Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we\u2019re stepping back into Sol Bianca: The Legacy, a six-episode OVA from the tail end of the twentieth century, and the sequel to a never-concluded predecessor from the early \u201890s. Anime\u2019s direct-to-video era is littered with such artifacts, series that were cut short either by disappointing sales or staff exodus, leaving only fragmentary segments of ambitious, beautifully realized fantasy in their wake. Works were smaller in scale yet greater in implication; in an era largely given over to franchise replication, a landscape dominated by such lingering absences feels strangely alluring.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, context aside, Sol Bianca\u2019s first episode introduced us to the titular ship and its crew of apparent bounty hunters, on the hunt for a pistol scavenged from the ruins of Earth. Along the way, they ran afoul of the ambiguous Terra Force, and ultimately picked up a young girl named Mayo with a mysterious past, who claims her parents await on the long-lost ruins of Earth itself. Thus the stage is set for a grand pilgrimage, one overtly framed in the context of Abraham\u2019s journey to Canaan. Whatever awaits, I\u2019m looking forward to more of this production\u2019s sumptuous art design. Let\u2019s get to it!<\/span><\/p>\n Episode 2<\/b><\/p>\n We open with our crew chilling in a convertible on a balmy desert day, in a letterboxed format that only amplifies the sense we\u2019re at the beginning of a cool-ass music video. Sol Bianca\u2019s first episode demonstrated a variety of priorities, and one of them is clearly \u201cletting our protagonists look cool as hell in various environments and outfits\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Oh man, using the turn of the ignition as the beginning of your title sequence. Style for days here, with very purposeful blocking and an emphasis on incidental, character-defining body language<\/span><\/p>\n They appear to be exploring an ancient ruin of some kind, perhaps Mayan in nature. Getting an interesting mix of variables here, between the calls to Christian mythology, variable earth artifacts, and the Spanish UI of the Sol Bianca itself<\/span><\/p>\n Powerful sense of visual continuity across these cuts \u2013 action transfers from one to the next in clever, graceful ways, like this leap being reflected in another character\u2019s shades<\/span><\/p>\n The OP song also feels extremely of its era, like something from .hack or Lain<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, I cannot in good conscious support their use of the papyrus font<\/span><\/p>\n The OP ends on a charged image \u2013 our captain April finding an egg on the beach, which begins to crack in her hand<\/span><\/p>\n A fresh epigraph for our second episode: \u201cAll hope abandon ye who enter here! And when his hand he had stretch\u2019d forth to mine, with pleasant looks when I was cheer\u2019d, into the secret place he led me on.\u201d From Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy, describing the protagonist\u2019s meeting with Virgil and entrance into hell. Introducing some ambiguity then, as to whether Mayo is leading our party to damnation or the promised land. What truly remains of this place called Earth?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLa Reminiscencia.\u201d Continuing with the use of Spanish text, which seems to frame our leads as either cowboys or conquistadors<\/span><\/p>\n April shows a sun tarot card to an informant, who warns her she\u2019s better off staying away from their current destination<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo one has made it out of those ruins alive except for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA certain man\u2019s horrible curse haunts that area\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The character designs for this show are so distinctive! Very prominent bone structures, little \u201csoftness\u201d to them, with an emphasis on how shadows would fall across strong, pronounced features. The Yasuomi Umetsu vibes are strong, but even Umetsu generally makes greater concessions to rounded, standard anime beauty standards, rather than these craggy, somewhat more masculine features<\/span><\/p>\n With only six episodes total, no time is wasted on connective tissue; we\u2019re dropped immediately into their next adventure, Mayo now an assumed member of the crew<\/span><\/p>\n They pierce through heavy atmosphere and out above an abandoned frontier-era city<\/span><\/p>\n A classic image: a clocktower broken and leaning, emphasizing how time has stopped for this world<\/span><\/p>\n The smooth lines of their CG ship integrate well with the background, assisted by their complimentary grey tones<\/span><\/p>\n In the center of the city we find our egg, a massive egg-shaped building marked \u201cMEGASEED.\u201d So presumably a vault of some kind, perhaps a seed for a renewed Earth, potentially containing all the biological samples and data needed to birth a new home for humanity<\/span><\/p>\n The door to this egg is marked with statues of humans in agony, as if this were the seal of Pandora\u2019s Box<\/span><\/p>\n Our tech expert Jun debuts her holographic assistant to open the door, named \u201cSancho\u201d after Sancho Panza, Don Quixote\u2019s eternally put-upon follower. A name that cheekily implies our heroes are on an inherently doomed, pointless quest<\/span><\/p>\n Mayo briefly sees a golden-haired woman within the door. I wonder what the origin texts are for this conceit of the \u201cstar child,\u201d the innocent who has mysterious powers and visions of the hidden truth? I suppose much of it might just be the secularization of religious narratives \u2013 rather than a priest or monk, the figure of destiny is transformed into a child representing humanity\u2019s hopeful future<\/span><\/p>\n This is the genius of Dragon Ball, of course \u2013 rather than transforming Journey to the West\u2019s monk into an innocent child, Toriyama transformed him into Bulma, who opens fire on Goku the moment she meets him<\/span><\/p>\n Jun and Mayo stumble through the door before it\u2019s sealed<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the old man April consulted with appears to have been conscripted by Terra Force, who are chasing April to the planet of Consegra<\/span><\/p>\n Sancho is a fine addition. The animators are clearly having fun with his more exaggeration-friendly features, embracing the cartoonish expression work that this production\u2019s otherwise highly detailed facial structures precludes. Realistic, detailed faces have their strengths and weaknesses, and one of the main things you\u2019re abandoning is cartoonish elasticity<\/span><\/p>\n A phantom appears before the trio and declares it will curse them. Sol Bianca\u2019s realistic designs work wonderfully for this character \u2013 leaning into the pronounced facial shading, this ghost\u2019s features are etched in darkness<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Divine Comedy is a story which Dante created based on his life of disappointment.