Mighty Space Miners

Mighty Space Miners is a fun sci-fi space adventure that does just enough right to stay pretty entertaining from start to finish and laid simple ground work for other titles like Planetes or Stellvia. In some ways, it really reminds me of one of my favorite video games, Colony Wars, wherein some of the introductory missions involve cleaning space debris and various missions on training and refueling space crafts. There isn't a lot of character development, but it's not too hard to look into what personalities are played. Nanbu, the protagonist, wants to ace his tests to be a space miner like his parents, thoughthe impending disaster puts lives in jeopardy and will be Nanbu's ultimate test. He's aided by his long time friend Fuko, and there's nothing wrong with her, but there's little else to say. The cast is small and not very complex or deep outside of their occupations, but they don't need to be and in certain aspects, watching them work to save lives aboard the damaged colony and pull together the will to survive in a time of crisis answers more questions about their character than a long-winded flashback or exposition could ever answer. I always miss that kind of character progression back in the mid 90's with anime. I feel you get more accomplished with a character or characters working and growing together in a current predicament and plot as opposed to trying to figure out the Rubix Cube of shattered emotions that an anti-hero lead is attempting to convey in the form of vague, cloudy backstory and clunky writing over the course of 26 episodes. Space Miners' artwork is very good, and withstands the test of time by putting up a good fight. The animaion is very smooth and the quality is akin to Urusei Yatsura: The Beautiful Dreamer movie. It's pretty fluid and detailed, the character designs simplistic, yet effective. Well-drawn technology keeps you grounded into the belief that use of this machinery could be about 80 years from now. The ADV english dub is pretty impressive, featuring voice talents of Rob Mungle, Amanda Winn-Lee, and Tiffany Grant. The BGM seems cropped out of Mega Man 3 in some of the action scenes, and the opening theme has some of the most comedically ridiculous lyrics I've read since Gravitation. Probably the biggest problem with this title is it's not complete, and that really hurts the overall score I wanted to give it. The majority of the first episode is very much like a Metroid mission of escaping an exploding space station, and episode two is alot of whats really going on politically. I can only surmise that there was supposed to be more, but the project was scrapped and this 2 episode OVA is all there is. I won't go into detail about it, but if you've seen Pilot Candidate, you'll kinda know what I mean. IN CLOSING: Mighty Space Miners is pretty enjoyable, and if you're looking for a classic space title that's pretty darn good, this one is worth checking. Ending aside, it holds very well over time and is a nice slice of retro-treasure I was fortunate enough to find again, even though I had to pay $35.00 for the VHS tape of it. STORY: 6 ART: 8 SOUND: 8 CHARACTER: 7 OVERALL: 7 out of 10 PROS: Nice attention to detail regarding interstellar physics, great english dub, that talking helmet is adorable CONS: A little bare-bones, the damn end is a little upsetting

Mighty Space Miners is a gorgeous little mid-90s OVA, held back in a few areas, but most of all by the fact that, somewhat bafflingly, it languishes as an unfinished story to this day. It obviously wasn't a low-budget project, and the amount of effort which went into some of these scenes is commendable, so why, then, was it cancelled after 2 episodes, story left hanging essentially in the very middle? This brings me to the anime's most problematic aspect, the story. While the story concept itself is engaging, providing a good base from which to tell a strong story,it is in this area that the anime loses the most points. The pacing is rushed, motivations aren't immediately clear, characters are barely introduced, and of course it just sort of ends with no clear conclusion, resolution, or even cliffhanger. It's not really all that clear to me why this is the case, but either way it's what we're left with, as chances are not very good that this story is ever going to get finished, though it'd be nice to be proven wrong. I feel like all the serious problems with the story could have been solved by more episodes, and I can imagine a version of this anime that's 3, 4, or even 5 episodes that sorts itself out and ranks much higher on my list. The art, however, bears none of the scars of rushed production, and is the strongest aspect of this anime by far. It is absolutely stunning, with intricately detailed machines, fluid animation, rich shot composition, and indulgent use of color throughout. There really isn't that much more to say other than it does everything right, especially for its time period. One particular aspect I must reiterate before I move on is the show's intricate understanding of motion, and how to manifest that in animation. It is a genuinely impressive feat. The sound is good, meeting all basic standards of quality for the time. The characters also meet all basic standards of quality, as perfectly suited for the story they're in, despite coming off a little flat. Of them, I'd say my favorites are Ushikawa, the hard-headed protagonist, and Chief Andou, the venerable old lady who commands the respect of everyone on the Toutatis 1B9-6, the space station upon which the story unfolds. Overall, Mighty Space Miners is an exciting, well-animated OVA, and it would have been a true hidden gem had it not fallen victim to production shortfalls, getting cut brutally short before it could realize its true potential. Give it a watch, but be warned, there's no closure to be had with this story- you have to be able to enjoy it for what it is, because after all, that's all you can really do.