Story: 10. A memorable and abiding story. Hold on to your butts because the story's got so many twists and turns, you'd swear SYY be twerking it (j/k!). We got twists for dayzz! Not many anime's have staying power, and I foresee that SYY will sustain in my conscious, perhaps even engraved for some time. As Tenderfoot mentions repeatedly in her commentary (but not ad nauseam), almost every sequence is intentionally imbued with significance. You probably can bet the barn a prior sequence of events will be referenced to in the future of the story. What a rarity it is to see this level of literary intentionality and craftsmanship in an anime, where a sequence in the beginning of the season would be referenced to in a later episode to provide that "epiphany," making you say OH!!!! Part of the story involves multiple tribes/clans that go to war. While it isn't terribly confusing (a la Tolkien's Two Tower's), it does get a bit confusing when you add Japanese names to the mix. Again, thank you angryanimebitches.com (the name cracks me up) for being true north and giving me the lay of the land.
Art: 9. I'm so tempted to give the animation a 10. I am no artist. I draw stick figures. Bad stick figures. But even I could appreciate the beautiful colors, seasonal changes, and superimposed characters upon lush static backdrops. 1 point was docked because there were some episodes where there were clear signs of "budget constraints." Otherwise, a beautiful anime.
Sound: 8. What I appreciated GREATLY was there was no OP. Meaning, no cheesy song in the beginning where the characters stare at you awkwardly, or strike some unnatural pose, or show some bouncing boobies for that fan-swag. THANK YOU FOR NO OP! However, the ending song, and music within the anime was just okay.
Characters: 8. I don't want to write a spoiler, but there really were only a handful of characters that ever got the full development treatment. The ones that did develop were crafted beautifully. Bad guys were despicable. The good guys were wise and noble. Just wish a few more people were "alive" to develop.
Enjoyment: 9. I bore easily with media consumption. I rarely watch shows, movies, or read books 2x. I watched True Detective 2x. I may watch SYY again. That's saying a lot.
Do yourself a favor and watch this anime. And someone, for the love of all things holy, please make better SSY T-shirts and fan paraphernalia or us non-otaku fans to buy! The SSY merch is deplorable on google and amazon.
