Avenger 7/10

It's a grim future...again. Humanity has been relegated to a lonely outpost on a desolate planet...again. The populace has become sterile...again. From the ashes rises a hero...again.

Avenger is a newer show so on the technical side this series is of a higher quality , as it should be being as it aired in 2003. The character designs are really great and the backgrounds and character art are consistent throughout all 13 episodes. The music is OK overall and the VA's do the standard great job.

Earth was destroyed 10 or so years ago but not before Mars was colonized 40 years previous to that. Around that time the humans on Mars ceased having children due to some unknown reason. To replace the missing children people have created androids in their image for another unknown reason. I believe it's so the writers can have a convenient plot device.

The story starts with a young woman named Layla who travels with a little girl(?) android named Nei. Layla is a gladiator who is to compete in a tournament between the Mars city states in order to determine how the limited Martian resources are to be divided up. This tournament is again never really explained and is probably advertised as "The Ultimate Plot Advancement Tournament of Champions". Because of this Layla is a highly trained fighter who is very adept at dispatching the black cloaked little girl androids sent to kidnap Nei on a regular basis. (Once again the trauma of the destruction of Earth has cost humanity their ability to use projectile weapons.) Nei is seemingly a very advanced android and they meet up with an android repair guy named Speedy who joins them on their travels after meeting. He either comes along because..well..he just does, I suppose it's because Layla and Nei really don't talk much.

The plot kind of meanders around a bit to start. We learn early on that Nei isn't just an android but she's a little girl(?), how she ended up with Layla is never explained. The people running Mars want Nei in order to preform the standard tossing of the little girl(?) into a large glowing tank of green water and running tests. They first batch of shows involve the group running from the authorities after being forced into the cities in search of food.

We also learn some of the backstory about Mars. There are these immortals who run Mars who came from Earth back in the day. 10 years ago they shot down an escape ship from Earth when it showed up looking for help. It turns out Layla was the only survivor who was rescued by the immortal guy, Cross, who disagreed with the rest of the rulers and went out to live in the desert. Cross trained Layla to fight for revenge, then berates her later in the series for living for revenge. What a jerk!

Also, when the Earth was destroyed alot of people went into stasis on the moon. Then the moon went to Mars. When it arrived at Mars it caused havoc, kind of like when Megatron brought Cybertron to Earth. The people on Earth are waking up at the time the story takes place but we never see them, never find out why they slept, never find out what their plans are, never know why the immortals are so pissed at them and of course never find out HOW THEY MOVED THE MOON!

If you can get past the insane premise and HUGE plot holes this show is pretty great. It's basically about Layla trying to protect the one thing she cares about and making a choice to fight for that and not revenge. I also liked watching each show waiting for the revelation as to Nei's true nature because you never know what kind of weird twist they're going to put in. I recommend this show but it's not as well thought out as say Saber Marionette J even though it shares alot of the same ideas.