Review: Fafner in the Azure: Exodus (Seasons 1 and 2)

It’s always this lighthearted. I prom–who am I kidding? It’s downhill from here.

Background

Studio Xebec.  There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.  Let’s face it…it basically became, for a long time, the name associated with mediocre series.  Heck…a long search of their credentials few noteworthy series in the last 10 years.  The last “popular” one might be Shaman King.  Past that?  Some occasional moderate successes.  Some underrated series.  But nothing really spectacular or groundbreaking.  Or really “great” for that matter.  Throw the 2004 series Fafner in the Azure as part of that.  Reasonable and decent plot but suffering a bit of a budget issue and some pacing problems (10 episodes are only worth watching upon second viewing), in addition to some complaints when Hisashi Hirai basically recycled the same character design templates (themselves already questionable to some fans)…and things went a bit off the rails.  But I liked it.  It’s kind of interesting and a bit of a Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion hybrid.

Colour me surprised as this series slowly plods along for the next decade.  It gets a prequel OVA, Fafner in the Azure: Right of Left, a movie sequel, Fafner in the Azure: Heaven and Earth,…and, around 2013, announces a sequel series.  More shockingly though comes news that Xebec, which hadn’t done a lengthy standalone series in years (at least something over 6 episodes), produced the entire series under the new name Xebec Zwei.  Also, and this is even more shocking, the attached name to the project doesn’t include three words after the colon: Fafner in the Azure: Exodus.

Story

Welcome to this version of Earth.  About 2110 AD (give or take.  Memory is pretty bad on the exact date), a series of aliens eventually named Festum make contact with Earth.  They begin what can only be described as a horrific assault.  The world as we know it falls to pieces as these aliens, apparently silicon-based, begin attacking.  Each live in packs led by a Mir and tend to form more inquisitive thoughts than the standard invading alien.  Their standard attack is announcing into your mind the question “Are you there?”.  It then attempts to read your mind and assimilate your mind and body simultaneously.  This wave of offence pretty much destroys much of the world…Japan and much of China sink into the ocean outright.  Escaping Japanese civilians are apparently all sterile. Did I mention that the Festum also come in a wide variety of lovely shapes and sizes?  And they fly?

They’re pretty much zombies. Golden, Angel-esc, mind destroying zombies.

But one floating centre of Japanese culture survives.  Tatsumiya Island.  It is a cloaked, mobile island which spends its days living a much less bleak life.  Children go to school, people have routine worries, and there are even happy cafes still in operation.  Why?  Well, they harness the power of teenagers and mecha.  That is…they genetically engineer children with the ability to fly mecha known as Fafner.  The ones on this island, currently in production as of the original series, provide a combat efficiency unparalleled across the Earth.  That is to say, they win battles.

Now, this is where many series diverge.  Fafner falls into a pretty cynical category.  Things rarely go smoothly for the pilots.  Death exists all over.  Multiple pilots die in the original series and mecha routinely end battles trashed.  The original series goes as far as to make a single Festum a challenging enemy.

The original series introduces Tatsumiya to the world.  Namely that they not only hid from the Festum but from humanity.  The rest of the world formed under the Neo UN, an apparently more effective and militant version of the UN we know today.  They fight the Festum at an international level with their own line of Fafner.  Poorly.  Anyways, the existence of Tatsumiya comes as a great surprise to them.  They routinely attempt to pull the island into greater conflicts in the original season.  They also present a threat in the movie Heaven and Earth as they slowly fall into more extreme measures when fighting Festum.  In fact, Exodus begins with a nuclear strike against an exceptionally large Festum walking over the island of Hawaii.  Which fails to do anything.

Exodus picks up four years after the original series and continues to show this arms race between Festum and humans.  The Neo UN finally develops a line of Fafner which actually compete with the even evolving Festum…which now have trump cards in the size of exceedingly powerful individual Festum (known as “Azazel” type Festum.  Get used to a lot of terminology if you watch this series).  They still get crushed and lose their base in Hawaii.  It’s quite odd as, outside of the events of Heaven and Earth, Festum rarely act in such an organized manner. A small splinter group of the Neo UN, led by General Wiseman-Bose, eventually flee and end up making contact with Tatsumiya.  Long story short, the general plans to end this war by having a citizen from Tatsumiya who is capable of speaking to the Festum accompany him so they can find a way to co-exist with the Festum.  They agree and things go on from there.  The narrative follows two groups: one which follows the General on his trip to India to seek out this possible end to the war and one which stays on Tatsumiya and defends it from Festum attacks which are spiking in both size and ferocity.

It should be clear, even before I begin going into analysis of the series itself, that there’s a massive learning curve.  There are 26 episodes and 1 movie’s worth of plot worth knowing before getting started.  It’s worse than a series such as Dragonball Z since many events in Fafner‘s prequels directly affect this series’ events.  It’s simply more than knowing the characters’ names and falls into directly understanding events from the series in question.  And making it worse is the seeming love of technobabble.  There are terminology for locations on Tatsumiya and components of Fafner that I’m still not familiar with after 22 hours of this series.  Little of it holds much impact to the series but just get used to it if you watch.

For all this though…it’s quite the payoff.  It’s very evident, even if the structure of the two released seasons didn’t make it clear (Winter 2015, Fall 2015), that both Exodus seasons linked together for an overarching season.  The narrative mostly builds for the first 13 episodes but picks up an incredible amount of steam around episode 16-17 (if you count both seasons as a single 26 season series) and never looks back.  It plays out with suspense and slowly reveals each and every secret which surround the season all while retaining top-notch mecha battle sequences.  I’m not sure what it is about Tow Ubukata.  He’s traditionally struggled when handed an established franchise and is currently the internet plaything for blaming the failings in Ghost in the Shell: Arise and Psycho-pass 2.  But Fafner?  No complaints here.

I’ll start with the aforementioned narrative.  It’s difficult to really piece together the overarching plot from an omniscient perspective until the final episodes.  Any returning Fafner fan will likely spot the Festum as almost radically different from the original series.  They’re no less terrifying but act completely different.  A viewer may see this type of plot point as trivial but such details play into the complete narrative by series’ end.  A viewer who catches such details may begin asking why the series shifts the Festum’s behaviour so significantly.  The series resolves such points but only as it closes out.  It’s incredible to have such details hidden so well, leaving the audience guessing about the exact plot, yet also retain a plot which plows forward.  I’d argue it’s almost perfect how well it plays with the audience and lures them to the exact spot they want the viewer for the knockout episodes.

The narrative itself?  It’s fairly grim.  You’ll find comedy but it’s stretched thin.  The main thrust throughout is that we all have limited time and we should impact the world while we have time…which means a lot of death and a lot of despair.  Power comes at a price.  And nobody’s nice to each other.  Kind of what you’re expecting when my best description is “real robot Evangelion without the mind screw”.

Though I’m pretty sure this guy is an Angel.

And none of this is to say that there aren’t heartbreaking moments.  Far from it.  One of the series’ most poignant and memorable moments come with several shades of “ow, my heart”.  Character death almost instantly invoke this instead of the character going out in a blaze of glory.  Which is quite strange as many characters die while heroically exerting themselves in a fight…but the series instead casts each death as tragic.  And I really feel this is one of Fafner’s standouts…especially when it gets mixed with the ongoing feeling of “anybody can and will die”.  Some characters die quick.  Some die suddenly.  Some die in a prolonged fight and have some touching moments.  It almost entirely throws out the notion of predicable character death (outside of some obvious death flags actions).

This genre of anime lends itself greatly to action scenes and Fafner doesn’t struggle with these.  They are elegantly choreographed in most instances and well executed.  It’s a major upgrade from the combat sequences provided in the mid-2000 series, which were a few steps behind fight scenes of the era, and the CGI heavy 2010 movie.  Actually, I’m sure this one heavily relies on CGI as well but it does a far, far better job masking in as time goes on.  I reviewed the earlier episodes and realized how incredible the final episodes become as CGI I found effective in the early episodes become far, far more obvious.

The biggest shock to most mecha fans will likely be Fafner‘s lack of fear in having its mecha routinely destroyed in battles.  Repairs are apparently really cheap and you’ll constantly see characters beat up hard.  Arms lopped off, pilots out of fights entirely, events which really look like death (and traditionally are in mecha series).  Heck, the first battle using any of the characters from Tatsumiya have a character’s mecha lose an arm and, as pain extends to the pilot, they disconnect him from piloting further.  I cannot think of a single character not impaled by something, killed, or in extreme pain at least once throughout the entire series’ run (including its old series and movies.  This combined with the above notes about character death create some pretty tense scenes as life and death come pretty much at the will of the seemingly unforgiving plot.

Again, the biggest weaknesses of the writing lie in its assumptions.  You really must know the previous content, of mediocre nature in my opinion, to really develop an understanding and feeling for this series.  That is an absolutely massive time investment (~12 hours) and many viewers might find this too large a gamble, even for the huge payoff.  Furthermore, the narrative is relentless and unforgiving at points.  Simply just not understanding a sequence may completely throw you.  There are sequences, even entire episodes, which reveal major plot points and not being on top of your game comprehension wise can leave you steps behind and playing catch up once again.  A bit of a standard drama series issue…but it goes double when you have technobabble to deal with.

One issue I have looking back is the obvious sequel hook.  The series leaves off much the same way as the original series did and ends with questions about the remaining plot line.  The mysteries end up solved, yes, but what happens from here remains up in the air.  I mean, it’ll be clear at the end of the series that this isn’t the finale.  No.  There remain “things to do” as the term goes.  But the adventure continues on a later date…one I’m not sure Fafner will ever get due to some pretty low viewer numbers.

I would also watch out for on-the-nose characterization.  That is, character stating exactly what they’re thinking to develop character as oppose to showing the audience such traits.  This stems primarily from the series’ unwillingness to use internal thought processes but sometimes creates some awkward dialogue.

