| Firestorm | |
| Ja Kanji: | ファイアーストーム |
| Genre: | Adventure, Mecha |
| Type: | tv series |
| Director: | Kenji Terada |
| Studio: | Trans Arts |
| Licensee: | Enoki Films |
| Network: | TV Tokyo |
| First: | April 6, 2003 |
| Last: | September 28, 2003 |
| Episodes: | 26 |
is a Japanese anime series created by Gerry Anderson and John Needham.[1] The series combines CGI animation for mecha and traditional 2D animation for characters. The series was not warmly received, and subsequently failed to gain a wider release.
By the year 2104, the nations of Earth have finally achieved world peace. However, that peace is threatened by a new worldwide terrorist organization called Black Orchid. To counter this threat, the United Nations has created a military peacekeeping force called Storm Force. Each Storm Force unit (8 total) acts independently, operating primarily from a large twin-hulled submarine. As the series opens, a new elite unit is formed called Storm Force 9, which is assigned a special mission; code-named "Firestorm."
Early in the series, the Firestorm team discover Black Orchid is secretly a front for a worldwide invasion of space aliens who can disguise themselves as humans. The aliens have developed a drug which will turn humans into their mindless slaves, and they plot to put the drug into the Earth's water supply.
Each episode focuses strongly on futuristic vehicles (mecha). The Firestorm team operate primarily from a huge twin-hulled submarine, called the Ocean Storm. This submarine features a detachable jet aircraft called the Tornado, making it similar to SkyDiver from Gerry Anderson's 1970-71 series UFO. Visually, the Tornado resembles Thunderbird 2 from Anderson's 1965-66 series Thunderbirds. While Thunderbird 2 carried a variety of pods containing smaller vehicles, the Tornado carries a group of smaller vehicles at all times, including two jet fighters, a futuristic tank and several boats.
All members of Storm Force 9 wear snug-fitting, futuristic blue wet suits. Males tend to wear a blue military jacket over the wet suit when not working underwater.
In 2014 Gerry Anderson's company Anderson Entertainment announced that it was launching a crowdfunding campaign to produce a pilot episode for a new television series of Firestorm using practical film-making techniques including practical special effects and puppetry.[2] This was a ground-up remake, using Anderson's original documents.[3] Operation Firestorm is now the codename for the defeat of Black Orchid; Sam Scott, Nagisa Kisaragi, Drew McAllister and Laura Hope remain. Ocean Storm, Tornado and Combatcruiser also remain with the latter being renamed to "Blizzard". The miniature effects crew included Anderson veterans Steve Begg and Bill Pearson (who had more recently worked on recent Bond films Casino Royale) and Doctor Whos Mike Tucker, while puppets are to be made by the company Mackinnon and Saunders.[4]
On 18 February 2016, Jamie Anderson announced to Kickstarter backers that the pilot would soon begin shooting.[5] Filming began on 29 February. It was released via YouTube on 27 October 2018.[6] [7] A full series is in pre-production.