Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru

Characters/Development
There are two aspects within the series. The first is where the characters fight off the Magyua threat one by one. Each fight is different from the last as we see the technology and weaponary being improved and new tatics thought up as each of the Magyua is different and stronger than the last in their own ways, which remains interesting throughout. The second is where Tsubasa struggles to become more self confident, especially during the fights with Magyua. There’s also the life of Tsubasa and Hikaru on the farm and during school as they both support each other and play with their friends during ... free time. There is both happy and sad moments which can bring a tear to your eye as the emotion feels realistic. Both aspects flow very well together as both are developments during the series that I felt were perfect. The relation between Tsubasa and Hikaru developing were very sweet and cute moments as they were there for each other.

Animation/Scenery
At first the anime feels quite old for its time as it does appear slightly dull. The picture is too soft and the colours aren’t very good during the first two or so episodes but eventually it gets a lot better. The picture gets more clearer and sharper. There is also very few repeated scenes throughout the series, but everything else is unique and animated well during the given situation, be it calm or a fight with a Magyua. Other than that the animation remains very good without too many complaints. The main character designs are great but a few of the other characters aren’t anything too special but overall it does have its own style without anything excessively cute either. Characters always wear different clothing, keeping it a little more realistic and develops the personality of characters more by the clothing they wear. There is a wide variety of scenery in Figure 17, but most of them are usually natural areas, but many scenes on the farm,in Tsubasa’s school and even some space scenes and other minor locations. They are beautifully designed with a lot of colour that mixes perfectly, nothing that goes out of place and since there are scenes during different times of the day and year add to the variety.

Audio/Music
Again at first the quality of sound is quite dull but later improves. Voice acting is great, nothing to complain about there. The anime however didn’t seem to have a wide variety of sound effects at first so those are heard quite alot throughout some time. I also noticed very few sounds started late during the animtation but nothing too major. Background music was fantastic for both aspects of the anime, most that can be easily remembered too. Music for the calm moments had both happy and sad moments, some with a reconisable tune being used that I liked the most, the same goes for the music used during the battles that brought tension and excitement to those bits. I found the track used when the Figure 17 fights the Magyua was the best for these situations, but the other ones were still good.

Conclusion
With the two aspects to the anime, it can be both exciting or upsetting. I enjoyed every moment while watching this one, but I enjoyed the relation between Tsubasa and Hikaru grow the most. It is a serious anime with very light comedy, but filled with emotion that felt realistic thanks to the good voice actors and music helping achieve this too. One of the best anime series I’ve watched in a while, everything about it I felt was really fantastic.

What is Figure 17? That's exactly my question when I first heard about it. I asked everyone I knew, and found only one other person who knew about it. No one seems to know about this obscure yet I first found it while browsing through Saimoe 2002. The first thing that interested me about Figure 17 was how cute the characters in the show are. However, as I watch on, not expecting anything great, Figure 17 somehow evolved into one of my favorite anime of all time.

I see Figure 17 was having two separate stories. One part of Figure 17, ... the "main plot," was the story of Tsubasa Shiina's encounter with the aliens at a UFO landing site and her attempts to help destroy the Maguars (alien creatures). The other part is Tsubasa's friendship with Hikaru and their daily lives, either studying/playing in school or helping out their neighbors. It is the second part of Figure 17, the slice-of-life-like adventures and the subtle development of Tsubasa, that is where the series shine most. Eventually, the two stories would combine into an amazing finish.

Story: 5/10

Most of what Figure 17 is character development, and it excelled at it. However, the alien plot was a bit...bad. Well, it wasn't bad, but it was cliché and uninteresting. In short, characters can use these hourglass devices to transform into a figure, which gets boosted abilities. Tsubasa's case was a bit difference since her figure did not revert back to the hourglass device but into a duplicate of her with her memories. (Don't worry all of this is in the first episode so you are not getting majorly spoiled.) Along with D.D., the alien trying to defeat all the Maguars, Tsubasa and Hikaru would "merge" into Figure 17 to dispatch these creatures.

