Pulp Sci-Fi Anime 'Project Blue Earth SOS' Returns

The G-Reaction engine is making countless feats of technology possible: fancy new jet engines, top of the line naval ships, and incredibly fast bullet trains. A masterful and elegant if not boastful expression of humankind's love affair with its own brilliance, the G-Reaction engine is poised to send earth into a new era. In Project blue Earth SOS, it's your typical turn-of-the-century moment in time with your not-so-typical bit of nostalgia slipping in, since a dangerous threat looms on the horizon, and the extinction of humanity lurks in the shadows.

Project Blue Earth SOS is a six-episode OVA firmly rooted in mid 20th Century pulp science-fiction. Produced in 2006, the anime program drops viewers into a thematically retro-futuristic landscape where the people of earth have advanced rather well technologically, if only for it to become their final downfall. When these near mythical G-Reaction engines begin disappearing--from cars, planes, and several other forms of hi-tech gadgetry--it's up to a few kid-geniuses and some stalwart military personnel to decipher the predicament.

Unfortunately for Penny Carter and Billy Kimura, their problem is more than the mysterious iridescent light eye-witnesses claim is the source of the vanishings; the two kid's most pressing dilemma is their discovery that extra terrestrials are heading to earth to annihilate humanity.

A shounen adventure anime meekly outlined by the smug, pulpy irreverence of having children serve as the intelligent source of courage and hope more so than the adults, Project Blue Earth SOS will feel as if it were written for anther era.

A whimsical kid's adventure that enjoys the fact that it is a fictive tale over everything else, Project Blue Earth SOS was originally licensed by ADV Films and was initially released on DVD as individual discs back in early 2008. Now, FUNimation Entertainment, having since acquired the rights to distribute the anime, will release the complete anime as a single, DVD Set release on April 28th, 2009 ($49.98). Runtime is currently pegged at 288 minutes, while individual episodes of Project Blue Earth SOS frequently stretch beyond forty or forty-five minutes in length.

The anime was directed by Tensei Okamura, an animator with a penchant for integrating science fiction and an absurd sense of humor ("Stink Bomb," Memories), as well as a knack for the fiercely fantastical (Wolf's Rain). Project Blue Earth SOS is one Japanese animator's take on western sci-fi storytelling, the results of which sends a group of kinds on a mission to stop an army of mysterious aliens from using their high technology to destroy humankind's high technology.

on FUNimation Entertainment: FUNimation Entertainment (www.FUNimation.com/ProjectBlueEarthSOS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is a leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States. FUNimation has a formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution.

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