Argento Soma

 
 A rather peculiar early 2000s Sunrise Mecha anime that I came across recently. At first I thought this series called Argento Soma would be another of those many failed Evangelion Clones but it turns out to be otherwise, even if it barely qualifies as a Mecha anime. Argento Soma might not be a particularly successful as a Mecha series, but it's storyline is fascinating enough to qualify as Sci-Fi series and still have something in store for the Audiences who are willing to put in the time with the series. 

Surprisingly Argento Soma able to delve with some pyschological theme quite well with its story with having somebody in the production theme for some reason quite well-versed in Shakespearean theme. Not to mention if you able to proceed far enough into Argento Soma, you can trace and appreciate many core themes used in Gundam 00 Movie storyline from this relatively forgotten Sunrise anime.

 

 Argento Soma or Silver Body in Greek is the story of Humanity attempting to continue establish communication with Alien race that visit upon Solar System after some unfortunate first encounter which lead to some destruction in Major cities. It would be up to the the Protagonists of Argento Soma whether the attempt of establishing communication with the Alien race be resolved in retaliatory violence or peaceful manner. 

In Argento Soma, there are 2 Main characters whose interactions will with a mysterious Alien Silver Giant will form the important part of the story. One is a man called Ryu Soma, a person of few words with visible scar on his face who joined an Elite Alien Task Force called Funeral in order to exact upon the Silver Giant Alien whose resurrection experiment results in his lovers death. Then there is a young girl named Harriet who still maintain her optimistic innocence after losing her family in the Alien's first landing on earth incident yet somehow able to converse with the Silver Alien Giant. Lastly we have the Silver Giant which Argento Some title refers to is a gigantic Metallic thing that appears to possess some sentience and one of the few effective weapon capable of destroying the Alien giants that kept landing on Earth to reach for a certain place.

Argento Soma does have many influences from Evangelion which make me mistake it at first to be one of those clone Animes that tried to emulate Evangelion mainstream success and failed in the end. But when it comes to storyline, Argento Soma do make use of the elements inspired from Evangelion and branch out to carve its own story which are actually resolved in satisfying manner. If it counted as Evangelion clone, Argento Soma provide a glimpse of a Pre-2nd Impact scenario and have relatively good ending for Humanity instead of totally breaking loose into a doomsday scenario. 

Instead of having Alien Entities that will end humanity if they reach their particular destination on Earth, Argento Soma features bunch metallic Alien giants which are essentially Humanoid version of ELS from Gundam 00 that are not actually hellbent on destroying humanity despite some initial misunderstandings with collateral damages. 

 

While Argento Soma does have cool mecha designs called SARGs which are basically real robot version of Evangelion with some Macross elements sprinkled on, the Mecha is not actually the main focus of the series. But interestingly Argento Soma is one of the series that mark veteran Seiyuu Soichiro Hoshi rise in voice acting carrier as he got the lead role in this one. To think of it, having angsty version of Kira Yamato being a Macross Type Evangelion pilot is certainly amusing.

Instead these mechas are used as a bait for mecha fans to get into as an opportunity for Argento Soma to peddle what they have to offer. Think of it as Planetes with Mecha instead of the other way around that dwell quite well on psychological elements like dealing with Loss of loved ones. Considering the Moderoid release of SARGs coincided around the time with this article being written, I will prepare an article for them in near future.

Given the sort of content that Argento Soma has to offer, the series is definitely not something that typical anime fan would enjoy. But for those who are willing to give Argento Soma a try with open mind, you will find a decent story of a man's journey to seek for a Redemption after going for a misguided quest of vengeance wrapped in Sci-Fi genre. Not to mention the Opening song of Argento Soma are quite memorable as well despite its overall melancholy theme.