Sol Bianca
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a two-volume Japanese
OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...
series released in 1990 and 1991. It was directed by
Katsuhito Akiyama is a Japanese storyboard artist and director.Wong, Amos. "Pumpkin Scissors". ''Newtype USA''. 6 (10) pp. 52–55. October 2007. . He often works with Shinji Aramaki and Hideki Kakinuma. Filmography Director Films * '' Elementalors'' (1995 ...
and
Hiroki Hayashi is a Japanese animator and director associated with Anime International Company, AIC. He is best known as the director of the first ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' Original video animation, OVA series and co-creator of ''El-Hazard''. Biography Hayashi ...
in association with
AIC AIC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Alice in Chains, American rock band * Alice in Chains: AIC 23, a 2013 mockumentary * Anime International Company, a Japanese animation studio * Art Institute of Chicago, an art museum in Chicago Busin ...
. '' Sol Bianca: The Legacy'', a six-episode OVA remake of this series. The name of the OVA is also the name of the ship that serves as both the home and the interstellar headquarters for an all-female band of notorious pirates. Thanks to a stowaway who hides himself aboard their ship following one of their raids, they learn of the ultimate treasure: the
Gnosis Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις, ''gnōsis'', f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it ...
(pronounced "G'Nohsis" in dialogue), an artifact reputedly from old Earth itself. Unfortunately for them, the Gnosis happens to be in the hands of Emperor Batros, the brutal ruler of the planet Tres (pronounced "trez" in dialogue) who is executing great numbers of enemies, real or speculated, as a result of his military occupation of the neighboring planet Uno. Armed with a little luck, a sniper gun that can shoot from orbit, and a technologically advanced ship, the crew of the Sol Bianca are about to make a run for the greatest prize of all.


Characters


The Crew

* April Bikirk: (
Rei Sakuma is a Japanese actress, voice actress, singer and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. She is best known in Japan for her voice work in the long running children's series ''Soreike! Anpanman''; her most famous role in the English-speaking world, however, i ...
/
Kim Sevier Kimberly Robertson, a.k.a. Kim Sevier, is an American voice actress. She has done voice work for ADV Films. Roles * ''Blue Seed'' – Moe Fujimiya, Reiko Kanbayashi * '' Burn Up W'' – Chisato * ''Devil Hunter Yohko'' – Prin ...
) A skilled pilot and a crack shot, she is the first officer of the Sol Bianca. A headstrong and honorable individual, she will often fight to help others. April and Feb were the ones who discovered the Sol Bianca. April is thoughtful of her actions, but is also as impulsive as Janny when cornered. Most of the time she plays the mother and leader to the crew when Feb is not sober. She appears very protective of everyone on board. She wears a red battle armor. Her favorite weapon is usually a laser whip/knife or a pistol.
In Sol Bianca: the Legacy she is the one who inherits the control pistol, recovered the ship and June. As the owner she is the captain. * Feb Fall: (
Yōko Matsuoka is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator from Tokyo. She is affiliated with 81 Produce. Filmography Television animation ;1970's *'' The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee'' (1974) (Denta) *''Wakakusa no Charlotte'' (1977) (Jim) *''Ann ...
/Laura Chapman) Captain of the Sol Bianca and oldest of the group. A woman of mystery, She is a calm and rational person, preferring to find a peaceful solution, but is capable in her own right. Feb is also cunning and a master at tactics and strategies. In the Sol Bianca 2 it is reveal that she and April discovered the starship. She usually carries a short shotgun. She is also good with a sniper laser. She wears light gray armor.
In Sol Bianca: the Legacy she is a lot more fond of drinking. * Janny Mann: (
Minami Takayama is a Japanese voice actress, narrator and singer who is currently affiliated with 81 Produce. She is also the main vocalist of Two-Mix and ES CONNEXION when it was active. Her uncle is a former New Japan Pro-Wrestling managing director Hisashi Sh ...
/
Sue Ulu Sue Ulu is an American voice actress and actress who, primarily, voiced in English dubs for anime properties licensed by ADV Films during the 1990s. Her most prominent roles include Ritsuko Akagi in '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and Kei in ''Dirty ...
) Heavy gunsmith with all sorts of weapons. She's a hot tempered, foul-mouthed young woman that is easily irritated by many people. She's familiar with any kind of weapons, armor suits and vehicles. Naturally, she usually directs the ship's weaponry on her bridge station, but she also can fly the ship when necessary. Most of her past is unknown but when June hacks into her diary in Sol Bianca 2, a few pictures of Janny's previous life are revealed. She wears slate-gray armor. She and June do not get along very well and are constantly bickering with each other. (Note: In the English Dub it is "Jenny".) * June Ashel: (
Yuriko Fuchizaki is a Japanese stage actress and voice actress from Ōta, Tokyo. She is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts at Nihon University. She then moved to Sigma Seven in 1991, and on July 1, 2003, she moved to her current agency, REMAX. From 1987 to th ...
/
Tiffany Grant Tiffany Lynn Grant (born October 11, 1968) is an American voice actress and script writer who is known for her English-dubbing work for ADV Films on such anime films and television series as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', in which she voiced the cha ...
) Hologram expert with computer skills. She is a selfish young teen who worries over her hair, and steals fancy dresses out of cargo containers. In Sol Bianca 2 it is revealed that June has an empathic link with the ship and its computer, even feeling its internal pain. Most of the time she drives the cargo truck that sucks up all the goodies they steal from cargo freighters or is called upon to infiltrate enemy computer systems. She has a sister like relationship with May.
In Sol Bianca: the Legacy she is found inside the Sol Bianca by April. She is the last remaining member of the original crew. June has a very strong connection to "G", the ship's artificially intelligent computer, and may even be a part of it in some way. She also has a holographic device that creates Sancho (who looks like a genie) that is linked to "G" and has the ability to access and manipulate other computer systems. * May Jessica: (
Miki Itou Miki may refer to: Places *Miki, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Kagawa, a town in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Azerbaijan, a village in Astara Rayon, Azerbaijan People *Miki (given name) *Miki (surname) *Miki Núñez (born ...
/Kimberly Yates) The youngest member of the crew. She likes frilly clothes, and is the ship's genius chief engineer responsible for the ship's maintenance and repairs. She cares about all the members of the crew who are like family to her. Being so young and isolated, she sometimes views the world fairly simply, and seems to have crush on Rim. May usually hangs out with June. The two are often left in charge of the ship when the others are out. She pilots a powered and heavily armored battlesuit (apple-green and red), similar to a Landmate, for work.
In Sol Bianca: the Legacy she is a stowaway on the ship. April decided to help her find her parents on Earth, only to find out from her uncle and aunt that May's parents have been killed by another group of pirates. She then decided to go with April and the others as a new and youngest crew member. On-board she attends a holographic simulated school life. She is usually lively, and somewhat immature person. She is often more preoccupied with having fun than with getting her homework done.


