Anime — Soukou no STRAIN

I don't as a rule go for mecha or space anime, but this title from Q4 '06 started with the advantage of being a short stand-alone series. And while it was not earth-shatteringly epic, it was a fun little ride, with some nods to realism, in the highly relativistic spaceflight and the time dilation effects.

It certainly grabbed my attention when at the end of the first episode, not only does everyone we've been introduced to (but the heroine) die; but her beloved brother has been revealed as the traitor who has killed them — and has managed to destroy the irreplaceable mimic-unit which allows her to pilot the top-grade mecha class (the STRAIN of the title).

That gives her 12 episodes to start again from zero, find and defeat her brother, and save the human race — while gaining (and losing) more colleagues by the way, being bullied by many of her colleagues and fending off the advances of others…