Anime Meta-Review
Eden's Bowy
Index's
Home
Alphabetic
Quality
Genre
People
Recent
By Date
Title Info
- seen: 1-8
- type: TV
- grade: worthy
- made: unknown
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
How many Episodes of an anime do you have to watch before you can say something about it? Well, I can definitely say that unless you are patient this anime is probably not for you. On the other hand those who like cryptic fantasy in a novel world might find this one interesting.
The story opens with two farmers straining to remove a stump from what will be a future paddock. It seems that while life is possible, it is not without toil and danger. Meanwhile, in the background, a city slowly floats by. These immense floating cities possess immense power, and wealth, but there is still danger in the politics of these closed environments. There are at least two, one dominated by technology, and one by some sort of magic. These three forces meet, rather dramatically, when it seems that the re-birth of a god-hunter is imminent. You see in this world there is an old legend, believed to be true by most people, that God began to despair of the failings of humans and turned against them. In time a special human was born who, with Gods own sword, struck him down. His blood socked into the earth and his power into a mist, that in time brought forth new gods, though they are more passive and protective than the old. Indeed they are said to guard the god-hunter with great care.
It seems that one of the farmers, a young boy, may be the god-hunter. Certainly he has attracted the attention of a rather strange, seeming non-human girl. More dramatically he has attracted the interest of the two floating cities. The tyrant of the city of magic wants him dead, although those called on to carry out the operation may have other agenda's. The city of technology wants his energy as a potential weapon to attack the other city. As to the boy, he wakes to find his father dead, a smoking hole where the farm used to be and a miraculously re-forged sword in his hand. What's more he is informed by a visitor that his father was not his biological father and that a long journey, beginning with once again meeting his mother, is his destiny and his future.
And then, for the first 8 episodes, they try to walk to this city. While there are various side adventures, and the floating cities make various moves, the plot largely does not advance at all. I get a slight feeling this may have a game heritage, in which case it may make more sense. But without that knowledge it might well seem that the pace of discovery is very slow indeed. In a similar manner it is fairly cryptic. For example the `strange girl' (elisis) clearly has a central role, although it is hidden from those she travels with. However for quite a large number of episodes she remains completely silent, and even after she has a tendency to give hints rather than answers. Likewise the magical city, seemingly the most powerful, contains many individuals who have knowledge and interest of what is going on. But while much is hinted, little is said. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind this. I quite like the atmosphere of mystery and am willing to wait for answers to become clear. But the impatient or action fixated are quite likely to find the lack of progress a bit much.
A similar thing occurs with people and places. The world seems to have a nice depth to it. There's some wonderful scenes of sculpture, buildings, rituals or symbols relating to the powers, myths and legends of the place. But, barring the central legend, little is explained...and the central legend is given a couple too many times. Likewise there are a huge number of interesting people around. Elisis is intrigiung (little elf like girl with transformation into larger kick-ass version) as are the various people on the `magic' city. Indeed there front line fighter (and her brother) is an awesome character. The credits make it clear that they have a continuing and important role, and there are great signs of character, but limited substance. And again for the floating cities themselves, which seem very different and interesting places but are still mysterious. Whether you find this a sign of mysteries to be revealed, or an irritating tease, will be a personal choice.
Still...at least it's nicely animated. While a lot of it is slow moving there's a nice feel of reality as a result. This world does seem complex and unknown as a result. This is greatly enhanced by the strong sense of design, especially in small details and actions. The anime palette is also restricted, lots of browns and earth colors, which looks quite strange in the age of super-bright anime. It's actually pretty modern stuff though, and there's clear evidence of restrained computer usage. The floating cities are a bit weirder in their ambiance, with one flashback having the weirdest sort of "america in the 50's" feel which came completely out of left field. The action, when it happens, is quite good and there's a reasonable amount of humor (mostly at the expense of the agents of the tech. city) and drama to round things out. The opening music is very catchy, other music is good, and the voices were good.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:17 WST 2009