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Kaiji gets in trouble after co-signing his friend's yakuza loan. Said gangsters offer him the chance to pay off the debt with a 4-hour gamblathon on a cruise ship. It turns out to be much nastier than he expects, and leads to other, similar gambles.

It's good, and I recommend you watch it. Regardless, this review will mainly pick on the things I didn't like.



Plot 7/10

The main problem with Kaiji as a series is that we ultimately know he is going to win. We know that he will think he’s on top, get crushed, then defiantly battle against the odds until one of his theories is ... powerful enough to allow him to succeed (always at the last minute). There’s never any doubt. It’s as bad as Dexter in that respect. And we know that at the end something unexpected will probably have to happen to make all that waiting worth it.

Worse, is the way in which the episodes drag. And I do mean drag. Endless convoluted riffs on the same idea or theory, explained over and over in mildly different ways. That weird voiceover could be used to compress Kaiji’s muddling, but instead it only repeats it.

I was also less than satisfied by the relentless nature of the gambles. There was no break between the challenges. I would have liked to have seen time for Kaiji to reflect on his own life more. He always berates himself for being such a lowly soul, but doesn’t really acknowledge that his extreme situation isn’t his own fault. That’s an interesting angle – he hates himself regardless of the whole yakuza mess. I wanted to see that explored.

Also, he has a severe gambling problem, as is expressed through his comments during the E-Cards game (“If I leave with this much money, I am setting myself this limit. I will never have this much again” etc). We needed more of that.

But, on the whole I enjoyed it. It was original, lively, pretty mature. Not your average anime. It made me think, and not just about the things which I didn’t think were done well. It's way too long, though. Way too long.



Animation 7/10

The style here is refreshing. It’s basic (very), but fun all the same. In fact I’d say it’s too fun. Some pretty horrible things happen in this series which are not suited to the animation style at all. The character designs are rough and grisly, as they should be, but their movement is too cartoon-like to convey the emotions literally dripping out of them. It’s a shame, because it could have worked.



Sound 7/10

Good voice acting and casting, despite the narrator not being sure if he was building tension in a comedic or genuinely tense manner. The music was appropriate.



Characters 7/10

Kaiji is annoyingly stupid sometimes, and inhumanly sharp at others. His endless stream of theories and tactics are baffling in their complexity, and often plagued with holes.

He’s constantly in tears, as are most of the other characters – each representing a small part of the psyche of an addict. Sure, it works. But kind of annoying sometimes.

The baddies are incapable of any positivity. Not that they should be: the addict battling the world in general will never see any kindness if still under outside control.



Overall 7/10

All in all, it’s kind of bleak. Even Kaiji has no hope for the future. His dream is to not be chased for money. Every time I go into a convenience store now all I see are people striving for that level of comfort. It’s sad.

So Kaiji is meant to be a nice guy under it all – compassionate and a leader of men despite his problems. But he’s still a ruin. Can we get behind him without seeing something in ourselves which makes us feel uncomfortable?

Paranoia Agent


It's a mystery to me why Satoshi Kon's animated Dolmio puppet designs get such a positive reception. His reasoning for making half his characters look like disturbing cast offs from glorified passatta adverts is anyone's guess, and for me personally his stories lack the depth that is so often accredited to them. Paranoia Agent is a good example of this kind of over-hype.


A similar thought process occured when I watched Perfect Blue on its release. For the life of me I couldn't work out exactly what it was I supposed to think was so very good about it. The story didn't add up, was ... impossible to substantiate in a believable universe without attributing dementia to everyone within it, and had character designs far more disturbing than it's own leanings towards controversy. This equally applies to Paranoia Agent.


Story 5/10

The series starts out rather promisingly. The albeit very bland (frankly pathetic) main character gets attacked by what becomes know as "shounen bat" or "lil' slugger", or various other things. Struck down whilst under severe pressure at work (she is a character designer who has only had one idea since she was a little girl), she begins a trend for such attacks on similarly distressed people. There is some promise there, and I admit to having been intrigued enough to have higher expectations than before starting the series. However, after that it completely falls apart. The series is barely held together through its loosely connected and tiresomely formulaic middle-episodes which ultimately amount to an "etc" to what has gone before.