\u201d Harsh but fair. A significant portion of Inferno is dedicated to Dante describing the infernal punishments awaiting various people he disliked at court<\/span><\/p>\n They arrive at a spectral river, mirroring the Acheron\u2019s role in Greek mythology (the role that Romans would assign to the river Styx)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey sure are spoiled\u2026 a gondola just for the dead?\u201d Jun has a charmingly obnoxious personality<\/span><\/p>\n Then a massive blade almost lops off their heads. Always gotta be ready for Indiana Jones traps<\/span><\/p>\n Ooh, nice pan out of depth as they reach some kind of crystal hall. Efficient work here \u2013 the scale of the room is large enough that perspective doesn\u2019t shift, meaning just adding a few cel layers with individual foreground characters creates a convincing illusion of camera movement<\/span><\/p>\n The hall is guarded by three lasers, echoing the three heads of Cerberus. Jun is not impressed<\/span><\/p>\n Terra Force arrive, with their fighter jets swiftly running into a drunken Sol Bianca-piloting Feb<\/span><\/p>\n The core of this facility appears to hold records of the twentieth century and mankind\u2019s eventual flight into space, ending in a promise by an unknown man to our golden-haired \u201cFlor,\u201d stating that his terraforming operations would end humanity\u2019s energy crisis<\/span><\/p>\n Flor\u2019s memories were transferred to this computer. I love the sort of \u201cmakeup\u201d work they\u2019re doing with her face, using incredibly delicate shading for her lips and eyelashes to create a sort of \u201chyper-real\u201d intensity in her appearance. It sorta reminds me of Studio Wit\u2019s makeup unit, who embellished high-impact shots for shows like Kabaneri and After the Rain<\/span><\/p>\n The man who did all this is named Void, presumably the figure who cursed them initially<\/span><\/p>\n Jun hacks her way to the core while the other Sol Bianca crew dogfight with Terra Force, adding some genuine visual drama to her furious typing<\/span><\/p>\n Our spectacled scion of Terra Force decides it\u2019s time to destroy the MegaSeed<\/span><\/p>\n Jun reaches the two coffins at the center of the MegaSeed, representing both Void\u2019s end and Dante\u2019s ascension into heaven<\/span><\/p>\n Flor tells us the story of Void, how he came here to terraform the planet, how he was abandoned by his fellow scientists and ultimately turned to liquor. It was Flor\u2019s suicide that prompted his current incarnation, a curse of broken dreams that has carried on through the centuries<\/span><\/p>\n Flor pleads with Jun to end his program, and she reluctantly agrees<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m really fascinated by all the inherent gaps in this story; there\u2019s so much we don\u2019t know about Sol Bianca\u2019s crew, more than it feels like two preceding OVAs could possibly cover. The sense of narrative compression and missing threads endemic to the OVA era feels uniquely alluring, like we were only able to extract fragmentary relics from much larger narratives, a sensation that makes these stories and worlds feel much larger than their actual running time. I\u2019m reminded of the natural filling-in I was forced to do as a child, when I could only catch staggered episodes of something like Outlaw Star, and thus had to fill in the gaps with my own imagination. That in particular was a product of my viewing pattern, but these OVAs seem to intentionally cultivate such an effect<\/span><\/p>\n Jun says she \u201chates old-fashioned women like you,\u201d seemingly disgusted by Flor\u2019s reliance on Void\u2019s love. More mysteries of identity that we may never resolve<\/span><\/p>\n Some excellent layouts as the egg begins to collapse; love this low-angle, super-foreshortened cut as Jun rushes towards the exit, which makes it feel as if she\u2019s pushing off the camera itself to run forward<\/span><\/p>\n The egg begins a chain reaction, and the entire planet is consumed by explosions. Void\u2019s legacy destroyed<\/span><\/p>\n Ah, I see \u2013 April found Jun aboard the Sol Bianca itself, an android who had been left alone for centuries. Thus Jun saw herself in Flor, and hated the resemblance, abandoning her even though she could have actually saved her. The loneliness of eternity breeds dependence; Jun knew exactly why Flor couldn\u2019t leave Void<\/span><\/p>\n And Done<\/b><\/p>\n Thus our heroes journey onwards into the vast unknown, having retrieved nothing from the planet Consegra except the memory of a lost love, and a reminder that we can make heaven or hell wherever we stand. A solid episode on the whole, honing in on Jun and Mayo in order to tell a compelling personal drama with a stinger that genuinely recontextualized everything we\u2019d seen before. I tend to not be a fan of \u201ccharacterization through hidden information\u201d as a rule, as I\u2019d rather relate to a character\u2019s humanity in the moment than only understand them long after the fact, but this drama was concise enough to make effective use of the concept, by essentially characterizing Jun through her reaction to each new revelation about Flor. That plus Sancho\u2019s expressiveness, the action theatrics of her friends, and the array of nefarious temple traps all combined for a generous episode that still maintained Sol Bianca\u2019s ethereal, dreamlike tone. Onward to the stars!<\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0mad<\/a><\/em>e possible by reader support<\/a>. Thank you all for\u00a0all that you do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14111752.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14112737.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14112928.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14114344.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14115327.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14115708.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14120741.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14121118.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14123615.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14124308.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February14133346.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February15115024.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/February15115826.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n