Pyramid Review
BESM Space Fantasy
Published by Guardians of Order
Written by James Maliszewski, with additional writing by Christopher Haynes
Art by Christina Crontiris, Olga Bosserdt, Derrick Chin, Svetlana Chmakova, & Tara Lustik
96-page b&w digest-size softcover; $16.95
Guardians of Order extends the Big Eyes, Small Mouth universal anime roleplaying game franchise with this solid treatise on the characteristics and conventions of anime space fantasy (or "space opera" in older usage). While some of this terrain has already been walked (in Centauri Knights or the out-of-print-but-available-by-download Big Robots, Cool Starships and even touched on peripherally by the Tenchi Muyo! game book series), this is Big Eyes, Small Mouth's first comprehensive look at the space fantasy genre separated from the settings.
The first chapter gives a brief definition of space fantasy, as well as an overview of the history of space opera anime from "Astro Boy" forward; this is fairly standard introductory stuff. The book gets down to business in chapter two, with nearly a quarter of the book dedicated to discussion and investigation of campaign styles. This begins with a look at the broad elements (action, comedy, melodrama, romance) and then examines common applications, ranging from a Star Trek-like exploration campaign to the military themes of Star Blazers, even to the mixed romance-magical girl tendencies of Tenchi. More familiar space gaming premises, like space merchants or pirates, are also . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 30, 2004
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