I read an interview with Satoshi Kon which described the 'budding idea' of Paranoia Agent as a collection of ideas left over from his films. Well, that explains a lot. A lot of disjointed concepts in one place, in quick succession, lacking, in my view, any charm or appeal.


Characters 5/10

The characters introduced in the first half of the series are interesting despite their looks. They have at least some level of on-screen charisma, unlike the leading lady whose unspoken pondering on self worth is tedious to the point of embarrassing. The main problem is that they are used and discarded before the viewer gets a good chance to appreciate any depth. The shounen bat character itself is one of the big letdowns of the series; visually unappealing and lacking in personality. The diversion into preposterous fantasy that his arrest leads to is also one of the worst writing choices made in an anime. Later characters have little to offer. Some are even as boring and faceless as the lead (can you tell I didn't like her?).

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I'm completely sick of this kind of pathetic female anime lead. The limp-wristed, downward looking mute. Rei Ayanami's with no moments of relief. And this character in itself is supposed to carry the series into the brackets of "psychological", or "mindfuck". It is far, far too readable to succeed.


Animation 7/10

Apart from the hideous cross between the Wind in the Willows and King of the Hill that are the character designs, the animation quality is generally very high, if (contrastingly) nondescript. Nothing in the mes en scene makes it stand out from other recent series. In later episodes it does experiment with more interesting (though not wholly original) concepts such as animating the backing sheets minus cells, and using a version of puppet theatre to describe a man's ideal world. Whether I am just a skeptic or they were solely used for budget reasons rather than anything artistic I don't know. In any case it has been done before, though I did like the puppet world.


Sound 6/10

OP is nice the first few times (as is the sequence), but gets old. Incidental music is nothing special. Not good, not bad.


Overall 6/10

There's nothing here to bring me back, or anything much that I will remember. Having said that the scenario with the disgusting old man and his daughter was well put together.

In sum it was not much fun to watch this. In fact in places I wanted to just delete the damn series (relentlessly shit swordplay episode anyone?). Too many good opportunities are immediately wasted or not followed through. In a way I am glad I finished watching it, though perhaps not so glad that I started it in the first place.

To be fair, the last episode was a lot better than I had expected. The story was not surprising in contrast to what several reviewers have said (sorry!), nor was it powerful or did it carry an important message. BUT, if you liked Perfect Blue and similar series/movies, you may well like this too. Plus, it is only 13 episodes long. You could do worse things than watch this.

It's tough writing negative reviews, because for some reason people who've already seen the anime want to come along and rate it as useless because they disagree. But this review is for people who haven't seen this anime yet.

Let's be clear on this one. One of the reasons I dislike this anime may be because it made me face the horrible realisation that I might just be too old for it (I'm 26, so maybe 14 years too old).

Elfen Lied is a harem anime featuring a collection of bulging-eyed stereotypes (including pathetic bitches) crossed with extreme violence to the point of perversion. If this sounds ... like it may appeal to you then you certainly aren't alone.

Anyway, let's consider the plot before we start ranting about how shit it is.

There exist certain people on Earth that have conspicuous horns growing from their heads. The female versions of these people have a varying number of invisible arms that can be used as weapons. These people are also usually very angry about something, and unsympathetic to any concept of compassion. Like an evil Tachikoma... maybe.

Anyway one day one of these bad girls washes up on a beach where she is picked up by some guy who takes her home with him. Said guy has just been placed in charge of an old ryoukan with ten rooms, which he then goes about blandly and cluelessly populating with other stigmatised young women. Sexually embarrassing situations arise, and so do disturbing yet poorly animated scenes of bodily mutilation and relentless, unapologetic killing.


Story 5/10.

The series doesn't start very well. A young, horned girl breaks out of a secure facility by killing everyone. She is also completely naked. She then runs away and turns up on the beach to be picked up by this guy. Only now she has spazzed-out into some pathetic little shit who can't say anything except the grating-cute "nyuuuuuu!". She also doesn't know anything about anything and ends up sat in a puddle of her own piss. But it's all very cute and erotic and lalala. Then the girls take off their clothes and have a bath. Then the guy gets in compromising situations with the annoying exhibitionist in front of his cousin (who incidentally fancies him) and its all so very charming and stereotypical hahahaha.....

