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Conception is an all-around harmless anime. You’ve seen the type before; a generic protagonist with a black hole of a personality has different women thrown at him, excused only by paper thin plot and characterization. It’s, for the most part, inoffensive and expected. Conception, though, actually ended up being weirdly enjoyable for what it is.

Story:

I’m not sure what it was like in the game, but the story was barely there from the start and was terrible whenever it came up. Really, it only served as an excuse for the MC to get laid at the end of every episode. It was ridiculously rushed for this ... reason, most episodes scrambling to deliver exposition so the hero can have a go with each girl by the end of the series. Everything else in the series suffers from this same issue, making it one of the biggest drawbacks in my opinion.

Art:

Okay, so I actually really liked the designs for each of the characters. I’ve noticed that most anime adapted from games tend to have this as a strong point. It’s a real shame that the characters themselves weren’t nearly as unique as their individual designs. Mihiru and the MC were the only really generic ones, which was good. Animation-wise, it was painfully obvious from the first episode that it was never going to be anything to write home about. Still shots are used excessively, and I’m pretty sure the ED is where the majority of the animation budget went.

Sound:

The voice acting was pretty so-so, but it occasionally dipped with some characters to where it was just annoying. The OST was also mediocre, but the OP and ED were decent.

Characters:

The characters were easily the weakest part of this series. For some, development literally lasted about 2 minutes, aided by how rushed the series was. Most of them didn’t actually have a personality beyond what was needed to fill certain archetypes, and even then I think they were running out of ideas. The children were also super weak in terms of characterization, and most of the time they just show up and you’re left wondering who the mother even is. I don’t think anyone will argue that the characters are pretty much garbage.

Enjoyment:

Despite the many, many flaws this show has, it was actually pretty entertaining at points. I’d like to chalk this up to Mana and the MC’s dynamic, which surprisingly was pretty effective. I think it was fun most of the time because the show manages to hit that so-bad-that-it’s-good sweet spot, while not necessarily being consistent with this. It’s mindless fun, and it doesn’t try to be much more than that.

Overall? It’s your average harem anime that you see every season, but it succeeds in being an alright comedy and it’s hardly ever boring. If that’s what you’re looking for, have at it.

After finishing this anime, I believe that Children of the Whales can be summarized fully as one thing: a disappointment. I've read a volume or two of the manga beforehand, nothing so much as to spoil the bulk of the story but enough to get me excited about seeing it on Netflix. As much as I wanted to enjoy this anime all the way through, watching this show quickly became tedious.

Story: 3

In the beginning, this story looked promising. From the get-go, the worldbuilding quickly got my attention and I enjoyed the unique ideas presented. I could see that there was potentially a lot going on ... in the background that could potentially be the focus for later episodes, particularly the elder council and the surrounding world. However, how it went about this was most assuredly backwards.

Take, for example, and there will be spoilers here, the first episode really going indepth into the elder council. Here we see the reaction to the attack on the island from the elders. Instead of taking a moment to think rationally, coming up with a strategy to repel the invaders or at least escape another attack, the elders decide on the ingenious plan to... wait for it... kill everyone. Brilliant. Then they expect no one to argue and they don't even consult the villagers to ask, hey, would you guys be cool with dying so we can atone for our sins or whatever? And that was the justification they used. Their ancestors from a century ago, apparently criminals, were driven out because they had emotions. So obviously the entire island had to go belly up because of that.

Yeah, well, in case you didn't pick up on it, that plan backfired a bit. Or not. Not like the elders should have any repercussions for knowingly deciding to murder the entire island and kidnapping the one person in power who didn't agree with them. But this highlights one very big issue in the series that bothered me the entire way through. The elder council is clearly a flawed system, the elders in question untouchable by law and placed in a position of power merely because they managed to live long enough. It wasn't as if it was hard to live long - all you had to do was be born without the power of thymia. So any moron could become one of the almighty rulers so long as they didn't take a flying leap off into the sand ocean. Not only this, but there's a clear unbalance in power between the marked and the unmarked. So what if the marked have thymia? Thymia was basically just a means to fling things around prior to the attack, but Children of the Whales treats it, at times, as if it were second only to godhood. So not only do the marked live essentially under the thumb of the unmarked, they do all the hard labor. Yet they don't even question it. This, to me, was the hardest part to stomach in the whole series. When someone does try to rise up against the elder council, albeit on some definitely skewed thinking that makes absolutely no sense even for a child, it's immediately quenched. I guess that's because that isn't the focus of the story, even though the series is very clearly trying to take on the politics of this whole ordeal along with everything else. I have an entire world of things I could pick apart here, but this review shouldn't just be about the story and this is a bit of a long wall of text.

Art: 7

The art from the manga was, I'm sure, what drew a lot of readers to the title. It was also probably the entire reason the anime was worth salvaging. Though the art doesn't hold a candle to the manga, it carried over surprisingly well. The backgrounds were detailed and atmospheric. The anime looked good, all around. My main complaints come in with the character designs, which were hardly unique. While they were different enough to tell apart, the faces pretty much looked the same and the style of the characters could be jarring against the backgrounds, especially when CGI was used.

