Ranked #1518

Shangri-La

I happened to have caught the first episode of this anime on it's air date and I stuck it through all the way to the end. I must say that I am very pleased as upon finishing this anime I am left with that "epic journey" feeling. Well lets get to it...

STORY 6/10 - It was interesting, but I suppose I wouldn't say that it's breathtakingly captivating. Sometimes there will be discussions about the worlds fictional economy and to the less sophisticated the dialogue might go in one ear and out the other. Towards the middle you might feel the plot begins to go into tangents but it does eventually tie together. All in all, it had it's "awesome" moments and it's "touchy" moments, and as for the ending... it was good.

ART 8/10 - I'm personally not that nit-picky about this kind of stuff, but it looked good to me. Lots of awesome explosions, nice backgrounds, action scenes and the characters were drawn well (particularly the transsexuals who definitely looked like transsexuals)

SOUND 7/10 - I personally can't remember any of the background music and I don't think there were any notable inserts which says enough for itself. The SFX were up to date and what they should be, sounded great. I give it a 7 cause I enjoyed the opening and ending credits which to me can sometimes make or break an anime if it's borderline.

CHARACTER 8/10 - Main character is very like-able, cute but not drenched in "moe" which is a plus in my opinion. A lot of the other notable characters are cute little girls as well. What I found the most interesting was the presence of a couple transsexuals in the main cast that played a big role in the story. They fit their roles really well, ironically playing motherly roles with those touchy family like bonds as well as having their own sense of transsexual humor. They may be one of the more memorable assets to this anime.

ENJOYMENT 7/10 - Simply put, I enjoyed it : ). I wasn't tossing and turning in bed waiting for the new episodes to come out, but I didn't skip a beat to watch them when they did. I probably won't watch it again but I'm glad I watched it.

For those who haven't watched it I would give it 3-4 episodes before you decide you don't like it. If you like animes where the main character can seemingly do anything then you should check this one out. read more

Story: It has a nice start, giving you a slight air of mystery while not overdoing it. I won't say it's the best plot I've seen but it's better than some of the animes I've seen. Plus, I do like some futuristic animes once in a while :)

Art: It's good, with some nice explosions and action scenes, but it's not terrific either. It's of average to me but I'm not the sort to be very picky on the subject.

Sound: I like the sounds but as I said with art, it's average.

Character: Kuniko is a cute and likable character but I think she's a bit too naive and foolish at her age of 18. The other characters are pretty good, with some nice backgrounds that are interesting, especially the cute Karin's.

Enjoyment: I did enjoy this show very much though I wish they did a better job with the ending, I just felt the ending was too swift. The plot twists weren't very surprising but it added a nice flavor to the show.

Overall: It's great, nice action scenes and even some cute romantic scenes. I can't say it's the best show ever but it certainly ranks pretty high in my book. read more