Then people get brutally murdered again and chicks get naked again. Repeat, repeat.

I think the horned-people want to rule the world, or something. They hate humans because they pick on them and kick their puppies and shit. So if humans won't accept them, then they must "make a world for [them]selves". What that means isn't explained, but I guess it has something to do with removing humans from the picture. The rest of the plot is nonsense filler about the characters and their history, including a totally implausible "we knew each other as kids" backstory, and a "revelation" which I want so badly to shout about because it is so stupid, but don't want to 'spoil' for anyone out there who can't work it out from the heavy-handed hints throughout the short series.

The idea of the soft-hearted girl with the hidden harsh personality is certainly not new. The first thing to come to mind is the vastly superior initial OVA series of 3x3 Eyes. Except in 3x3 Eyes the calm version of Pai actually has some charisma.

One of my major issues with this anime is the liberal use of nudity. Worse, child nudity. Warning: this series contains many, many shots of 13 year old girls in the buff. In fact, it shows just about as graphic scenes of child porn as is (for some reason) allowed by the censors. We're talking full pussy shots on all fours. That shit is fucked up. What's more fucked up is that that is the most sexual of all the nudity in the series. Every episode (and the entirity of the opening and closing credits) bulges with breast and pussy shots, but they are so badly drawn as to not have any effect on anyone over 12. However, when the young-guns come out, the poses and situations get more and more perverse. I know 13 is technically the age of consent in Japan, but come on.

The violence is way over the top throughout, and the style often reminds me more of Ikkitousen than any attempt at being vaguely serious. The less bloody ecchi moments, too, defy all logic. One girl allowed herself to be groped by another girl for a full two minutes while doing nothing but blushing and weakly saying "I said no". This kind of pathetic clown is one of the worst traits of Japanese media.

Towards the end the series is plagued by bawling sentimentalism. It manages to convey at least some feeling, and does feel like it picks itself up a little. But it is ultimately too little, too late. It was interesting, however, and the only time when you are actually asked to consider the characters as the children they are instead of just hard-ass emotional wrecks.


Animation 6/10.

Considering the hype there always was around this series, it is strange to see how low the animation quality is. The framerate is not good at all, the designs are sloppy, and the locations are severly limited/similar (though often nicely detailed).


Sound 4/10.

Rubbish. Only one or two different songs performed in a variety of ways. Boring. "Nyuuuuuu"!


Characters 5/10.

Tired stereotypes by the bundle. Huge, plump eyes even grace the dopey male lead; shit hairstyles in stupid colours too. All very nice and cute, and clearly intended to be in juxtaposition with the bloody violence. However, rather than working to make it all the more powerful, it just looks wrong. It doesn't work. The violence is more like a sexual perversion in this setting.

And just when you thought all the characters were present and accounted for, there's the guy with the spiky black hair and the very reflective glasses. Oh, and what's he doing? He's pushing those glasses up his nose with his middle finger while giving the camera a slightly sideways smirk. Holy shit. I promised that I would kill a man if I watched another anime featuring him, but when it comes down to it all I want to do is kill myself.

The only good character, literally, is the bad-ass soldier guy. He punches women in the face in a way that makes me think he is angry to be in the show at all. Winner.

The harem is an often-referenced bad point of the show, and I won't disagree. As if two sworn enemies would live together. One has her arms and legs cut off by the other, then agrees to live with her. Whatever. The harem-hotel is where the series abandon's all sense of seriousness and becomes more like a gorey Tenchi Muyo.

I guess the main theme is stigma, but I'm confused. The pathetic "nyuuu" chick is some kind of anti-hero by all accounts. It seems like we are supposed to feel sympathy for this girl who indescriminately kills people. Hell, the cast seems to manage it. At one point a very young "Nyu" gets bullied, so she kills all the kids bullying her (otaku revenge anyone?) and then goes on a rampage killing families for a place to stay. There is little about that that says "poor victim". Nothing really makes me feel anything for this character. Certainly nothing balances how damn annoying she is in every scene. I suppose we should believe that she cannot control her power, but without something likable is it almost impossible to feel any balance. It's interesting that you are ostensibly 'supposed' to feel sympathy for a child who wants to be human but cannot embrace any element of morality or compassion. Look at Tetsuo in Akira; he ruthlessly murders people and barges through Tokyo on a wave of destruction. But throughout the whole movie he somehow retains sympathy for his problems. Nothing like that applies to Elfen Lied.

