The thing I love best, BEST, BEEEEEEEEST about this is:
Being a female, the fanservice can get extremely tiring in anime sometimes. Shikabane Hime is one of the few anime I've ever seen where the female characters kick so much ass and do it without all of the annoying fanservice. I haven't seen a single panty shot and the angled views that usually show the "goods" aren't excessive. Most of the angled shots are for the action scenes, and purely that. The only full-on fanservice I've seen in this anime has been the catgirl (whom I consider to be a joke) or entirely in the endings. (The closing theme song endings)
I love the characters. Makina especially. She has this... manly factor that radiates off of her which is rare in female anime characters. Her eyebrows are slightly thick and she's completely serious about her battles. She punches the shit out of things with a gruff voice, and isn't there to be sexy or feminine. She's there to do her job. That's what I love best about this.
Now, there is a factor that stops this from becoming one of my all-time favorites. A huge problem. The -biggest- problem, and the problem that destroys the entire second season (or the whole show) in its entirety.
Like Soul Eater, yup... that dreaded ending.
I've heard lots of things about the ending, from it being a DVD special (which actually goes back to the first season, Aka) and hopes of there possibly being another season.
If Kuro ended the way it did and there is a 3rd season, or maybe even a last episode, I will be completely fine and satisfied with it.
Otherwise? It ends completely abruptly, with many plot holes left open, so much that there -has- to be a third season to explain it all! My problem with this is, it's been over a year already and there has been no hints whatsoever of a third season.
I hear the manga is still going, and I have to check that out, but until then, my overall rating for this anime is a 9 -- disregarding the ending and pretending it had a real one, or a 2 with the ending finishing it off as a series.
