Fantastic Children

Story:
The beginning of the story is part mystery and part adventure, focusing on a group of half a dozen white haired kids making an appearance through out centuries seemingly without aging and the other time focusing on a kid called Thoma who meets some anti-social girl called Helga and a energetic boy called Chitto. I admit the story was a bit underwhelming at first but once the story unfolds in later episode, you'll be hooked straight away, it turns into something quite epic and unique, there's so many twist and turns and you'd just watch episode after episode and without even noticing it's already over.

Animation:
The ... art style can be a bit of a turn off for some people, they might even think this is a kids show but fear not this is quite mature even if the first few episodes are light-hearted they're nothing compared to what happens next.

Anyway, as you get used to the art, it becomes more apparent that it's done quite well, lots of attractive looking backgrounds and pretty solid animations.

Sound:
The background music can really manipulate the emotions of certain scenes, they really help make pivotal moments in the story have more impact. The OP fit the series perfectly too bad I had to skip on occasion since I just really wanted to get on with the story, While the ED is sang by ORIGA the same singer who lent her voice for the majority of the GITS soundtrack.

Character:
How they made the connections with each character was great, most of the characters had a certain connection to the main plot, the importance of characters become unpredictable that you'd be shocked when the story finally reveals what their purpose are. Honestly every character was interesting and it was nice to see that they all had a part to play they weren't just some random people thrown in together to make episodes last longer.

Overall:
A lot of people would probably just ignore it after looking at the front picture alone, which is too bad because it's a pretty damn good show with a unique and interesting plot along with a great cast and a solid OST, you might not like it as much as I did but I guarantee it's definitely worth watching, it's only real flaw is how lame the name is.

A surprisingly disappointing show. It is impossible to do a meaningful review of this show without spoilers, so I will keep this bare bones.

Story 3/10:
The story is incredibly convoluted. I don't mean that it was hard to understand, because they did give relatively clear explanations for the events. The problem is just the sheer complexity of the plot, while managing to lack in substance. The story attempted to tell a lot, but many of the plot points were unnecessary, anti-climatic, and gimmicky.

Characters 3/10:
I had a huge complaint about multiple characters (in-fact, my biggest complaint about the show), but I cannot even brush on the reason ... why without huge spoilers.

Tone 7/10:
I did like the tone throughout much of the show. They didn't try to force comedy, romance, etc. in places that didn't call for it. They let the serious scenes be serious and the lighthearted scenes lighthearted. It wasn't fantastic, but it refrained from significant faults.

Setting:
At times I liked it, at others I didn't. That's as much as I am willing to say in fear of spoilers.

Art 6/10:
The art style itself is nothing to behold. The animation is fine but in no way superb. There are a select few scenes that stood out particularly well though. Not in the details or fantastic action scenes, but instead in capturing significant meaning in a single shot with well placed and scaled objects and 'camera' (so to speak).

Sound 6/10:
Not much to say one way or the other. Fairly repetitive soundtrack, but usually fitting. The voice acting was fine, but was hurt by annoying dialogue (specifically, the large amount of times they screamed each other's names during higher action scenes. It's nitpicky, but got to me in a couple of episodes).

Enjoyment 5/10:
As I said with the art section, there where a few particular scenes that were done wonderfully. So much so, that despite being bored for a majority of the show, I'm still glad I watched it.

Overall 5/10:
I think my reasoning is clear. There isn't a single aspect this show excels in, and it undoubtedly has it's flaws. To be entertained by this show, you need to enjoy lots of plot turns. I don't mean plot twists (where they take what you thought you knew and change it), but pure turns. The plot likes to stop at certain points, and just move on to something utterly new with no relation to previous events. These plots do not get intertwined, instead they simply get mashed together. Sometimes, they altogether annihilate the importance of previous plot-lines.

It's a pass for anyone who does not care for a fantasy/sci-fi for complexity of plot alone.

After watching anime for around 25 years, I can tell you with all the confidence of this world that this is BAD, this is so bad that it is cringe bad. I am not going to go into all of the details and all of the reasons because I could make full essays just single episode based let alone for the whole anime. I am just going to point out the worst things and the biggest flaws.

Story

They try to make it seem like this story is very mysterious, very dark, very complicated and edgy but all they do is spit in their own mouth when ... it is actually revealed what is going on.