Characters

Honestly, incredible character use probably ranks as the top reason to watch Fafner.  The series routinely works to develop characters, make you like at least part of the ensemble cast, and then pick away until they end up killing someone you liked.  They’ll die.  Or give them a nice heaping of mental trauma.  Or maybe just almost kill them.  Or have family issues.  Or just not want to die as piloting in this series slowly kills the pilots.

Really, this will be your standard response to later episodes.

The primary protagonists are Kazuki Makabe and Soushi Minoshiro.  At least they are in theory.  You only spend half the time with the two as they lead the same episodes, episodes which only constitute about half the series.  What you’ll really find is that Fafner becomes much more of an ensemble performance; every character gets a little time in the spotlight and finding out a little about them.  The basis of the series in this regard becomes fairly simple, often boiling down to either character moments, narrative moments, or action.  There are a few points in time where the series combines two of the three but it often move itself in only one of three directions.

It’s difficult to really go further into the series without emphasizing how much character development plays into the series.  Much of the series emphasizes the growth and development of each and every character.  Virtually none of the pilot characters remain static (though it’s worth noting that many side characters remain extremely flat).  They’re not necessarily the deepest characters nor do they have the same level of unexpected surprises that you’d find in a Persona type of production…but they change.  That is to say that events ultimately change the characters and Fafner emphasizes these developments and often places them at the forefront.  As an example, a few of the more naive characters from the “Exodus” party end up fairly traumatized.  They end up suffering greatly and the series provides screen time to these characters grappling with this new reality.  Part of the franchise involves developing an emotional attachment to the character and ultimately feel emotionally with them as they go through their trials and tribulations.  It’s very evident in the series’ newest cast additions as you’ll spend extra screen time with them.

Part of the reason having background in this series becomes critical is because of this character driven element.  It’s certainly possible to view the series from this angle without knowing the previous elements.  The series, at the most basic of levels, even provides enough background for you to do this and spends a lot of time in the first couple episodes explaining the situation to viewers.  The overall effect is much weaker, however, as you don’t have the exact same context.  I would almost chalk it up to a similar effect as the live action series The Walking Dead in the sense that you could probably start watching either partway through their intended order…it just makes certain scenes a bit weaker and some nonsensical.

These characters ultimately sell me on the franchise and provide a major drive for my sentiments to the series.  It’s a fairly unique series in the sense that every reasonably major pilot grows.  I again emphasize that this certainly fails to hold up when looking at the supporting cast, which is a bit of a disappointment since it makes the world seem just a little flatter and less dynamic.  Nonetheless, the characters slowly mature and develop new outlooks on the world.  The growth and transition period for some of the cast from unwitting teenagers to full-grown adults occurs over the span of 20 hours of viewing time and feels quite natural due to this extreme length of time.  Developments within the franchise of Exodus itself are not complete turnaround developments and thus feel more natural than some other series.  As an example of the hastened version of character change, I think of the often utilized tsundere archetype character.  There are some franchises out there which have this character really turn around from the aggressive personality to the more caring and loving character within two or three episodes…leaving as little as an hour for us to understand this character and then appreciate the meaningfulness of these personality change.  It just sometimes doesn’t work because of this haste.  But I find Fafner deals with this fairly well.  Characters change either from extreme circumstances (and have very jarring shifts in personality to accommodate this) or develop slowly and in manners that the audience appreciates.  It’s very applicable that the characters “earn” their growth.

This same emotional appeal drives quite a bit of payoff as well.  At least, the parts where you don’t find action based payoff for this series.  It’s very much, and I hate to use the term since it might not make sense to all readers, a “feels” series.  That is, the series puts negative emotions onto its viewers through the character.  That you feel for the character’s on-screen pains.  Many episodes use this to cap off the events of the episode…there’s a buildup of action, emotion, intensity.  Then pain and the episode ends, leaving questions about how the series progresses from there.  It may be something of a simple formula but Fafner plays this card quite well.  It used the same points in the original series and replays them with improved precision.  It’s very difficult to not end up heartbroken at the end of each episode in the second season (where death becomes increasingly rampant).  Even episodes without death start dealing with lots of drama and stress on the characters.  Again…it’s not a nice world.  There are typically problems or plans just plain go wrong.

And sometimes people just get assimilated and you have to watch.

One oddity in this franchise I must mention: few characters actually drive the plot.  Most end up as soldiers or present themselves as representations of the “feels” driven appeal.  Yet few of them actually move the plot along and instead just accompany certain positions such that there are entire squads of combatants that you care about.  It sometimes feels strange and you might end up wondering why certain cast members exist for this reason.  I know I did (though I really can’t say much without spoiling who lives and who dies)…but this is at least my interpretation.  That, and some characters must continue to exist as they survived previous iterations of the franchise and their death would serve little purpose as well.

Another interesting aside about the characters: very little romance exists.  You might want to find something else if that’s a major issue.  Major characters rarely deal with each other in a manner beyond close friendship.  I’m not sure if it’s a writer problem or just a desire to not introduce undue romance when it’s not really needed…but characters almost never have romantic ties.  Comparing other well know mecha franchises…and this concept is almost foreign.  It’s part of why the series ends up so dark…there’s so little positive emotion to fill this void.

As seems pretty obvious, I struggle to find real negatives in the character aspect.  Some side characters end up flat for sure and that hurts the world building.  The series underutilized some characters and underdeveloped others…making their plot lines feel almost hallow.  But it’s almost overwhelming covered up by the development from other characters.  That is to say that the sum of the parts outweighs its negatives.  Just stick with it until the end as much of the payoff comes in the second season.

Animation

Maybe I’m just old.  Maybe I don’t watch enough modern anime.  Maybe I’m just a little crazy.  Whatever it is though…I really love Exodus’ animation.  Battle, drama, whatever.  It is just beautiful.

Let’s start with combat sequences since they impress me the most.  Exodus is one of the rare series which seem to effectively integrate CGI into standard animation.  It’s alright in the first season.  Some of the more foreign Festum and some points in the Fafner animation are obvious CGI.  Planes are extremely obvious.  But the second season begins hammering this out and the sequences become elegant interplay of effective CGI in animated backgrounds.  A comment I’ve heard about CGI often comes in the statement “CGI is only bad if you notice that it’s CGI”.  Anime production typically uses it as a cost saving mechanism and it typically comes off as bad CGI.  Fafner sometimes falls as this but has quite a few moments where it’s clear that, for the sake of the artist, they had to use CGI…but it doesn’t visually register as such.  I mean, the above Festum are almost always CGI.

And then there’s this. Which is pretty blatant CGI by Exodus’ standards.

There also an extremely large number of sequences I can rattle off where there is extremely elegant background scenery.  Pausing and marvelling at the background almost qualifies as a hobby.  Again, I feel like I might have missed something as I haven’t watched many recent anime but the sheer amount of detail is…well, it’s breathtaking in its own regard.

There’s this almost alien visual.  Did I mention Festum explode into purple…things…upon death?  I meant to.

There are, of course, episodes with decreased budgets.  That much is always clear and Fafner is no exception.  There are some fairly obvious episodes where the animators needed a break and just used further distance shots…or repeated the use of the same low-cost plane animation.  Or just hid a lot behind stills.  I find it typically happens in episodes where the series just needs to advance its plot to the next major point.

I must admit, a major failing this series continues throughout the franchise is its difficulty distinguishing characters (made even worse by the fact that characters often change appearance between different series).  Character A looks a lot like character B which looks a lot like character C.  A visual heavy viewer might have difficulty understanding motivations and development when they can’t even remember which character did what action.

Sound/Music/Voice Actors

Fafner routinely uses an orchestral composition…which makes sense, as memory serving, they used the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in the original series.  I found myself constantly jotting down notes when they utilized this grouping for slower or more emotionally charged segments.  The soundtrack didn’t add much in combat sequences and simply stand to “do their job” (though they did bring back Opening of Nightmare’s Gate for a couple sequences…an excellent piece from the original series).  Really, expect it to get you from set to set unless you’ve in a very dialogue heavy segment.

The two seasons contain two openings and two closings…though not split as you’d expect…changing over around the 17th episode mark.  angela performs all four pieces and it’d be no stretch to say that atsuko’s voice adds a lot of the franchise with this mark of consistency; Shangri-la and Separation, the opening and closing pieces for the original series, are probably the most recognizable aspects of it.

The first opening, Exist, introduces you to the nature of its first few episodes.  A mix of angelic chanting and some pretty haunting lyrics, the animations continually flip you through characters and provide viewers with a bit of background on each character.  It’s very much an opening which eases viewers in.  The first closing, which I probably would translate as Anya koro, is a pretty simple ending piece.  Very little animation, a “cool down” type of piece, and overall something very easy to skip.

Things really get interesting as the series switches over to its second set of opening and closing pieces.  The second opening, Dead or Alive, is one of my favourite openings (and would probably adjust my rankings from the previous list I completed on this matter).  Another mixing of angelic chanting and lyrics, this opening takes multiple improvements over the last.  There is far greater coordination between animation and lyric.  The music is a major improvement in my mind with rapidly changing tempo, extremely unusual lyrics (which also combine aspects from previous songs of this franchise), and an incredible tie-in with the previous series of this franchise; the opening presents a litany of characters, including those long dead as if to claim that nobody forgets any sacrifice or loss of life.  It’s quite stirring.  Finally, the animation calls strongly back to the original series by animating many of the stills used in the original series’ opening of the characters happily enjoying their younger years.  Well, except for poor Canon.

Though I’d argue she makes up for it in pure cuteness.

Another unique aspect of these last few episodes comes in its ending song, Horizon.  It is not much of an upgrade in the visuals department…but the musical piece is far more uptempo and heart racing than you’d expect.  The musical piece sets the stage for the almost non-stop train ride from the 17th episode to the series’ conclusion.

I find it difficult to recommend anything but subbed here.  Mainly because the option of viewing this series in english isn’t here.  The series is free subbed on Crunchyroll and you don’t even need to worry about losing time waiting for a translation if you view it subbed.  I would recommend subbed either way as the dubbed version are alright.  At best.  Voice acting talent is all over the place.

