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This isn't really a review i want to commemorate the amount of research the artist put into this .
the detail on the clothing are historically correct .(did a little research here !)

I might as well mack a review since i came this far ...
In A Bride's Story Mori deposits the reader leagues away from the British romance of manners she crafted in Emma , instead exploring rural and nomadic life along the Western track of the Silk Road during the Great Game era. Mori has so far focused her attention specifically in what is probably northern Kazakhstan, near the expanding Russian border. The culture she ... describes is rich in a heritage and practice that will be largely unfamiliar to the average American reader. This is a land of yurts, shepherds, big families, khanates, delicate carvings, intricate weavings, and ornate embroideries. Much of A Bride's Story serves as educational documentary, explaining carefully the importance of these facets of the peoples the story concerns—and it's a mark of Mori's talents that these lessons are never dull. The story, while pausing its plot elements for a description of tribal politics or the importance of rug-hanging, is built and embellished and given life through these brief excursions.

A Bride's Story offers contemporary readers a delightful opportunity to exercise the skill of reading and enjoying a text without finding moral agreement with the circumstances, actions, or particulars of its protagonists. For this reason, A Bride's Story may even be desirable to get into the hands of younger readers (despite some occasional nudity) if for no other purpose than to promote this critical ability at an early age. Mori makes this an elementary text for this kind of exercise. Almost no American reader will approach the text thinking it good or appropriate that a grown woman should marry a boy who is only straddling the boundary between childhood and puberty—yet that is the circumstance this culture forces on its two very winning protagonists. Further, the reversal of the autumn-spring relationship trope presents opportunities to consider the contemporary sexual politic. As well, it's interesting to see a situation in which a clearly competent, intelligent, and mature woman should still be ultimately under the authority of a child (a kind child who evidently cares deeply for his new charge, but nonetheless...)

Kaoru Mori is my guide in the foreign world of the 19th century Caspian region. My ignorance of the region and its history is complete. I know less about the 19th century Silk Road than I know about other place and time period . I am, in other words, a complete foreigner. Mori has my whole trust and I have no idea how deeply she is embellishing or romanticizing the culture. She could actually be lying outright and I wouldn't know.
10/10 truly out standing work

"Are you willing to sell your soul for a Wish ?"

Don't let the cuteness and the virtual age of the character delude you into thinking this is one of those "happy go lucky magical girl" anime , it a dark psychological torture, which will have you crying out of grief for what these girls are feeling , it will also leave you mind fuck in some episode.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka completely caught me off guard;
-it's dark brooding atmosphere was the first shock i received
- the blood gut and gore was the second
-and the whole confusing psychological aspect was the ... third .
it's been a while since an anime infused my brain with some massive amount of steroid and made every neuron of my central nervous system working. Now that it finally came into its conclusion, I'm still left mind fucked , so I'm trying to decipher this anime as i write this review so if i start contradicting myself ,just accept that the theory can go both way.

The anime explores the Human nature :

Keyword : 'Death drive' - to find oneself grappling with the difficulties inherent in the topic of repetition. It is the drive to self-destruction and the return to the inorganic and inanimate state. Further, it suggests that every person has an unconscious wish to die and goes beyond the pleasure principle by means of reiteration: “the death drive is only the mask of the symbolic order.”

Trauma in 'death drive' tells us that the subjects often tended to repeat or re-enact disturbing experiences to reminisce a painful situation. As we have witnessed, of all the characters, Homura is the most fully explored for this definition. She has a strong driving factor to search for the timeline where she can save and change Madoka’s fate. In order to do this, countless times she negated time despite the fact that every reiteration she does is giving her some pain and numerous times she wakes from her nightmare in the hospital room. Hence, through such a compulsion to reiterate, Homura attempts to ‘bind’ the trauma, thus allowing her to return to a state of quiescence.

Freud capitalized on the concept of ‘narcissism’ and realized that the ego is not simply a kill-joy, concerned solely with the suppression of libido, but is itself an erotically-charged figure within the individual’s economy of desire.

