What Am I Watching - Space Family Carlvinson

Synopsis - Tokyo Godfathers meets E.T. A set of aliens (and a robot) hit a spaceship and causes it to crash. After checking the wreckage of said spaceship, they find dead humans in it. They then find a baby, apparently the only survivor of the ordeal. This OVA is about these aliens and their new "child", as they live their life in space.

Review - I have a little brother. He doesn't like anime too much, but he detests OVAs. After watching Twin Signal with him, he said, "Wow, that was actually good. Is there a fourth episode?". I responded by mentioning that this was a three-episode OVA, and that if he wanted more backstory and satisfaction, he should read the nineteen-volume manga series. He then threw a hissy fit about how almost all of the OVAs I make him watch have longer manga series than the animated counterpart.

Now, I disagreed with him at first. I believe that there are many great OVAs that can sum up a long-running manga's story fairly well in 3-5 episodes (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure). But I do kinda agree with the kid in that whenever I watch the final episode of whatever OVA is on, I feel kind of ripped off, no matter the quality. Hell, I felt this way when I watched Elf Princess Rane, and that stands in my top ten greatest anime comedies list.

This anime is no exception. Spanning only one episode, this anime's manga counterpart lasted from 1986 to 2006. I honestly didn't know what I was dealing with here. So, after watching this show, I begin my review.

There's even a toy lineup of this!

The plot is very much like, say, Tokyo Godfathers, where a bunch of oddities (or aliens) take care of a child. Though, unlike Godfathers, this child actually grows up and learns to speak. I can't go too much into detail with this OVA's plot because, well, there isn't much. But what they lack in crazy plot, they made up for it in character development.

Very much like Seventh Heaven or any shows of that ilk, the show is obviously about the hardships of raising a bra--er--kid. From the get-go, the aliens are funny and, to be honest, if you were blind, you wouldn't know they were aliens. You have the "mother", the big pink thing. Looking at her, I didn't care. Watching the series, however, I realized that she could probably make a better mom than some people I've seen. Her wholesomeness is what hit close to home, because, well that's kinda like how my grandma was with me and my cousins. The "father" is the robot. He is such a badass. He may not be the pinnacle of badassery in a show like Hokuto no Ken or Overman King Gainer, but again, this show is more like Growing Pains, remember? And the next time you find a small mech that can also turn into a giant mobile suit in Family Matters, let me know. While the blue-haired wolf-chick wasn't all that special, the drunken, lanky, dumbass uncle was hilarious. He is comic relief, and he broke the heavy stuff remarkably, I thought. And finally, we have Corona, the baby in question. Yes, she is, like, six, but at the same time, she showed a bit of maturity for her age. How about that? 

The voice acting was nice. The aliens already had character, but the voice acting solidified it for me. No complaints here.

So yeah, short review for a short anime. What did you expect?? The plot was nice, the music and animation was okay, and the characters were out-of-this-world (yeah, I went there, shut it). Solid anime, and like Shingu, it really only exists to make you feel good when your girlfriend dumps you. Or maybe not in this case.

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Story - 6.75

Characters - 7.5

Content - 7.75

Animation - 5.75

Music - n/a

Overall - 7

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