The Short Version:
(+) Story is very gripping beyond episode three.
(+) Great Villain
(+) Voice acting is on point.
(-) The MC doesn't development in any way.
(-) Some of the content is hard to stomach. (aka, show is kind of fucked up.)
The Story (8/10): The story starts off pretty simple; boy meets girl, girl needs help for guy. Then, out of nowhere, massive snake mechs come out, and after a small fight against them, the MC and the girl are transported to a different world where everyone is now out to kill or capture the MC and do God knows what to the girl he's helping. The theme's in the show are more or less an exploration of a more prominent theme. War, and what happens when a genocidal regime is takes place at the same time. The themes that this show touches on are: Rape, child soldiers, and mass murder, so this show isn't exactly for the faint of heart.
The show manages to puts all these points across in such a great way, and that's because it knows how to pace itself. The show has moments of such intensity that are followed by slower sections that give you time to think about what you just saw and ask yourself, "Why the fuck is this happening?" It also is rather indirect with some of it's themes; more slipping them under your nose rather than ramming them down your throat, causing you to almost miss it, but then you realize what has happened and you feel an overwhelming sense of dread, to the point where you wish you had missed it. The ending of the show left me feeling kind of hollow, not in the sense that nothing was resolved, or the show just ended with all these loose ends all over the place. It finished, I understood where all of the characters were and why they were there, it's just that I was left with a feeling of emptiness. It's the same feeling I got when I finished shows like, Clannad Afterstory, Code Geass, and Madoka Magica. Just the lingering question of, "What do I do next?"
The Characters (9/10): The characters, apart from one or two, are really interesting once you meet them, varying from exceptionally damaged to utterly insane. Like with previous reviews I'll quickly go over who are the main characters.
Shuuzou "Shu" Matsutani; Hero of the story and wielder of the strongest plank of wood I've ever seen. Out of the characters he's the one I like the least because despite experiencing all of the shit this show throws at him. His character doesn't change in the slightest, which makes his character both static and boring.
Lala-Ru: Water Bender and 'Ice-queen' character of the show. Lala is the person or thing, depending on how you look at it, holding this entire story up because if there wasn't Lala, then there wouldn't be a story.
Nabuca: Child soldier and the one with the biggest moral dilemma. Nabuca very much appears as a cut-and-dry filling in the 'Character-whose-an-asshole-but-will-probably-help-the-MC-at-some-point' role, but in truth he is much deeper than that. Again he has moral dilemma which is wanting to end the war and go home, but is forced to do things that would test anyone's mental state, thus tearing him apart inside.
Sara Ringwalt: Doppelganger to Lala and the most damaged character both physically and mentally. Sara is definitely, as I just said, the most damaged character in the show; seriously the shit she goes through I wouldn't blame her if she committed suicide at some point. (I won't tell you what since that would be spoilers, but you'll know what I mean when you see it.)
The only other character of note is the villain, people say (normally in movies) the villain can make or break a show, but don't worry, the villain for this show is done so well that once you hear his voice, before you even see the dude, you know that he's not all there up top. That and his very existence makes me sick to my stomach.
The Art & Sound (7/10) & (8/10): I wasn't watching anime when this show came out so I'll be comparing it to the only other anime I've watched from around the same period. It's pretty much the same as Evangelion without the major budget skimping in the later episodes, and it still baffles me the fact that everything you see is drawn.
The Sound however is good, all voice acting is up to today's standard, but the villains voice. As I said in the character section, the dude's voice alone lets you know what type of character this guy is. (I imagine the voice actor went through a similar process that Heath Ledger went through to play the Joker.) The OP wasn't anything special, but the ED was something...different. I don't know exactly how to explain it it's just...good, better than a lot of other ED's I've heard.
What do you think of this anime?
If I saw this anime sitting is the DVD of my local JB HiFi I would buy it in a second, because I want this show sitting in collection. Like right now.
Would you recommend this anime?
Yes. If you can handle dark themes, and some truly fucked up shit happening to child, yeah go ahead and watch this show. If you can't handle something like children killing other children, stay the hell away.
Goodbye my brethren, see you in the next one.
