Fantastic Children

First watched shortly after its airing in 2004 - 2005, and loved it for its atmosphere and how it respected the audience to see the foreshadowing and storylines come together. I remembered it for great storytelling.

Fast forward 20 years to 2025. On this second watch, almost a fresh experience, the storytelling strengths remain true. Aside from a mid-way recap episode, from start to finish, Fantastic Children unfolds a well-paced, engaging story. Along the way, it introduces many characters you want to know more about or want to root for, like the headstrong Tohma and all of the so-called Befort children. When one of their members ... leave, it takes only a few scenes to relay the feelings of pain, resignation, yearning, and resolution the rest feel, even if it takes quite a bit more time to fully understand why, and this is done with barely any dialogue. There are few wasted scenes. When conflicts arise, they hurt because by then, the characters matter. Throughout, the mysteries are intriguing and this story doesn't sell those out early. The multiple character narratives come together in a tense climax and fairly satisfying ending.

What is distracting and less appealing on this second watch is the characterization of one protagonist (let's say Person A). Almost bereft of personality and agency, Person A seems to exist only to reflect what others want, and is hard to develop empathy for. Ironic that Person A is the foci for almost all the action in the story, the lodestar driving all the major characters (and then some). There are disturbing monologues where more than one character tells Person A that everything they've done is for them and insist that Person A must therefore be or do as they wish. This doesn't particularly reflect well on these other characters, and complicates a viewer's connection with them. This may be intended, since after all, people are gray and messy, but this behavior is directed at a bafflingly unengaging character.

Overall, Fantastic Children is a worthwhile watch for a science fiction anime with a largely well-constructed story. Takashi Nakamura, with an impressive animator's pedigree, wrote and directed this original story. The art style, while dated, is still lovely. The orchestral soundtrack doesn't draw attention to itself but complements the story and action. The beautiful ending song is sung by the stunning vocalist, Origa.

A surprisingly disappointing show. It is impossible to do a meaningful review of this show without spoilers, so I will keep this bare bones.

Story 3/10:
The story is incredibly convoluted. I don't mean that it was hard to understand, because they did give relatively clear explanations for the events. The problem is just the sheer complexity of the plot, while managing to lack in substance. The story attempted to tell a lot, but many of the plot points were unnecessary, anti-climatic, and gimmicky.

Characters 3/10:
I had a huge complaint about multiple characters (in-fact, my biggest complaint about the show), but I cannot even brush on the reason ... why without huge spoilers.

Tone 7/10:
I did like the tone throughout much of the show. They didn't try to force comedy, romance, etc. in places that didn't call for it. They let the serious scenes be serious and the lighthearted scenes lighthearted. It wasn't fantastic, but it refrained from significant faults.

Setting:
At times I liked it, at others I didn't. That's as much as I am willing to say in fear of spoilers.

Art 6/10:
The art style itself is nothing to behold. The animation is fine but in no way superb. There are a select few scenes that stood out particularly well though. Not in the details or fantastic action scenes, but instead in capturing significant meaning in a single shot with well placed and scaled objects and 'camera' (so to speak).

Sound 6/10:
Not much to say one way or the other. Fairly repetitive soundtrack, but usually fitting. The voice acting was fine, but was hurt by annoying dialogue (specifically, the large amount of times they screamed each other's names during higher action scenes. It's nitpicky, but got to me in a couple of episodes).

Enjoyment 5/10:
As I said with the art section, there where a few particular scenes that were done wonderfully. So much so, that despite being bored for a majority of the show, I'm still glad I watched it.

Overall 5/10:
I think my reasoning is clear. There isn't a single aspect this show excels in, and it undoubtedly has it's flaws. To be entertained by this show, you need to enjoy lots of plot turns. I don't mean plot twists (where they take what you thought you knew and change it), but pure turns. The plot likes to stop at certain points, and just move on to something utterly new with no relation to previous events. These plots do not get intertwined, instead they simply get mashed together. Sometimes, they altogether annihilate the importance of previous plot-lines.

It's a pass for anyone who does not care for a fantasy/sci-fi for complexity of plot alone.

The anime is as horrible as its animation. It looks like the producers watched some better anime, then took what they found good as ingredients for this one. They chose to make a “centuries-long mystery” as a mystery apparently means the viewer doesn’t need to know much details. Also limit the dialogue and add repetition to the recipe to cut the costs even more, and you get their business plan to get wealthy with minimal effort.
This is probably the reason that fear emotions have to be shown on every face of every character and in sequence because a total group reaction would make the ... episode shorter. In the beginning it does make you wonder what terrible event is happening, but it gets boring quick.
And as the anime continues you find out that there is actually no reason for fear or it gives even more questions. Repetitions of fearful events is the strategy, and it is stalling the viewer with as little information as possible.
Also the characters are on the move a lot, again slowing down the flow of the story. Especially if you see another long chase ending by someone teleporting away, why didn’t that happen immediately… Ah yes it is as logical as having soldiers fight with swords, while having also laser weapons, some ingredients don’t mix well.
There are so many repetitive events, combined with characters that are totally not necessary to the story (like the detective and the woman that is following him). A waste of time that could have been used better to give details for certain decisions. No wonder the story is full of plot holes.
The only way they make the story flow is to have someone appear at the right spot or at the right time listening in when someone else is telling some secret or information. It gives you a world with so much unused space and open doors everywhere as people need to be able to hide in it.

All the characters are so very very empty, they just do something because the plot demands it. You could be positive and say that the story is about love that survives through space and time. But in the anime this apparently applies only for the 2 main characters, others experiencing similar events abandon their loved ones quite easily.
But even those 2 main characters offer nothing else. Being their friend doesn’t keep them from flying away, leaving you heavily wounded behind. All that while knowing those wounds came from trying to save them. It all just happens to get some form of a story, but with scripted characters.
The only fun I had was jokingly predict the worst choice that the royal mother could make, and then seeing it actually happen.
Conclusion: It is not worth watching.