The setup for this anime is fairly implausible (although it is later explained), but in this universe where men and women are completely segregated (on completely different planets), the gender wars are more than just a metaphor. In this universe, the planet Mejare is occupied by women, the planet Tarak is occupied by men, and the two are at war with each other.
Hibiki Tokai, a 3rd class laborer, takes up a bet to steal a high-tech humanoid robot, known as a Vanguard, from the male attack force about to fight the "evil females". Caught onboard when it takes off, the ship is rapidly attacked and all males evacuated, with the exception of Hibiki, Duelo McFile (ship's doctor), and Bart Garsus (designed as an unfortunate and pathetic character who does not really mature until the 2nd season, when he becomes genuinely likable.). Stuck onboard the damaged warship with female pirates all around, things seem to have hit an all time low until the retreating males fire a rather large torpedo at the ship to prevent it from falling into women's hands. The core of the ship, a mysterious crystalline entity, protects itself by eradicating the missile and fusing the large warship with the female craft, making a quirky ship with very smooth lines, a host of technical problems, which episodes are often aimed at solving, and various hidden capabilities that become apparent in later episodes. Three men on a ship full of women might seem like a great setup for a hentai, but it is not that simple. While the Tarak mecha Hibiki steals is a Bangata, the women mistake it for a Vanguard. Later on the 'Vanguard' has the ability to fuse with the women's space fighter, called a Dread, and thus the title, Vandread.
In this alternate, futuristic universe men and women consider each other to be completely separate species (Hibiki gains the nickname "Mr. Alien" from Dita, one of the many female leads), and the three put up with much abuse at the hands of their female captors, but gradually make their presence accepted: Hibiki as a primo fighter, Duelo as a skilled doctor and engineer, and Bart as the ship's helmsman and navigator.
The story of the season is the trip to the female homeworld, and along the way the crew encounters strange, robotic creatures that are both enigmatic and rather Borg-like, though they do not communicate at all. The subsequent battles provide the action sequences for the first two seasons, with the setup for a third season being quite clear.
After a few fights with the unknown enemy, the crew manages to take some data sample from a desert planet. The data is read out. "Blood platelets, white blood cells, red blood cells..." The whole crew is stunned. Their enemy kills people and then harvests the body parts from them, and their enemy originates from Earth. Some time later at the start of the second season, they rescue an escape pod from the enemy, now called harvestors. The pod contains a blue-haired girl called Misty and a virus enters the ship's systems. When Ezra's baby cries the virus shuts down and the crew is given access to the hidden data that the pod brings.
Pollution has totally wiped out the Earth making any life on the planet impossible. Huge metal gears now cover the Earth's stratosphere in an attempt to create a living environment for people in space. Earth's people start to grow resentment for the early colonizers who spread the human race across the different planets in the galaxy. They are dying along with planet Earth. Their solution is to send out harvestors, advanced weaponry ships that raid the space colonies for body parts and with technology they replace their own dying body parts, becoming immortal through the lives of others. Mejare and Tarak are targeted to be harvested for human sexual organs. Along the way the crew meet people targeted for their skin and for their spinal cords.
Now fighting is not just about defeating the enemy and surviving. They need to rush back to their homeworlds in time to warn their planets. But will the leaders of the planets listen to their almost impossible tale?
Characters
The Women
Dita Liebely is one of the female leads that is romantically involved with Hibiki. From the start, she refers to him as "Mr. Alien" ("Uchuujin-san"), while Hibiki refers to her as "UFO Girl". Dita has a bubbly lively personality that usually shows in almost every aspect of life, even when she is fighting (at first, refers to the enemy as "bad aliens"). She admits to having feelings for Hibiki since she met him (love at first sight?). She has reddish brown hair that grows almost all the way to the floor (approximately below the knee). When her Dread unites with Hibiki's Vanguard, they become a new electric blue mecha that has access to powerful laser and energy cannon weaponry (high attack power). Although Hibiki never admits to liking her until the end of the second season, when he finally calls her by her name, it is apparent that he feels something for her. She loves cooking for Hibiki, she feels happy and fulfilled to see Hibiki eat. Hibiki quickly becomes a fan of her cooking, perhaps because all the food on the men's planet comes in the form of pills.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, depending on one's opinion, Dita gains competition for Hibiki's affections from Misty Cornwell, a new woman rescued by the crew at the end of the first season of Vandread as a cliff hanger. Unlike the girls of Meger, Misty is from Earth and has many old-fashioned ideals about men and women, such as boy-friend and girl-friend relationships which confuse the others and makes Dita feel jealous. Like Dita, Misty is an excellent cook and uses her knowledge of men along with that to her advantage. In a way though, her competition with Misty allows Dita to see her now romantic feelings for Hibiki.
Meia Gisborn at first has the behavior of an Amazon—she hates men and is disgusted whenever Hibiki saves her. She dislikes Hibiki at first, but she steadily develops a crush on him, although she has never admitted it. She rarely smiles (only doing so twice;during the second season when she had to babysit Ezra's baby and during the final fight with the enemy), suffers from claustrophobia, and has a traumatic past. As a young girl the life support systems on her home quadrant failed and there was a mass evacuation with not enough lifeboats. She lost her parents when they pushed her aboard the last ship off the quadrant among the crowd. Then she resorted to gangsterism and street fights to make a living. She joined the pirates when Magno Vivian appeared and tossed a ring to her asking her to join them. With a new will to live, she gained ranks quickly. As squadron commander, she leads the other Dreads in battle, and is usually called "leader" or "chief" by others. Everyone appreciates her and normally try to throw a surprise birthday party for her. She hates such occasions though and once she flew off in her Dread to scout ahead of the Nirvana just so that she would not be irritated by the crew. When her Dread unites with Hibiki's Vanguard, they become a Vandread that resembles a silver eagle.(High speed) Its main form of attack is speed—. It first uses this to cut through the interior of a sea urchin-like Harvester ship.