Sol Bianca (OVA 1)

* Rim Delapaz: (
Daisuke Namikawa is a Japanese actor and singer associated with Stay Luck. He began acting as a child and is sometimes mistaken with Daisuke Hirakawa, as their names only differ by one character when written in kanji. Despite his wide range of roles, he usual ...
/
Jay Zeidman A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian ...
) The young boy who stows away aboard a cargo ship, in a shipping crate, and is found by the Sol Bianca crew. He asks the crew to help him get to the planet Tres. He uses the guise of the Gnosis, to convince the Sol Bianca crew to take him there, where he plans to rescue his mother. * Dr. Delapaz: ( Tesshou Genda/
John Swasey John Allan Swasey is an American voice actor, ADR Director, and script writer known for his work at Funimation, ADV Films and Sentai Filmworks. He has provided voices for English-language versions of Japanese anime series and video games. His ...
) Rim's father, he works with the leaders of the Uno Resistance. * Emperor Batros: (
Takeshi Aono was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Asahikawa, Hokkaidō. He was attached to Aoni Production at the time of his death. He graduated from Hokkaidō Asahikawa Higashi High School. Career Aono was most known for the roles of Shiro ...
/
Tristan MacAvery Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; cy, Trystan), also known as Tristram or Tristain and similar names, is the hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. In the legend, he is tasked with escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed ...
) The Evil Emperor of the planet Tres. He is the antagonist.


Sol Bianca 2 / OVA 2

*Gomez: (
Daisuke Kyouri is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Daisuke can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *大輔, "big, assist" *大介, "big, mediate" *大祐, "big, bless" *大助, "big, help" *大典, "big, law/rule ...
) Leader of the pirate gang the Sol Bianca crew encounters. His treatment of women is bad. *"Yuri Shuraba": ( Shuuichi Ikeda) A mysterious man who claims to be someone from Feb and April's past. A major foreshadow for the events to come in Sol Bianca 3 (which has not been made).


Home video

''Sol Bianca'' and ''Sol Bianca 2'' were released on VHS in 1990 and 1991 respectively.
A.D. Vision A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gree ...
released a subtitled VHS of the first volume in April 1993. The laserdiscs included an additional 5.25" floppy disk with data files that officially came with them. ''Sol Bianca'' is one of the rare cases where the first episode of the show had an
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
dub made, but none was made for the second episode. This has been a reason stated by
Matt Greenfield Matthew Brian Greenfield (born January 12, 1965) is an American producer, scriptwriter, director and voice actor best known for his work in producing the English-language versions of many popular Japanese anime, most notably ''Neon Genesis Evang ...
at numerous
anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...
industry panels as to why a
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
release has never occurred.


Video game

A single video game was released based on the series for the
PC Engine CD-ROM² The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...
on June 29, 1990Sol Bianca Info – Sol Bianca Information – Sol Bianca Release Date
/ref> by NCS exclusively in Japan. It's a
role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
. It featured the ship's crew from Sol Bianca and offered seven episodes.


Reception

''Sol Bianca'' was voted best Best Subbed/Dubbed OAV at the 1993 Anime Expo. ''Sol Bianca 3'' was supposedly canceled due to low popularity in Japan.


References


External links

*
The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917
',
Jonathan Clements Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for '' Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-aut ...
and Helen McCarthy. San Francisco: Stone Bridge Press (2001) * {{Anime International Company 1990 anime OVAs 1991 anime OVAs ADV Films Anime International Company Role-playing video games Space pirates 1990 video games Japan-exclusive video games TurboGrafx-CD games TurboGrafx-CD-only games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists