The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo

In the distant future, because of an interplanetary war that had continued on for centuries, civilizations were ruined. Human beings have lost everything, and only 1/5th of the population survived. A strange breed of humans, ''The Third'' is said to have appeared just after the war. They possess a third eye, as their name suggests, that appear as oval-shaped red pupils called "space eyes'' over their conventional two eyes. Using them, they can control computer systems and so on, and as such, rule the world by their superior power over technology.

In this world, there is a young woman named Honoka; she is a "jack-of-all-trades" sellsword, and she accepts any job except murder. One day, she happens to find and rescue a young man named Ikus in the desert. Entering his world, and accepting a job from him, the adventure begins for Honoka and Ikus.

(Source: BestAnime, modified)

Honoka Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Bogie Main

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Iks Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Jouganki Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Paife Supporting

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

STW-9000 Supporting

Shimura, Tomoyuki Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Millie Supporting

Sakata, Yuki Japanese

Kevin Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Zankan Supporting

Tanaka, Masahiko Japanese

Noto, Takashi Producer

Chino, Takatoshi Producer

Takechi, Tsuneo Producer

Kamiya, Jun Director

Reviews

May 19, 2018

RyanSpring

Recommended

Inconsistent in its quality, its best moments are true 10/10s and its lesser moments feel very average, leading to an overall very good and very underrated anime that just barely missed its mark and left this viewer, though satisfied, wondering what could have been...

Art-

I thought the art, mostly, was gorgeous. I say mostly because, inexplicably, there is one episode and one episode only that has a completely different art style, was clearly drawn by different people and just flat out looks terrible. That difference, which was extremely and immediately noticeable for me, was perhaps my single least favorite part of the entire show. I assume ... there was some unplanned problem at the studio and they had to really scramble and rush to meet a deadline or make a change or whatever, but this is just inexcusable. That rant aside, other than that episode, the show was artistically beautiful and I really mean that.

Sound-

The quality of the voice acting here is wildly underrated. I thought it was very, very good overall. There are solid performances all around and not a single bad one and the lead, Honoka, particularly stands out as being performed at a very high level. I don't see how one could objectively view this aspect of the show as less than a 9.

The soundtrack here is GORGEOUS! This has to be one of the top three to five most underrated anime soundtracks of all time. It's super hard to find this soundtrack- as of this writing it isn't on YouTube and a generic Google search doesn't get you very far- but if you can get your hands on it, or if you just listen to it in the show itself, you'll be blown away. It's absurdly pretty and atmospheric and is a massive part of the season the show has such an unbelievable sense of beauty, mystery and adventure. 10/10 soundtrack as far as this viewer is concerned.

Characters-

This is where the show has its biggest high and low points. I found the first third of the show to be absolutely mind-blowing. Easy 10/10. But then after that something just kind of changed... I don't know if they added in filler arcs (it certainly felt that way)/they needed to extend the story to meet a certain number of episodes or if their larger vision got a little too big for their britches, but the show goes from a mystical, deeply poetic and philosophical adventure in a gorgeous and enchanting land to, well... just not. Granted, the two arcs that I perceive as filler were both OKAY (though possibly a bit too drawn out) but they just didn't feel the same as the initial premise.

Also, the show gets far less believable as time goes on. At first the lead is special, which is fine, but still vulnerable and not guaranteed to win. By the end of the show she's simply invulnerable, all-powerful and can defeat anyone and anything without breaking a sweat, which I found really lame and disappointing.

Overall-

While this show is undeniably beautiful and underappreciated, I can't help but feel a sense of disappointment with what could have been had they simply stayed the course of the initial third of the show as opposed to taking it the direction they chose to take it. It got more silly, less believable and less philosophical/poetic as time went on and I wish it hadn't deviated from those things.

+Visually gorgeous minus one hideous episode
+AMAZING soundtrack
+Exceptionally beautiful if not outright mystical premise/initial journey

-Show gets less believable and less realistic as time goes on
-One episode is randomly very ugly and terribly animated
-Quality is not consistent throughout

OBJECTIVE RATING- 7.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 8

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 12, 2008

Emilio_Rodo

Mixed Feelings

Well, that's the first anime that motivated me to write a fairly negative review.I may be a bit biased, because I was really expecting it to be more interesting, mainly because one of my favorite books is about a guy who drives around the desert in a tank...In any case, here's my $ 0.02

