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I remember watching this anime when I was a little girl; or, more correctly, I remember watching this with my mum, who still fondly remembers the Italian opening (which is much better than the original one). I didn't remember much more than that, and I knew that Sapphire was the proto-Oscar from Versailles no Bara, so I was very curious to re-approach this anime. Indeed it's very dated and it fails to engage, but I can imagine that it must have been quite original in its premise for the time, and some themes or details even step into moral ambiguity or some kind of social ... commentary. Sadly, there are simply too much anime to experience and too little time, so I am leaving this behind.

Some more details:

Story: from what I have seen, every episode is a stand alone story, with the main subplot being the evil Baron trying to expose Sapphire's secret (and possibly Tink to follow through with his mission?). Probably in the future there will be returning characters and some developing romance?

Characters: apart from the villain being the villain, with his entourage of stupid sidekicks, and the funny helper being the funny helper (but, in the long run, he could become an antagonist? Maybe I am asking too much from an anime from the '60s), Sapphire is the adorable tomboy who is brave, loyal, fearless, but can also have some fun every now and then. The other characters do not stand out that much, at least in these first few episodes, except for the leader of the slaves and the knight at the tournament. Those two were quite intriguing and the latter turned out to be more than met the eye.

Animation and sound: quite underwhelming, but I am not extremely demanding in these departments. Some action scenes were ludicrous, but funny.

Definitely not a must see anime, but a nice dive in nostalgia-land.

I watched this anime a while ago now, but here I am, very bored and trying to do some work, looking for any mean to escape, and I thought to myself: hey, I have never told the world how I felt about this anime. So here I am.

I had been suggested to check this out after I finished K-On, and someone here on MAL told me it was excellent SOL, and the score is above 8.00. I also love hiking and trekking, so I said why not?

Here's why.

The characters were highly unengaging, with the slight exception of the tall green haired girl and the goofy ... pink haired girl (since I watched this maybe a year ago, I really cannot remember any name). At the other end of the spectrum, I found the MC, moped introverted girl, very hard to like, with her attitude of I don't like being with others, I like going by myself, being all broody. I have never ever found myself watching anime and wanting for a main character to fail so much, and considering that the show is definitely not about conflict, I think that's saying something.

The tricks and info about camping life were quite interesting, even though going to face adventure in the outdoors the way those girls do it is for sure not my idea of enjoying nature. Everything was too clean, polished, cute, even fashionable. Where is the mud? The sweat? The soggy boots, the cramps? The blisters?!?

Technically speaking, it left me really unimpressed: plain character design, plain animation. I remember the landscapes were quite good though.

In the end, a vanilla anime, I didn't hate it, I didn't like it, I can definitely live without.

I don't even remember why I had added Hinamatsuri to my PTW list, and for sure I was expecting something entirely different. Sci-fi/action maybe with some romance. When I decided what to watch next, I scrolled down my list excluding any comedy (currently watching K-On as well, so that area was covered already, you know) and chose this one. Boy, if I was mistaken.

Although this is not the first anime I watched about an unlikely adult-child pairing, the development here is very original. Hina, a lazy, dumbish, hard-to-root-for girl and the yakuza basically lacking any parental instinct. If I was expecting some kind of redemption ... story, I was again mostly wrong. Yes, we do have some development by the end of it, but yakuza guy still remains a yakuza guy, and lazy kinetic girl still stays the same. Around them, a plethora of unexpectely loving characters, from the moral compass (dear Hitomi!) to the woobie (title shared by Anzu and Mao, even if they get better), to the comic relief (pretty much everyone else). And the very horrible adults, almost all of them.
Hina's approach to life and her deadpan reaction to anything that happens to her was real comedy gold, rarely I found myself laughing that enthusiastically watching anime. And, in some episode, just a handful of minutes later I found myself with a tear in my eyes. The peculiar structure of the episodes allowed this kind of tonal shifts, which sometimes felt a bit inappropriate though; still it's remarkable how the writers managed to create this many self-contained stories which worked so well both for the narrative and the character development. As a whole, though, the pacing was sometimes weird, as some segments feel incomplete (I really wanted to see the follow-up to Nitta's party after Hina is "gone"); also, too bad the girls' backstory is never investigated. Maybe a second season was planned and never happened? But I really appreciated the small sequence at the very end when absolutely no one in the cast is forgotten.
A hidden jewel which I am very happy to have stumbled upon.

