Kachou Ouji

This is one of those Animes that will really throw you for a loop. It starts out pretty plain but by the end you are at the edge of your seat. The setting goes from a hapless salary man's every day life, to a battle that the fate of the universe rests on. The Legend of Black Heaven is a wild ride with some of, if not the best, music that you have ever heard in a Anime.

Story: I can honestly say that while the story is beyond a doubt a very original creation, it does lack some polish. Some events in the story take ... place much to slowly (around the beginning especially) but by the end of it, the writers get it right and you're trying desperately to find the next episode to find out what happens. Don't worry if the first few are a little bland, you'll thank yourself by the end.

Art: Art is perhaps the one field where Black Heaven really falls short. Now don't get me wrong, some of the space scenes are done in a very impressive CG and they look amazing! Unfortunately the reason they do look so good is that most of the artwork is nothing more than average. You won't find anything really special in this department either, but it's not so bad as to distract from the fun.

Sound: AMAZING! <--- The one word that really describes the sound and the soundtrack for Black Heaven. The fact that the story centers around a band, and the fact that music is an extremely integral part of the Anime makes the sound even better. While character development and action may be the most important and cause some of the most heart wrenching moments in other Animes, Black Heaven's music will make you cry, laugh, and rock on! To put this into perspective, the first ever OST I downloaded was this one, and I love it.

Character: Both Oji and Layla are very memorable characters for me. I loved it whenever they were on screen, even more when they were both on. Oji (AKA Gabrielle) makes it possible to love this series; his transformation from depressed cubical dweller to rock god is shown amazingly.However most of the other characters, while either interesting or pleasant, didn't leave me with lasting memories of them.

Enjoyment: Again Black Heaven ranks very highly for enjoyment. This is a direct result of Oji and his great music. There will be times early on when it seems to drag, but these don't last very long. Layla's assistants also do a great job of putting in comic relief every time you see them. Personally, I enjoyed it even more the second time around.

Overall: I give it an 8/10. I was tempted to give it an even higher mark but I know I shouldn't. This Anime is not perfect, nor will you mistake it for being one. But despite all of it's flaws it has a little bit of magic to it. A magic that you will feel every time Gabrielle strums his guitar. Honestly the music in it makes it a must see, or at least a must hear. (I wanted to give sound a 11/10 but they wouldn't let me)

Kachou Ouji or Legend of Black Heaven does stand out quite a bit. It's a slice of life that features a middle aged salary man with a mid life crisis as a protagonist (not very common in anime) who also happens to be a former rock star and misses his glory days. He has a wife and kid who don't understand his obsession with the past and the show itself plays out like a black comedy filled with sexual innuendos and features themes such as the difficulty of aging, nostalgia and the hope for a happy life despite losing your youth and glory.
Sounds like a ... great show right? Well, sadly it's hard for me to get on board with that even though I really wanted to.

Notice that this anime also has a 'sci fi' tag attached to it, and sadly this ends up being the show's biggest weakness in my view. Not only because the sci fi genre doesn't integrate that well in to a slice of life about a middle aged man who desires to relive his youth, but it also ends up forcing the protagonist in to situations, making the story often take bullshit turns and by extension hampering its themes. Spoilers ahead.

The first episode opens with a space battle which is used to establish this work as a science fiction series right away. But this scene doesn't do a very good job since it really doesn't become relevant until episode 2, it has metal music played over it and is followed by an opening sequence filled with interesting trippy visuals and a metal song accompanying that. So that scene could've easily been brushed off as some kind of visual metaphor.
But sadly that scene becomes center stage later even though the 1st episode (which was the show at its best) focuses solely on the protagonist's mid life crisis and how all the color was sucked out of his life as an aging salary man.

In episode 2 the protagonist meets a hot chick who encourages him to play the guitar and relive his glory days.
She later turns out to be an alien who's just taking advantage of his unexplained guitar playing powers that somehow helps her and her allies shoot stronger lasers at their faceless and motivation-less enemies in space.

What happens in between episode 2 and 5 is that his wife is getting annoyed by the fact that this alien woman is taking up a lot of his spare time with his family (and suspects he's cheating on her) and so hi-jinks and misunderstandings ensue.
Up until the end of episode 5 The protagonist does not realize he's being taken advantage of and when it is revealed he does not take this revelation kindly (despite the fact that she explains this to his face in episode 2) and he mistankingly believed that she genuinely wants to hear his music.. which is followed by a slow and meditative episode 6 made up of the protagonist just contemplating, thinking about where to go from there.