Synergy

Everything runs in and out of the characters.  Why do you care about the battle?  Your favourite character is fighting it out in a series where you know they could easily die.  What’s going on with the plot again?  How could it affect all the characters?  How is [x] changing due to all this?  It’s actually a unique run with this level of viewer interest in characters and character development.

Why to Watch

This series…I can’t say enough good things about its emotional torque.  It’s absolutely incredible for setting you up, getting you to feel a specific way, and then playing with your emotions until you start feeling for the characters on-screen.  It is an incredible mix of emotion and action…both being incredible.  It’s a terrific lesson in what well utilized CGI looks like and how to create battle sequences.  And finally, the characters grow at a seemingly natural rate…or at least more natural than other modern anime which often need to fast track characters given the short episode runs.

Why Not to Watch

Do you dislike decade old mediocre anime (or dislike having to roll with whatever they’re saying about the older characters)?  Do you dislike having your favourite character killed?  Do you dislike the creeping notion that someone is doing to die and you won’t be happy if it’s a specific character?  Do you really dislike having no clue what technobabble does and just “having to roll with it”?  Really, those are the main reasons to avoid this series.

Personal Enjoyment

Fafner is a series I’ve felt pretty unappreciated.  The original series was alright but presented a unique change on the real robot genre.  The movie was fair for the time but its use of CGI makes it struggle a little.  Either way, I was pumped to hear Exodus and honestly am glad I can see more of this franchise.

Summary

I’m not exactly sure what I want to say about Fafner: Exodus.  It’s good.  I mean, really good.  Memorable, well executed, and visually beautiful.  Something for anybody who enjoys these somewhat darker tales of mecha.  Well, except decent levels of romance.  I can’t stop saying good things about the series and really feel that the disparate score on many aggregate sites (that is to say that it’s often rated higher than series with comparable reviewer bases) reflects its quality.  But it’s also a series that has a lot of background work.  An old series and a movie are very much required to get a full experience.

I really want to suggest it to everybody but its a series which I’m sure not everyone could get into.

Overall Rating

Fafner in the Azure: Exodus has a 7.86/10 for me.  Given I use 5 as average, this is one of the higher scores I’ve been able to give.  The comparable review score I’ve given on this blog is Boogiepop Phantom (7.89).  I would recommend this to anybody who has the prerequisites I’ve listed in previous sections.

Characters, as should be extremely obvious at this point, carry the score immensely.  The review sheet had consistently high ratings here.  Many other categories had high scores though some categories dropped the average quite a bit.  Narrative, as much as I love it, ended up with the lowest score.  It’s not really an indictment of any major flaws with the series itself but a note that the series leaves a hook for a sequel and this doesn’t provide a natural conclusion to the series…an issue seen before in this franchise.

Review: Boogiepop Phantom

Please, if you see this individual, just don’t run. You’ll only make yourself tired.

Background

The Boogiepop franchise is an interesting oddity: it is a fairly large and expansive set of light novels in Japan but never really crossed the ocean or anywhere else.  The novels have sold over 2 million copies in Japan in 2000.  That’s quite a large number given the time.  In a much larger market (and I mean much larger), everything Haruhi has sold a “mere” 8 million.  I know that sounds like a lot, but when you consider the cultural impact Haruhi has, you get a sense of how important Boogiepop is to the light novel landscape.  In fact, it’s sometimes argued that the light novel trend originated from Boogiepop.

What followed was a foray of this franchise into the anime landscape.  MADHOUSE, pretty much a household producer name (Chobits, Death Note, Monster, Paranoia Agent, Trigun…they’ve got a long list of greatest hits), took it upon themselves to bring the franchise’s unique narrative style (more on this later) to the television screen.  And Boogiepop Phantom is the result.  The studio went to Takashi Watanabe for direction.  He showed success in the Slayers franchise and would later tag his name to many other projects (He became part of the Shakugan no Shana franchise as the director and Death Note as a storyboard writer).  For sound they asked the prolific Yota Tsuruoka to step in.  He also has a massive resume today.  Top billing probably goes to the Clannad franchise but you come real close to saying he’s done pretty much every anime you know.

Story

Okay.  Let’s start off with this: you won’t fully understand much of the main story in Boogiepop Phantom without reading two light novels first: Boogiepop and Others and Boogiepop at Dawn.  The anime connects the two events and concludes the events of the former.  Instead of a traditional description of the back story, I’ll explain what happened before to a level where one can understand the events.

Nagi Kirima, a schoolgirl, grew at an abnormally fast rate and was dying as a result.  The hospital admitted her and tried to take care of her and her condition.  Shinpei Kuroda, an agent for the Towa Organization, befriended her.  He went behind the organization’s back and administered a drug to Kirima to prevent her from growing at abnormal pace.  The organization executed him soon after.

Dr. Kisugi, a resident general doctor, found remains of the Towa Organization’s drug.  She tested it on rats and found it created incredible powers in the subjects.  So she did the natural thing and tried it on herself.  Naturally, things go sideways and she becomes a composite human.  Composite humans are kind of nuts most of the time and she becomes a mass murderer, killing strong-willed girls because she was addicted to their fear.  Kirima, investigating the murders, found her and with the aid of Boogiepop, the whispered “angel of death”, killed the insane doctor.

A monster named Manticore, escaped one month ago.  It is a failed clone of a highly evolved alien, Echoes.  Echoes, sent by its race to elvaulate humans, monitored earth and could only repeat what was said to it as a way of limiting its power.  The Towa Organization captured it and tried to clone it…unsuccessfully.  That created Manticore.  Anyways, Manticore killed a normal schoolgirl named Minako Yurihara and assumed her identity.  During this time, another school student named Masami Saotome discovered this switch and, instead of killing Saotome, struck a deal with him: the two would addict students to an addictive drug named Type S which would enslave the user to the distributor of the drug.  Then Manticore would eat the individuals for substanance once the experiment concluded. Echoes the Towa Organization to find the Manticore and met Kirima, who at this point is very much aloof and on the outside of traditional society.  Saotome and Manticore, realizing they are being investigated and chased, set a trap for them.  Echoes is critically injured in the fight and, in a final attempt to get rid of the fiend, turns itself into a pillar of light.  The pillar destroys Manticore with the assistance of Boogiepop and Saotome, having fallen in love with Manticore, kills himself by jumping into the pillar.

The events of Boogiepop Phantom deal with the events arising from the pillar of light.  One month after the fight, the entire city is covered in a strong electromagnetic field and a large aurora.

This is really as far as I can describe the narrative without giving anything away.  But I can describe the narrative style.  The light novels take a vignette approach to the narrative and show you a very short story focusing on one character.  Then it’ll shift its focus in the next section.  And then another character.  And so on and so on.  Boogiepop Phantom continues this tradition; every episode follows a specific character and follows their adventure through the supernatural events that overtake this unnamed city.  Each character has their own troubles and some react more positively than others to the situation.  The grand sum of all these side stories is a greater narrative that is not directly created and a climax that is not directly built until it reveals itself to us all.

And I love every second of it.  This form of storytelling may feel a little meandering and disoriented at times but they effectively tell a narrative in a unique manner.  But why do this?  It makes the narrative even more interesting through the mystery.  This occurs in multiple regards.  First and foremost is the anime’s main narrative.  We are treated to a shot of the pillar of light mentioned above.  It knocks out all the electronics in the entire city for a second before everything restarts as if nothing happened.  That seeds the question “how is this important?”.  And this question slowly rises and creates further questions as the narrative progresses.  This pull is a major driving force of the narrative.

Second in mystery is the interrelation of each narrative.  Virtually every story connects to another.  For example, there is a creepy guy in episode 1 who seems mostly perverted.  The next episode focuses on him and what is happening to him.  There is very little waste in this regard with only a couple of episodes focused on events that will not drive questions or imply certain answers.  This seemingly tangential narrative begins pushing the viewer in certain directions and will feed the first mystery I listed above.

Also, eating bugs. That’s relevant.

Finally, each character presents their own mystery.  Each character you see is, at the core, a fairly blank slate.  A few will be recurring from the light novels but largely this is an original cast.  And after a few episodes you’ll know they all largely have deep-seeded mental issues in addition to their odd behaviour.  Part of the mystery and attraction then becomes why this character acts this way in addition to what happens to them.   In that regard, the psychology becomes a major aspect of the anime and the characters’ intentions become a major driving force.

The anime borders bleak and depressing at times.  One of the major aspects of this anime is the negative influence of the supernatural; the fallout of the pillar of light is almost entirely negative.  Many episodes end of a depressing note and one managed to break my heart completely before the first half the episode ended.

Interestingly, this bleak tone also wraps into a slight horror aspect in the anime.  Boogiepop Phantom is hard to define with genres and most oft for the horror label.  It isn’t entirely hard to see why as many character aspects are unsettling at best.  See the picture above of a guy eating a yellow spider with intense determination.  Uncertainty plays its way into many aspects and creates the same unsettling tone.  The body count seems unusually high too with some fairly messy deaths.  I’d personally describe the anime as more psychological than horror but these aspects certainly commonly attribute themselves to the horror genre.

What is probably the most impressive aspect of Boogiepop Phantom, for all the comments I’ve made above, is the ability to drive home focused messages.  The characters often face similar root issues and their inability to influence such a problem becomes a key fatal flaw.  I won’t go into much detail here but the topic of change, escapism, and loss are major discussion points of the anime.

I think one’s love for this anime can be probably described in a major aspect of the narrative: asynchronous.  Many time cards are shown to assist in the understanding of when and where each event happened.  Many find this type of non-linear narrative annoying and frustrating.  Those who do will absolutely lose their mind watching Boogiepop Phantom as the same event’s outcome reflect through the eyes of many different individuals.  Those that aren’t likely will find the anime entertaining and enjoyable.