Spoilers ahead

Oh My Gods I can't believe how bad this was.

The more I was watching, the more I was taking mental notes in order to give my 2 cents about this mess. But it soon became so overwhelming and full of absurdities (at a Mulholland Drive level, no joking) that I gave up. So I will just be very random myself about the experience.





...
Incest. Zig-zagged, averted, reimplemented, whatever. Why? Oh why?
Rape and paedophilia, exploitation. If you put all these things together and you throw in the mix some "subtle symbolism", you might think you get art, but you'd rather risk to go pretentious.

You know what also is not art, but rather artsy, certainly lazy? Using toilette silhouettes to stand in for crowds.

I felt very offended that every time (oh so many times) a flashback started, they needed to write FLASHBACK with big, flashy letters. And all these backstories were just too much, the main story (if ever there was any) was so fragmented that here I am, still wondering who the guy with pink hair was, who the penguin queen was, what with Momoka superpowers, what with the black rabbits, what everyone's agenda was, why there were kids in cages, who was sibling with, and what's wrong with parenting in Japan, if in one show you see the trope of the evil parent/guardian... let's see, how many times... at least 4 times.

I love penguins, ok? Love them. But gods I hated those little sickos that were supposed to represent the main characters? They were actually useful for like 2 episodes, after that they became some kind of... comic relief? How am I supposed to share the intensity of this family tragedy (my sympathy already been disrupted with idiotic characterization every other episode) with penguins toying with eggs and lollipops and porn magazines in the corner? Do we really need to have a double for what's happening on the main stage? We could have had a series of 12 episodes instead, and I am not saying it would have been good, but at least it would have been shorter.

I'll begin with something which is beyond the review of the series, but in the age we live in, I feel I really have to say it, and I'll mark it as a SPOILER, even if I'll be as generic as possible: character A saying to character B that killing your wife is a form of love... guys, that's NOT love! NEVER!

*********************************************************************

The rest of the review is spoiler free

I guess it's true that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Let's split them:

Story: divided in mystery themed arcs, I have sometimes enjoyed and sometimes been confused by them, but I found them ... an engaging way to develop the show. I admit that most of the times the mysteries and their denouement were very convoluted and ludicrous, but other things compensated for that, more about this later. As for the main arc, involving politics and Victorique's origin, it was intriguing but sometimes difficult to follow. I really liked the many references to real life, especially about WWI. In a story full of murders and dead people, the second half of the series got incredibly darker on both small (what happens to our characters) and large scale (the war). Too bad that the finale was really rushed.

Art: really pleasant aesthetics when it comes to landscapes, buildings and details. The character design is nothing astonishing but neat, but I wish Victorique were just a bit taller and with shorter hair: I understand she is a "fairy", but it worked against my suspension of disbelief.

Sound: No praise nor complaints; first ED better than the second one.

Characters: I still don't know how it is possible that I found Victorique annoying for at least half of the show, and Kujou a bit of a doormat for about the same amount of time, you know, the same old dynamics of anime couples... still I was rooting for them in the end. Hell, in the last arc I felt really bad for them! Victorique's VA did an excellent job. I liked the realism of people's attitude towards Kujou's foreignness, which was actually addressed to in the way I supposed it would have been in early 20th century Europe, with some mistrust, mockery, maybe some racist vibes.

Enjoyment: while sometimes I was confused by the mysteries or annoyed by the amount of coincidences, or I simply couldn't keep up with the many details of the main arc, the series got me interested enough that I was always looking forward to the next episode, partly because I was enjoying seeing the relationship between the two MCs growing and becoming stronger, and partly of course because of the cliffhangers. The last arc got me in turn horrified, sympathetic or it even moved me with the depiction of some events mirroring History.

Overall: I have enjoyed the show overall and I am glad I chose to watch it on a whim, mostly attracted by the title and the cover image on MAL; I hadn't even read the summary when I started it! So it was a nice surprise, nothing game changing but a good ride nonetheless.

