Definitely within my top 10.
Scratch that.
Top 5.
The problem with this one originally when it aired was that it was licensed so fast that the fansubbing groups dropped it at its eighth episode and never finished it. And Starship Operators was so good I was depressed for like a month over the fact nobody would finish it so I could see the end.
At any rate, I finally got to see all the thirteen episodes. I knew that it would be awesome then, but I needed to see it to the end just to confirm it.
Okay so, the Anime is essentially about a group of cadets returning home from a maiden voyage cruise of a new starship code-named "Amaterasu". And as they're returning home, their home country gets its shit ruined by an invading force, and in the short duration of the invasion (the invading force being notorious for conquering) their home country "Kibi" surrenders without a struggle. So, since they don't want to go back, they decide to take the ship, announce themselves as a "Government in exile", and for the most part, try to evade and escape the bad guys from taking them down with Kibi.
There's a catch though, since they don't have any support or sponsors, they decide to whore themselves off for funding (as in money for supplies/repairs/rearming) in the aspect that they made a deal with the galactic news network to record a "reality show" as the Amaterasu and its crew engages and evades the challenges ahead.
The main character is the XO of the ship, Shinon and then the rest are supporting cast, although you could technically make the claim that the entire group are "main characters".
Character development looks very naive, but only to the untrained eye. To me, this is probably the most polished and finest depiction of characters I have ever seen in virtually ANY story to date. It perfectly complies with the fact that there are thirteen episodes, and that the story from start to finish needs to be told in that short time frame.
The story itself is solid, but it's really the battles, tactics employed during and the aftermath of said conflicts that really make this show shine as a whole.
The only thing that sucks about the show is that it only had 13 episodes and that a sequel is sadly impossible.
One of really the best anime for me. Duly recommended.
Starship Operators
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Futile Resistance
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