Gall Force

 is a metaseries of science fiction anime OVAs by the studios Artmic and AIC, with production by Youmex. The original character designs were by Kenichi Sonoda, though these were dropped for the "Gall Force: The Revolution" remake. Central Park Media has licensed most of the films and OVAs with the exceptions of "Ten Little Gall Force", "Scramble Wars", and "The Revolution".
Origin.
"Star Front Gall Force".
This was the origin and precursor to the "Gall Force" franchise. Originally appearing in the monthly "Model Graphix" magazine in Japan as a 3D photo novel using detailed models, this later set the stage for the animated films. Rabby, Patty, and Rumy were the only main Solnoid characters featured, and they were equipped with different uniforms, weapons, and vehicles than those shown in the regular Gall Force OVAs. Although it was the first-ever storyline to the "Gall Force" mythos proper, Star Front's place in the official continuity has been questioned and disregarded due to contradictions between it and Eternal Story. Although it is the actual origin of the franchise, it is now seen by fans as non-canon, or an alternate timeline. Another factor that causes question is the fact that fans outside Japan never knew of the photo novel's existence.
Mainstream series.
The original timeline for the Gall Force series consist of four story arcs: "First Story Arc", "Rhea Arc", "Earth Chapter Arc" and "New Era Arc". Within each arc there are several episodes, with the exception of "Rhea".
Original trilogy.
The first arc starts with the centuries-long war between the Paranoids and the Solnoids, the exodus of early humanity to planet Terra, and the death of the Star Leaf crew. The timeline ends with events that will lead to the "Rhea Arc". The first story arc consists of three episodes;
Gall Force: Eternal Story
Gall Force 2: Destruction
Gall Force 3: Stardust War
Rhea Arc.
"Rhea Gall Force" takes place in the aftermath of the "Stardust War", but before the events of "Earth Chapter". In the 21st century the Earthen discovery of derelict alien technology on the Moon—which are in fact the remnants of the events in "Eternal Story"—ignited an arms race as the "Western" and "Eastern" blocs rushed to deploy the technology as weapons, including a form of artificial life based on the Paranoids, the MME. This artificial life turned on humanity, starting a war of extermination against their creators.
Rhea Plot Summary
In the year 2084, scientist Grey Newman found and reverse-engineered the technology from a Solnoid ship found on the Moon (see "Eternal Story") and unintentionally brought about the end of civilization. World War III breaks out and in the middle of battle, the human's own alien synthezoids turn against their creators, nearly annihilating humankind.
Later in the year 2085, the remaining humans are on the run from the machines who are terminating them. In order to survive to defeat the alien machines, the human race must leave Earth, and go to Mars. Among these voyagers is one woman who bears the burden of guilt for her father's contribution to the destruction of civilization.
Earth Chapter Arc.
The "Earth Chapter Arc" continues the story from "Rhea Arc" with reincarnations of the Star Leaf crew. After the completion of Operation Exodus, the earth resistance must survive long enough for the arrival of the Mars reinforcements led by General McKenzie. It consists of three episodes.
Earth Chapter 1
Earth Chapter 2
Earth Chapter 3
New Era Arc.
"New Era" concludes the story from "Earth Chapter", but takes place about 200 years later. It consists of two episodes.
New Era Plot Summary
After centuries of war between humans and the MME machines, the humans have won the battle. However, many lives were lost and the Earth was rendered terribly damaged and unstable to live on. Shortly afterwards, mankind began to restore Earth, and a new race of cyborgs called "Yumans" had begun to live with the humans. In desire for a better future, humanity is now linked in one large computer network. However, a conflict between the Humans and Yumans shortly began. Considering themselves far better than the human, the Yumans began to plot a takeover. Now humanity lives separated into tightly packed arcologies built around the world, each keeping minimal contact with the other and dealing with internal problems like overpopulation.
A young scientist named Nova, influenced by revolutionary leader of the Yumans, Genova, develops his own plans to bring humanity down. Using the tools he's acquired over the years, he awakens artificial intelligence to destroy all human life, by reprograming every computer on Earth with the GORN virus. The virus is actually a bit more than Nova predicted, due to its intent on wiping out both humans and Yumans from the solar system. With the entire system now connected once more after all the wars, GORN is able to bring his presence everywhere in his attempt to achieve his long-term goals.
GORN's plans are not a surprise to Catty, for she has foreseen the disaster and sets her own plan into motion just before the virus strikes. Being a Yuman with heart, she leads a force of seven women into the final battle between man and machine!
Alternate series and releases.
Gall Force: The Revolution.
This 1996 OVA was a reimagining of the series, which replaced the amorphous Paranoids with a seemingly endless civil war between the "West Force" and "East Force" Solnoid armies. Unlike the previous OVAs' more somber and apocalyptic tones, "The Revolution" is a more traditional sci-fi adventure story, although it still stresses on the tragedies and wide-scale destruction caused by war. Four episodes were produced, along with one soundtrack album and a "vocal collection" starring the main female cast singing various songs, one of which being a "remake" of "Disguised Spies" from one of the original saga's soundtracks.
The plot tells of the struggle between the West Force and East Force armies of the Solnoids, which threatens to escalate into total destruction of the Solnoid race as both sides search for the ultimate war weapon, the anti-matter gun. By happenstance, however, several troopers from the East Force (Eluza, Rabby, Patty, and Rumy) and the West Force (Lufy) encounter the Conch, an outlawed Solnoid anti-war organization which is trying to spread peace among the hostile parties. As they discover that the war is merely used as an insidious instrument of balance by one singular Solnoid party, the rogue Solnoid troopers unwittingly find themselves fighting for an idea completely alien to them, but which presents the only way of stopping this perpetuated madness.
Ten Little Gall Force & Scramble Wars.
The 1988 omake was an animated mockumentary detailing a behind-the-scenes look at the production of "Gall Force: Eternal Story" and "Destruction" from the First Story Arc. Characters were drawn as super deformed versions of their Eternal Story counterparts. This video maintained a comedic tone as opposed to the somewhat serious war story in the original video it was supposedly documenting.
 (released 1992) is a humorous Japanese take on "Wacky Races" in which characters from several major series produced by Artmic—"Bubblegum Crisis", "Gall Force", "Genesis Survivor Gaiarth", among others—compete for a trillion dollar-heavy trophy sponsored by the megacorporation Genom. The amount of this prize brings out the worst of many of the main characters, and even weapons of mass destruction are brought to bear against the competition.
"Ten Little Gall Force" was released along with "Scramble Wars" in the United States by AnimEigo on a single VHS video titled "Super-Deformed Double Feature". Strangely, as of this time, these have not been released on DVD as with the other "Gall Force" titles and are (in their VHS release) much-sought rare collector's items.
Video games.
A shoot 'em up was released in Japan, simply titled "Gall Force", for the Family Computer Disk System by HAL Laboratory on November 19, 1986. Another shoot-em-up, also developed by Hal, was released during the same year titled "Gall Force: Defense of Chaos" for the MSX, which was followed by "Gall Force: Eternal Story", a graphic adventure game for the MSX2, in 1987.
Music.
Similarly to other OVAs of the era (and by studios AIC and ARTMIC), "Gall Force" features a huge amount of music, performed by the voice actors involved in the series. Several soundtracks were released for each film and OVA (and for each OVA episode in Earth Chapter's case). In addition, many music collections were released, featuring original songs performed by the aforementioned voice actors, along with various singles and a CD drama. So far, no soundtracks have been released for the films "Destruction" and "Stardust War".
Soundtracks
Singles
Music Collections
Gall Force Earth Saga - Back to the School Wars