I am writing this review to help myself scoring the show, since I am torn about it.

Mostly spoiler free

Story 7

I liked it enough, I think the setting is particularly good, with the society of herbivorous and carnivorous trying to live together. However I thought it would focus more on the mystery of Tam's murder, but maybe that is reserved for season 2? Still I am a bit disappointed. I wish they'd give more depth to the idea of bearstar, it was mentioned maybe a couple of times and it felt kind of stupid, being so worked up about it for something (apparently) so shallow.

Art 7

It ... was ok, even if I agree to a certain extent that having these anthropomorphic animals with human traits is somewhat disturbing. I really liked the style of the opening and Rouis' flashback.
I found annoying the moments when Legoshi goes "wolf", e.g. when he's tries to track Haru through her scent and we see what happens in his brain, or when he's overtaken by his instinct. If done consistently it works, but just thrown in randomly at the beginning and in the climax of the series, it was a narm moment.

Sound 6

Alright, but I am not a fan of jazz. OP and ED music kind of forgettable.

Character 5

I like Legoshi, which is a good start, as generally I strongly dislike anime MCs. I like the fact that he is so soft spoken and gentle, but he is not the usual idiot/loser/hot headed from anime. Everyone says he's weird, yes, but he has friends, he has some social commitments. What I don't get too much is where his awkwardness about his own species comes from, it is never properly explained.

The minor characters were mostly ok (with some totally unexplained focus on characters such as the hen - why should we be interested in her?), my main issue is with the other main characters. Rouis is simply detestable, his backstory was told too late and was also boring. I wouldn't say it was expected, but nothing original. His end made no sense to me. For the love of me, while I was feeling sorry for Haru while she was about to be eaten, I was indifferent to annoyed towards her most of the time. Why did Legoshi fall for her? Was that instinct? Was it because she was the first to look at him in a different light?

This is silly, but I really liked when the dogs shoved the tail.

Enjoyment 6

Watching this series was always walking a fine line between WTF and enjoyment. In particular, I did not appreciate the fact that the perpetrators of violence (the carnivorous) were treated like the victims of prejudice, and the herbivorous were mostly jerks. At the same time, it felt wrong to me feeling like this, as I tried to project this world to real life world, and this also left me confused. How does the metaphor work? Do the carnivorous represent the minority which holds the power? Is this a xenophile story telling us not to blame the group for the individual's fault? Is it something else entirely? Am I reading too much in this? Is there a metaphor at all?

Overall 5

While I had enough motivation to go through it, this anime left me with more that one issue, so I cannot tell I disliked it, nor that I liked it. The balance is tipped off by the frustrating ending, plus the fact: what the heck happened to the panda?

I really wanted to like this series. Because I really like Gilgamesh as a character from the Fate series, so I was excited to see him with his own show. Too bad that:

1. It wasn't really his own show (ah, you marketing demons!)
2. He was almost nothing like the guy I loved to hate from the previous installments. This was not 100% a negative thing, as the character was sometimes authoritative enough to let you glimpse some of his "king of heroes" persona.

Anyway:

Story: a real disaster. Or maybe simply not aimed to anyone who hasn't played the game, such as myself. It was so all ... over the place that more than a few times I started a new episode thinking: wait, did I skip an ep? And when finally I DID skip one, I didn't realize until I got 5 minutes into it. Deus ex machina as there is no tomorrow, random powers unheard of until the moment they are used, characters and flashbacks that pop up from god knows where (previous singularities?), an abused pattern of quest > try to defeat an enemy > win the enemy over > let's go back to the palace > repeat. This is for the first half of the season. Second half of the season, fights just get bigger. In between, endless chit chats about what means to be human, or exposition moments, which to me translated into blah blah blah authority blah blah singularity blah blah blah phlebotinum blah blah Fujimaru will you do it?? HAI, I WILL!

Art: well this was very good, except CGI moments, but I don't mind too much about that. Fights were admittedly gorgeous, even if most of the times if was difficult to understand what was going on - but this might be due to my viewing device, so I'll forget about this. Oddly enough, while most of the main characters used very similar models with the usual differences in hair or eye colour (after all, Merlin is just a Dr Romani with a different fashion sense), the NPCs were extremely diversified, so well done about that. What I really liked though was the body language of pretty much everyone, with those small movements and quirks, which resulted in a higher sense of realism.