The action was actually pretty good, but the figure designs (are they naked?) were quite bad, the Maguars had little new moves, but worst of all, the figures had no new moves. In fact, the action was so repetitive (except for the last episode) that the "main plot" seems distracting. I would rather watch Tsubasa and Hikaru spend time with their friends. Taking all things into consideration, the alien plot was definitely necessary for the ending, but they could have reduced the repetition or introduce something new in both sides' attacks.

Art: 7/10

For an anime that was made in 2001, the art was pretty good. The character designs were exceptionally good...except for the designs of the figures and Maguars. When D.D. first transformed, I expected something more exciting than the silver surfer. Other than that, the animation was solid and every scene was animation well, even the action scenes. In fact, it was just short of amazing, but nothing amazing when it comes to the designs for the "main plot."

Sound: 8/10

The repeating theme song of the series was undoubtedly catchy and encouraging as well. I'm not a big fan of the OP and the ED was about romance (?) which does not really fit the series at all. However, I liked how background music was used in a series. Have you ever watched an anime and realized that without the background music, the show would not be as good? This was the case. It was beyond "just there" and very noticeable as an important part of the series.

Character: 9/10

I have touched on the amazing character development that took place in this series and now I will expand on it (with minimal spoilers). Tsubasa starts out as a new student in class who just moved into town. She is exceptionally shy, to the point of mild annoyance, not sociable with her classmates which leads to some bullying. Even when some of her classmates try to talk to her, she would not reply and isolate herself even more. Of course, this would all change when Hikaru, her duplicate, transferred into her class.

Of course all of this sounds very corny at this point because it is obvious that somehow Hikaru will help Tsubasa overcome her shyness or something. But it's not really just that simple. Tsubasa's transformation is subtle and gradual. It is not where this event happens which led to Tsubasa being this much braver. In the later half of the series, Tsubasa will undergo some of this transformation on her own and in many ways surprised me quite a bit. What I thought to be just some corny story became a very interesting journey. Someone once said that Figure 17 was like breathing life into its characters. I wholeheartedly agree.

Enjoyment: 8

For the most part the alien plot was boring, but I already said so many bad things about it anyways. Episode 1 was actually quite annoying at how Tsubasa was so emo in school (and even at home). Episodes 2-4 were slow but nice to watch, since character development don't happen overnight. Starting from episode 5, an episode mostly dedicated to Tsubasa and Hikari helping out at her father's workplace, the stories revolving around Tsubasa's daily life became amazing. Episode 7 was surely relaxing and nice development, and episodes 9-11 will be some that I will definitely remember.

Figure 17 definitely had its share of sad moments, and anyone who have seen it will not disagree. One thing about Figure 17 is how realistic it is, despite its alien plot. I have watched many anime which had something along the lines of what episodes 9 and 10 showed, but nothing was overdone. At one point, I wanted to scream out, "This is what anime should be," because it took something not original and perfected its presentation. That is truly the magic of Figure 17. Through the sad times and through the fun times, through the tough times and through the relaxing times, Figure 17 is impeccable in its portrayal of human emotions and that is why I enjoyed Figure 17 so much.

Overall: 7/10

Figure 17 may have been spot on in one aspect but that doesn't mean the entire series was perfect. The one indication of something usual about this series is that the "main plot" was often pushed aside for the slice-of-life aspects of the show, and frankly, it was the less enjoyable portion of the series. It seems like the series wanted to explore Tsubasa's development but chose a terrible medium (alien transformation) to show the development. To me, it felt like the action aspect of the show got half-assed.

But the real question is, "Does it matter?" From a technical point of view, the series is not perfect hence the 7 score. However, this would be the series that I would recommend to everyone. It can be relaxing and it is also emotional. And don't forget that Tsubasa and Hikaru and very cute. It is probably enjoyable by a large audience since there is pretty much something for everyone. Why am I reviewing this series? Because this is a series that is memorable. There a many series that delivered the "wow" factor but then become forgettable. But Figure 17 is one that had a lasting impact, and for that I will praise it.

"You can keep dreaming, but this love can never be put into words."

