Ranked #789

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Maihitoyo~

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyou shou~ is a fairly decent anime series that I did enjoy watching. So the next move would be to watch the movie based off of the franchise, and watch I did.

I do have to say, it impressed me to the point that I felt that I had to leave a review for it. Now, please keep in mind that I am reviewing the movie with prior knowledge to the series; I will address the movie in a point of view for those who are not familiar with it at the end of the review. Thank you kindly.

Right-o, the story. HaruToki ~Maihitoyo~ follows most of the original storyline: Akane, a normal high school girl and her two close friends get sent to another dimension by an evil demon. She becomes a revered priestess who has the power, alongside her eight guardians, to combat the evil sweeping over the land. So it is pretty much the general storyline, no change there, HOWEVER, this movie takes an alternate route from the series. Instead of Akane having a torrential relationship with Akuram who summoned her, she engages in an even more tragic relationship with a new character. In fact, most of this movie follows Akane, as opposed to the series which paid a lot of attention to the Hachiyou (the eight guardians), the demons and other characters.

The art. From the get-go, there is a vast improvement of the art from the series in the movie. The characters have been rendered with more detail, so have the backgrounds. The colours and lines are crisper, cleaner and look amazing, especially the landscape scenes. Even the animation has stepped up, and we see more fluid movements from the characters and better action sequences. I was completely impressed by the art for this movie, especially in comparison to the TV series.

The sound remained fairly the same: classical woodwind pieces suited to the atmosphere that reflect the period in time well (seems to be feudal Japan or China).

I must talk about this character if I am to talk about them at all: Akane. From the series to the movie, we see two similar, yet vastly different Akanes. In the series, she was bright, energetic, and believed in people's good natures. The movie gives us that Akane, but it seems she has been beaten down and broken. Akane, still ever-loving and hopeful, is now however more sombre, as though she has seen some things that would make a strong man fall right over. She is burdened with her position, and while this was never truly developed in the series, it is in the movie. We see Akane; not Akane and the Hachiyou, not Akane and Akuram--but Akane as she is. This movie is pretty much about her, and I thought there was some excellent character development on her part. However, focus on her made the supporting characters seem more stagnant, but their histories and personalities are still there. Also, there the significant absence of the demon clan, so if you're a fan of them, don't expect to see them in this movie very long.

I really did enjoy this movie. I thought it was very entertaining; it is always interesting to see the characters thrown into a totally new situation (although, admittedly, it isn't very new; they're all still fighting demons and protecting the miko). And the new character does add some intrigue into the anime. He has a sad story behind him which I will not go into since it is potentially a spoiler.

Overall, I would say to give this a go if you liked the original series. If you're sort of die-hard about the character relationships in the first and you can't bear to see Akane interact with any other men than the Hacihiyou or Akuram, then you might want to think twice before watching this. I know I had a heck of a time with Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Maihitoyo~, maybe you will too.

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For those who have never seen this series before or don't know anything about it, I will recommend that you give this movie a go anyway. There is enough detail in the plot so that you won't be completely lost, the characters do have a strong presence, and you will be able to pick out the ones you are partial to, much of their personalities remains intact and there is some of their personal histories present in the movie but I digress; it is Akane's movie, if you may, so more attention is focussed on her. The art is very good, and the characters are beautifully rendered--even though they're mostly guys. So I do say to give it a shot. read more

Having enjoyed the series, I had looked forward to watching this. Unfortunately, though being a fan of this series, I found this ova truly disappointing.

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Story
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The plot was plain and frankly there is nothing much to write about. And while it is uncomplicated and easy to understand, it doesn't captivate the audience.

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Art
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Probably the only salvageable part of this ova. Peppered with bishounens (pretty boys), there is a depth of research of the traditional japanese living ways seen in its art.

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Sound
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The soundtrack is pleasant to ears, however while it tries hard to capture the mood of the ova, it fails short in certain parts.

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Character
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Having enjoyed the set of characters in the anime series, I had looked forward to seeing them again. This ova, has tried to put in enough screen time for each of their characters, but because of this, it becomes messy. It tries too much and ends up making several characters to the point of annoyance.

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Enjoyment
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In whole, while I enjoyed the appearance of more bishounens, I found the ova severely lacking to the point of annoyance. I do not recommend it to anyone except the die hard fans. read more