Sound: this is generally the feature I pay less attention to, so no much to say about it. Except that the OP was cringey and particularly mismatched with the first video editing, while the endings were generally better, especially the second one. Special mention to the horrible choice of having those prehistoric birds of the American goddess flying over an electric guitar riff.

Characters: almost as bad as the story, with little saving grace, i.e. Gilgamesh (despite switching alignment, he still holds his charisma) and "Rin", who was at least funny. And then the plethora of people who were just tools to prove how magnificent the MC, by both being friends or antagonist or sometime the two things together. It goes without saying, he is nothing special. What I would have really liked was a bit more time investigating for example the story between Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Siduri, or even just more screentime for Leonardo and Romani. MC duo: NA. I really hated the Jaguar Warrior and his/her paw mace.

Enjoyment: really poor. As Ishtar says: "We have only known each other for a short time, but it feels like forever." That's exactly my own experience of time while watching the show.

Overall: With all the curiosity I had getting into the series, it quickly became a chore to do. Not sure what to do with the sequel, but I suppose it is quite far away in time, so I have all the time to slap my brain awake and watch something more entertaining.

This reviews contains spoilers.

This review is mostly a very unorganized rambling about both season 1 and 2.

The last time, and one of the few times, I binge-watched a series, it was another KyoAni, Violet Evergarden, which introduced me to the work of the studio. I think both series live on the accumulation of small details, and since there might be not much going on plot-wise in the style of, let's say, Attack on Titan, I am just left there with a hunger for more and more of these tiny nibbles. Hence the pressure to see the next episode. But now that I am done, I ... feel like I have to rewatch the series right now to spot every little thing that I have missed the first time. When I don't want to let go of a show, that means it really struck a chord.

I am one of those "I used to be in a band" fans of the show; whenever I go to see an orchestra or concert band, I always try to get as close as possible to the stage so that I can "watch", not only "listen to", the musicians playing. There is something that I find very spellbinding in the synchronization of fingers moving, and the conductor just looks like a wizard. Given this, god what a treat this show was! The accuracy is not just in the animation of instruments, the idiosyncrasies of musicians, the parade of accessories, but also in the dynamics of such a particular group of people, the functioning and management of a band, even the matching of a player with their instrument is, in my own experience, extremely spot on: the low profile tuba, the good-natured trombone, the primadonna trumpet... I can think of several live actions where the actors were not as good as Taki-sensei when imitating the movement of a conductor. Every time the band gave a great performance, I found myself in front of the tv clapping my hands and being like a proud mum, with tears of enthusiasm in my eyes.

The humour was quite unusual if compared to my previous experience with anime - which, I concede, is not extensive: some of the shots were particularly comical, e.g. Kumiko's first meeting with the band commented with a drum roll, just like some dialogue (the students' shouts to support their conductors at the Nationals). Almost no trace of the typical, pardon my lack of knowledge about technical terms, anime strategies used as comical devices.

It was a bit strange, but intriguing, actually seeing the performance they had been working for 1.5 season in the middle of the second season, and that moment really felt like an end of season climax (the music sheets covered by pictures was a moving touch: they don't need to read the music anymore, just keep in mind the great times they had together). Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see the performance at the Nationals, the choice became clear and wise in the next episode, when we have some more concert scenes: the light hearted performance at the train station is one of my favourite in the whole show, while the juniors playing for the seniors graduating was very moving, it reminded me of my last day at high school. I couldn't get enough of seeing these incredible scenes been animated.

In the character department the stereotypical level is kept to a minimum, and figures such as Natsuki and Kumiko are a triumph. Many of the minor characters have their little, or not so little, moments to shine. At the same time, never there was the trite need to have character-focused episodes, but all the stories we get to hear are about people that get relevant for our MC, thanks to the constant evolving of her relationships with them, not just in a 1:1 dynamic but always within the group. Kumiko is pulled in the band thanks to Hazuki and Midori, so we are misled to think that will be the main trio; later on, they get less important for the story when Kumiko starts to get closer to Reina. Yuri bait or not, I thought for sure that this would have been the main pairing of the show, so when things gradually shifts to culminate in the love confession to Asuka, I was probably quite shocked just as our characters on screen, still it didn't feel to be out of the blue, it has been prepared since the very beginning.