I had no preconceived notions about this anime when I bought it, but it had me rooted to the spot in the first episode. Not so much for the action sequences, but for the dynamics of the relationship between the 2 girls that become the main characters and watching their friendship develop and Tsubasa slowly finding herself with the prompting of Hikaru.
I enjoyed seeing their interaction with their friends and dailly lives, and how they dealt with the ever sinister threat presented by the Magyars, and how each time Tsubasa finds the courage to stand up and fight when called upon by her "sister". ... Sadly, the last few episodes were weepies, but in my case it was tears of joy at seeing our heroine blossom, with cherished memories and the hope of a new life back home in Tokyo.
The background artwork is beautifu, the production is slick, and I was not left with the sense of "to be continued." The only gripe I had was the episode length, at times I felt like I was watching a movie!
It's highly recommended, but only if you are more interested in human relationships than alien invasions.

Figure 17 is a thirteen episode anime from the early 2000s. OLM, the same studio behind Gunsmith Cats, Disgaea & Pokemon, was responsible for bringing it to life. It was written by Yonemura Shouji, who also worked on scripting episodes for both Doki Doki Precure & Hunter x Hunter. So, that's all a positive sign as far as I'm concerned. Let's get into it. 

Story:
Shiina Tsubasa is having a rough time. She's lost her mother and just moved to a new area for her father's work. To top it all of, she's very shy and doesn't make friends easily. At least the place she moves has a ... nice dog that she gets to look after. I immediately relate to this character. Change the parent she lost and that's my childhood. One night things change when there's a loud crash. Tsubasa wakes up and finds a UFO with an alien pilot and a hostile alien life form called a Maguar. Maybe it just wants Reese's Pieces? Tsubasa accidentally combines with an alien called a Riberus to take on an armoured form capable of fighting the hostile creature. After the battle, an unusual thing happens. The Riberus takes on Tsubasa's form. She calls herself Hikaru and the newly created twins have to balance their school lives while secretly combating the alien menace before it overwhelms Earth.  

Now, my big problem with the narrative is with one specific side story. Namely, the reporter's. Basically, we get segments throughout the series of this researcher turned columnist wandering around the scenes where they've fought Maguar and trying to figure out exactly what happened to cause the ecological damage. And throughout the series I kept wondering how this random dude's story was going to tie into the main plot line. So, how does it ultimately pan out? It doesn't. This character and his bullshit segments could have been completely cut out and it wouldn't have had any impact except to give more time for the characters who matter. Frankly, they could've given us scenes of the dog playing around and those would have been better. At least the dog's cute and interacts with the main cast. Maybe Yonemura thought it would be interesting to get an outsider's perspective (it's not) or maybe he had plans that didn't pan out. Still, ultimately, all the time we spend with this guy is completely pointless. 

With that gripe out of the way, there are a lot of positive aspects to the plot. It melds the sci-fi monster hunting aspect with more personal, day to day life drama really well. There are stakes for both elements and there are points where there are problems trying to balance them or where things that happen in one will cause issues with the other. I appreciate that the trained adults can get help from Tsubasa and Hikaru while still coming across as capable in their own right, occasionally even battling the creatures by themselves. That's not something you see often in this type of narrative and it's not something that's easy to pull off. Then we have the ending. I won't spoil it, but it's a strong bittersweet ending. Which works phenomenally in no small part due to the way it foreshadows the tragic elements. And the tragic elements may have made me tear up... a lot. 

Characters:
One of the significant reasons that the marriage of daily life drama and monster hunting works so well is because the characters are so strong. So much of this series is dedicated to Tsubasa's personal growth. Not just as a reluctant heroine who has to come into her own but as an individual learning to cope with things like loss, loneliness and how to tap into her strength. Hikaru is a superb character as well. The "twins" are handled in a semi-complementary way with each one having strengths the other lacks but they also have aspects to their personalities that are very similar. And after the sheer number of twin characters I've seen who are basically one character, this is a refreshing take.

They also have a strong dynamic in spite of them both knowing they aren't actually twins. Normally, I would say that it's unrealistic for them to bond so quickly but Figure 17 makes it work by showing us what Tsubasa's life is like before all of this happens and showing us how isolated she feels. So, it makes sense for her to latch onto a girl who opens up to her and treats her as family. 

