"Soul Link" is a Japanese anime lasting up to twelve episodes which is an adaptation from a game that was sexually graphic and explicit as it revolves around the lives of military cadets on board a space hotel called Aries. But, the series was watered for teenage audiences. Soul Link is supposed be a combination of action and romance. The story behind Soul Link takes place in the year 2045 as there are space ports and space stations. Because of this, Soul Link can also be fitted into the science fiction genre. It’s same as the game, as it revolve around a group of military cadets but minus the sexual conduct.
In the anime, Aries is a space station combined with a space hotel. Soul Link very much has a strong presence of space exploration and space colonization as revealed in the form of various space stations. It looks as if they are getting in line to go the space station for military boot camp as a large muscular figure in a drill sergeant’s hat stand by the door waiting for the cadets to enter. The main characters are: Ryoka Aizawa and his classmates: Sayaka Nagase and Kazuhiko Nitta. The cadets are going through harsh military training in space as it’s deemed tougher than Earth’s training. It’s explained that one miscalculation and one could die.
It shows that the Aries is split into four parts as the Sheratan sector is the one area that houses all the cadets. Everything seems to be normal as the cadets are supposed to go over the next day’s training routine. They go through various exercises such as the use of firearms, using mechas, dealing with zero gravity, computers, and so forth. It looks as these routines are to assess cadets’ strengths and weaknesses. While they’re training, the terrorist group known as Harallax secretly assembles its force to attack and take over the Aries.
The cadets are forced to deal with the terrorists as most of the military personnel are dead. A virus gets unleashed turning people on the station into monsters. All sorts of conspiracies are revealed throughout the rest of the series. It’s an interesting concept as training is halted by terrorist attack soon to be followed by an attack of monsters. In that situation, you’re pretty much left with no choice but to mature into soldiers quickly to take on these big threats. As this happens, the story picks up as everybody uninfected friend, foe, and neutral alike must band together and find a way to escape.
It’s not common for enemies to band together to take on a much larger threat. There is a similar case happening right now as the United States are aiding the Sunni Muslims to combat the presence of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. That is one way of putting it. This is the one comparison that could be made with the Soul Link series.
As the series is only for twelve episodes, it’s a good thing as the pace of the story quickly picks up by the end of the second episode. The rest of the episodes revolve around finding a way out while dealing with the bigger threat. What became a series of drills and training routines has turned into a fight for survival. But the feel of Soul Link seems to be mediocre at best as there is hardly anything appealing about it. A group of young cadets forced into a situation for survival is a clich that has been done numerous times.
There is no manga version of Soul Link as it was directly adapted from a sexually explicit graphic novel. In the case of Soul Link, there is no dubbed version as no North American company has acquired the license for it. TV-wise, it’s only available on networks in Japan and the Philippines. It is unknown if it will be aired on any North American TV network in the near future. The chances are unlikely.
Realistically, there could be an English dubbed version in at least a year and a half to two years. This is one series that is hard to find let alone find online. But, one might be better of watching something else other than Soul Link.
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