat and the Earth was the center of the universe. The visionaries who spoke out against those concepts were often persecuted. Men like Galileo, but it is the spirit of science to question and then to find. The series seems to speak more about the spirit side of things rather than fact, but that’s fine. They are coming at it from the “be a visionary”, push yourself and if your ideas wrong then its wrong, but you tried and you actually did something.
    I think that way when I look at the series because they focus so much on Percival Lowell. Ok I can’t help myself. Here we go. Lowell was an amazing individual. A absolute true visionary and a man of extreme intelligence, which just goes to prove that even if your brilliant that you can still totally get it wrong. He was very good at mathematics and was given honoree degrees on top of his Harvard degree which he earned. He travelled a lot, especially in the far east, but it was astronomy that ended up being his real passion and Mars in particular.
    Lowell built his observatory in Flagstaff Arizona, this is important as it seems to be the first time that a observatory was built specifically away from major areas and high up. This today makes sense as city lights make it harder to view the stars. The Hubble space telescope is really an extension of that ideal.
    Lowell became obsessed with Mars and he became focused on one idea. Canale! Fueled by Schiaparelli an Italian astronomer who thought he had viewed Canale, these he interpreted these as channels which can be of natural manufacture, canals on the other hand can not. Lowell became convinced that what he saw through his telescope was canals. His telescope was grand for the day, but in the late 1800’s was poor by today’s standards. Mars would shimmer in the lens, becoming clear for only a few brief seconds. Night after night he pondered and watched.
    He became sure that he was looking a dead world which had once contained a vast and advanced civilization. A planet that that had let itself go out of control and had lost a fundamental resource…water. That in a last ditch bid to save themselves, Martians built a massive and intricate canal system, bring water from the polar caps and into the cities that so needed to survive, but something went wrong and the civilization collapsed and the Martian race became extinct. Now today we know that he was dead wrong. There are no canals and there is no extinct Martian race, but he was still a visionary. He truly grasped the spirit of science and I think that in part is why the show lent so heavily on him and his memory. The globe in the series is Lowell canal system which he outlined and drew, and it is quite a feat what he did.
    At the face of it the idea of spending so many years on such a wrong concept is spectacularly tragic, but out of it came much good. His funds from his estate funded further research into our solar system and it was a astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh who was involved in the Lowell Observatory program in 1930 [14 years after Lowells death.] was instrumental in discovering the Dwarf Planet Pluto. In part the choice of the name Pluto was a deliberate homage to Percival Lowell and his quest for knowledge. His initials are the first part of the planets name. Lowell may have been wrong, but his spirit was true and he set the pathway for many others to follow, and astronomy wouldn’t be in my opinion where it is today, without men like him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really liked this series and I agree with everything you said in your post. So instead of going over that, I am going to mention the concepts I liked. This series to me is really about The spirit of science. Pun intended. Yet its true. This series is about following your dreams, no matter what other people say or think as well as the importance of friendship.
    People said the world was flat and the Earth was the center of the universe. The visionaries who spoke out against those concepts were often persecuted. Men like Galileo, but it is the spirit of science to question and then to find. The series seems to speak more about the spirit side of things rather than fact, but that’s fine. They are coming at it from the “be a visionary”, push yourself and if your ideas wrong then its wrong, but you tried and you actually did something.
    I think that way when I look at the series because they focus so much on Percival Lowell. Ok I can’t help myself. Here we go. Lowell was an amazing individual. A absolute true visionary and a man of extreme intelligence, which just goes to prove that even if your brilliant that you can still totally get it wrong. He was very good at mathematics and was given honoree degrees on top of his Harvard degree which he earned. He travelled a lot, especially in the far east, but it was astronomy that ended up being his real passion and Mars in particular.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lowell built his observatory in Flagstaff Arizona, this is important as it seems to be the first time that a observatory was built specifically away from major areas and high up. This today makes sense as city lights make it harder to view the stars. The Hubble space telescope is really an extension of that ideal.
    Lowell became obsessed with Mars and he became focused on one idea. Canale! Fueled by Schiaparelli an Italian astronomer who thought he had viewed Canale, these he interpreted these as channels which can be of natural manufacture, canals on the other hand can not. Lowell became convinced that what he saw through his telescope was canals. His telescope was grand for the day, but in the late 1800’s was poor by today’s standards. Mars would shimmer in the lens, becoming clear for only a few brief seconds. Night after night he pondered and watched.
    He became sure that he was looking a dead world which had once contained a vast and advanced civilization. A planet that that had let itself go out of control and had lost a fundamental resource…water. That in a last ditch bid to save themselves, Martians built a massive and intricate canal system, bring water from the polar caps and into the cities that so needed to survive, but something went wrong and the civilization collapsed and the Martian race became extinct. Now today we know that he was dead wrong. There are no canals and there is no extinct Martian race, but he was still a visionary. He truly grasped the spirit of science and I think that in part is why the show lent so heavily on him and his memory. The globe in the series is Lowell canal system which he outlined and drew, and it is quite a feat what he did.

    ReplyDelete
  6. At the face of it the idea of spending so many years on such a wrong concept is spectacularly tragic, but out of it came much good. His funds from his estate funded further research into our solar system and it was a astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh who was involved in the Lowell Observatory program in 1930 [14 years after Lowells death.] was instrumental in discovering the Dwarf Planet Pluto. In part the choice of the name Pluto was a deliberate homage to Percival Lowell and his quest for knowledge. His initials are the first part of the planets name. Lowell may have been wrong, but his spirit was true and he set the pathway for many others to follow, and astronomy wouldn’t be in my opinion where it is today, without men like him.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WOW... I have no idea where to begin with this one. There is a lot of history in the last few posts. I have to say though that it dos put a huge grin on my face to know that people are able to draw connections with anime and the rest of the world around us so tightly. It reaffirms in my mind that its not "just cartoons" that we are watching here and can touch on such deep and thought provoking concepts and themes. I give you a Gai Sensei thumbs up Scallywag.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There are certainly series which are nothing but cartoons, but the Japanese have always used Anime as a way to tell stories that couldn't be done in live action. Look at some of the cybernetics ones. Without the modern cgi techniques those would be impossible to do. Some like Ghost in the shell are amazingly deep. Or the one about the girl in the cave after the Atom bomb explosion. Anime can make you laugh, feel excitement and sometimes the really really good ones can have a strong emotional impact. Its a great medium.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would have to say that you hit the nail on the head there Scallywag. Animation is a great way to catch exactly what emotion the story writer is trying to get across. It helps to remove an actors interpretation of the events. In the case of Grave of the Fireflies, where the girl is living in the cave, I would have to say hands down that the Miyazaki animation was far superior in depth than the live action. I would recommend taking a look at the live action version of Grave of the Fireflies for comparison purposes since you have already seen the anime version.

    ReplyDelete