The side characters also get a good amount of complexity to their characters. Sakura may be one of the strongest representations of those aspects of adolescence that make teenagers difficult to deal with while also showcasing those parts of life that are hard for teenagers which makes her come across as pretty relatable. Even the pointless reporter has depth to him. It's part of the reason his segments waste so much time. 

The only things that don't have complexity are the Maguar. We basically learn that they're artificially created but they don't seem to have sentience. They just kind of want to feed and spread. 

Art:
The character design is pretty nice. It's interesting the way some minor changes between the twins make it readily obvious which one you're looking at even when they're wearing the same outfit. That's a good touch. The armoured Riberus forms are interesting looking. The alien technology is neat looking. The Maguar themselves have some interesting designs. At least, they do at first. After a while, they kind of gave up and started giving you a bunch that basically look the same. To be fair, there is an explanation for it. 

The action is pretty well animated, although some of the motion blur and such can be a bit over-used. There's also an action sequence near the end that takes place in tunnels where everything has a red tint. Which was a bit hard on the eyes and not that good looking. When we got to see the tunnels from inside the Riberus and they had normal colours, they looked great. But, unfortunately, most of it is spent with the redness. 

Sound:
The performances are great. Orikasa Fumiko & Yajima Akiko pull off the leads really well. There are also particularly good performances from Koyama Rikiya, Horie Yui & Inoue Kikuko. Although all of the performances are good. The music works quite nicely with the action on screen. 

Ho-yay:
There really isn't any. The crushes we do see among the children are hetero-normative. Although I do appreciate that they're presented subtly. 

Areas of Improvement:
1. Cut out the Reporter Segments. This is definitely the most obvious thing, and for good reason. These parts do nothing. I'd honestly replace them with segments giving some spotlight to the side characters who actually spend time with our heroines. 
2. Colours for the tunnel scene. I mentioned this a bit when I talked about the artwork, but I'd show the tunnel scene the way you see it from the Riberus perspective instead of with that awful red filter. 
3. The Hikaru Question. One thing that comes up in the series is that no Riberus has ever done what Hikaru did. IE: take on a physical form like that. I'd like to see DD and Oldina discuss it from a scientific perspective and from a philosophical perspective. They don't really touch on it that much in the series proper, which seems a bit weird.

Final Thoughts:
The young man who requested this review said this was one of his favourite anime of all time, and I understand why. While it has some problems, most notably those pointless segments, it is a bloody good series. It has a fantastic sense of character, a compelling story, strong acting and artwork. It might not be one of my favourites, but I can respect it and what it does. Personally, I'll give it a solid 8/10. 

The first thing that captures your attention is the art. The cute characters and the flowing lines attract you to it.

The background music is also very enjoyable and entered at the appropiate time.

The story is quite good actually. I won't tell anything of course, but it is definitly worth to see :).

The only down thing for me was the length of an episode. At almost 45 minutes long I think the storie is a bit stretched out and could have been even more enjoyable if it had been shortened.

If you're looking for a unique anime, this is the one!

The thing that is most interesting about this anime is that while it does have some pretty neat sci-fi aspects to it, that's not the point of the anime. In fact, the sci-fi/fight scenes in the anime are overlooked by the incredible character development. Most animes either have a stagnant character, or they grow fairly quickly. The amazing thing about Figure 17 is the fact the character growth is actually fairly slow, which makes it feel incredibly realistic.

Another thing about the anime is how invested you become with the characters. Some might say ... that the 42-minute episode length is unnecessary, but given the fact that there are only 13 episodes I think having longer episodes is very important to the investment of the characters. I honestly feel like if the episodes were shorter I would have missed out on the incredible relationships and growth throughout the characters.

However like I said before, while this anime does have its sci-fi aspects it really does get overshadowed. It's always there and it's quite interesting to see the different technology the people from another world have, but its role in the story is basically only to keep it rolling. I certainly wouldn't recommend this anime to anybody who's looking for a more sci-fi geared anime, as they'd be very disappointed at how much it's overshadowed. I would recommend this anime to people who enjoy sci-fi, but also are really into human growth and development as this anime is completely focused on the growth and bond between the two main characters Tsubasa and Hikaru.

