I’m even more surprised at how evergreen Vandread’s proved than Descendants of Darkness. Possibly because it’s never really been on my radar, looking like your bog-standard sci-fi anime, and one that looks more like a 90s anime on the surface at that.
However, it’s been released 4 different times by Pioneer and then Funimation (single releases and three different collections), the latest being this year. And Funimation have just licenced the two compilation OAVs made of the show. It’s amusing to see the review ANN did back in 2002 mention that GONZO were “developing a reputation for going all out with an opening episode for a series, then skimping on the budget for the next few episodes.” Well it didn’t take them long to get that fully developed.
In going through old reviews for this there was one that pointed something out that hadn’t clicked before. Namely that a lot of shows had got only the following message from Evangelion’s success – put girls in giant robots. Like that was the only reason Evangelion was a hit. Vandread runs along those lines to the point of harem extremes, but people seem to like it due to its sense of humour and the wacky mankind splitting along gender lines gimmick it opens with.
Otaku no Video’s Takeshi Mori created the show and directed it, and as we shall see the majority of his work this decade is along these girl-heavy sci-fi comedy adventure lines.