Also, why the hell don't the girls in the series kill each other? They have an inexplicable tendency to push each other about and/or give each other a slap. You want them dead, so use your silly arms and kill them like you kill everyone else!


Overall 5/10.

Some anime forces you to look beyond the stereotypes and tired themes for the real story. I tried that with Elfen Lied and all I got was this lousy review.

Let's be clear from the start that this OVA is trashy. It is totally shit. But it never pretends to be anything other than a joke, and the way it handles itself makes it nothing less than hilariously good!

Story 7/10

I had to artificially inflate the score for the story to justify the 7.5/10 overall; but if we consider the story to be the general content then I think that is okay.

I don't know where my love for this anime comes from, exactly. I bought it when it came out in the UK, in about 1995/6, and nearly cried with joy when I managed to get ... hold of a new copy recently.

The story is nothing short of lightweight. The Ultimate Teacher is actually a lab experiment to cross a cockroach with a man for some reason. The result is a badass bulky bastard who fears nothing and will eat anything. He applies for and gets a job as a teacher in a shockingly bad school (makes the one I work at look like a creche).

But has the Ultimate Teacher bitten off more than he can chew with the velvet-pussy panties wearing, quietly intelligent head of the class? Well, yes, obviously.

Actually the velvet-pussy panties line only applies to the american dub (which is abnormally funny). The Japanese go for the much less exciting lucky kitty gym shorts. Imagine my disappointment.

Anyway that is it. That's the story. It's fleshed out slightly with flashbacks and the arrival of the scientist who created the lead (himself crossed with a spider - web comes out of his arse), and a couple of embarrassing moments for the lead girl when her panties are revealed. But if the writers tried to do anything else it would be too cluttered. If they tried to make it any more intelligent it would be retarded. And if they changed it in any way it just wouldn't be the awesome feat of animated tomfoolery that it is!

Animation 7/10

Well, it looks shit but it's pretty standard from that period of anime. The designs are solid and a slew of background characters keep things interesting (especially in the dub).

Sound 6/10

Again, the American dub is really, really funny (many recognisable voices from early 90s anime, too). The music, however, is bloody terrible. Is there anything else to say?

Characters 7.5/10

The characters are half the story. There are loads of them, and they all have very individual designs and personalities. They carry out the "wacky" humour with cool charm, and look completely at home in their universe. The back story for the velvet-pussy panties is downright touching - she wanted to fight the boys but she kept flashing her all too feminine knickers!

Overall 7.5/10

As I said, I don't know why I love this so much, or why the humour hits me just right, but this is one of my favourite animes (or at least drunk animes).

Sure, it isn't perfect. Some of the random humour is just that - not calculatedly funny, just "uh... let's make this happen, I guess that would be kind of zany" - all the skeletons falling out of the walls near the beginning for instance; was there a reason for that?

Also, perhaps the last 10-15 minutes needs tightening up a little.

But apart from those small problems this is a must see. Don't expect anything at all intelligent, or any kind of message (except that using huge boxes of matches makes you look cool) and you won't be disappointed. I am very glad I have got this anime again.

This is an absolute classic.

The premise is fairly interesting - some girl, Tita, is the captain of a spaceship which collects rare animals. Nice idea, which turns out not to be the focus of the OAV at all. Tita saves a girl who just happens to be being hunted by some evil guys. The chase begins!

But that doesn't matter, because the real charm and brilliance of this anime doesn't lie in the dodgy story, bad music or waifs of character personalities. It's in the most beautiful and stunningly designed breasts in anime. That's right; the reason I've watched this dozens of times in the last ... dozen or so years is the awesome tits. Satoshi Urushihara is the king of drawing truly beautiful female characters. Not just the boobs, the whole character is stunning, and invariably beautifully coloured.

His manga and limited anime is peppered with such beautiful women. If you thought there was no such thing as hentai without rape and general mysogeny then check out his Another Lady Innocent anime or Nostalgic Heroines artbook.

But this is far from hentai, it's just eye-candy, and I love it. Even Jonathon Ross has admitted his love from this one!

