GeneShaft is visually thrilling, but short on original story.

GeneShaft, V.1, Ring. V.2, Halo. V.3, Orbit. V.4, Mobius
TV series (13 episodes), 2001. Director: Kazuki Akane. V.1, four episodes/100 minutes; v.2-4, three episodes/75 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: Bandai Entertainment.

Sci-fi adventure TV series tend to emphasize Star Wars-type space opera rather than 2001: A Space Odyssey-type hard science plots. GeneShaft (13 episodes, animated by Satelite [sic.] and Studio Gazelle, broadcast weekly from April 5 to June 28, 2001 on Japan's WOWOW satellite channel) talks the high-tech talk. The mechanical designs and CGI of space stations and spaceships are superb for TV animation, and there are stunning astronomical scenes such as spaceship flybys with Jupiter in the background. The character designs are good, too.

The series is full of references to American and British sci-fi authors and stories, from character names like Asimov and Brunner, to place names like Niven Base to episode titles that are either the names of famous books (Angels and Spaceships, The Ship Who Sang) or parodies of them (The Moon is a Harsh Master; Less Than Human). And the plot owes more than a slight nod to James P. Hogan's The Gentle Giants of Ganymede.

Unfortunately, the action is a retread of familiar anime sci-fi stereotypes. After Earth is almost destroyed by war during the 21st century, a global program is instituted to improve humanity through genetic manipulation. By the 23rd century, warlike tendencies have been eliminated. Since females are less aggressive than males, a female:male ratio of 9:1 has been instituted. Smarter, more talented, but generally emotionless humans now are considered adults at 15 years old. When Earth is attacked by mysterious aliens (only their awesome CGI machines are seen), an experimental spaceship (the Balkis), with a crew of young prodigies who lack any practical experience, is rushed into service to investigate.

This is the setup for yet another series about a spaceship crewed by attractive adolescent girls who, despite their supposed emotional stability, spend most of their time facing off in schoolyard cliquish dominance squabbles (while the few handsome males keep focused on the main mission), plus a few amusing but totally unrealistic comedy-relief preadolescent brats. Cut off from the bland, stultifying society on Earth, such old-fashioned emotions as friendship and love reemerge. Some plausible suspense is provided by the need to debug the Balkis' flawed experimental computer programming in the harsh outer space environment where almost any accidents are fatal.

Unfortunately, there is also a lot of melodrama involving bloodthirsty terrorists among the crew, violently psychotic commanders (who practice sadism on their own subordinates) with access to nuclear weapons and power struggles among the ruling elite, which sabotages the basic premise of a bioengineered peaceful society with scientifically selected leaders. Still, for sci-fi fans who loved Macross, Nadesico and Vandread, and want more of the same (or who have not seen those series yet), with even higher quality high-tech CGI graphics, GeneShaft is sure to please.