Characters

As mentioned previously, the narrative takes a vignette form.  Virtually every episode will introduce a new character (and some with multiple introductions per episode), give them a full history, and then end their arc.  This makes it pretty much impossible for me to discuss the characters as I traditionally do.

What I will say however is that the character roster is deep, round, and varied.  One of the greatest aspects of the anime is the strong ensemble cast; motivation, characterization, and result vary greatly.  This depth and broadness plays in an incredible manner as many viewers will find their own issues reflected onto them.  I find this even more meaningful in today’s world where the topic of escapism via medium is becoming larger and larger.   In many regards, the darkest aspects of such topics will come out.  One could read it as a partial deconstruction as it reflects how these traits and supernatural events don’t mix…at all.

To some level, I suspect most viewers will find a character to attach themselves to.

Animation

One will notice the “washed out” palette right away.   The entire world is painted in brown, grey, and black to a large degree.  Many shots are night shots.  It’s not like this is just an unconscious choice either as the final episode takes this out completely and gives an episode in traditional anime colours.  The second effect will be the faded and faux projector effects to the border of the screen.  While both are intentional for reasons you’ll likely figure out later in the anime, they are very interesting effects to the animation and will make it stand out in your collection because of the dull colouring.

A major aspect that really intrigues me about Boogiepop Phantom is the fairly realistic character design in animation.  Anime has a large tradition of having characters with outrageous hairstyles and hair colour.  Boogiepop Phantom averts that nearly completely.  For the most part hair colour, hairstyle, and eye colour will reflect what one would expect in any given high school.  Few anime avert these traditional tropes this completely and will stand out for this reason as well.

Now, the above comes as both a positive and a negative though.  On the positive, it is unique.  Extremely so because anime loves utilizing unusual hair colours and styles to their largest effect.  However, I will also note that it becomes sometimes difficult to separate and distinguish characters.  On first view, I didn’t make every connection possible because I often visually identify characters…in particular, the last episode when the colour scheme becomes more vibrant.

The animation can be brutal at times.  What little combat exists is done swiftly.  Action is fast paced but short-lived.  And this isn’t even going to the horror aspect of the anime which can be very, very graphic.  One particularly gory scene has body parts of a recently killed individual.  And the body parts shift during transport.  Blood rarely appears in the anime but when it does it’s used to its most unsettling effect.  And common jump scares with utterly creepy characters are utilized at least once.

Uh…yeah.

 

One complaint I’ll lob at the animation is its love of characters facing away from the camera.  Action will typically occur but in a 2000 anime, it can get distracting when characters don’t face the camera.

Sound/Music/Voice Actors

I mentioned before that the sound director, Yota Tsuruoka, has an extremely prolific career and has led major anime sound.  He makes absolutely no mistake here.  The soundtrack to Boogiepop Phantom is incredible.  I think for about 9 of the 12 episodes I have a note regarding the use of sound editing or effective background music.  It is electric or techno at its core but it is top-notch.  They punctuate scenes extremely well and will set the tone in regard to mystery, action, horror, climax, and anything in between.  I’m amazed at how many of the soundtracks made their way into my favourites.  If you’re on the border, please watch Boogiepop Phantom purely for this.  I don’t know any other anime which utilizes so many different effects and subtle shifts (such as those in conversation loudness) to such an effect.  Even the void of white noise is utilized (though given that Tsuruoka worked on Lain, this isn’t a huge shock).

The opening, Evening Showers, feels a bit out-of-place.  In fact, I think the entire opening is a bit odd as a selection since all it does is introduce the primary characters.  Though given the anime, I can kind of see why.  It still feels dated by at least 15 years from production though…so today it feels fairly old.   The closing, Mirai Seiki Maruhi Club, plays a much more integrated role and feels much more appropriate as a theme for the anime overall on most occasions.

The anime’s subs and dubs are both fairly effective.  Dubs primarily consist of a “greatest hits” of the ’90s in the primary and important characters.  Crispin Freeman, Rachel Lillis, and Lisa Ortiz all make appearances.  I have a slight preference to the sub with exception of one character (Saki Yoshizawa) but I think both are possible options.  My suggestion is probably pick whichever you like more.  A major issue in either language is the number of voice actors though…there certainly wasn’t enough of a budget to offer top billing voices for every character and some in both languages are a bit lacking.

Synergy

I think mystery and psychology holds the anime together.  It pulls together character design, art choices, and music.  The pull of what’s happening in story and to each character causes you to come in.  Each of the above elements enforces that and pushes you along that direction.  The depth of the character’s perspective and horror elements keep the episode sharp and punctuated.  And you leave with a question about how each character really became what they are.

Why to Watch

Boogiepop Phantom is an anime I could recommend for many reasons.  If you love mystery, watch it.  If you want something with a little thinking involved and won’t lose its narrative novelty on first pass, watch it.  If you love psychologically interesting characters…you know what I’ll say.  What it comes down to is the fact that Boogiepop Phantom is great at what it intended.  The characters with backgrounds have unique and interesting reasons for their existence…though sometimes flimsy.  The sound editing is amazing.  Suspense and tension all work.

Let’s just leave it at this: if you liked any of the positives in the full review, watch Boogiepop Phantom.  Or, inversely, look below and if you don’t see a reason to NOT watch, watch it.  I mean, all subbed episodes are available legally on YouTube and two dubbed episodes exist.

Why Not to Watch

The problem with the “Why to Watch” section, of course, is that this also implies a quite unfortunate inverse situation…this anime isn’t good if you aren’t interested in its primary elements.  This anime, at best, has limited action.  If you want that, you’re out of luck here.  If you want something uplifting and positive on a continual basis, it isn’t going to happen.  If you want to follow a single character, this is the furthest thing from.  Heck, if you like vibrant colours, this isn’t going to happen.  If you don’t want a little background work to do first (or just read the above comment in the story section), you should move on unless you want to lose out on part of the narrative.  None of these points work out well for the anime though, again, it seems there is little focus here to begin with.

Personal Enjoyment

I think I was born to watch this anime.  It contains virtually everything I want and doesn’t have things I don’t want.  I love psychologically heavy anime.  Introducing characters every episode made a lot of fun as it let me explore more characters than most anime let me.  I’m not sure there’s a better way to describe it…the anime and I get along very well in focus.

Summary

Boogiepop Phantom is anime set out to continue its unique narrative style in animated form.  And in that regard, it does that very well.  It uses a vignette style narrative to follow a story and connect two of its light novels.  Heavy on psychology, suspense, mystery, and character mentality sharing, it emphasizes the key points of the light novels.  Viewers interested in these points will have a great experience I believe.  Conversely, having no interest in these traits will make the anime tedious at best.

Overall Rating

Boogiepop Phantom ended with 7.89/10 for me.  Given I use 5 as average, this ranks as a great anime and it currently ranks one of my favourite overall.  The single number may not reflect it but Boogiepop Phantom is one of the most interesting and unique anime I know of and highlights a major flaw in using a single value to reflect quality.

The show highly excelled in most regards but had its highest score in characters.  There is a strong and diverse cast of characters to understand and learn.  Many change within the span of a single episode to reasonable levels.  The only stat below a 7 out of 10 is music and vocals.  This again reflects a major limitation as this number entitles the incredible background music but also the voice actors who do a good but not exceptional job.

Review: Narutaru

Background

I’m not sure I can say a lot about Narutaru before an actual review.  It’s a little known anime better known as a manga series.  Kids Station, a station which seems to do special projects more than anything else, produced the anime.  And when I mean special projects, I really do mean special.  There’s not much in their anime roster which I’d ever define as a really “normal” anime.  Their most famous work is xxxHOLIC which in itself is quite unusual.

The writers for Narutaru will point you heavily in the direction of this anime; Mohiro Kitoh of Bokurano fame created the manga while Chiaki Konaka (best known for working on Serial Experiments Lain) wrote much of the anime. I should point out to you that Bokurano is famous, or maybe infamous, for having children not act like children.  Let’s keep that in mind.

A little known composer, Susumu Ueda, created the music.  This may seem like a bit of an odd point to put in but I’ll refer back to this later.

Story

It’s hard to discuss Narutaru‘s story without giving away details.  But let’s give it a try.  I’ll take a second to first say that Narutaru is not, and absolutely not, for children.  It’s bleak, cruel, and filled with things that will make childhood nightmares seem happy.

Our story follows a young girl named Shiina Tamai.  She’s energetic, headstrong, and a little bit of a tomboy.  She lives with her father (family relations are strained due to reasons you’ll only find out in the manga), a small company air force pilot.  She’s not the hardest working student in school.  She meets an unusual starfish creature, shown above, on a trip to her grandparents while swimming in the nearby ocean.  It doesn’t speak and makes childish motions.  It manages to save her from drowning despite this.  She names it Hoshimaru since it doesn’t speak and Shiina is still a young girl at heart.  Narutaru tells the tales of Shiina and Hoshimaru.

Shiina and Hoshimaru meet other individuals similar to them.  The humans often refer to the creatures as “shadow dragons”.  Shadow dragons are almost invincible beings.  They take missiles to the face, many gun shots, and will still keep fighting back.  The only limitation is the strength of the person they are connected to; the human feels all the suffering the shadow dragon takes.

Now, this is where the story takes its first mean twist.  This set up sounds like a great anime for kids.  It kind of sounds like Digimon or other similar “monster” franchises.  Except it’s absolutely not.  It’s really dark.  Remember before when I said that Kitoh is famous for Bokurano?  A lot of the story plays out like Bokurano if it forgot to take its medication.  Well, at least the manga.  For starters, the shadow dragons are not innocent.  It’s mentioned early that dragons “eat souls”.  And that’s generally true without getting into spoilerific details.  So we have the first strike that the monsters aren’t really heroic.

Then comes the characters.  They are mean.  And I don’t mean generic bully mean.  The anime and manga both contain scenes of human activity which I wish I could forget.  The first “villain” casually speaks of genocide on the order of 5 billion people.  He’s a young teen like most of the cast by the way.  Even the protagonists are kind of like that.  Most characters take actions that are downright terrifying.  It’s difficult to speak of without ruining the series since much of the shock value is how far each character goes but suffice to say that each of them WILL likely surprise you.  Just as a quick measuring stick, literal conspiracies work against making certain characters in the manga happy.  It’s just that type of story.

