Its kitsch elements and ill-aimed stabs at noir genre effects are at least laudable, but its quirkiness crosses the line into humorless non-sequitur one too many times.

All this gaggle wants is to get to Earth for various reasons. And like an animated Marshal Sam Gerard, Yokoyama is always a step or two behind them. However, the shtick grows old as each episode unfolds with similar crests and troughs.

Personal dynamics cap at "you're always getting us into trouble"- like antics. There is never any clear indication why these girls need each other in the first place or an answer as to why they stay with each other despite their mutual hatred.

High potential to induce seizures. Though the themes reach for angst and rage, the art falls back on juvenile anime conventions where louder colors mistakably mean funnier. The villains, though, are introduced in a haunting collage of symbol and shape, evidence of some kind of ingenuity on the design team's part.

They told the story.

Enough wooden acting to make Pinocchio sound like Richard Burton. These actors felt obliged to voice these girls as annoying as they look.

The Extras menu offers an image gallery, Bandai trailers and a text-less opening.

Some violence, but even that pales in comparison to the indiscriminate sexual teasing going on in episode 4, as the girls deal with polar variances in their ships environmental controls.

Love it? Hate it? Buy it.