The initial idea for this series is very good, and the designs for the microbes are intoxicatingly cute (and still litter Japan).

However, the story for this series is dismal, the pacing is wrong and the episodes are disconnected thin excuses for narratives. The story goes nowhere and is forced to rely on it's characters, all of which are weak bar the microbes, which get nowhere near enough screen time.

I'm biased; I think slice-of-life is a waste of my time, but to be honest I wasn't expecting some run-of-the-mill coming-of-age life-decision-making cutsie univeristy trash when I read the synopsis.

Really dissapointing use of a great idea.

I liked ... the series, and still do, just because of the premise. But I hate it for dragging itself out for 11 goddam episodes. A 1- or 2-episode OAV would have been fine, and wouldn't have had to make up stupid plot element to fill time.

I can't but feel bad about the harshness of this review because the animation is good, the microbes are awesome as I said, and the OP and ED are wicked. However... what a shame about the rest.

First of all, some people seem dissapointed in this series due to its lack of action. Don't let the edo setting fool you, this is no samurai epic. It's not about fights and blood, it's more interesting than that.

Story 8/10.

Our hero is a bit of a pussy. He's a sumurai, but so unintimidating that he can barely hold his head up without running away. His hidden skill rarely surfaces, but somehow he still manages to impress a local bandit enough to be invited into his group. Forced to betray his morals due to poverty, he befriends the members and joins their kidnapping ranks.

So starts the ... series. Later episodes focus on the leader of the gang, Yaichi, and his mysterious personality. Along the way the other members are also exposed in a somewhat limited fashion.

It's all done very nicely and extraordinarily elegantly.

Animation 9/10.

The subtlety of the plot's delivery is only matched by the fabulously detailed, gorgeously believable backdrops. The edo-era wooden buildings are charmingly stunning and accurate. The warmth of the lantern-lit streets and shops is exactly Japan, equal parts past and the best of the modern. Even in Tokyo you can find little streets illuminated only by lanterns, lined with wooden buildings. If and when you do, you'll be reminded of the sumptuous images from the House of Five Leaves.

The character designs are also excellent. One of the big failing points in modern anime is the lack of original (or even particularly convincing) facial expressions. Natsume Ono creates faces with a grown-up eye towards realism without pushing too hard. The elongated mouths and droopy eyes, both with recognisable Japanese features, portray emotion far more convincingly than the vast majority of other efforts, and need massive credit for that.

Sound 8.5/10.

The music was so good and I'm so rarely impressed by anime soundtracks that I could barely focus on anything else. The tunes are varied, but invariably upbeat and original. Predominantly traditional instruments with more modern beats; every track was great.

The Japanese seiyuu did a good job, too.

The OP and ED are rubbish, however. I see what they were trying to do, but it failed. The result was like putting Geri Halliwell's version of "It's Raining men" at the start of Monster, finishing with Lionel Richie's "Hello".

Characters 7.5/10.

Although I did like them, I would have liked to see a lot more development all round, and especially from the promising female characters. The lead could also have done with being slightly less of a pussy. A dimension of the storytelling I also would have improved would be the lead actually being the lead at all. Seeing as how Masanosuke's part wasn't actually as big or significant as it was initially presented to be, I would have started from the perspective of the gang first. In this way perhaps we wouldn't have expected him to deliver where he ultimately didn't.

One character I was impressed with, however, was Matsukichi. A tenderly treated vision of depression.

Overall 8.2/10.

Very good series. Though not particularly inspiring in its premise, something happens to this anime which makes it attract and engage the viewer (i.e. me) surprisingly well. I can only call it the sum of its parts. The art, firstly, draws an interest both in backdrop and character; the music chipperly increases momentum, and the sly story ties it all together in a charming and satisfyingly dignified package.

Not a lot happens, and it's hard to see this series as anything other than an introduction to something longer (despite its low ratings let's hope we can see more manga-material animated), and as that it is an excellent piece of TV. A longer, faster-paced sequel would be an great way to continue this anime.

Being a sociologist by qualification and living in Japan, the hikikomori phenomena really makes me think. For that reason, and for actually tackling the issue as the main plot device, NHK got me very interested very quickly.

I finished it in a week, which is very fast for me. I thought it was excellent for the most part, although what initally interested me in the show was not fully treated in the way I would have liked it to be.