Then there’s a level of realism.  Shiina is reckless.  She’ll bite off more than she can chew.  That’s fine in a typical monster franchise.  The hero is almost always hot-blooded in that aspect.  But Narutaru isn’t your typical monster franchise.  Shiina ends up on the receiving end of an ass kicking more often than she deals them out.  She also comes into contact with the rules of momentum, inertia, and more throughout her adventures.  It’s mean and gritty in this aspect.

I will point out that Narutaru‘s story in the manga is complete.  There is an ending.  But the anime certainly doesn’t show one.  It generally faithfully replicates the first 8 or so volumes of the manga then ends.  This gives you a nice visual adaptation but also creates massive problems.  First is the sense of finality: the anime ends of a dark note and just stops.  There is no real ending and there is a strong feeling of “now what?” that stems from it.  So many mysteries are left unsolved…and it’s not like the manga itself actually answers too many on its own.  Second is the pacing that stems from this: stories, events, and entire characters appear and disappear with no seeming purpose in the anime.  Most events and characters are tied in a bow to some degree in the manga.  But since the anime ends before the most significant events occur, nothing stems from them.  We see a character, see some events, then it just drops them off the face of the earth.  And this destroys a lot of pacing and emotion in the anime.  Pacing is a major problem and the anime, at best, is scattered and disoriented until major events occur.  And you’ll remember the major events.

Another concern in the anime is the division of time.  The manga seems to decide early that it will be dark and bleak.  A little focus is put on Shiina’s life but more of it focuses on Narutaru‘s deconstruction.  You get less sense of that in the anime.  Maybe it’s the timing.  Maybe it’s the animation quality shift.  Maybe it’s just that I watched and read the anime/manga at 1-2 AM.  But I certainly felt more of a slice-of-life emotion coming from Narutaru in the anime.  And this really doesn’t help the story since it is wholeheartedly destructive and rips apart the common tropes you’ll come to expect.

That being said, the anime isn’t entirely bad.  This premise and the deconstruction of it is quite a nice treat.  I’m not sure I’d describe it as a horror anime as many do.  But it is certainly unnerving.  The anime kicks off its first major story with some horribly cruel actions…such as the aforementioned casual genocide of humanity.  And the level of creepiness just goes up from there typically.  If you’re into this type of thing like I am the actions become far more interesting than the anime really should allow for.

And I’ll even praise the anime since it does some things that the manga doesn’t.  One character, Akira Sakura, has considered suicide on more than one occasion.  The manga just brings this up quickly but the anime actively shows us a sequence of Akira considering slitting her wrists.  And this is episode 2 by the way.

Yeah, Narutaru is kind of screwed up like that.

This really works in the anime’s favour.  I’ve got many, many notes circled around episode 2 because of this one short sequence.  It’s extremely well done and gives the anime some memorability.  Translating genres requires adjustments to succeed and some decisions like this work in its favour.  Ultimately, Narutaru is an example of both how to and how not to translate from manga to anime.  On the plus side, we get this.  On the negative, we get a little too faithful of and adaptation since it fails to filter events which clutter the story and make it too distracted to work real well.

Characters

The main character, undoubtedly, is Shiina Tamai.  As a deconstructive work, we watch the horrible consequences of being in a work about monsters and how a Digimon or Pokemon universe would actually kind of suck.  And Shiina is a great viewpoint for all this because she is very much the quintessential hero for these works.  Often aimed at the shonen demographic, she really does portray the traits of your typical shonen hero: actively gets herself involved, is high energy, acts heroic, and jumps before she even considers the consequences.  This work well because it acquaints us to the typical conventions of the genre and set us up for a typical anime making the deconstruction much harsher and more pronounced in its action.  So this works great.

Supporting Shiina primarily is Akira Sakura.  She’s a horribly broken individual…if the above picture of her wasn’t an indication of that already.  A nervous wreck, horribly shy, and a kind girl who hasn’t been given any real fair shakes in life, Akira is a signal of the anime’s true tone.  Contrasting her with Shiina is a perfect way to see the anime’s deconstructive elements.

Unfortunately this is where the problems for the anime start.  We get a whole host of character besides these two.  And I mean a host.  Virtually all the characters from the manga are shown at the proper time.  But because the anime is only a partial translation of the manga work the characters too feel unfinished.  Many characters’ arcs end in the latter portion of the manga.  So many are introduced, given a little interesting information and screen time, then vanish into oblivion with no concept of resolution and often limited character development at best.  In the manga these characters are often quite strong.  The decision to halt the characters mid-arc is quite a drawback and creates massive problems since we’re just faced with half-painted characters living in a world where we’re supposed to see the consequences of their actions.  This element even becomes a problem for Shiina since her most significant developments occur later in the manga after she enters middle school.

The characters who actually do end up with full arcs are generally very well done though.  Each disturbing element played out to its fullest works the way it is supposed to and the characters draw you in by their seemingly uncanny actions.  The saga between Aki Honda and Hiroko Kaizuka works very well.  You really feel the tension and emotion in this segment.  I’m almost positive you’ll feel for Hiroko.  And maybe Aki.  Either way though, their segment will likely burn itself into your brain should you choose to watch this anime.  I know I’ll probably have that segment lodged in my head ‘lest I take a blow to the head.

Yeah. What this poster says…I wish.

One problem I faced, and it might not occur for everyone, is the lack of distinct names.  I continually had to remind myself who [x] was by name.  I could visually identify each character and tell you all their actions but if they just stated “Norio” for example, it would take me a bit of effort to recall who Norio was.

Animation

I’m going to rip the band-aid off quickly: the animation quality is dreadful.  I can’t find any two ways around it.

Actually, maybe I’ll go into a little bit of an explanation first: this anime appears to have suffered from low-budget.  This point is very clearly evident in the high use of pans through still frames.  Many sequences dodge their animation by drawing a single frame and just looking around it to give the illusion of action.  While each frame typically looked good this skimping out still hurts the animation quality.  There are few real heavy action sequences.  Those that exist are best described as “acceptable”.  Even here it is plainly evident money was tight since often fights consisted of an action followed by the consequence without showing how it occurred.

I will note however that the level of detail on planes is unusual.  In the manga, characters spouted extremely detailed points about aircraft…especially military aircraft.  This transfers over to the anime a little.  I’ll admit I don’t know enough to tell you whether it is accurate or not but I’ll go with the old knowledge: say something confidently enough and you’ll likely keep people attentive.  So they sound good to me either way.

Unfortunately this comes as a bit of a distraction in the anime.  The quality is done so poorly that it does detract from the rest of the qualities of Narutaru.  I found it sometimes difficult to focus on the events when the characters were facing away from me while speaking.  Granted, I could deal with it in Evangelion and I managed to get through it here.  Just be aware that if you’re the type who loves top-notch animation you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Sound/Music/Voice Actors

Sound.  I would argue this is a major strength of the Narutaru anime.  In my top 10 anime openings post I openly admit I have a huge liking of the piano.  This carries over into background music…I really, really like the use of melancholic strings and dreary piano; they set the tone perfectly in the sequences where they are deployed.  There are a few pieces where the piano notes rip through everything.  Then the string instruments start and it pulls on you hard.  I earlier mentioned Susumu Ueda in my introduction.  I absolutely love the work done here…I wonder if Ueda go the credit he really deserved from Narutaru.

The opening and closing are best described as absolute traps.  I don’t mind either as they’re kind of lighter songs…the opening is very much a “bubblegum” opening between the song and the animation.  The closing is also much lighter than you’d expect of an anime of this variety.  If you’ve ever watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica, you know the drill.  It’s really kind of cruel since you know the anime is going to be dark as it’s commonly cited for the seinen demographic…yet it gives you this lovely and cutesy opening to make you feel better.

And why did you even offer the possibility that this would be the tone of the anime?

I watched this anime in both subs and dubs.  The dubbing studio didn’t do a great job…I’ll just put it this way.  They actually did hire some decent VAs for side characters (such as Lisa Ortiz and Veronica Taylor) but the main cast wasn’t great.  That being said, the Japanese voice acting team wasn’t great.  You’ll certainly recognize most of the voice actors, especially Akira Ishida, but I can’t say they really did anything special.  I will argue though that you should watch this subbed either way…probably the only way you’ll see it anyways since Central Park Media folded a while ago and nobody seems interested in redistributing Narutaru.

Synergy

The main aspect of this anime that you must consider is the juxtaposition of disturbing elements to the cute characters.  The manga characters are delicately built to create an atmosphere where you’ll constantly be shocked and horrified about how dark the world will get…about how evil the evil characters are and whether or not there are really any “good” characters.  It’s a thrilling anime in this regard.  Unfortunately this synergy also becomes the undoing since the anime doesn’t actually have any conclusion or satisfactory wrap up of much more than the arc it’s on.  Longer character arcs are left unanswered unless you turn to manga.

Why to Watch

Narutaru is a franchise I’d highly recommend if you like dark deconstructions.  It is twisted and cruel about how monsters play out.  Everything you loved about owning a pet monster is twisted around.  Owning one isn’t as fun as it seems…everybody is drawn towards each other and most of these guys are mentally broken nine ways to Sunday or so insane that you’re sure the only solution is a bullet to the face.  It pulls on our concepts of humanity and gives us the typical question: what happens to people when given absolute power?  They go corrupt absolutely.  The question is just extended into unfamiliar territory with young children.

I’d also recommend it if you like something along a cosmic horror story.  It really doesn’t fit the nature so much but in the end the manga still plays on the basic fear of human triviality.  But that’s enough of that since going any further will start bringing in spoilers and I really don’t think this is a franchise you can get into if you know what’s going to happen next.  If this is for you, you might find Narutaru is a really rough diamond.

