Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna (Arjuna)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Earth Maiden Arjuna, Earth Girl Arjuna

Japanese: 地球少女アルジュナ

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 9, 2001 to Mar 27, 2001

Premiered: Winter 2001

Broadcast: Tuesdays at 18:00 (JST)

Producers: Bandai Visual, Sotsu

Licensors: Bandai Entertainment

Studios: Satelight

Source: Original

Genres: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

Duration: 26 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.79¹ (scored by 11,281 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5292²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3781

Members: 34,644

Favorites: 202

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Synopsis

Juna Ariyoshi is an ordinary Japanese schoolgirl, who possesses a childlike curiosity and a strong admiration toward nature. One day, while on a trip with her boyfriend, Tokio Oshima, Juna dies from a motorcycle accident. However, she is given a chance to live by an individual named Chris Hawken. He offers her powers that make her the avatar of time; in exchange, she must fight to protect the Earth from evil forces called raaja, which are born out of the toxic pollution human beings have caused.

She soon discovers that this is no easy task. While trying to master her newfound powers, she must also seek answers to deep questions about the ways science and technology have taken away humans' primal and instinctive connections with nature. With the help of Chris, his assistant Cindy Klein, and a powerful international organization named SEED, it is up to Juna to overcome her fears and find a way to stop the raaja from destroying everyone and everything she cares for.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

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Akimoto, Yousuke
Japanese

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Staff

Sasaki, Shirou

Producer

Kawamori, Shouji

Director, Script, Storyboard, Original Creator, Series Composition, Planning

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Oomori, Takahiro

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Mameshiba" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 10)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Mameshiba" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 1,2,5,6,8,11)
	2: "Sanctuary" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 3,9)
	3: "Kuuki to Hoshi" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 4)
	4: "Teresa" by Yoko Kanno (eps 7)
	5: "Bike" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 10)
	6: "Early Bird" by Chinatsu Yamamoto (eps 12)
	7: "Saigo no Mameshiba" by Maaya Sakamoto (eps 13)

Reviews

Aug 18, 2022

indigo_dreamer

Recommended

Earth Maiden Arjuna is my problematic fave. It has many glaring flaws, which will be mentioned below, but despite these, I resoundingly adored it. If you like environmentalism, Hinduism, or ontology (in that order), then you should try this anime. The basics of this show have been discussed elsewhere, so instead I'll focus on THREE of its most important elements that catapulted this anime unexpectedly into my favourites list.

FIRSTLY: The obvious, Arjuna's most polarising feature is its very overt and nuanced environmentalist message. I am in the camp that sees this as its greatest strength. It acknowledges that there is no way out of our ... wanton disregard for the Earth's well-being without there being either mass human suffering if we were to go down the path of suddenly halting all environmentally destructive behaviour, or, phasing this out slowly and being faced with continued ecological degradation over the coming decades, resulting in a mass extinction event (in the real world we went with option two). This is a mature take on the problem, and surpasses other media of its kind with their unfounded optimism.
SECONDLY: Its (albeit too brief) exploration of non-dual philosophy, especially in episodes 4 and 13. Juna's discovery of mindfulness meditation and Indic non-dualism (NOT monism, crucial difference!) play an important role in the journey of any spiritually inclined environmentalist. Ecosystem destruction is not only harmful to humans insofar as it will cause the disruption of a complex web of biological networks that must be maintained in order for civilisation to exist, but also because, at the end of the day, we are not separate from nature. Babies do not possess the same ego-else dichotomy that adults do, and rather than developing this feeling more strongly to live in harmony with the universe, as we should, we choose instead to crush it in favour of pursuing a misguided mastery over an 'otherised' Earth. I think the anime does a good job of representing the three possible divergences from this idea; the 'normies' who do subconsciously see humans as above nature, the ecoterrorist who sees modern civilisation as unredeemable, and the old man who finds the middle way.
THIRDLY: Juna's experience with being unable to eat meat had a strong impact on me personally. It depicts the struggle of trying to go vegan in a meat-oriented society quite well, though with the usual anime peacocking lol. [MILD SPOILERS] Tokio's reaction is quite authentic as well, and is reminiscent of conversations I've had with friends on the same topic in similar circumstances. It's hard to give up meat, but it's the right thing to do, and Juna can't seem to understand how anyone can continue to eat it even after they know how factory farms work (nor I, truth be told), so in this sense, her reaction is also quite understandable and human [END SPOILERS] I loved Juna's and Tokio's character and relationship growth, to my mind, they echo the conversations that we have with ourselves when we learn about these issues.

Ultimately, I agree with most of the criticism: the animation is rough around the edges, Chris is a bit irritating, and some of its more scientifically controversial takes leaves a sour taste in one's mouth, BUT, despite all these, again, I loved Earth Maiden Arjuna. I am the exact type of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy loving, acid dropping, environmentalist hippie that this anime was made for, and despite its low rating here on MAL, it is a truly heartfelt and tasteful work of art, unfairly maligned.

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May 3, 2022

Civilwarfare101

Mixed Feelings

I haven't been so conflicted watching an anime in a long while. The show is interesting at points and it can be thought provoking, but the whole story kind of just feels confused to me. It could be because it wasn't what I wanted it to be or that the first 2 episodes may have put my expectations out of whack but I was expecting this to be some kind of superhero globe trotting adventure show where Tokio, Juna and the SEED orangization go on adventures together defeating Raja and then some lesson and points about enviromentalism would be brought up while it was going ...

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Mar 8, 2023

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

Arjuna may seem to be yet another mahou shoujo, but it’s actually the Japanese counterpart of the American Captain Planet cartoon. Its prime directive is to teach the target audience how to respect nature and the basics of ecology. It’s also moralistic with long serious monologues which can easily pass as preachy. Learning stuff through anime can be fun but not when the characters are telling you to open your textbook on page 123.

It’s fairly unorthodox as a mahou shojo, since the lead girl’s magic powers are not used on every episode, she has strange-looking clothes, and her prime weapon is a bow. Most of ...

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Poll: Earth Maiden Arjuna Episode 3 Discussion meneope - Dec 9, 2009	7 replies	by nhkam »» Mar 12, 9:51 PM
Poll: Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna Episode 11 Discussion Farabeuf - Mar 9, 2013	4 replies	by totherpage95 »» Feb 29, 6:56 PM
Poll: Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna Episode 7 Discussion Crochax - Jun 25, 2013	5 replies	by totherpage95 »» Feb 29, 12:36 AM
Poll: Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna Episode 13 Discussion Farabeuf - Mar 11, 2013	13 replies	by Bles- »» Oct 19, 2023 3:57 AM
Poll: Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna Episode 1 Discussion Farabeuf - Mar 3, 2013	12 replies	by Ze3ke »» Apr 22, 2023 7:06 PM

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Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna

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Characters & Voice Actors

Ariyoshi, Juna

Hawken, Chris

Klein, Cindy

Oshima, Tokio

Shirakawa, Hiroshi

Ooshima, Akio

Shirakawa, Kimitoshi

Shirakawa, Yukari

Inshi

Doujima

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Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna

Alternative Titles

Information

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Synopsis

Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

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