Story:
Girl drives around in the desert in a tank...That pretty much sums it up.The anime is divided in several substories, each lasting 2-3 episodes.Unfortunately, none of them managed to grab my attention.What annoyed me the most was the one before the last: girl goes in the middle of nowhere, ... accompanied by her worst enemy, to rescue a guy who does not need rescuing and fight a woman that doesn't want to fight her... Plausibility was thrown right out the window ( example, last episode's 'battle scene') It think that the idea was that the show was supposed to be more character driven, rather than plot driven, which brings us to the

Characters:
That's the weakest point of the series.You are unlikely to dislike them.Most probably you just won't care about them.And why should you? They don't change throughout the series, and all have single-layer personalities.You have the optimistic hard working one, the kind mysterious one, cynical mysterious one and the loyal one and the "wise" one.Another annoying thing is that instead of revealing their personalities through their expressions and dialog, the creators of the series decided to use an annoying omniscient Narrator , that explains what's going on in their heads

Art
Not bad overall, only it's quality went down dramatically at 2 or 3 occasions.That being the terrible 3D geese and episode 13 mainly.There are a few other occasional drops in the quality of the character animations, but they are pretty minor.Also, the Third look remarkably like the generic elves from any 80s anime.Apart from those points though, everything was decent

Sound

Not bad, but unremarkable.

Enjoyment
Straight in the middle,watching the series was a nice way to kill some time, but I definitely won't remember much of it in 2 weeks.


Overall:

It left me with a sense of wasted potential.Although not particularly bad, the series just lacks character: the story is standard, the charterers are cliche, the messages we've already heard a thousand times before.I would guess that show was aimed towards a younger audience who hasn't had the chance to see all the cliches of the genre over and over agains.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 23, 2023

karioka-

Not Recommended

I wanted to like this anime. It looked pretty interesting at first, but instead it did the exact opposite of interesting me and put me to sleep.


Story - 4

The story was honestly pretty interesting at first. You have this girl Honoka who travels around a desert in some kind of tank. She meets a bunch of people along this journey and also happens to possess a third eye. Only problem is that the story goes absolutely nowhere for what is probably half of the series.

Almost every episode is some boring dialogue nobody wants to hear, or a basic fight with no build up or hype.
I ... would’ve enjoyed this show if it weren’t for the uninteresting and repetitive dialogue for about half of the series, if it weren’t for that I could’ve actually had a fun time watching this.
It actually then picks up the pace near the end but delivers a pretty boring and forgettable experience at most.

Art - 5

The art and animation were alright for 2006. Just really bland though. They didn’t really do much to make the show look that good.
They did an alright job on the actual animation. But did nothing to make the show look visually appealing with lighting, backgrounds or anything.
It has a boring and generic art style with not much character at all in the art.
This show would also have the tendency to add some ugly looking CG and some stock photo looking images as the sky in some parts. Overall though, it has really bland and lazy art but not ugly by any means.

Sound - 6

The sound in this show was good, just forgettable.
The opening and ending were a tad bit good but definitely forgettable and not the kind of song you would listen to on repeat. The voice acting was good and they did a good job at fulfilling their roles.
Now the background music on the other hand was as bland as the show. Sometimes there would even be none. Paired with the boring, bland feel of the show and it would be extremely boring to watch and get through.

Character - 3

The characters were definitely the worst part of the show. That really sounds harsh but they’re some of the most cardboard cutout characters I've ever seen in an anime.
They all provided some of the most boring dialogue. And it was hard to care for most characters when they would barely do anything interesting. They all seem to do the same things over and over again until it’s dry. You never see much character development in this show even when they try to develop them.
They’ll always be dry characters and I did not feel any attachment to them whatsoever.

Enjoyment - 3

It’s safe to say I did not enjoy this series that much. It has bland uninteresting dialogue for most of the time you are watching the show. Generic fights with absolutely nothing special about any of them. No buildup to anything, no enjoyment for half of the series and characters drier than the desert they journey through.
I know some people could enjoy this show if you can handle repetitive actions and dialogue. But this show just isn’t for me, sorry.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo Episode 6 Discussion Kylearan - May 9, 2011	3 replies	by AshRayKay »» Oct 15, 8:43 PM
	Poll: The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo Episode 20 Discussion Kylearan - May 12, 2011	5 replies	by mo_lave »» Sep 29, 1:30 PM
	Poll: The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo Episode 13 Discussion Kylearan - May 11, 2011	6 replies	by nhkam »» Sep 19, 2023 10:11 AM
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