To me, I always thought "Figure 17" was a pretty darn good anime, but nothing really special.

Here is the story. Figure 17 is about a little girl who follows a shooting star to a spaceship in which contains a clone named Hikaru. I haven't seen this anime in a long time, but let me explain. Her twin sister tries to teach her courage, confidence, and happiness. And they all go on adventures, expierence many different things, and try to defeat beastly Maguars with the help of two aids named D.D. and Olienda (or whatever her name is). I know it's a slice of life story, ... it raises up to about 13 episodes with 45 minutes of drama and 5 minutes of action and goes between summer and winter.

The story is the most enthusing part of Figure 17. As I said, it features a slice of life drama to about 5 minutes of action. The thing about the two twin sisters teaching themselves about life is really unique.

The art is very beautiful. Yes, I know it looks old, but the background of scenary and the characters are very interesting.

Sound, I always thought some of the characters sounded like the ones in Cowboy Bebop. Which really made me smiled. The music is very enthusing to watch and some of them are very sad compared to what this anime may be like at the end.

The characters seem to be a little shorter than I expected, but they had really great personalities. Tsubasa is kind of inevitable, Hikaru's selfless, the dad is caring, and Oldina and D.D. are both very helpful.

I enjoyed this anime from episodes 1-9 but throughout the rest, it becomes sad. And therefore, the anime always put me to sleep for a reason because Tsubasa and Hikaru are always worrying about defeating the Maguar's babies and not the mother. It's very boring to see, and that's why I give this anime a 7/10.

Anime with 13 episodes of 50 minutes each can seem "scary" and it also takes a lot of people away from a work. In the case of Figure 17, it works very well.

We follow the story of Tsubasa and Hikaru, two little girls who end up becoming twin sisters.
As much as it has action and a lot of science fiction, this is far from being the focus of the anime. The focus is everyday life and the relationship between the characters.
But what makes this anime so special? Simple: Realism. An anime where it treats everything in a very realistic way, even more so when it ... comes to the interaction of the characters. But not only that, he also talks about dependency. Tsubasa is very shy and depends on Hikaru for a lot (which reminds me of Doraemon, watch Stand By Me Doraemon, here's my recommendation), or maybe almost everything. As the work progresses, characters develop in an Iyashikei atmosphere that is very pleasant to watch, until episode 09 arrives, where the atmosphere of the work changes completely.

In the end, it's a work that talks about dependence, and at the end it has a very beautiful message of "You can do it without depending on others".
It's an excellent anime, and I see myself in Tsubasa a lot in some ways. This made me like this anime even more.

Clearly one of my all-time favorites. Beautiful visually, enjoyable to watch, with great characters and a very well written story.

Saw the whole thing on Tubi TV, I saw the deeper episodes last night and today, the heartfelt parts of the whole series, mostly the ones involving Tsubasa, Hikaru and Sho were the ones that were tear-jerkers for me personally and near the end I cried the hardest when Hikaru disappeared as the Figure 17 suit separated from Tsubasa for the last time, and since I personally lost my father on January 8th, 2018... this struck me pretty hard as the most heart-warming while tear-jerking Anime title I've ever seen!

Sadly, there are too many emotional triggers for me in this Anime, so I will not ... be buying this Anime as a box-set at all, it's just too emotionally painful for me, besides, my dog tragically died in the summer of 2017 while I was still in Las Vegas before I moved back to Georgia in November 9th, 2017!

As for the Anime, I would not mind if there was a 2nd and 3rd season where Tsubasa's father remarried and had a baby girl and named her Hikaru and they were reunited, even if a decade apart in age, Tsubasa would finally have the sister she missed so much after Figure 17 destroyed the alien Maguar threat and disappeared forever along with the Hikaru-twin(I'm crying as I type this with flashbacks from Figure 17)!

I had seen the first episode before as a sampler on a DVD from NewType USA, the Anime magazine, but forgot what the title was when I lost the sample and stopped subscribing, and now I've come full-circle by seeing the Anime in it's entirety for the first and last time!