Sound: 6

The music composition suited the tone and atmosphere while not being particularly outstanding. Voice acting was decent, I'd say, though I'm not one to take note of that too much. Liontari's voice got on my nerves more than it should, and constantly distracted from the story, but maybe that was just the character itself. Nothing to write home about.

Characters: 2

These are the worst aspect of the story, never setting up too many expectations and yet dashing them all the same. The main character is a bland protagonist whose only two qualities are that he can't do anything and he likes living. Yippee. Oh, and he writes things obsessively, a character trait that started out as a plot device, stayed a plot device, and was dropped occasionly as the plot served. Most of the other characters, and there are many, fall into stereotypes or their only personality trait is that they have no personality.

Speaking of no personality, there's also Neri and her twin sister who have absolutely no explanation for existing as of yet, have these weird god powers, speak to the dead, and deliver exposition whenever the mood strikes them. They are also prone to breaking into and encouraging others to sing and dance, usually about death and during the middle of a climactic moment. The only other character who exhibits this behaviour is Liontari, someone who gets off on killing emotional people and is later forced to perform in a jester suit for the sake of his boss Orca's weird fetish for the things. Huh.

Enjoyment: 3

The height of my enjoyment was during the first two episodes, when I still had the innocence of expecting an unfinished manga to be adapted well. It steadily decreased from there as the series just got worse and worse. By the time I was at the final episode, I was practically ready to just drop the series for the time being only to spontaneously pick it up again a year or two later. There's a part of me that still wishes I had done that.

Man, this review ended up being long.

xxxHOLiC is, to this day, one of my favorites. I'm hesitant to rate it a 10, but I believe it deserves to have the highest rating possible.

Story:

The majority of the chapters of xxxHOLiC are contained in their own story, but all contribute to the reader's understanding of the characters and what may be unfolding around them. While sometimes this can bring down the story, overall it doesn't harm it as even things that appear to have no influence on the important events do help develop the characters in outstanding ways. Occasionally it may feel as if the short stories do drag the entire thing on ... too long, however, but the pace improves in the later chapters and saves itself from becoming too dull (though the short stories are, for the most part, rather interesting).

It is worth stating, however, that the segments where TRC plays an important role feel out-of-place and shoehorned. They really shouldn't have been in this manga, or at least have been made to actually work with it instead of being forced in such a way.

*Note: xxxHOLiC's events and a few of its characters have very close relations to other works by Clamp, most notably Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, but one does not need to read these to understand the story. However, they are likely to give one a much better understanding of the universe surrounding this manga, so I recommend it.

Characters:

There is no long list of characters to consider in this, as xxxHOLiC focuses entirely on the plights of the four main characters. While they are quite one-dimensional in the beginning, they gradually get developed and grow, just as they should. The relationships especially get fleshed out and complicated ties are established between each character. By the end, no character is left undeveloped.

Despite this, I do have my grievances. The most prominent one is one other main character, seperate from the main four that consistently appear throughout the story, who appears in the later chapters. She does get to be quite important, but is phased out nearly right after she's established as a prominent character. She becomes a mere blip on the radar, and that is an issue that's never dealt with.

Art:

The art for xxxHOLiC is unconventional and stunning, in my opinion. Even the panelwork is great, and creates a wonderful balance page to page. While it may look odd in some scenes, mostly due to the appearance of the characters, its actually rather easy to get used to and becomes a pleasure to look at. I wouldn't compare it to artwork from other manga due to just how unconventional it is, but it shows great improvement from Clamp's absurdly proportioned characters in the early days.

xxxHOLiC is commonly said to be Clamp's masterpiece, or at least one of them, and I agree. It was a memorable ride, and a beauty to behold. Definitely worth reading despite its length.

Try as you might, you can't contain a story such as this in three short chapters, and it shows. While it was ambitious in its characters and plot, the story wasn't allowed to properly unfold.

Story:

There's a story here, that is to be sure. However, what should have been fleshed out over several chapters, and, really, there's enough here for several volumes, is instead crammed into three very short chapters. It fails to be cohesive, with jumps between several points in time and only the bare-bones of the story allowed to slip through.

While sometimes keeping things short may serve to enhance the effect of ... the read and is a viable method of storytelling, I feel that it wasn't carried out well at all in this manga.


Characters:

The characters are the focal point in this manga. They aren't simply a means of telling the story, they are the story. Because of this, it is impossible for them not to receive some care in the ongoings of the manga as to their motivations and past. In fact, as I've said, this is the entire story for the most part. Though, as I've also said, only the bare-bones gets through because that's all that was allowed within such a small amount of material.

Art:

The art is very good in this, I will say, and only furthers my belief that this would have been a very good manga should it have been given more time to expand and carefully construct the story and its characters. The suitably detailed artwork compliments the setting and the realistic tone the story wishes to keep with it throughout.

Overall, this could have been one of the better yaoi manga out there, but it couldn't live up to its potential due to the constraints placed on it.