It's a very simple story that could have been said and shown in 12 episodes at best and even then it probably wouldn't have been good. With their stretching things and prolonging each reaction of a character to take at least 30 seconds when you already start praying for it to just move along and start pulling your hair out they stretch out the runtime in all the worst ways possible.

I am not going to give you any spoilers but just from the summary alone you know that there exists a group of children who are spotted throughout history and when they are there are supposed to be some calamities this world goes through and seeing them is a bad thing. No, no it isn't. All of that means almost nothing in this story yet it takes half an anime for something to actually start happening. Almost nothing of importance happens in this anime until the final few episodes and even then it is laughably bad.

Also, the amount of giant plot holes as big and vacuum filled like the black hole are innumerable in this anime. Almost every single thing you have mentioned in the summary reeks of plot holes. Why are those kids not ageing? Why do they lose their memories when they turn 12? Why some of them decide to live their lives here because they cannot take it anymore instead of just not returning back here? How the hell is Wanda here on Earth? How did that thing end up here and why wasn't it established in the story? Why did the princess' father decide to put that weapon in? Why is Dumas so obsessed with a sister he never even met? How does Dumas know all about the scientists when he was on a space ship practically since birth? Why does his father not care about his only son? What was the point of Crooks apart from the filler parts that had absolutely no impact on the story? Why would a princess choose to stay as Helga when Helga is as empty as it gets because all of Helga's life was spent on wishing to be the princess (getting to that place I know, but meaning of it is the same)? And so many more questions that I just cannot put all of them here because there isn't enough space. None of those questions get answered. It's like they are saying: ˝Just don't think about it!˝

Art

Art is the 'best' part of this whole mess and since it is quite bad, that says a lot. And do not tell me I just don't like the look of the older anime. Quite the contrary, that is what I prefer. Like His and Her Circumstances, old Fruits Basket, old Sailor Moon, old Dragon Ball, Bleach, Ghost in the Shell... all of them I love. But when something is bad it needs to be pointed out. And this is... cringe. The colour palette is dark and broody but for no bloody reason. They insist on telling this story in a broody kind of way but it makes no sense. Cringe factor is through the roof. They are cutting corners on animation everywhere. You have the universe, 'Enma', guys who are just big black blocks of darkness, you have facial features that do not move, but kind of just twitch as if frozen in space and time and set on repetition and it can make you claw your eyes out. Here and there you will have a nice scenery shot and that is why it is a level higher than the rest.

Sound

The opening song is there for all of the 26 episodes and it is soooo bloody annoying that I had nightmares about it. I truly hate that opening song. Sound throughout the series is really on a bad level especially when you start to notice how when they are holding a shot on a character for a reaction to something (and they do each character with the same expression each time something happens) then you hear the exact same sound for each of them, like 'ah', and you can hear them inserting that reaction and the way they paste it in is extremely unnatural. Also, the Helga character has one of the most annoying voice acting I have ever come across. They repeat the same music over and over and over again that you already feel like you are losing your mind.

Character

What to say that I didn't already mention in the story. Characters are cliches, they do not have a personality, they have no interests apart from what is needed to get the story going. They are one-thing-oriented characters. There are no layers and no subtlety and no depth. How you see Helga the first time that is how she is going to be the last time. Character growth is almost non-existent.

Enjoyment

Laughable. There was none. Apart from one single thing and that is unintentional hilarity. Which happens throughout almost one whole episode and here and there sporadically. In one episode where the weapon is activated somewhere and there are people trying to get to it to stop it there are so many moments of unintentional hilarity that I simply wish the whole anime was that stupid so I could at least laugh at how ridiculous it all is.

Overall

Overall I urge you to avoid this one. Do not even watch it for those brief moments of unintentional hilarity. It is bad, it is terribly bad. If you try to watch it on Fast Forward option you will notice that only then it will seem like it is happening in the actual time. This anime is a convoluted boring and uninspiring mess. I do not know why it is rated so high nor why there aren't other more negative opinions written about it but you can see a couple of the first episodes for yourself and judge the anime based on that because it only gets worse from there.

I am sorry for all the time I wasted on this. I could have watched something at least mildly entertaining instead.