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At the beginning of the now finished season there were two post-apocalyptic survival themed anime with very interesting early episodes and disappointing final ones. One was Hikari no Ou which I already covered, and the other one is this title. Likewise, it caught some early attention because of Tsutomu Nihei, who is an author I don’t care about because he seems to make mostly very dry sci-fi, but decided to check this one out because it was something seemingly very different. It also lost some viewers because of the animation, some people just can’t take any CGI that isn’t perfect.
Although visually better that the anime its studio made in the past (but not cartoons, Transfomers: War for Cybertron is way better), the motions are still not that good, facial movements in particular, the character designs are typical, and the CGI itself is not that good. Definitely not bad but it will look weak in just a few years, even the best visual aspect, which are the backgrounds, has some crappy water and effects here and there at times.
Soundwise, the effects and voice acting are fine but they are not that good either. Nobuyuki Hiyama must be kind of old by now but his voice still sounds kind of young, he did his best acting wise but his voice was definitely not the most fitting for the main villain. The background music is pretty good and quite atmospheric at times, the opening and ending are fine too but not that memorable and they don’t exactly sell the stakes of the premise with how lighthearted they sound.
Speaking of premise, the setup is interesting but definitely not original, it’s basically Nausicaa with perhaps some element that you had seen on another anime about ecology already. But seriously, a princess going to battle and into the forest, a world saving prophecy (although more like a legend actually), giant bugs, a setting with limited resources (in this case, water), two nations at war, with another, way less idealistic female general on the other side. See? Very similar.
Still though, the first half of the show was good because it was setting up all of this and its background lore, while also some cool aspects such as the princess not being as idealistic and willing to sacrifice her life. Her father, the king, willing to sacrifice his daughter in order to protect his country, and the series showing the situation of the two nations at war and its citizens, one at risk of getting flooded, and the other, a mobile fortress, at the end of its capacity, with most of its people being colonized from now no longer existing nations, at the mercy of their new ruthless ruler, thus making the conflict seem gray with both sides having their fair reasons to do what they do.
With that said, it wasn’t perfect, as the pacing was kind of slow and there were some silly bits such as the main characters having a typical comical moment from an ecchi show with the two of them peeing from a giant tree. Also, the water was working in whatever way it suited the plot at the moment, making you wonder, are we sure the characters are in such crisis as they claim to be?
Eventually the problems began when the show introduced the other nation in the second half, by revealing that its citizens are not really its citizens, and that every person in the military is a one dimensional asshole, the conflict became one sided, you can’t have a very good (most of the time even just good) war drama if one side of the war is demonized. And that was not the biggest issue, as the writing became really bad in this second half, three people can fool a whole militaristic nation and escape from it, obviously with the help of every plot convenience imaginable to plot armor the heroes, plot devices that come out of nowhere such as a giant water monster or a giant mecha thing are ultimately useless, while others that can solve the conflict are encountered by pure luck or coincidence, they are seemingly lost but in reality not, thus resulting in a cheap attempt at drama, and also, suddenly, a big fucking laser. Also, more silly bits with fanservice included.
There’s a finale but the way everything led to that felt like bullshit, plus it’s incomplete because there’s a movie sequel coming out who knows when. At least unlike Hikari no Ou, this was announced right away, so we all knew or at least suspected that the ending was not going to be completely satisfactory.
Another issue are the characters, with none of them having much to offer, very simplistic, very unmemorable, barely any backdrop, not real development, much less any closure, and they even become worse in the second half. Kaina remains naive and clueless the whole show. Ririha goes from what I described earlier to a generic idealistic pacifist princess in constant need of rescue, and Yaona her brother goes from a former crybaby willing to risk his life and travel the world to save his sister to a useless bystander with nothing to add to the plot. The others? They are there, nothing more.
So, a good show in the beginning that becomes crap in the second half, with no resolution, making you watch its sequel that frankly could have just been two more episodes without the need to come out as a separate entry, with even a giant laser at disposal to solve every possible problem, thus mediocre as a whole. Watch, or even better, read Nausicaa instead.
5/10