Story 8/10

What is a hikikomori? No-one in Japan I've spoken to seems to know, and nor does this anime. It's something of a shame for something so ... brave as to brand its lead with the affliction, but NHK ni Yousoko can't decide if being a hikikomori is to be lazy, uninitiated, spoiled or a victim of circumstances.

What could have been a very intelligent and still witty expose of the hidden Japanese lifestyle becomes at worse a farce, at best a vivid depiction of the mind of a slovenly, shy person. But that's the problem. I don't think that a hikikomori can be characterised so simply into feelings that the majority of us can easily slip into.

Our hero seems to eternally live in the world of the teenager coming to age. His parents send him money to continue living that lifestyle; so he does. I, for one, certainly went through a phase where staying inside smoking and drinking, playing computer games and watching anime seemed a marvelous way to spend the rest of my life. What happened to me, and pretty much what seems forever inevitably happening to the lead in NHK is that I got bored of it. It was unsatisfying and produced nothing.

For this very reason Satou-kun embarks on various projects to create something; anything. He makes friends (and does so a little too easily to really convince me he is a hikikomori at all), or meets old ones to help him on his way. And they have their problems too, which are certainly not without their charm. The tough issues of the other characters are excellent, and the actually quite dark treatment of several of them cuts like a knife. The lack of 100% happy endings for some is also a brilliant and unpredictable flare of originality.

However, like with a lot of anime, the setting and palate somehow don't quite match the mood for the difficult moments in the series. Apart from the soft and quiet night-setting for the troubled Nakahara-san, and the strained and ultimately horrible but nicely crafted worlds of pyramid schemes and suicide-pacts, the series strays too far from its psychological basis (in plot and design). It also has a tendency to peek behind doors to places it isn't equipped to handle, and is ultimately forced to resolve those plot-lines with below par and unconvincingly pleasant outcomes. That's a bit of a shame, but the strengths elsewhere make it excuseable.

Animation 7/10

To add to what I mentioned about the palate and setting, the animation is sometimes very poor. Whether that is deliberate stylisation, or I just had the raw TV version, I don't know.

However, the character designs are nice, and the backgrounds and locations are well rendered and believable.

Sound 7/10

Nothing particularly special here (other than the mighty Odoru Dame Ningen): familiar voices which do a decent job (Japanese), and fairly standard OP and ED. I did like the OP's pleasant balance between Belle and Sebastian and BoA, but it was nothing to skype home about.

Characters 9/10

Satou is clearly the most important character. Maybe I'm missing the point and he isn't even supposed to be a hikkikomori. Maybe that's just his excuse for being so lazy or how he rationalises his lack of social zeal. Whichever way you look at him, he's incredibly interesting. Other characters remain excellent varied creations riffing on the ideas of loneliness, troubled pasts and awkward life-situations. Interestingly the most grounded character, Yamazaki-kun, is the one with the biggest obstacle to overcome - the impossible to over-play pull of Japanese familial responsibilities.

Overall 8.8/10

It's pretty clear from the space given to it above that the story is the most important and significant aspect of the show.

Reading back though it seems as if I haven't really given credit where it's due. The series was exceptional in many ways - in addressing the issues it did (which is a very un-Japanese thing to do), being so left-of-mainstream when doing so, and in its murky yet hopeful perception of the world. I loved it, really, which is very rare for such a bitter and horrible person as myself :D

Even when it abandoned the main thrust of the story, took little walks along the beach and played with other peoples kids in a kind of uncomfortable way, afterwards I couldn't help but forgive it. Gonzo created a world so intensely forgivable that it stole my heart. I wanted more but I wasn't angry about it, and that's so close to the ideal way for a series to end that... well, what more is there to say?

Story 8/10

Only on the penultimate episode did I discover that the original suppose for this series was penned by Masamune Shirow. It doesn't really show, although as that was in 1987 it isn't so surprising. Why it took 20 years to make such a great anime is anyone's guess.

Anyway, the story is very good. A dark and moody tale at heart, this anime mulls through the lives of its protagonists and a semi-real world of astral projection and spirits. It does so in a way immediately attributable to Nakamura Ryuutarou's (Serial Experiments Lain) direction. I enjoyed SEL's rasping static sensory deprivation, and I love it ... here too. The bassy atmosphere death rattles the viewer through several inter-connected disturbing backstories, and drapes the lead characters in harsh, heavy shadows.

