It's rare to come across an anime series that's as well executed as Simoun. In addition to its beautiful animation and incredible use of music, Simoun has a deep plot line that draws from many different themes and invokes a lot of emotions. The story takes place in a war-torn world where the main characters are young maidens tasked with flying Simoun, mecha-like flying machines with devastating attacks called "Ri Maajon" that can destroy the enemy. The twelve girls who come together in this war effort to fly the Simoun make up a unit called "Chor Tempest".
By watching the struggles and triumphs of these maidens, we're able to touch upon the main theme of Simoun: love. Not all of the love explored in Simoun is romantic love, though a large part of it is. The rest is a friendship based love that is just as prominent as the former type. As young as these girls are (most of them are under seventeen), they've already realized the importance of protecting the people closest to them. But no matter how strongly they feel about someone, nothing is promised, nothing is for certain, and nothing is eternal. It's a truth that all these girls seem to realize, and it's because of that reason that they form such close bonds in an attempt to protect each other. Much of the show focuses on these relationships between the Simoun pilots, ones in which the girls try to figure out how to protect and save each other, and how sacrifices must be made in order to achieve their goals.
The other major theme revolves around growing up and becoming adults. In the world of Simoun, everyone is born a female and chooses to permanently become a man or woman at seventeen by entering The Spring. This is a rite of passage that everyone must go through in order to become an adult. However, with war efforts in full swing, the Simoun pilots are allowed to delay their decisions since Simoun can only be flown by those who haven't entered The Spring yet. None of the main characters are eager to make their decision, and flying the Simoun becomes as much about protecting themselves from this choice as it is about protecting each other.
Over the course of the 26 episodes, you'll see a staggering amount of character and relationship development. From forgotten childhood friendships, conflictive sisters, and experienced piloting pairs (two girls are required to fly a Simoun), to overprotective friends, an unlikely pairing of pilots, and troublesome new recruits, everyone gets their chance at growth and development. Each character and relationship is handled so well in this anime that every new twist, no matter how painful or happy, will evoke a fresh burst of emotions from the audience. This makes the show very satisfying to watch as it's so easy to relate to the characters and their lives. And by the last episode of Simoun, you're treated to an incredibly gratifying ending that ties up nearly all loose ends and will make watching the whole series worthwhile.
However, as with anything that's as rewarding as Simoun is, watching this anime requires a bit of effort from the audience. The one major flaw with Simoun is that the story is fairly complex. Starting with the first episode and lasting until roughly the third episode, you'll find yourself swimming in a pool of brand new terms, characters, and politics so large that you're literally going to have to muddle your way through the series for a bit until everything becomes familiar and starts to make sense. (You might also need that time to get used to the fact that all male characters are voiced by women...) However, once this happens, you'll be thankful that you didn't run away after episode 1. By the time you reach episode 4, or episode 5 at the *very* latest, the plot and character development will take off in such a way that you'll want to go through the final 20+ episodes in a straight 8 hour marathon. And really, a marathon is the best way to watch a series this good.
There's not much more that can be said without ruining some aspect of the story, so go watch Simoun if this review interested you in any way. Just be sure to watch until at least episode 5 before deciding to drop this series. You'll be glad that you did.