Why Not to Watch

If you want anything even remotely close to positive or cheerful, just go.  You won’t want to see Narutaru and its inevitable conclusion.  Just have a sandwich and drop the idea.  Seriously Narutaru is probably on the same order of darkness as Warhammer 40,000‘s universe.  It manages to make Bokurano look cheerful.  And that’s a feat of incredible proportions.  So again, if you’re looking for good and cheerful, don’t go here.

Additionally, the quality of animation can be a major problem if you’re not into that sort of thing.

Finally, I can’t really recommend the anime when the manga for Narutaru exists and is complete.  The final volumes of the manga provide a much expanded narrative which explores the characters further, explains the relevance of most characters, and ends the narrative…kind of.  It’s a bit difficult to explain.  End of Evangelion difficult to explain.  If you’re really interested though, I’d suggest you just read the manga.

There’s also the fact that Central Park Media suffers from existence failure.  It’s unlikely you’ll find a legal copy too easily.  Crunchyroll and other sites seem to have problems finding this anime.  There are videos on YouTube but those really flirt with the concept of legality.  I don’t mind the idea of pirating abandonware but this is a bit of a grey territory.  If you’re uncomfortable with the notion of pirating an anime which looks like it’ll never get distributed in your area again, go ahead.

Personal Enjoyment

I probably am the ideal target for this anime…I love deconstructions.  They’re typically quite interesting to watch because of how they twist tropes and conventions.  As much as this should be a ringing endorsement, I found myself really struggling with the lack of conclusion, direction, or real focus in the anime.  It left me wanting.  Though this did make me read the manga quite intensely…so there’s that.

Summary

Let’s just keep this straight…one last time: this anime is dark, mean, and cruel.  It’s a horribly cruel deconstruction of owning a monster in anime.  The characters, despite being young teens, are not nice people and you’ll find that out multiple times.  The interaction and shock of these traits will generate a dark fascination with the anime should you be into that sort of thing.  If you’re not, it’s unlikely you could bear watching the horrors shown.  And if you’re interested, please keep in mind that there is a manga which I personally believe is better since the anime suffers from many flaws in pacing and animation

Overall Rating

Narutaru’s columnended with 4.88/10 on my spreadsheet.  Given I use 5 as average, this ranks as a reasonable anime. I certainly can’t suggest this for everyone given how niche the anime is.  I’m not sure how to put it any clearer than this: if you think you’d like a dark and unusual anime and don’t mind the other flaws, give it a shot.  If not, just ignore it and move on.

The show highly excelled in its narrative elements…or should I say potential.  The narrative worked well except for any actual catharsis or explanation.  The characters were well done in the parts that were shown…stand alone, they are nothing more than seemingly arbitrary and meaningless distractions.  It lagged in virtually every other element except background music…I found it effective and lovely.

Review: Eden of the East

Catch the wheel that breaks the butterfly…

Background

East of the Eden is one of those anime you hear about quite a bit.  Extremely popular, well-recognized, and probably has a bit of a reputation proceeding it. It’s quite interesting to see where my lines fall in comparison to those of previous viewers.

Strangely, unlike the other anime I have reviewed, there isn’t much that really stands out from the production side. Production I.G is a fairly large organization and it sticks its hands into quite a few anime though it has got some great roots in the science fiction anime.  Ghost in the Shell, in this case, is its baby.  Actually, this franchise is probably key to understanding a bit of the background of Eden of the East since Production I.G went in-house to Kenji Kaniyama, the director of many parts of Ghost in the Shell (in specific, the Stand Alone Complex pieces), to take over the same roles he had in those anime: Director, Screen Composer, Script, and Storyboard.  Basically, they wanted to tap his brain again.

But of even larger interest is the character designer, Chica Umino.  Though this is mostly because of the similarities between protagonist Akira Takizawa, and Honey and Clover‘s Shinobu Morita.  As in, it’s obvious they wanted to draw lines between the two.

Aside from that, it’s key to note the composer.  Kenji Kawai has a hugely prolific career as a composer and while I can’t say he’s my favourite composer, it’s important to in mind his vast career as I approach the music comments.

Story

Three months before the anime begins, several missile strikes hit Japan in an event called “Careless Monday”.  It probably took place on a Monday, but that’s just a guess.  Anyways, Japan fell under attack by several missile strikes which, while dealing extreme damage to the infrastructure in the vicinity, did not actually kill anybody due to a large string of freak coincidences.  Protests and reaction sparked after the launches but quickly died down because of the real lack of leads.  In a similar stretch of time, 20,000 NEETs (“No education, employment, or training”) vanished from Japan.

Jump ahead to the first episode.  Saki Morimi is a university student pretty much set to graduate and take off into the work force.  This is a pretty big thing so her and her friends run off to USA for a little bit of time.  But she decides to abandon them fora little and visit DC.  While she’s by the White House, attempting to throw a coin into the fountain for god knows what reason, she meets Akira who at this point in time has no memories of anything, is stark naked, and is holding a gun and a cell phone.  And when I mean no memories, I mean nothing about himself; He apparently has a great recollection of Hollywood movies and is able to pinpoint even obscure films out.  Oh, and did I mention his cell phone seems to be connected to an all-powerful assistant named Juiz?  She can seemingly do anything she wants, up to and including making the Japanese Prime Minister say “Uncle” for no good reason.  Oh, and did I also mention Akira has an 8.2 billion Yen bank account for Juiz to carry out these orders with?  No?  My apologies.  I meant to get to that.

After some antics around DC, they decide to return to Japan together.  The story follows the adventures of the two as Akira attempts to restore and rediscover his past and his memories while Saki continues on in her old world and gets them and Akira to mix/integrate with each other.  The events of the past are tied in and we are left with an explanation of the world we have just witnessed.

That’s some lovely wreckage there.

The world itself and the hypothetical it poses are actually by far the most interesting part of the story.  The world they actually tell you creates a whole host of opportunities to stop and think.  The show is highly charged from a political point of view and while I’m not an expert in Japanese politics, can certainly understand and even relate to the problems that they speak of.  The topic of youth status, cultural development, and political issues rise very frequently.  A recurring question later on becomes, “If you had 10 billion Yen to change Japan, what would you do?”.  And, after transferring currency and country, this becomes a brilliant hypothetical to any nation and any individual.  From this aspect, it’s a well and extremely interesting product.

However this is also mixed in with the pacing of the show and exposition method.  It’s terrible at best.  An extremely short anime, 11 episodes, it fumbles between so many different arcs, characters, and situations that it barely gives much depth or interesting thought about any of the above.  The ending of the show is probably the most egregious as, while it answer our questions, it does it in an info-dump sort of method at the start of the episode and then leaves us with many other questions left hanging.  The movies are hardly much better and, while they do provide closure on the narrative arc, leave a lot of questions unknown.  And it’s unlikely they’ll ever be answered.

Actually, let’s take an aside to discuss the info-dumps.  This cheesed me off.  It really cheesed me off.  Maybe it’s a bit of my own idiosyncrasy though – I enjoy having to put together the intricate elements of the story itself.  For example, one of the greatest games I’ve ever played was Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  This game basically just let you piece together some of the background yourself.  Want another example?  Look at the blog’s name.  That show probably host lecture on how to hide the story.  At any rate, the fact that the key aspects of the show presented the information in nothing more than lengthy monologues really killed the fun for me.  Especially when it came from characters who show up and begin throwing out exposition.  Hey, at least Martian Successor Nadesico had the balls to call that character “The Exposition Lady” halfway through the show.

Part of the problem is that it tries to balance two worlds: Akira’s and Saki’s.  For much of the anime, they barely interact and do mostly in the most superficial of ways.  When things begin to pick up it gets better in its narrative handling.  I wouldn’t call it stellar in this aspect, but it at least works.  But this is what creates problems.  The already short anime is split even further into a world which kind of barely moves until the last episode or two and the world which we need to explore and solve.  Not points for guessing which is which.  And when things get so short you really can’t build much of anything.

I can’t say it’s all bad in the story telling methods however.  This same brevity also works to some small part in Eden of the East‘s favour.  In the same breath that it uses to tell us it’s short and you’re likely not going to get detail on any of Akira’s world, we also realize that Akira is rushing through society.  He’s hunting answers and he tries to get them quickly.  The show might have improved if there wasn’t any focus on Saki and her friends in this realm of thought.

This next part can go either way: the humour.  The show is unrepentant part comedy.  In good times and in bad it’ll always try to turn things to the funny.  Serious action sequence?  Probably got jokes.  Story is progressing?  Let’s toss in a little humour.

Oh, and before I forget, check your thoughts of humour before preparing to watch this show.  The show has two primary levels of humour: the slapstick and the Johnny.  I mean penis.  No, seriously.  The animation team seemed to have a fascination with it.  Let me give an example: in the first episode, a police officer was asking to see Akira’s Johnny, which is to say passport.  So he subsequently drops his pants.  Cue laughter.  Honestly, this type of humour doesn’t work for me but it might for others.  It’s all well and good for kids…kind of.  They put cute and cartoonish white squiggles over the fun bits.

Characters

The anime’s main characters are undoubtedly Akira and Saki.  However, we are also introduced to at least nine other characters who you should be familiar with at some level.

This pretty much, including the fact that there is less than 4 hours to explore the world, a strong indication of the level of depth of most of these characters.  Most have at most two faces to their personality and they are rarely explored in any deep or meaningful manner.  They are instead presented as an almost monologue styled exposition.  And while I kind of amused myself with Micchon’s antics, she’s hardly a deep character.  In fact I think a huge problem with the show is the fact that most of the characters are one note.  They seemingly populate a world just for the sake of populating it.  In my review of Haibane Renmei, I considered this a flaw even though philosophical questions could be to blame.  I think the same may exist here: despite the fact that we really don’t see most characters long enough to really get to a point where we can see them develop, it’s hard on a show when we basically see them as all flat characters.