The dark story involves the "unseen world" of disconnected spirits, and is played out as part mystery, part science. The exposition and investigation is mainly from the perspective of juniour high school students, connected by those dark backstories; and this is perhaps one of the small blemishes on the series. While the "difficult past and large responsibilty on young shoulders" plot element is powerful despite its regular use in anime, I think the children retained a little too much of their childish appearance during the progression of this series. Indeed it was not Shirow's intention to have such young protagonists.


Animation 8.5/10

Simulteneously beautiful and slightly wrong.

The quality is very high, as you would expect from Production I.G. But perhaps the tones and designs of the children, again, bring the show down slightly. The atmosphere created by the backdrops, creatures and settings throughout was exceptional, but the flat-coloured characters distracted slightly from that and just felt a little out of place. A few bad choices were also made during astral projection. The initial "baby" characters look a little too silly, as do some of the later apparitions.

Overall, though, the designs and smoothness need some applause for their left-of-mainstream quality. Very well put together; sometimes even creepy.


Sound 8/10

Like SEL, one of the things that brings the atmosphere and animation and script together is the sound used to bind them. The fuzz, the buzz, the scrapes, the dinks - all work fantastically with the mood and direction. Although you could argue that the general impression is almost too similar to SEL, it works very well regardless. OP is also well suited. Japanese VAs are good, and mild-mannered enough to pull off the roles very professionally and convincingly.


Characters 8.5/10

The very believable story behind what is something of a fantastical show is exposed beautifully through the main cast. Common personality types crop up but remain under-done to perfection, easily escaping the horrible tendency in asian media to ham-up emotions. The leads are well defined and maturely designed. There could be a little more conflict in there, and some things perhaps shouldn't go quite as smoothly as they tend to do for those characters, but I was very satisfied with the way things turned out. All but one or two characters are important in their own way, and most hold themselves together well and deserve their screen time.


Overall 8.9/10

With such good all round scores it's tempting to go even higher with the overall mark, but all I'll do is recommend this to anyone who enjoys a mature anime. Though the series runs for 22 episodes there were no points when I felt cheated because of that. There's no filler in here. The fascinating story unfolds generously, without recourse to distraction. Although I felt a couple of things could have been explained a little more, the ending was a satisfactory finish for what is literally a one-in-a-thousand anime.

Now to hunt out the next classic hidden within swathes of soggy cardboard and freaky pillows.

Story 9.1/10

A collection of barely likeable characters made even more ugly by the capricious use of random animation techniques. An innappropriate use of Matsumoto Taiyou-esque designs in a flat, out-of-place world of disconnected and hardly appropriate thoughts.

Like it's soundtrack; a jazzy, infuriated rush through a dreamland of improvised gamery. A voidless explosion of creativity, unbound by rational thought and sequence. Enacted and enjoyed on a whim. A dream. A game. A mental jongleur.

In the end a frantic but successful grasp at the unrealistic.

Like the parent on the carosel, the dick clasped between the legs, reality calmly waits at the sideline for the party to ... finish and the cast to rap themselves up. And it does so in a gracious yet pumpingly real pinacle which makes us remember our lives as the dust on the breeze; and to forget the 'gravity' of our vices. We will continue in a beautiful rythm until... it's over.

So many metonyms and so much hidden meaning, though never cleverly enacted, produce a satisfying feeling. Perhaps it just makes us feel clever, even, at the same time as feeling completely irrelevant. Maybe that was it. Whatever it was, it's likeable whilst not really likeable at all.

It had what many in this genre don't which is a firm grasp on reality, and for that we have to thank it; for bringing us down a notch.

Animation 6/10

Sometimes inspiring, sometimes abnoxious. The worst parts of Trapeze and the best of Tekkon Kinkreet. Intense but lacklustre. Vivid but pathetic. But fitting.

Sound 9/10

Warm and colourful. Jazzy, sound, again fitting. Good voice actors and well mixed.

Characters 7/10

Shallow but representative.

Overall 8.9/10

An expression of relentless hope engulfed in a terrifying seran-wrap of understandable insanity.