It is apparent that Homura’s ego is not only the ‘headquarters’ of her libido but is also liable to become—itself—an object of her own desire. For instance, Homura always claims that she’s fine alone and can triumph the Walpurgis Night unaided. She also keeps on saying that there’s no way that Madoka can understand—her feelings. Hence, this narcissistic act has been deeply rooted from Homura’s intensely repressed but yet extremely sexually desire to Madoka, and as a result she was able to transform herself from being lame into a badass heroine.

Sayaka Miki Hero complex eventually destroy her as she end up regretting her decision as Tomoe mami say's "If you use your wish to grant someone Else's sake , you should be careful to know exactly why you're doing it. Are you doing it for someone Else's benefit, or the opposite? Your doing it for someone Else's everlasting gratitude. The motive behind a wish is what matters most, you know. If you're not 100% sure why you're doing it, you'll most defiantly regret it later. "

I'm not going to lie i kinda knew Sayaka was going to regret her decision later on if she wished on somebody Else's happiness since the price she going to have to pay for that wish will defiantly wont be worth it - the wish for curing your friend incurable hands and legs for the cost of your life doesn't seem worth it to me .

Tomoe mami it was her stubbornness that constantly course her to die in every time line , she may seem completely selfless person who try's to save everybody but in reality she selfish and willing to put innocent in danger so she doesn't feel alone anymore. she got too big headed and didn't heed Homura Akemi warning and thus ended up dead .

I still can’t understand why some people think that Kyubey is evil. The example of treating human as cattle clearly tells us the terror of humanism. We humans tend to think that we are the center of the universe. We question right from wrong when things don’t go on our way, and most of all we define morality when in fact we couldn’t even accurately discern the exact boundaries of morality and immorality.

Unlike what human do with cattle , Kyubey doesn't force anyone to do anything. he may lure them in with the flowery idea of a wish and then hit them with the hard cold reality that you're no longer human and you're going to turn into a witch and die inevitably.

He has the ability to grant ANY of YOUR WISHES , the price in return is not going to be cheap , but with the whole system it doesnt matter how small your wish is your still going to get the same price of everyone else - your inevitable death . so your going to have a strong resolve to wish for something .
in miki case : her wish to repair her friend hand the price in the end was her life (kinda a waste of a wish if i say so)
in Madoka case :to eradicate witches from the past ,present and future ,in the end cost her ,her life (she became a goddess) wish spent wisely .

Kyubey doesn't have emotion so he not going to understand the whole concept of his action , he like a child in a way - they can destroy something a still feel okay because they don't understand good from bad .you can say he doesnt know the concept of life and death either .
his action do not arise out of disrespect for Humans or out of a desire to hurt or to do injury. Rather eager to discover what would happen if it took a particular action. he really unable to shift perspectives and the human's point of view. so you cant blame him if he seem a bit heartless

Mahou shoujo madoka has a childlike innocence to it . apart from the fact that the children .
for example , when they're fight the witches in their domain it almost like it drawn by a child , it chaotic and some of the familiar is what you expect to find in a nursery book .

funny even after all this thinking i still feel mind fucked ...

I have seen other SHAFT anime, and what I can say is that they have a very… unique way of presenting materials. Their intricate, abstract artwork is both famous and notorious among anime fans. SHAFT is also infamous for their cost-cutting measures, such as overuse of Kanji frames, animation frame reduction among some other things, which is the reason that SHAFT tries to stick with animating writing-driven works with less frames to work with, thus, less costly to animate and i have to say i wasn't particularly amazed by the art.

the story was a masterpiece one of the few i voted a 10
the art was not amazing but it was bearable so i voted a 7
sound hmm ... i kinda forgot the soundtrack but i think it perfectly set the mood so i voted a 8
character were realistic and fitted their role perfectly so i voted a 10
i genuinely enjoyed this when i wasnt in a state of ambivalence so i gave this a 9
overall it was truly a masterpiece a well deserve of my 10

RE-Editing my review on my old account - Enigma10

WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILER !
you have been warned .

Some people hate this , some people love this, but i'm in the middle , I can't love this like seed but I can't hate I it either.