Another major issue here is the static level of the characters.  With about exception to one aspect of Saki, the entire world seems pretty consistent.  Akira never varies from his happy-go-goofy self for example.  I mean, Akira and Saki are likeable people to most, sure.  Akira is a goofy guy and Saki edges very close to your average person. But at the same time, you’d expect them to change as the world impacts them.  Akira especially.  This really does impact the viability of character strength in the show in my opinion.

Animation

The animation has two primarily aspects: the CGI and the animation itself.

The CGI is used as a lazy effect.  I get that this show had a lot of put up and needed ways to save money.  Trust me, I understand.  DC (and New York City from the movies), from what I’ve heard, have some amazingly accurate details from what I’ve heard.  Much like how Bethesda put a lot of effort into accurately portraying the landscape of DC in Fallout 3, it seems time and effort was put into it for Eden of the East.  And with this they create some pretty great looking sequences.  However, it’s also important to note that CGI really stands out in this anime.  As in, eye rollingly so.  Buildings and vehicles, even to the eye of a newcomer, will seem fairly obvious.  Anything large will be put into CGI form typically.  And, while it helps because it did let large set ups be created which high frequency, it also detracts since it is so obvious.

The animation can break further.  We actually get a very clear distinction of foregrounds and backgrounds in Eden of the East.  You can tell, very quickly, what is recycled scenery and what is changing on the foreground.  Kind of the dual-sided nature of coming into the digital era of anime I find.  And this gets a little distracting for some people.  Maybe not you, but the more I’ve watched, the more this begins to bug me. I will say that there is a production value ramp.  This is kind of expected and par for the course though and these issues fade during the more important sequences…it’s just that these cover so little time that the filler animation seems necessary.

No discussion about Eden of the East and its animation is complete though without looking at its style of animation.  It is intentionally lighthearted and drifts to remind us of its jovial nature even at the most serious of times.  Blush stickers, empty eyes, and overall typical cute anime artistic choice is pulled.

Wait, what?

Sound/Music/Voice Actors

Sound. I can’t say too much about the background music itself.  You know how airport music and elevator music is music you’re not supposed to listen to?  Well, it works the same way in East of the Eden.  The tone and mood is driven purely by visuals and dialogue.  For example, how important the sequence is can be derived and determined by whether or not Saki’s eyes are the empty white circles shown above or if they are using the more serious art for her. I will say though that Kenji Kawai made some incredible decisions when it came to songs used in-show.  In particular, the closing piece, Brenda Vaughn’s Reveal the World, is excellently placed and really sets a semi-symbolic tone to the anime.

Of course, the most famous part you’ll likely ever hear about Eden of the East is its opening.  Falling Down by Oasis.  That and the animation that goes with it are amazing.  I typically call it an arts student’s wet dream because, well, look at it.  Beautifully laid out decorations all over the place, a chaotic scattering of text, and a great song to go with it.  If you look hard enough too, it becomes a reflection of the anime in lyric and in animation.  Unfortunately, licensing issues (namely, Oasis caring about its distribution in North America as oppose to Japan and charging a boatload more for dubbing companies to distribute it) meant that this only appears on the first episode of English anime.  Please just pretend it was for all of them as the alternative opening is kind of generic and is much less interesting in its utilization.  This is where Kenji Kawai’s experience works in the show’s favour I think.

The closing, while not memorable, is catchy enough.  Though this section is turning more into a “review the opening and closing” section, I think it’s interesting to point out how nice the ending looks.  Pretty atypical work and pretty interesting to watch.

Watching this show is fine in either the dubs or subs.  Personally I didn’t notice a real difference between the two.  The only real standout for me were two VAs from the English side: Stephanie Sheh (Micchon…notice a pattern?) and J. Michael Tatum (Kazuomi Hirasawa).  Both provided voices that better suited their role…at least in my mind.  Actually, this was the first time I’ve ever recall any work dubbed by Tatum and I’m overall impressed with his ability.  Maybe I’m just getting old…

I will notify you though that English-speaking characters in the Japanese narrative are great at their jobs.  While they don’t work perfectly, it’s rare to see that perfect an understanding of importance of language being emphasized.  The characters speak effective English and those which would have unexpectedly butchered English speak with strong, though understandable, accents.  This works very well at the immersion of yourself into the show if you happen to watch the subbed version instead.

Synergy

The mixture of tension and character appeal tries to drive the show primarily.  Akira is a nice guy and we want to see him succeed to some fundamental level.  Similarly, Saki has dreams and goals we can relate to and want to see her do well in life.  But the tension and events of the show make this impossible.  So the elements begin to focus on how the show disrupts and prevents that from happening.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much relation or synergy between the characters and the events themselves; it becomes more a tool of “what is forcing our lovely protagonists apart” than “what happened and how is it influencing the characters?”.

Don’t get me wrong though.  I like this angle.  It’s a fairly fresh and unique take on the dramatic elements.

Why to Watch

Eden of the East is a show almost everyone can get into.  As much as I’ve critiqued elements of the show and have disagreed with the direction taken, it’s something that you can show almost anybody and they can get interested and engaged with.  The lighthearted tone makes it something you can watch without getting too emotionally invested and it gives you characters you genuinely care for…something that seems lacking at times in other anime.  The story gives you a good mix of a little bit of everything: a little action, a little comedy, a little drama…you name it, it has it.  It also asks questions relevant to society, in particular about apathetic youth, cultural identity, and how this all impacts the world around them.

And don’t forget about the incredible opening.

Why Not to Watch

The show, while it does everything, doesn’t do well at anything either.  It has comedy, yes, but it’s really kind of restricted to penis gags and a little staple humour.  It has action, but nothing extreme.  It has story, but it handholds you through the discovery process and doesn’t really let you do too much with it.  The animations, while a nice breather from what I typically watch, have a horrible tendency to reveal the obvious background/foreground choices that were made during the animating process.  If any one of those elements were the only draw, you’ll leave a little disappointed.  If you handed this to a newcomer to anime, you may wish to treat it as hor’dourves, something that will give them a light taste of what’s to come and may even give them extreme enjoyment but nothing that will sate their appetite.

And, of course, the ending never really summarizes in a really satisfactory manner.  Again, if I may compare to Martian Successor Nadesico, that show had the balls to point it out and say that they’ll be answered “in the inevitable sequel” (which…it turns out, they weren’t).

Personal Enjoyment

I like work where I don’t get to find out what’s going on fully.  The humour really wasn’t my speed unfortunately and it may be a sign that I’m out of my element in this anime.  I actually quite enjoyed a few episodes, but those were far apart.  I think the best way for me to put this was I found the show kind of chugged along until it ended.

Summary

I find the primary thing to remember when considering East of the Eden is that it’s not a hardcore thriller, comedy, or drama anime.  It does each of the above, but doesn’t do them to such a degree that it overwhelms the rest.  It has a great philosophical question too, but doesn’t explore it to as great a degree as you may wish for.  The primary protagonists are likeable but primarily static and the secondary characters are static.  Where this show really takes off is its ability to be approachable by fans of pretty much any genre.  Then it ties itself off with a beautiful finishing of sound…especially the opening.

Overall Rating

East of the Eden has 5.62/10 on my spreadsheet.  Given I use 5 as average, this ranks as a fairly decent show and I would suggest anybody to test a few of the free episodes on Funimation’s YouTube channel in their spare time.  This may seem counter-indicative to the score, but consider the universal appeal of this show.  When given a free outlet, I’d suggest anything with that wide an appeal to give it a couple of episodes before making their decision.

The show highly excelled in its musical elements under my scores.  This and personal enjoyment as I could think long and hard about the philosophical questions raised.  However, the show’s story (in particular, depth of exploration) and characters (their static nature) kind of held the anime back in this raw score.

Review: Haibane Renmei

Let’s see here…angels, little girls. Oh, and some really creepy scenes.

Background

Okay, so the story of Haibane Renmei was created by Yoshitori ABe (capitalization intentional) as a dojinshi project.  That never finished though and he transferred the story and characters to Haibane Renmei.  Okay, so that’s not really all that important, but I thought it was a really cool little tidbit of information.

This is ABe’s baby.  For those unfamiliar with ABe, he was the character designer for Serial Experiments Lain, for which this blog is named.  Haibane Renmei is the first work which really let ABe take the lead, which is about the only point the above comments on his dojinshi project actually comes into play.

The director for the show is Tomozaku Tokoro.  The company that made this, Radix, loves the chemistry between Tokoro and ABe; this anime came after the two worked out NieA_7 and Serial Experiments Lain (though Tokoro wasn’t the director in that).

This show has imprints of this relationship: the art and psychological edge still exist, though to a much lower edge than they did in Lain.

Story

The first notable point about the story is the utter lack of exposition.  ABe has mentioned this is entirely intentional to let fans write in their own background.  There is a lot of symbolism and hints of certain elements that can lead you down one path or another, the concept of a representation of Purgatory pops up a lot.  And, surprisingly, this isn’t the weirdest thing ABe has associated himself with.

Anyways, the base story takes place in a small village called Glie.  The town is very much isolated from the rest of the world, almost nobody ever entering or leaving the area.  Unique are the Haibane (approximate translation is of beings similar to angels).  Haibane are unusual beings, humanoids born from cocoons midlife.

Okay, maybe they are a -little- more than humanoid.

They have non-functional wings, making them very distinct from the local populace.  The Haibane are treated as guests in down and are donated area to live and leftover material and food to have for free, though they frequently return the favour by working in local stores.  It isn’t all fun for them though – Haibane are specifically stated to be reborn humans.  They died in their previous life and have come back with no recollection of their family, past life, or why they’re there.  And their current life is monitored strictly by a organization called the Haibane Renmei.

We primarily follow the life of the newest Haibane Rakka from her moments prior to (re)birth as she learns about, adapts to, and integrates herself into her new world and surroundings.

