Ranked #1846

Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars

Shingu is one of those animes that comes along rarely that does what it intends to do and does it well. Shingu tells an interesting story and does it in a way that's enjoyable to watch, and somehow relaxing. Except for a few scenes Shingu doesn't resort to cheap tricks to suck the viewer in to the story nor does it try to play with the viewers emotions. It just tells a story, and not too bad a story at that.

Shingu has a wonderful old school feel to it, from the anthem solo at the opening to the wonderful jazz arrangement by Yuji Oono at the closing everything in between is a delight. The art is well drawn but not overly detailed and the background music is mostly well done jazz. The characters have the old school wide eyed look and one of the main characters is a mystery superbeing whose facial expression rarely ever changes from amusment. The characters have no problem with breaking the 4th wall and speaking directly to the audience (which usually precipitates another characters saying "Who are you talking to?"

There's even narration by the main character as was seen in older anime and each episode ends with the narrator saying something like "all these questions will be answered in the next episode" which also is another old school touch.

For all the old school qualities this is definately a 21st century anime. The concepts behind the main plot seem simplistic at first but give it time, as the episodes continue the plot and various subplots get infinately more complex. Another plus is that Shingu is unabashedly Japanese. I'm growing tired of anime that try to position themselves in a generic location. There's no question that this story takes place in a small Japanese costal town and it's refreshing to catch glimpses of Japanese culture.

I recoment this anime for anyone that's getting tired of the same old giant-robots-save-the-earth story, this one is fresh and refreshing with comfortable familiar feel to it. read more

Underrated and overlooked gem, it’s the type of sci-fi that’s relaxing to watch and anyone who likes slower paced sci-fi should consider giving it a shot.

Plot: 8
The plot can be a bit tricky to pin point, half the time it’s going all sci-fi on you with aliens and intergalactic police, the other half of the time it’s going slice of life with students on you. They’re both interesting parts that actually mingle pretty well with eachother. Upon going through this series a second time, it becomes more impressive that there really aren’t any wasted scenes either, they either go to plot or to characters. The balance between these segments is good too and leans a lot more towards sci-fi as the series goes on.

Characters: 8
This series could be considered to have two mains as defined by the series: Hajime, whom the story is told from, and Muryou, whom the series is more or less named after. These two aren’t particularly interesting though, they’re not bad, but they just kinda feel...there. Hajime takes everything a bit too laid back for me, like everything and everyone is normal, and even though Muryou is the main mystery in the series, he’s just a little bit dry. The rest of the cast is all great fun though with varying quirks and personalities. They make the series worth watching and show up in both the more slice of life segments and the sci-fi segments. Both adults and children characters are interesting and believable.

Presentation: 7
The good part is the animation, which was one of the last cel drawn series, it just has that nice hand-drawn feel to it we don’t get quite as much today. Given that Madhouse animated it, it also looks and moves well. The soundtrack on the other hand....well, it’s like someone stole the soundtrack to an elevator and the track had precisely one and a half good songs on it. The soundtrack is pretty awful, it really interferes with the OP and ED, they’re damn near unlistenable is you ask me, but they don’t really disrupt the rest of the show either, so I suppose I can give it a pass, but it’s pretty crappy if you ask me.

Overall: 8
It might not be for everyone, but people who want more laid back slice of life need look no further and people who like slice of life who don’t mind sci-fi mixed in there should check it out. read more