女神候補生 (Candidate for Goddess / Pilot Candidate)

In the distant future, mankind has expanded into space and settles on other planets and space colonies. However, mankind are now facing extinction from an alien species known as Victim. With Zion, the only habitable planet left, mankind must makes it last stand here. Five Ingrids, known as the Goddesses, are built to fend off the Victims, while the pilot training school, GOA, is set up near Zion to gather youngsters and train them to become pilots of the Goddesses.

Zero Enna, aka Candidate 88, has just arrived on GOA. Like other candidates, he wants to become a pilot one day. Before that happens though, Zero will need to train hard and prove himself among all candidates...

Candidate for Goddess was adapted from the same-named manga as a 12-episodes TV series plus one-episode OVA special in 2000. The series was originally planned for 26 episodes. As for the manga, five volumes was released and Tokyopop has the license and all are released.

Link:
No good sites available.

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The show is pretty good, with enough humor to keep it going. Mixing traditional anime production with CG graphics for all mechas and the aliens is very interesting, certainly is the main highlight for this series.

The only problem with this series is that it never reaches full potential with only 12 episodes, and certainly a lot of loose ends was never resolved, and probably never will. However, this is a good series for teenagers for sure.

Note: Bandai Entertainment only licensed the 12 episodes. The OVA episode is never licensed in North America. It is available on fansubs.

Dino's Rating: 7
Will Girls Like It: Maybe