Figure 17 is the cute story about a little girl who gets parasitized by an alien who takes her form, stays on her house, eats part of her food, pretends to be her twin, is part of the brainwash of her father to make him think he always had two daughters, becomes better than her at everything at school while becoming more popular there, and makes her fight against horrible dangerous monsters.

There’s this little precious Tsubasa Shiina, a shy and rather quiet girl with clear problems to socialize and lack of self-esteem partly because of the loss of her mother, her dad being away almost ... all day at work and almost absent for her, and because she recently moved on to a new place and school. She bumps into a crashed spaceship where some eggs of extraterrestrial monsters hatch and scatter over Hokkaido, they fed off of it and evolve that way. At the same time she accidentally fuses with an alien weapon/battle armor/life form thing to fight them, which out of battle takes her form, and thus she begins to live on her house as her new twin sister, Hikaru.

How is any of that cute you may ask? Because of the way it’s presented. Let’s clarify that this show is a cutesy and relaxing slice of life and coming of age story first, and a sci-fi action monster of the week series after. The focus is clearly placed on how Tsubasa no longer feels lonely thanks to her new more optimistic, energetic and extrovert sister who is always by her side, cares for her and encourages her to talk to others, get new friends, try more things, and be more confident with herself, while also fights alongside her and protects her from the aliens they face. Since their father is a baker and they live in a farm, the first thing they learn together is to make some breads and cakes and all that stuff, while also stuff about different animals, particularly cows. Then at school they go to class together, practice and compete in sports together, and rehearse and later star on a stage play together, that kind of usual stuff.

As the series goes on, however, after a tragic event, where the more cynical view of the situation which I began this review with gets acknowledged and addressed, and with the acknowledgment of their inevitable parting once all the monsters are defeated, both girls will be a little more apart of each other and Tsubasa will effectively learn to be more sufficient by herself and less dependent of Hikaru.

But how does the action sci-fi part of the show fits in? Well that’s the thing, initially it doesn’t, it feels tacked on and it even drops the overall quality of the show actually, since those monsters are just horrible things with zero dimensions of personality to them, which exist just to be killed on each episode. Not only that but the fights, despite having some battle choreography and strategies to them, usually start with alien policeman D.D getting defeated, and get resolved by Hikaru convincing Tsubasa to not be scared of the opponents, and they defeat them with one punch, even when the more experienced characters couldn’t win.

Fortunately this appear to have been realized on the writing room at some point, and as the show goes on, the monsters keep evolving and sharing information with the others, gaining new characteristics and forcing the heroes to face them together, form new strategies and use new weapons in order to win, by the end of the show no alien can be defeated by the girls all by themselves, they have to fight alongside the two veteran space police officers in order to win, even survive.

But that’s just an improvement action wise, how it ends up connecting with the main plot? Well, first, by having D.D and the later introduced other officer Oldina have a little, but very little, lives on Earth on their own as well while they gather information about their enemies. Second, by having them changing a little from their cold initial attitude to be more comprehensible and respectful of the things the two sisters go through the show, even letting them out of a few fights and having a few instances where they take the monsters on their own. Although short lived, it was a very welcomed change to have the two veteran space police officers be the ones to kill the aliens. Third, since the majority of the series is dedicated to the slice of life moments on Hokkaido, having all of the characters the girls interact with at stake as the show goes on, makes the following fights to be and feel important. And fourth, part of the growth Tsubasa goes through ends up playing a part as well, since it leads to an improvement on their way of fighting, and she even gets to save Hikaru at some point, an even more welcomed change.

Another way the writing tried to connect the two plot points with each other was with the presence of an investigator who realizes weird stuff is happening in the environment of Hokkaido, even appearing in the final battle. Although this portion of the show is necessary to understand the actual effects that the monsters have, it is universally considered filler, and to be honest everything regarding this character feel as such. Which is a shame since it is something very easy to solve, just have D.D and Oldina be the ones to investigate this stuff, they already use some pseudo-science to learn more stuff about their enemies, might as well have them look into what those monsters are doing to the Earth, that would help them in their own investigation, and give them more screen time to have a little more lives on their own on our planet, and thus have a bit more presence and character outside the action bits. Eventually this investigator ends up getting a catharsis, but like I said, everything about this character feels unnecessary and tacked on.

