Geneshaft

File:Geneshaft2.jpg

It's the 23rd century and humanity has had a series of devastating wars behind it, putting it on the brink of extinction. In an attempt to deal with this problem, human population has been put under control through genetic engineering. Everyone has a set destiny from birth and the ratio between woman and men has been brought to 9:1, since most of the problems seem to stem from male aggression. People are categorized according to their genetic profile, which leads to certain Skills. Love and passion are largely eliminated--but not fully.

Mika Seido is a 16 year old girl born into this world with a "white" genetic make-up, which means that her role has not been completely filled in at birth. Because of this, she often is treated as inferior, especially by Mir Lotus, whose Skills are far beyond those of most other people. Mika likes to write e-mails to her sentient dog on earth and is devastated when her "mama" dies because of an alien attack.

Humanity faces its largest threat yet when gigantic rings appear in the space around earth, one of which promptly destroys several large cities--one with Mika's mama in it. To fight the rings, a special space ship has been constucted: the Bilkis. On board it carries a special weapon in the form of one of the weirdest-looking Humongous Mecha ever devised in anime: the Shaft. Mika is put onboard of the Bilkis and has to challenge both the alien threat and convince the crew--and herself--of her "white" potential.

Geneshaft was released in 2001 and by Bandai Entertainment. It is an interesting take on the "humongous mecha in space" theme in that it maintains a curious and intense dynamic between the characters. The men still appear to be very macho, despite having grown up in a society ruled by women. People who are very sensitive to the abuse of scientific themes might best steer clear off this series. For all the other viewers, Geneshaft can be a nice ride along all of the tropes that come with the genre--and they can enjoy the wonderful animation and the heart-warming ending.

---

Tropes:

• The Ace: Mir.
• Amazon Brigade
• Anyone Can Die
• Bishonen: The captain, Mario, and Lord Sneak, anyone?
• Big Brother Mentor: Mario, who manages to actually be someone's brother, something rare in a world of Designer Babies, and comes across as a proto-Kamina.
• Body Surf: In one episode, the aliens keep copying crew members.
• Brand X: Karlboro cigarettes.
• Bridge Bunnies
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: People are expected to put up with raving maniacs like Jean, loonies like Dolce, and haughty divas like Mir because they are literally born to be the best at their jobs, and that's the only thing that matters.
• Clones Are Expendable: A tenet of the future society.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Dolce, who only communicates through her puppet.
• Conspicuous CG
• Cooldown Hug: Between Humongous Mechas.
• Creepy Monotone: Beatrice.

Beatrice: If you are unable to obey rules regarding personal behavior on the bridge, by my authority as ship's Register... I will execute you.

• Did Not Do the Research: Boy, where to start... The science in this show is seriously skewed.
  • Includes massive doses of You Fail Biology Forever.
• Dystopia
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Dolce.
• Emotionless Girl: Beatrice, who suppresses her emotions artificially, being a Register.
• Important Haircut: Mir cuts her hair after learning of Lord Sneak's betrayal.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At one point in the series it could become a drinking game.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Mika Seido is voiced by Kumiko Higa. Yes, that Kumiko Higa.
• Humans Are Flawed: The point of the show.
• Humongous Mecha: The Shaft.
• Informed Ability: Tiki is supposed to be a Cute Bruiser, but she mostly plays the role of Bridge Bunny. When she actually does something.
• Insufferable Genius: Dolce, who is unmatched at computer programming. And lets everybody know. Through her puppet. Loudly.
• Lens Flare
• Meaningful Name: Lord Sneak.
• Meganekko: Remmy, although she doesn't really need her glasses.
• Memento MacGuffin: Remmy's glasses.
• Mildly Military: Even trying to shoot your own captain doesn't raise any eyebrows.
• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: The soundtrack covers everything from 3 to 8, and stays most of the time around 6.
• Mundane Utility: A Wave Motion Gun doubling as a terraforming tool.
• The Mole: Lord Sneak.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: Lord Sneak.
• Path of Inspiration: Your society believes that it is logical to be hardcoded to die at 45 because you're no longer at 100% efficiency, justifies it as individuals being a mere expression of their genetic code and thus replaceable by brand new clones, and that the best male-female ratio is supposed to be 1:9 because of males being excessively Hot-Blooded, yet your rulers and founders of your way of life are a bunch of 200-year-old men. Who are not in a hurry to be replaced by their younger selves, of course. No f***ing wonder they have a terrorist problem!
• Phlebotinum Breakdown: The constant crashes of the Shaft's computer systems.
• Plucky Girl: Mika.
• Posthumous Character
• Precursors: The Giants.
• Punny Name: Remmy Levistrauss. Levi Strauss is a jean company (gene/jean pun)
• Psychopathic Manchild: Jean.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Which somehow works against computer viruses.
• Shout Outs: The titles of all episodes are variations on the titles of famous SF stories or straight references. "The Moon is a Hard Master", "The Sentinel", "Childhood's Beginning", "The Ship Who Sang"...
• Stock Footage: The deployment of the Shaft.
• Stripperific: In the future there are some... interesting ideas about women's military attire.
• Taking You with Me
• Techno Babble: To the point of becoming ridiculous.
• Third Person Person: Jean.
• Token Mini-Moe: Tiki is 12, but wears even more Stripperiffic clothes than the rest of the crew.
• Viewer-Friendly Interface
• We Have Reserves: Half of the cast's job is being a replacement for the other half.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: No Sex Allowed, romantic love is apparently dead, and friendships are expected to be shallow. But The Power of Love is stubborn.
• You Are in Command Now: Beatrice, who's genetically engineered to be an eternal Number Two. She does fine.