The fact the story makes you care for everyone is another proof of the skills of the writers in crafting these characters: at first I was uninterested in the Nozomi-Mizori storyline, but without realising it, I was very happy to see that the little oboe player got to the end of the story with some more self-confidence and she was going around giving fist bumps here and there :)

I cannot think of one character that I disliked... Ok maybe Asuka's mum, and Yuuko from season 1. But even she grew up to be a supportive friend, band member and president, discarding the spoiled brat image she projected at the beginning.

We even have mummy and sister issues, which are extremely dear to me! And, speaking of, let me take this out of my system: no big tragedies, no damn monologues during the performances, no sappy romance, no sadistic mentors, but actual enjoyment while making music. Your lie in April, I am talking to you.

I don't reckon this is the greatest anime I have ever seen, but the more I think about it, the more I grow fond of it, and I am also a bit sad thinking that I will probably won't see another one like this.

This review contains spoilers



This must be one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life. I don't know how I made it till the end, maybe I just wanted to see what its popularity is about, hoping it would get better. I still don't understand.

The story had potential, with this telekinetic murderous girl on the run, who later becomes amnesiac. At first I really disliked Nyu and I was looking forward to Lucy to come back - was it maybe because of the unnecessary B-movie erotic situations the clueless girl finds herself into? Grabbing the hand of that pathetic guy and groping ... herself? Later on the character somehow grew on me, and maybe that is the best thing I can say about the show. Everything else is exploitation: chained, naked girls which are tortured for what reasons? That scientist guy (Kamura? Who knows) so protective of poor Nana... he is the only one who can torture her!

Character design was simply abysmal. The moment Nyu cuts her hair I thought: oh god how I am going to tell one from the other now! Basically they all look like each other, with slight change in hair and eye colour. And character psychology (?) is even worse: I understand that keeping information from each other is a definitive trope in fiction, but here it was twisted to the next level of stupidity. Everyone is keeping secrets from their friends and allies (but of course you are going to go and look for the psychotic sociopath who almost killed you to get some help). Yuka just being defined by her jelousy for that stupid guy - who is in love with the person who murdered his family. And he forgot about that. I guess in case of extreme shock that might happen, but a little nudge to that would have been appreciated. The backstory of Mayu was probably better written than the rest, but it seemed to be put there just to provide extra shock factor, without any resolution.

Wow, I have listed 3 good things in this anime! I will close with some advice: if you are thinking to watch this, just watch the opening theme and waste no more than 1.30 minutes of your life. That's the best part of it.

It is really hard to pinpoint why I liked this series. From the synopsis, I was intrigued by the unusual romance, but for the whole run of the story I found quite disturbing the fact that Chise was literally bought and that Elias was her mentor.
Then we have the excruciatingly slow pace, which generally I don't mind, but it has to lead somewhere: here, for the most part, episodic stories seemed to go nowhere (I am not talking about the main arch, but in the episode itself) and to be totally unrelated one to the other except for the fact that they build an ... incredible world. On the top of this, I feel like I missed some passages to understand the logic of the story, but to be fair this is down to me not paying enough attention, and maybe something was lost in translation.
Still, I felt compelled to keep on watching, and it was not for the cheap cliffhangers.
I suppose what I ended up loving most is the overall kindness which permeates this world, the soft spoken characters, the lacking of regular antagonists and yes, the tender relationship between the two MCs. Not to mention the gorgeous art, both for the natural landscapes and the views of London (being familiar with this city myself, it was fun to see how accurate this aspect was), and the extensive representation of Anglo-Saxon folklore.
Many of the above features reminded me of Miyazaki's works, adding to these the amazing food scenes!
The whole cast was excellent, and I particularly liked Elias: both animators and voice actor did such a great job at conveying the emotions of this almost unreadable character, with the utmost subtlety. Even a minor character like Silky, without speaking any lines, is given incredible depth with a 5 minute flashback: this is great character writing.
I am satisfied with the finale, but I'd be happy should a second season be produced.