When Madoka Kyono returns to the beach after rescuing a girl from drowning, she finds her school uniform missing. It's later returned to her by a strange girl who she runs into several more times over the coming days. Her name is Lan, and she eventually asks Madoka to pilot a robotic aircraft known as an Ovid at an offshore base. As Madoka touches the Ovid and experiences a flashback of sorts, an enemy Ovid from outer space appears and attacks the base, forcing Lan to reveal her true identity: she's an alien sent to protect Madoka and the Ovid. Here's something unusual: "Chief Director" on Lagrange, Tatsuo Sato (of Nadesico fame), is also Director on Bodacious Space Pirates. Quite what the difference between 'Director' and 'Chief Director' is, I'm not sure (Toshimasa Suzuki is credited as Lagrange's director), but Sato's dual roles gives an interesting point for comparison: Bodacious Space Pirates has spent its first three episodes slowly and carefully developing its cast and world; Lagrange takes the opposite approach of dropping its heroine straight into the shit, armed with an instinctive knowledge of everything she needs to know, and lets you work the rest out yourself. Both approaches have their fans - BSP's world-building seems to bore as many people as it impresses, while Lagrange's approach drops you straight into the action but with questions unanswered left, right and centre, and mileage seems to vary widely on which is the "best". It's an unfair comparison, though, as they're not quite the same beasts. Lagrange is going for a quick action fix with a limited amount of fanservice (what other purpose could Lan's "Wan" serve?), without the need to go into a lot of depth, and I suspect the truth behind the ability of Madoka and her comrades to instinctively pilot the Ovids will come out eventually anyway. There's a certain air of the mysterious about the Ovids and Lan anyway, and explaining too much up-front would take away from that. THE GOOD: Visually attractive, upbeat, fast-paced. It's all very positive to start with (in feel-good terms, rather than quality). Although when a lead character is called Madoka these days, I worry what they're about to put her through. THE BAD: Madoka's genkiness is overbearing, Lan's reticence is old, everything just seems to be a bit too convenient. It's not what you could call top-class storytelling. A lot of things still out for the jury to decide on, then, but I did find myself enjoying Lagrange. I do hope it starts to fill in the blanks sooner rather than later, though...
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