Characters : Although most Gundam Seed fans seem to worship at the temple of Kira Yamamoto , I found myself hating him not only in GS but in gsd , there no character development with him he has no personality, in GS all he did was get stronger with more battle and whine ,and in gsd all he did ... was fight and sprout his idealistic crap . not sure if this is the right word for this but he very generic , super hero main character , he not relatable nor is he realistic . I mean who would date there best friend ex fiancée ? and why does a side character to magically become the main character by the end of the story? He also has a cliche backstory and cliche role where he the ultimate soldier

My favourite character is Athrun one of the redeeming features that save this anime , he realistic , relatable , he seem more human than kira, in GS his character development was by far the best and even in GSD it was still developing . sadly her forever doomed to be a sidekick for Kira . not going to go into detail with him since i probably write a wall of word just on him , also his name Athrun Zala , it has a nice ring to it .

Then there's Lacus at first thought to be nothing but pretty decoration to redress a typically male cast. Instead, she is admirably strong in difficult situations and possesses a sharp political mind ,a complete contrast with her appearance . what disappoints me about her was that she too perfect , she doesn't show any emotion ,and when she spout her ideals she doesn't give the solution - no practical answer , just rhetoric (which is kinda annoying ) another thing i don't like about her is that she too kind and she has the nerve to say " I'm quite fond of him" in front of Athurn(when he was together with her ) .
I think it is absolutely freaking ridiculous that a teenage civilian, regardless of who her father is, would be allowed to come within a mile of a presumably classified facility housing a next-generation weapons system, especially given the technology it used. I mean, even Suspension of disbelief has limits. i seriously can't think of why she was a deciding factor to the war
overall she a poorly developed character and a mary sue , can't say i like her.

Shinn really one of the worse main characters I seen , he make too many mistake , he not fit to be a main characters .

Durandal was evil to begin with(note the phrase "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" fits with him)

Meer hmm i kinda liked her but pity her a lot , she lost her own personality and chose to be Lacus (2) , this made her extremely annoying. but she was more interesting than the original lacus . she was filled with energy and excitement-which people spotted with her dancing and singing - she developed as a character she the complete opposite of the robot she was originally copying .
(yes lacus is like a robot , she just to perfect )

Cagalli i have no idea what happen to her , she became a tool political tool with no will of her own . bear in mind she should only be a teenager , with hardly no one backing her and the member of government are all experience adult you can see why she became like that . by the end she seem to have her game on , she now handling her country right .

Unlike the other gundam series I seen , the characters are not very loveable with a few exceptions Of athrun and Cagalli. In Gundam 00 I found myself crying when the villain die that how loveable the character were .


Relationship:

To be honest this would of been better without romance , since it was pointless , trying not to spoiled this for you but if you're hoping for a romantic ending your going to be disappointed.

I have to say I can't understand why the creator would make lacus go to kira , if they left lacus and athrun together they could of avoided all the troublesome relationship in gsd ,I personal think they make a great couple. lacus and Athrun understand each other , their romance was great and ended in one episode .
people think Kira and Lacus have the perfect relationship? with kira and luca, I don't feel any romance whatsoever , everything happen way too fast - in GS lacus only met him twice and only talked about how he was also a coordinator and Athrun and in the end she dump her "fiancée" with some lame excuse that they fell out of love, it doesn't seem like Athrun fell out of love with her , he was just busy with his military duty .also the only romantic moment they had is that they kissed. i doubt they had sex yet as they sleep on separate beds .
The only reason I believe Lacus dumped Athrun for the idealistic twat with no personality-KIRA - because she saw how vulnerable Kira was during the war and wanted to enforce her kindness on someone. somehow i get the feeling Lacus is controlling Kira LOL . Kira is not acting like what a 'supposed boyfriend' of Lacus supposed to do.

Cagalli and Athrun i actually like the pair , but they seem forced , she was in the direction of being with Kira , then the creator bring some completely random cliche plot that their brother and sisters ... but i'm not going to complain since i like them together .

Art

it was fairly good , at the time the anime was made it would be consider one of the best but since we're in the 21 century this seem really old school .


Story

good story , told bad


Overall it was a great anime full with out ups and downs I'm giving this a 7 out 10