Round Vernian Vifam

 Downed another 80s Sunrise mecha anime and Vifam is yet another of those wasted potentials. Like most of its peers of its time, Round Vernian Vifam is one of those Mecha anime that was pretty much glorified toys commercial. Perhaps Sunrise was still experimenting add the time but it just shows that Real Robot and Kids doesn't mix really well. The Plot of Vifam can be summarised as a story of group 13 Kids trying their best to survive in the midst of interstellar conflict with Robot thrown into the mix.

 The mecha designs of Vifam itself is not too bad if it doesn't particular stands out but the rest is much to be desired. The casts other than the main character are ranging from forgettable to straight terrible with the Gungho Kid being the worst offender. I have tried to give Vifam a chance, but It is just really hard to swallow that a regular underage kids could stand a chance to fight against Professional Soldiers which is why the series is a miss for me.

 At first glance Vifam looks like Guncannon strapped with Dragonar Jetpack and it doesn't stray too far from it. I think Dragonar is probably what comes out when Gundam and Vifam are mixed with Obari thrown in for good measures. To me the Vifam doesn't feel like a mecha series but instead a War Drama with Kids as the cast instead with Mecha serves as an accessory.

Infinite Ryvius and Bokurano probably done better in this aspect but i guess Vifam is an attempt for animation studio in 80s to narrate story of Kids trying to survive in a Sci-fi setting based conflict. So in the end Round Vernian Vifam as a mecha series is fated to be forgotten with its lackluster quality and Kids better stick with Super Robot like Yuusha series instead.

But if i have to mention one good thing about Vifam, it would be the Enemy Elite Mecha design ARV-I Duraphe which is the better mecha design from the series and i think Kawamori took some inspirations for his Macross designs.