Episode 6 could've been a great turning point for our protagonist with him eventually realizing that he's better off living his boring but adequate life rather than living a lie or reliving your youth by becoming somebody's tool. But sadly the main character submits to his desires and becomes a tool for an alien war he knows nothing about.. Which would've been fine if he was punished for his actions eventually, but the show does NOT condemn him for it. In fact, he ends up rewarded for his behavior which included neglecting his wife and kid.
Thus for the rest of the series he keeps playing his guitar on the aliens' space ship assisting them in defeating their enemies

I should also mention that later in the series the protagonist tries to convince his old band members (who have families and moved on with their lives) to join him in playing music for this space war "to no avail"... only to magically appear on that space ship later with no explanation on how they got there.

The biggest insult for me is that near the end of the series earth is also at stake all of a sudden which leaves the band members no choice but to play more music and lend their powers which gives the characters even less agency. On top of that, the wife divorces the protagonist due to his neglect only to regret doing so a few minutes later (and also magically appears on the space ship somehow) when she realizes what's at stake.
To me, all of this reinforces what a lazy plot device this whole sci fi bullcrap was all along, it simply doesn't give the characters much of a choice and as a result of this, the protagonist receives no further development in the second half of the show. He just willingly becomes the aliens' tool and that's where his character arc ends. It makes it feel like nobody really learned anything and that there were no consequences to his actions.

Leaving all that aside, none of the characters stand out all that much but they're not bad either.
The protagonists' wife and kid are fleshed out decently and given enough screen time and comedic moments for you to care about them and understand their relationship with our protagonist. I even liked some of his old band members and the sexy alien lady. But aside from him, his wife and the alien lady, none of them really have much of a character arc to speak of and I personally feel that these three arcs are all kinda botched in the end.

Visually this show is pretty cheap looking. The animation is stiff, still frames are used fairly often and the characters look ugly and off model at times. On the other hand, the first episode had good cinematography with interesting camera angles and solid framing all around and so does the rest of the show but to a lesser extent. The character designs are distinct and seem to compliment their personalities pretty well.
I also liked the use of color, everything in the protagonist's mundane life seems to be washed out with dull colors to reinforce how the color was sucked out of his life, hell, he even wears a white suit. This contrasts nicely with a much more colorful pallet when he's reliving his glory days.

The music is very good but also a little disappointing since there really aren't that many songs. You have a fantastic metal opening theme that fits the series well and visually gives you a glimpse of the protagonist's former lifestyle but different versions of it are pretty overused throughout the show including when he himself plays the guitar.
The ending song is a weird pop song that you sorta get used to. Voice acting is fairly good for what is required and the voices do match each of the characters' personalities just fine.


Overall, this show isn't a complete waste of time, it does have its moments, the comedy wasn't too bad and it's somewhat recommendable for being unique. But I personally don't think it lived up to its promise all that much and it just let me down with the way it handled its themes and characters.

Hey folks bullitbaby here again with another hopefully down to earth review.

This anime is quite simply NOT worth watching but definitely worth LISTENING to MOST of the soundtrack if you like rock and roll guitar.

WARNING: If you play guitar definitely do NOT watch this anime. The absolutely MENTALLY DISTURBING animation of him playing these power jam KILLER riffs is not bad, it's INSULTING, BEWILDERINGLY AWFUL, LAZY, UNCREATIVE, UNINFORMED and HAUNTINGLY BAD.

But how about the animation in general?

Sure it's 1999 animation so we'll be fair and compare it to

... Ghost in the Shell
Hunter x Hunter
Evangelion
Etc etc.

Based on those camparables, it absolutely, does hold up to scrutiny in more ways than i care to list.

It appears from the very obvious logo in pre and post credits, this anime had the financial backing of PIONEER, the company well known for things that sound good LOUD.

I give the SOUND a 9 or 10 depending but mostly a 10 because it definitely is AMAZING and without a doubt LOUD. How much Pioneer had to play in that I don't know but IT DEFINITELY lives up to he PIONEER name as we know it in the late 90's.

I honestly think, imho, this idea was sold as a rock Opera and had ALL the AMAZING POTENTIAL of such an endeavor. Honestly, what an AWEWOME idea that ripping on guitar could provide fuel for fighting an intergalactic war. And with Pioneer behind it, the whole anime should have been amazing, but alas, only the soundtrack Is.

As for the storyline overall it could have been seductive, erotic but tasteful, engaging, and of course ROCKIN!!!, ya know like rock and roll but becomes none of those things.

Nevermind how the anime also takes the same bad musical playing animation and equally bad space battle scenes and REUSES THEM over and over. It's downright strange these regular scene deja vus makings something bad even worse. Of course I know animation takes tons of time and talent. I'm sure the temptation for anime artists to reuse a scene is always there cuz NOONE will ever notice. Unfortunately, it happens so many times here, its impossible NOT to notice.

Nothing else really needs to be said. I could evaluate all the opportunity this anime squandered but then I'd have to explain how a musician feels when their playing to a person whose never picked up an instrument.

Thanks for reading and I hope this review has helped you to STRONGLY consider checking out the soundtrack and avoiding the anime at all cost.