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Story (5/10):
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Shining Hearts is...about bread, and Rick...who makes bread. So I guess one shouldn't go into it expecting a whole lot. Like most slice of life animes, not all that much really happens.

The pacing was really strange. It was incredibly slow and slice of life, then tried to cram all the magical action into the last two episodes. Not even that really, all the action together wouldn't have been a full episode, it was just spread into two. Then...it was incredibly anti-climactic.

I think it leaves you with more questions than you had any answers. Who are all ... these characters really? Especially Rick and Kaguya. What about Queen? (how does she get repaired anyway?) What about the other worlds? Is everyone on the island from another world? Why is the princess the only one with magical power? (It's not that way in the game apparently) Why is Rana/Elwing even in this? Or Melty. They have cameos to seemingly waste episodes because they are never seen again except maybe a 3 second scene in the last episode. I have more but none of them were answered so I'll leave it there. Maybe the video game tells you more?

I mean I know this story is about...bread. It's called the bread of happiness but honestly it got pretty ridiculous. Yeah, I'm sorry but honestly. The bread motif is just not enough to hold a story. At all.


Art (10/10):
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The art in Shining Hearts is incredible. It was always clean, consistent, and did a fabulous job at making me hungry. The magic was well animated and the fight scenes while short, looked good. The scenery was always top notch and realistic.

All in all, Shining Hearts is a gorgeous anime to watch.

Sound (6/10):
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The sound in Shining Hearts is pretty bland. For the most part I barely even noticed it. They continuously reused the opening song for any "happy resolution" scene. It was in so many episodes I honestly got sick of it.

The tension/battle music was refreshing so I enjoyed it.

Characters (9/10):
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Shining Hearts has a lot of characters. Honestly they all have really good character design. (AKA they are all attractive) First we have Rick. He was a pretty typical hero that has issues with his memory loss. Overall I liked Rick, he was level headed, sometimes a bit emo kid but didn't drag it on too long. He was pretty mellow and I always enjoy seeing a main guy character who isn't a rash idiot.

Next we have the three girls in the bakery. Airy, Neris and Amil. None of them really resonated with me. Airy pretty much got shafted and was scene mostly in passing, she got so little screen time I wasn't sure she HAD a personality. Neris was a bit better and was probably the only one of the three I liked. She seemed to be the non-useless one but more like the mother-type. Then we have Amil, who I rather insta-hated because of my basic harem issues. She was always in the center, got the most screen time, was needy, was the only one who had emo moments over the fact that Rick might rather be a warrior than a baker and OMG WHAT IF HE LEAVES HER? (I wish he would) and had an overall personality that I didn't enjoy.

Madera was the old lady who somehow knew everything all the time. The reasoning for all her knowledge is of course never explained but she makes for a good wise old woman.

Rana/Elwing and her brother seemed there to make cameos as fanservice for those who watched/played Shining Wind. They made their brief introduction in the first two episodes, then don't expect to see them again.

Same with Melty. She had her singular episode and was gone. It seemed out of place (considering the previous episode) and I suppose she was there to look cute and because she was a character that was in the game. I don't see the point in having a character appear as a main character (I mean they were in the opening) if they have no significance in the plot.

Then we have the royalty. Prince Lagunas, Princess Lufina and their servant Rouna. Prince Lagunas was the mysterious type who was always playing his harp (usually at inappropriate times, I mean there is an armed ship headed towards the island with tons of cannons, someone breaking into your castle prison and the prince is there peacefully playing the harp? There is a big ship battle and the prince is playing his harp with a monologue about life? WHAT?) but he seemed like he had a lot of mysteries we never get to learn about. Lufina didn't get much personality/screen time but what we did see I liked. She was calm, a good ruler and had some pretty sweet magic. Rouna was there...as fanservice. The busty maid who was always tripping and showing off her assets. She was the ditz but could handle battle (by of course strapping knives to her thigh which required her to constantly pull up her skirt to reveal it)

Xiao Mei and Hank. Xiao Mei was...a typical cat girl but she was cute and nice. Her interactions with the children were heart-warming. Hank...was just kinda eh for me. He didn't seem intelligent (Who hangs a robot from the rafters that is visible just from opening the doors? I mean seriously. Have some common sense.) but he was strong and built machines.

Dylan and the barmaid Flora were cute and not what I was expecting. They were older and wiser, and I wasn't expecting either of them to give advice, let alone good advice. By the end of it I did enjoy their interactions with each other and with Rick.

Lastly Kaguya and Queen. Kaguya was unconscious about 70% of the series but once she woke up she didn't play quite the role I was expecting. She mostly came across as a hungry ditz but I felt like she was supposed to be more than that. I was curious about her role and magical powers. They didn't even explain her necklace at all. I suppose it made me want to play the game. Queen isn't remotely explained and I thought she was probably the most fascinating. I was disappointed at her little screen time and how little we got to know about her.

See? Lots of characters and in 12 episodes? Not nearly enough time to delve into them. Honestly only Rick really gets any character growth. I liked so many of them but we just didn't get enough of a chance to see them and get to know them enough to care about them.


Enjoyment (7/10):
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I think I enjoyed this more for the art and the character designs than anything else. It was slice of life for the most part (which I normally intensely dislike because to me it's incredibly boring) and the the bread was honestly...lame. Yet I still liked it. I liked the characters and the idea hinted at towards the end that I wish they had expanded upon.

They reuse footage quite a bit. Mostly in flashbacks and it's incredibly annoying. Incredibly. They will have some form of flashback in practically every episode (usually upwards of 3-6) past the 4th one, quite often of the SAME SCENE and even more often, A SCENE WE SAW MAYBE TWO MINUTES PRIOR to this flashback. I literally wanted to beat my head into my desk repeatedly. With a budget that can have that gorgeous art, scenery, consistency, it could have cut out the reused footage and given us something new. Flashbacks that often are NOT necessary. I literally started skipping ahead in the episode to avoid them. That is mostly what knocked my rating down. (That and the story was pretty non-existent along with reuse of music)

Overall (7/10):
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This could have been SO MUCH BETTER is my main thought. Maybe twice the length or cut out all the unimportant stuff. (AKA episodes 1-10) and start from there. The climax was not all that good (waaaay too short and easy). The premise and characters are good. The art was fabulous. I just wanted more answers and less questions, more character development and more action. If nothing else this defiinitely interested me in the game.