I recently watched Andromeda Stories, a 1982 feature-length TV special based on a manga by Takemiya Keiko (most famous for To Terra) and Mitsuse Ryuu (apparently a pretty well-known SF author), and it was pretty interesting.

It’s about a planet in the Andromeda galaxy that is secretly being invaded from the top down by machine lifeforms that take over people’s bodies and connect them to a network, kind of similar in concept to the Borg in Star Trek, but a few years earlier. However, there is also a group of people from another planet that got taken over by the same machines, fled to this planet and integrated into the local society, and now work to fight against the machines. And their leader is… not the protagonist. Neither of them, as it switches protagonists 1/3 of the way. The first one is Il, a woman warrior from yet another planet who came specifically to fight the machines, but on her own terms. After that she’s replaced by Jimsa, the prince of the first empire to get taken over, who was born earlier in the film, has the power to resist the machines and grew up to be the most powerful momma’s boy in the world. Needless to say, Il is the cooler of the two.

Now, I can’t honestly say this is a great work. The writing is pretty clunky; characters sometime behave inexplicably, there are time where the story tries to make a point, but it doesn’t manage to get the framing right, and it has possibly one of the dumbest deaths in fiction history. I’m not a big fan of the bloodline nonsense, either.

That said, if you’re at all interested in the premise and have some tolerance for awkward storytelling, I do recommend it. It moves at a fast clip and is never boring, has some pretty cool science-fiction concepts and the ending is quite something. It’s a satisfying watch despite its flaws.