I have a huge love/hate relationship with the story.  Let’s start with the bad, since it dominates the front half of the story.  I’m not a slice of life type of guy.  At least, slice of life with no advancement.  As far as pacing goes, about 4 of the first 5 episodes are about as pure a nondescript slice of life as you’ll get; it’s slow, kind of monotonous and sprinkled with just enough fun and games to keep you going.  But it does go nowhere fast and, to those of us with limited time on our hands, this becomes a major stumbling block.

The second you hit episode 6 and on though, things go fast in a hurry.  I won’t bother to describe the spoiler-y details for you, but suffice to say that things don’t stay the same forever.  As soon as this starts, the aspects which made me love so many other shows kicked in: psychological aspects get represented and get represented well.  In the span of the next 8 episodes, there is almost no slowdown in this regard: we jump from issue to issue to issue.  The transitions between these short gaps are fluid and natural as we follow the progression of Rakka’s mind as she copes to the world around her.  All while building up for a climactic story without incredible amounts of the story being dedicated to it.  A climax in which it’s easy to turn beliefs of the show just for that one sequence alone.

So you kind of see the duality of the show.  You need to establish the characters first and this show presents a nice variety of characters.  But it’s also very short in length, 13 episodes, so even giving a basic understanding of each character becomes difficult to cram in without wasting screen time.  Unfortunately, Haibane Renmei got hit by this hard early and it actually had me take a one month hiatus from watching it (well, that and other projects).  But when the rubber hits the road, as the phrase goes, it just doesn’t stop.  I can compare it fairly heavily to Serial Experiments Lain in this regard, as both shows had weaker starting episodes, but got better and better as the number of episodes went on.

Characters

The characters of this show are its core.  Plain and simple. The show starts off with an ensemble cast.  We have Rakka, the newcomer, and the tall, dark, snarky, and somewhat brooding Reki as our two main protagonists.  Added to them are side characters, Hikari, Kana, Remu, and Kuu.

What really stands out about this crowd is their ability to all have unique personalities, viewpoints, and lives (for the most part).  There is an incredible amount of depth in the characters for such a short series.  While particularly present in our main two characters, it also shows up in most of the side characters who get lines and more than one appearance.  And I will use the term “most”.  This is a feat within itself.  Of course, having so many characters, like in the story department, also hurts each individual character.  Quite a few of the minor characters, while not devoid of reasonable personality, are static and to not evolve to the story.  However, whether or not this is symbolic is worth thinking about, but it stands out as a weakness in character design.  Quite a few tropes are recycled as well.  These flat characters a pretty easy to predict and easy to master their system of life, almost as if to populate a world, but not give you enough uniqueness in that mindset to distract you from the real narrative at work.

Emotionally, this show hits really hard.  The characters are built to draw people in emotionally.  You’ll invest in seeing Rakka’s point of view and how her points of view come out.  We’re exposed to so much of this that it become easy to sympathize with her thoughts, whether they make sense or not.  And, of course, with our own private viewing of her and Reki’s minds, comes so much investment that the story draws us in.  Again, I’ll explicitly point to the final episode, and maybe the 12th, as major emphasis of this.  I didn’t honestly think that I cared about the characters that much until the last couple episodes.  It’s really a pretty interesting adventure to put yourself through.

Animation

I’m going to say this about the character design: I almost always love shows where ABe has artistic influence.  It’s unique.  You look at any of his projects and, almost without a doubt, you can discern where he had wielded power.  From the beyond spiky hair on some characters to the unusual detail in the eyes to some of the minor things I just would never think about, it’s always a pleasure to see ABe touched works if not only for their characters.  Extending this beyond character design, it’s amazing to see some of the stylistic choices in his work.  There are some pretty unique scenes in this show where it’s worth a second look to just see the little things he decides to add in.

And, of course, this kind of sparked how I viewed the rest of the work.  This unique character design really drives home the fact that this show is, at its heart, character driven.  The lack of actual explained universe and the focuses of each episode aid in this, but this becomes the final factor: the characters are drawn so uniquely and play on the show in background and appearance so well that it helps propel the understanding of the show.  Personally, that’s the mark of good animating.  As with any show of its era, you’ll see a bit of cop-out.  It’s not terribly noticeable, but not an incredible piece either in this regard.  Really, the best way to describe the animation is “functional” because of the purpose it really serves.

In some cases though, it becomes absolutely stunning.  It may do more with the story side of it, but there are some beautiful sequences.  Within the first couple episodes, you get the concept of angels juxtaposed to a blood soaked baptism into the new world.  This is but one example, but it’s one of my favourites and is an incredible piece of animation to behold.  To a degree, it’s almost a piece of art to watch.

The opening and closing, I’ve found, have been fairly non-noteworthy in terms of animation.

Sound/Music/Voice Actors

Sound.  There isn’t enough good things I can say about the sound.  I don’t know how many times I circled the world “piano” in my notes about the show.  The melancholic nature of the piano pieces in this show are used to incredible effect. Maybe it’s because I used to play the instrument, maybe it’s because Ko Otani (famous for his work in Shadow of the Colossus), but it just plain works.  I’m more likely to lean on the latter explanation though as the string instruments also work very well.  And to some degree, a lack of background music and sound is used to the show’s advantage as well.  The void of nothing being around is used through use of eerie silence.  The entire soundtrack is effective in this regard and stands out as an example of less being more…that you don’t need entire orchestras to make a beautiful and effective backdrop for your show.

There is limited sung music in this show.  The opening is a simple melodic piece of dominant string instruments.  While it certainly sets the stage early, it almost begins to fade into misuse and improperly preparing its viewer as the episodes dwindle down to the end of the series.  It’s almost a show where, despite the length, you might have wanted to have two different themes.  I’m not sure this is such a huge knock on the show, but it certainly felt out-of-place by the end.

Kind of cruelly, an excellent opening piece for the end of the series is used as the ending.   Blue Flow by Heart of Air is a sorrowful, vocals dominated song.  And it hits very much what the latter episodes look at.  I remember in my earlier episodes that this seemed way out of place…but it worked well at the end.  Unfortunately, the show really has to fight its music in this regard…the selections didn’t make sense, but they had the pieces there to make a great soundtrack.

If you do plan to watch this show, watch the English dub.  It’s absolutely amazing.  I went about 3 episodes with both sub and dub listened to and the dub blows it out of the water, chases it into the air, and blows it into space.  The names for the main cast don’t really stand out.  I mean, Carrie Savage is probably the single name you’ll recognize, with Stephanie Sheh and Wendee Lee being good names, but with extremely limited and minor roles.  Despite this, it really does work so much better than the original Japanese voices.  As a bit of a background, I remember Savage most as Shima Katase from Stellvia of the Universe.  Her voice roles are very similar, but she suits Rakka extremely well in this show.  Much like how I kept circling “piano” for music notes, I have listed Carrie Savage doing an excellent job about once per episode.  She found an excellent mix of softness, emotion, and almost child-like wonder.

Side characters are selected near perfectly and ultimately trump their Japanese comparable at the job, especially in the emotional range category.  Unless it’s unnamed characters or a male character whose name will be withheld they aid in immersion, something that I can’t say about voices all too often.  Another odd choice, at least for most of the show, is Erika Weinstein as Reki.  Erika had a fairly short career as a VA.  But withhold judgment on that selection until the end of the series.  I basically had to rewrite my critique of her because of a couple monologues that she delivers perfectly in it.

Synergy

The show tries to create one giant juxtaposition of the beauty and tranquility of Glie and the Haibane against the somewhat discomforting spoilered elements of the show.  I’m not sure this works terribly well.  The biggest element that goes in its favour is the excellent hybridization of the animation and the soundtrack.  The way each character faces, from the angle to the direction, in comparison to the soundtrack seem to dare you to interpret them, the same way that your teachers would (or will try to in the case of younger viewers) dare you to interpret why the curtains were blue in this line of this novel.  Whether or not it’s there, the soundtrack creates the space to interpret the animation seven ways to Sunday.  It’s quite lovely, but isn’t something that is replicated anywhere else in the show.

Why to Watch

The show is a soundtrack, animation, and psychological wonder.  These three elements are drawn forth by two well-formed, dynamic protagonists.  From this, a powerful emotional front is built and presented to its viewers.  If you want to ride such a wave, this show is an excellent starting point.  Oh, and it’s short at 13 episodes.  Oh, and the show is freely streamed by Funimation.  Though it’s only in sub for all 13 episodes.  A sample of the dub is provided, which I suggest you try out before making a decision as to buy it or not.

Why Not to Watch

The show is strictly drama/slice of life.  If you don’t like either of those elements, it’s tough to get into.  There’s no action in any sense of the word.  There’s minimal comedy.  It’s very much a show which needs you to put heart and soul on the line to really get a high level of enjoyment out of the show.  I find myself pretty detached, but was emotionally drained after the last episode.  Very few shows are capable of that for me.  If you’re wanting something light and fluffy, it’s certainly worth skipping this.

Personal Enjoyment

As mentioned before, I love ABe influenced work.  The animation is almost enough for a watch on its own.  There’s no doubt that this, my love of the psychological, and the beautiful piano were enough to keep me satisfied once the ball got rolling.  Whether or not it had a strong story or finale, it would have ranked high in my enjoyment.

Summary

Key to looking at Haibane Renmei is its characters, its sound, and its psychology.  Your primary protagonists are extremely deep and will drive the show in terms of both plot twists and drive to watch through their psychological elements, while the sound is excellent and easily keeps you in the moment.  The show builds slowly to start, but almost has the “boulder on a hill” effect where the momentum never releases until you get to the bottom.  That, combined with the art of ABe, will be its main selling points to any prospective viewer.

Overall Rating

I ended up giving Haibane Renmei 7.06/10.  Under my rating system, would be a very solid review and is a recommended watch…especially since you can watch it all legally for free.  While the scores were fairly balanced, the animation, soundtrack, and characters led the way.  Story and the opening/ending side of music were somewhat lacklustre, but this was mostly due to how I calculated these scores.  Certain elements of each component worked well, but the whole suffered because of certain style choices, such as what I feel about the appropriate choice of opening and ending.