Before I go off on what is definitely a rant I have a few things to say. I have been watching anime for around five years, and well, to be honest I have never been a fan of space operas. So while I could rant on and on about whiny pilot boy (or girl ) syndrome, I'm not going to. In fact Souko no Strain is so much worse in other aspects, I don't need to.
The series basically takes the generic good and bad sides, with the good side piloting mechs for justice, freedom, and protecting the good-guy way of life. Whereas the bad guys resort to using evil deserters and mindless robots of destruction. It's like Vandread all over again! Except this time we lack the interesting play off between the two sexes and any sort of fun (for lack of a better word) character interaction.
Animation
The whole production of the series is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand the mechs look fine, but they don't really look impressive either. It's just the typical integration of 3D-ish CG into 2-D animation that we've been seeing more and more of. The problem being Vandread did it with extreme similarity a long time ago, and arguably there have been better examples that have improved on the same concept (Zegapain comes to mind).
And then we get to the 2-D animation which is just plain unimpressive. While the character designs are passable, they're well, generic. To top that off Lotti looks like she's in the wrong show. The original Kanon is probably missing a character or something to that effect.
All-in-all very average.
Sound
It takes a lot for background music to really make an impression on me, so while it's entirely possible other people enjoyed it, what struck me most here was the opening theme. It's not a bad tune, but with a slow J-pop tune not exactly it's breaking any ground either. The ending was just a slower J-pop tune. Which breaks even less ground.
Voice actors are what you expect from a Japanese cast (i.e. no notably bad performances throughout the cast).
Again, average.
Story
Here's where we hit one of the two most important parts of any anime, and also the one of two parts where Souko no Strain just plain out fails. Now plenty of other anime take similar approaches. Training space pilots? I can come up with three series off the top of my head. But Souko no Strain decides it has to start off with a bang. And the first arc certainly does that well enough.
And it also just proves one thing which while spoiler-ish, really needs to be said in any review on this series: The script writers for this series love killing off characters. A lot.
Death always makes for an effective plot device, even if wash, rinsed, and repeated. But the utter pointlessness of certain character deaths and the lack of their impact is just stunning sometimes.
Getting back to the story, it takes the typical pattern of a spaceship getting attacked while students are in the middle of training. And it happens again, and again. Drama ensues, Sara gets hazed, makes friends, life goes on and betrayal occurs.
But when it hits its really dramatic points it goes downhill fast. But that's really more of a point to be explored in the characters, since it's the utter stupidity and delusion of the characters which makes the plot a complete train-wreck. Going from complete tedium, to slightly interesting battles, to dramatic displays of idiocy hardly makes for an interesting plot.
One note of such idiocy that really just sticks out like a puss oozing sore, is the fact that the primary characters which drive the motivation of characters and tilt the balance of power are a pair of loli-goths (further idiotic revelations make the idiocy just expand to well ... worse idiocy). Yes, anime is usually illogical, but here we just have an example as to why anime is so loved and hated.
There is one little ray of hope though: The Lavinia episode ("Lavinia's Beautiful trap"), is just the light hearted sort of break the series should have taken so many more times than just once. Between the dramatic scenes and random deaths it just would have helped made the show more bearable. Not to say fanservice fixes everything, but in this case it really didn't hurt.
So overall, it started off well, went through something typical plot devices, hit some fanservice, and then went straight on into some of the most convoluted and idiotic conclusions I've ever seen. Not good.
Characters
Right about here is where I would normally put in some sort of internet jargon for sighing, but I leave that to your imagination.
Oh, wait, the characters. Where to start?
Well, first a disclaimer. Some people might find my analysis unfair, but to be honest it takes a lot for me to dislike an anime character. So when I dislike a large part of a cast it means I'm seeing a major flaw in them. I'm not just flaming them for the sake of it: these are badly designed characters.
I guess Sara is as good a place as any. Now entirely meaning to insert a stereotype I'm going to call her an "Onii-sama" girl. She just loooves her onii-sama. I've never ran into anyone that yells "brother" so the concept of such a person just seems to beg for the wapanese jargon. They could have put her in sister princess and aside from her tortured past she'd fit in fine. Obsession aside, her solution is somehow worse, she secludes herself and takes to stroking a loli-goth doll. Wonder drugs them is, them loli goths cure anyyything.
I could sigh again.
Next up would be her brother. A fine example of a betraying piece of scum who destroyed Sara's ideal onii-sama image. And to make matters worse the fact you don't get the revelation as to why until the end of the series makes him a bore. But when you find out why, and see what he's willing to do in defense of his motivation (*hint* it involves survivor guilt and loli goths), it just makes clear how warped whoever came up with his character is. Hitler had more of a concrete justification for his actions than this guy (and for the record I think Hitler was off his rocker). He also drives about 99.9% the plot with his delusions which makes it all the worse when we find out how idiotic they are.
Then we have Lotti. The model pilot who underneath all that cute loli-Kanon face hides a dark tortured past of yet another lost onii-sama. Give me a break! How many girls have to have brother complexes? The world is not that simple. Some people live and let live, war happens, people suffer, but they don't all get driven to become a mech pilot and take revenge. Lotti just takes it past what is realistic.
There's a particular scene where she finds out a certain person is related to a certain person who took out her onii-sama, and she just snaps. After putting so much trust in this person she just snaps and is ready to blow out said persons brains. There's this little thing called trust, but she just does not seem to have any. She also has some sort of competitive thing going on with Sara which is yawn inducing.
Then there's the rest of the characters. They fall into two areas: fanservice and background.
Lotti's sidekick, the other pilots, the hazers, officers,and the mech junkies are all background characters. They serve their purposes but are far out shadowed by the characters who die, and the few idiot main characters running the show.
And then there are the fanservice characters: Lavinia and the bad officer lady who was always in the shower (can't remember her name for the life of me). Shower lady is obviously just there to be in the shower, Lavinia on the other hand...
She was the only character that injected a little comedy into an otherwise dull set of characters. It's just sad that the lesbian screwball is the best character in the series.
SO overall, the characters go the whole spectrum, from idiotic, to middle-of-the road, to pure -fluff-one-dimensional. But they lean towards the idiotic, depressed, and psychotic. So the show fails again.
Value
Value? I have to admit that in the initial episodes with their wiz-bang development and nonchalant attitude towards character life-spans it made for an interesting beginning. But the show just went in a downward spiral as it made its way towards what in most shows should be the meat, which makes you want to keep going when the show has nothing but a bone left at the end (yay! for metaphors). But what little value I could have attributed at the beginning was destroyed. It has potential to be viewed like those horrible sci-fi movies on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Rent the DVDs (If an when it ever gets licensed) and make fun of it with a few like minded friends.
Enjoyment
I'd rate enjoyment to being about the same as the value. It takes a different perspective to enjoy it than I have. While I said I don't love space opera, this is one of the worse examples, watch the subs, or eventually rent or borrow it (from some poor sucker that buys it). But don't buy it. It's not worth re-watching in any way, shape, or form; watching it once is both a test in patience and will power. Heck, that being said only watch it if it's one of those kind of shows that looks like you could love it.