Jura Basil Elden is the secondary leader of the Dread fighting force, although she is quite bad at leading. She became secondary leader after the crew was separated from the other half of the pirates that got left back on Mejale when Nirvana was born. She has long blonde hair that she takes great care of. She is extremely vain and in the first few episodes keeps trying to unite with Hibiki's Vanguard. She bears a sword, but like her commanding, has very little skill with it. It's assumed that she is the lover of Barnette, another Dread pilot and antique firearms collector. She is shocked at the look of her Vandread when she first unites with Hibiki (it resembles a crab with glowing green discs). The Vandread she and Hibiki pilot has the ability to use its shielding systems to envelope entire planets and protect them from attack.(High defense) Also one disc was used to draw water out from a planet and then directed at a Harvester seedship. The force of the water destroyed it.
Buzam A. Calessa "BC" is the sub-commander of the Nirvana. She is stern and all-business and looks after the general welfare of the crew as well. She is a tactical person who gives orders firmly and decisively. She seems like a workaholic, constantly staying near the bridge to access data and review the crew's performance. Through season one's opening she is seen to secretly take a small disc from the bridge's database though Boss interrupts her with some speech. However her suspicious actions do not seem relevant until season two where it is revealed that she is actually the Commander of the Tarak Intelligence and real name is Tenmei Uragasumi. A male spy for Tarak in other words. This would explain why he is so adapt in handling a whip when battling a sword-wielder in an arena on a space station recently ravaged by the harvesters. However in the end, Magno Vivian forgives him and retains his position as sub-commander, on the provision that he stays as BC.
Parfait Ballblair is the ship's Chief Engineer, a cheerful, somewhat geeky girl with huge glasses and brown hair she keeps in two large pigtails. Spends most of her time monitoring the Paeksis and the ship's engines, but also has time to devise other inventions for the crew on special occasions. She quickly befreinds Duelo, a friendship that eventually develops into a physical attraction.
Paiway Underberg is the ship nurse under Duelo, though her uniform looks more like a frenchmaid's outfit that a nurce's. Prior to the apearance of the men she was the ship's only doctor. During the first stage she spented her free time trying to exploit the bad habits of the men. To do this she would secretly keep tabs on the men and eather jot notes in a journal or, takes pictures with her camera. This would soon pay off and spark raid that got all the men including the drifter Rabat locked up for awhile. However she stops this after combination of seeing Dita's reaction to Hibiki's Imprisonment and the discovery that men and women were of the same species, but she still takes pictures and jot notes. She carries a frog hand puppet with her all the time and is often seen talking to people with it in a gruff low pitched voice.
Magno Vivian is the boss of the pirates and everyone calls her 'boss'. She is one of the original people that was onboard the colony ship that gave rise to Tarak and Mejare, being a young girl at that time. She is about over a hundred years old and is full of knowledge and wisdom. She often hands out pieces of advices and directs the crew in their duties.
The Men
Hibiki Tokai is the third-class citizen of Tarak that gets thrown into the mess with Duelo and Bart. He was at first unwilling to do anything but hide when the Nirvana was attacked by the Harvesters when they appeared half-way across the galaxy. However, after a talk from the sub-commander, BC, Hibiki gets into the vanguard in an attempt to help the female pilots fight the enemy. He is very rash, but gets the job done and often ends the enemy threat in the end. By the end of the series he is revealed to be the son of the leader of Mejare who was frozen in hibernation but woke up mysteriously. His father is one of the 9 leaders of Tarak, thus making him the 9th one. His uncle took care of him. It is also his pep talk to the two planets that convinces all of them that they should fight for their rights to live.
Duelo McFile The ship doctor for the Nirvana, Duelo quickly takes over medical emergencies often at the objection of the female pirates, but ignores them, assuring the crewmembers that he is not a threat. A very calm and collected character, It was said that Duelo got whatever job he wanted simply by submitting a blank resume with his name on it. Eventually becomes close friends with Parfait. He fits the anime classification of a Bishōnen.
Bart Garsus is a first-class citizen from Tarak. Coming from rich parents who owned a food production company. He is initially an easily excitable, weak and cowardly character, and ends up becoming the helmsman of the Nirvana when the ship chooses him for the job. Early in Vandread: The Second Stage, Bart shaves his head in honor of a girl he met on a dying planet. Towards the end of the series, he develops feelings for BC not knowing her secret, but even after he finds out, he is not swayed, and continues to persue BC for a relationship.
The Paeksis
Paeksis pragma is the blue energy entity living within the Nirvana core. It originates from a different universe and people use it to generate energy. The Earth has a different red Paeksis that represents hatred and anger. As the Nirvana crew learns that the paeksis is a sentient being, they also start to bond with Pyoro, a navibot that was flushed with paeksis and developed a personality and perhaps a life. Occasionally the Paeksis can overide Pyoro's systems to communicate with the crew members. Machines flushed with paeksis may also 'evolve' to some extent thus the creation of the vandreads since three dreads and the bangata were flushed with paeksis. Thus the red harvestors also evolve at a horrifying pace to become stronger and can even make corrupted copies of the vandreads themselves.
Songs
Good Day Friends by Yumi Kakazu (Dita)
Himegoto by SiLC
Justice by Kudou Aki
Moon Light Lullaby by Meia
Spacy Spicy Love
Trust by Salia
What a Wonderful World by Donna Burke
Yes, Together by Yasunori Iwasaki
Somedays by Donna Burke
Provided by wikipedia.org