Another thing worth mentioning is the unexpected but welcomed lack of plot armor, especially with how many times D.D could have died but didn’t in the initial episodes. This I find to be positive, since despite being primarily a slice of life show, Figure 17 still has stakes, and having important characters dying permanently is the proper way to make said stakes feel real and their consequences important for not being taken away. And is not like the deaths come out of nowhere for shock effect, they are properly anticipated and it’s great that the series does not chickens out with them, even leading to a somewhat bittersweet ending.

To continue with the positives, I was surprised by the visual quality of the show, since it is a rather minor production from 2001. There are quality drops and characters go off model when seen from afar, and the designs are simple and generic, even very lookalike to what the designer would do later on Planetes, for example, but still the visuals are usually very good, very good special effects, very little and well rendered CGI for its time, in turn well mixed with the rest, and some of the most beautiful hand drawn backgrounds you’ll get to see on anime. The motions, though not always, are usually pretty good as well, and even the slice of life bits have vivid enough body language to not feel those bits as visually inferior.

As for the sound, the children sound very cute and convincing, every voice fits perfectly and is well performed. The adults however, partially because of their part on the show, sound a bit more typical, not bad, just not special in any way. The background music is good, composed of cute and relaxing themes for the slice of life portion of the series, and heavy rockers for the sci-fi half of it. With that said, the soundtrack ends up coming off as repetitive because some themes have many different versions and are reused in the exact same way every time in similar scenes. The opening is also a cool rock track, and the base for some tracks of the soundtrack, but it almost does not feel like the overall vibe of the show, luckily the more relaxing ending song fits better, and compliments it well, just like the two different genres don’t fit together at first but end up making a proper whole later on. The sound effects are nothing special but they are fine.

And now for the issues of the show, aside from the ones I already mentioned.

-Brainwashing is one of the laziest plot devices to use in writing regardless of what it is used for, thus it is an issue here.

-Although somewhat explained, having just one human notice what’s happening it’s impossible to buy, another major flaw and another reason to get rid of that investigator.

-By the end of the show all memory and track of what happened is erased, except for Tsubasa’s, this way it does not takes away the most relevant aspect of the show, but still makes the ending to feel like very little mattered in the end.

-The sisters are away of all the people they live and interact with everyday every time they get called to fight, and no one notices them going away to fight and get back to their house late at night at times, how convenient.

Despite the minuses, I still found it to be a pretty good slice of life and action hybrid, each genre is ok by itself at first, and they get tied together properly as the series goes on. Plus, it’s a slice of life show with plot continuity, stakes, permanent consequences and actual character growth by the end of it, quite rare within this medium, and somewhat valuable and memorable because of it. It is also one of the atypical and unusual oddities coming from OLM, the Pokémon studio, worthy to check out when they make something outside their comfort zone, like this, or Odd Taxi, or Berserk, to name a few. Still, with each episode being 45 minutes long, the simplicity of its plot and how it takes a while for its two genres to feel like they belong in the same series, I don’t find rewatch value in here, but for a one time experience, it is a good choice.

For similar stuff, there are actually way too many options, but just to name a few:

For the slice of life portion of it

-Gin no Saji, a coming of age series about high school students from the countryside.

-NieA_7, a slice of life comedy about a woman living with an alien.

-Hinamatsuri, a slice of life dramedy about alien girls living on Japan.

For the sci-fi action bit of it

-The Guyver action franchise, about a guy who accidentally fuses with a bio-organic alien armor to fight against extraterrestrial monsters invading Earth.

-Brigadoon, a science fantasy action romance dramedy about a girl being protected by a bio-organic extraterrestrial being from other soldiers like him, as well as many other monsters.

-The Tetsuwan Birdy action franchise, about a guy who for plot reasons shares body with a female space police officer who captures space criminals.

And more, there are a bunch more similar titles out there, damn. Another title that it’s usually recommended along this one is Blue Drop, but as I will explain next time, it’s best to stay far away from it.