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Several millenia in the future Mankind has spread to colonize the stars, and the Union and Deague factions are at war with each other. Young Sara Webec is a trainee learning to pilot a Strain- a large, exotic-looking, agile and powerful mecha used for both planetary and space-based warfare. She wants to be part of the elite group of Reasoners (Strain pilots) to follow in the footsteps of her older brother Ralph, considered the best of the best and someone she will never see again in her lifetime unless she too joins the space fleet and begins traveling at sublight velocities. Her dreams are shattered, along with her ability to pilot a Strain, when the Academy and all her friends are destroyed in an enemy attack led by an unknown Strain- which turns out to be piloted by her brother. Months later, we encounter trainee Sara Cruz struggling with operating a Gambee- a simpler and limited mecha used for ship defense. She's disliked by her fellow trainees because of her withdrawn attitude, low piloting skills, and tendency to fight simulations as a loner. An unusual situation during an enemy attack puts her in the pilot seat of a cobbled-together Strain again, and now her desire to know what turned her gentle brother into a cold-eyed murderous traitor fights with her desire to rip his mech to pieces. -||- I liked 'Strain' mainly for a few of the things it lacked: some common anime conventions that I felt would really mess with the fact that this was supposed to be about war. There was no invincible cast that always makes it through battles without a scratch- several named primary and secondary characters were killed with no closure to the storylines that they were involved in. Also, there was no grudging 'kiss and make up' session with Sara and her antagonists after her skill with a Strain was revealed- in fact they hated her even more because they thought (rightly, though it wasn't really Sara's fault) her late entry into a battle cost the ship far more casualties than it would've if she'd entered earlier. Episode 7, even though it gave us Lavinia's boobies to look at, was a fairly jarring and needless departure from the story- and I would've preferred skin from the pink-haired Strain pilot who looks like Tira Misu.
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