Gakuen Senki Muryou

Underrated and overlooked gem, it’s the type of sci-fi that’s relaxing to watch and anyone who likes slower paced sci-fi should consider giving it a shot.

Plot: 8
The plot can be a bit tricky to pin point, half the time it’s going all sci-fi on you with aliens and intergalactic police, the other half of the time it’s going slice of life with students on you. They’re both interesting parts that actually mingle pretty well with eachother. Upon going through this series a second time, it becomes more impressive that there really aren’t any wasted scenes either, they either go to plot or to characters. The ... balance between these segments is good too and leans a lot more towards sci-fi as the series goes on.

Characters: 8
This series could be considered to have two mains as defined by the series: Hajime, whom the story is told from, and Muryou, whom the series is more or less named after. These two aren’t particularly interesting though, they’re not bad, but they just kinda feel...there. Hajime takes everything a bit too laid back for me, like everything and everyone is normal, and even though Muryou is the main mystery in the series, he’s just a little bit dry. The rest of the cast is all great fun though with varying quirks and personalities. They make the series worth watching and show up in both the more slice of life segments and the sci-fi segments. Both adults and children characters are interesting and believable.

Presentation: 7
The good part is the animation, which was one of the last cel drawn series, it just has that nice hand-drawn feel to it we don’t get quite as much today. Given that Madhouse animated it, it also looks and moves well. The soundtrack on the other hand....well, it’s like someone stole the soundtrack to an elevator and the track had precisely one and a half good songs on it. The soundtrack is pretty awful, it really interferes with the OP and ED, they’re damn near unlistenable is you ask me, but they don’t really disrupt the rest of the show either, so I suppose I can give it a pass, but it’s pretty crappy if you ask me.

Overall: 8
It might not be for everyone, but people who want more laid back slice of life need look no further and people who like slice of life who don’t mind sci-fi mixed in there should check it out.

An incredibly underrated series that was considered to be another copy of Evangelion. Shingu was actually origionally released to be 40+ episodes, but since the following seemed to be small the company that origionally released it cut it down to only 26 (which explains how the ending felt slightly rushed, but it still made me wanting more).

Story:
The story development had to be my favorite part about it, it was told by the veiwpoint of Hajime who befriends a new kid at school who's a little more than what he bargined for. At first I thought it was going to be the average superficial plot, ... but it ended up being quite good--especially at the end, but I won't give that away.

One thing I liked the most was the almost comical way Hajime told his story, I loved how the charters would stop and say "Why are you talking to yourself?" or something along those lines while he was giving his narration, the series played it off very well.

Art:
I usually don't take the time out to watch an older series, but the art didn't bother me at all because I thought the story was just too amazing to let that stop me from watching it.

Sound:
I didn't really notice it at all, but at least it didn't detract from the series in anyway. The opening and closing theme songs were a little cheesy and very 80s anime, but what else was I going to expect? xD

Character:
The characters in this are simply amazingly portrayed. Muryo stands to still be my favorite character in any series by far, only because he was described as not being able to tell if he was daft or a genius. Because the series was cut short, some of the character development had to be left out obviously, but the series did an incredibly job of bringing out unique and refreshing characters in the series--even the ones only seen a few times were interesting.

Enjoyment:
10/10. Enough said.

Overall:
It's the kind of series that's really easy to get through and doesn't crap out or have any filler episodes to fill in the gap that people call the "middle of the series". I loved it, and it left me feeling that the story really wasn't over at all even though the series had ended.

Shingu is one of those animes that comes along rarely that does what it intends to do and does it well. Shingu tells an interesting story and does it in a way that's enjoyable to watch, and somehow relaxing. Except for a few scenes Shingu doesn't resort to cheap tricks to suck the viewer in to the story nor does it try to play with the viewers emotions. It just tells a story, and not too bad a story at that.

Shingu has a wonderful old school feel to it, from the anthem solo at the opening to the wonderful jazz arrangement by Yuji Oono at ... the closing everything in between is a delight. The art is well drawn but not overly detailed and the background music is mostly well done jazz. The characters have the old school wide eyed look and one of the main characters is a mystery superbeing whose facial expression rarely ever changes from amusment. The characters have no problem with breaking the 4th wall and speaking directly to the audience (which usually precipitates another characters saying "Who are you talking to?"

There's even narration by the main character as was seen in older anime and each episode ends with the narrator saying something like "all these questions will be answered in the next episode" which also is another old school touch.

For all the old school qualities this is definately a 21st century anime. The concepts behind the main plot seem simplistic at first but give it time, as the episodes continue the plot and various subplots get infinately more complex. Another plus is that Shingu is unabashedly Japanese. I'm growing tired of anime that try to position themselves in a generic location. There's no question that this story takes place in a small Japanese costal town and it's refreshing to catch glimpses of Japanese culture.

I recoment this anime for anyone that's getting tired of the same old giant-robots-save-the-earth story, this one is fresh and refreshing with comfortable familiar feel to it.

This was quite the addicting little series considering it seemed geared for a younger audience. Shingu offers up a mix of slice-of-life comedy and sci-fi adventure focused on middle schooler Hajime and his encounters with a group of psychics that make up the student body of his school, as well as living in a town where its residents react with indifference towards alien ships that appear out of nowhere. While having its extraordinary elements, Shingu is surprisingly quite mundane in many instances as most of the town residents take these events as just a typical part of their everyday routine and focusing on the everyday ... routines of Hajime and the other students in the middle school. Instead of the former being around just for laughs, it also shows signs that things in the town are not as they seem on the surface which Shingu takes its time at slowly unveiling and eventually fully reveals what connections that the town has to said alien appearances.

The slice-of-life element of this series comes from Hajime slowly becoming familiar with the true inner workings of his town and befriending the not-so-ordinary members of the student body at his school like Mouryu and Naiyuta. The show's cast is a likeable and fun bunch offering a nice balance of comedy and character developments. Characters within the series have their developments and dept as they change throughout the show as they deal with the various alien encounters throughout the show. The comedic moments coming from the casual reactions that the town's residents have with their paranormal developments and abilities, as well as some occasions of Hajime breaking the fourth wall by talking to the audience. The only notable area that the series seemed lacking in was any fleshing out of Mouryu's character as depth on his character is kind of limited with some hints dropped over his past yet never elaborated on and compared to most major characters in the series, he didn't show much diversity or change in his character throughout the show.

On the visual end, scenery and character designs are mostly standard for the time period in which the series was animated with a reasonable amount of visual detail and subdued color tones with animation shortcuts apparent in the show's action sequences. The music to the series mostly consisted of mellow tracks which work rather well during the show's mundane and comedic moments, yet had nothing too memorable that stuck out for me.

Overall, Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars was an addicting little title offering a fun mix of comedy and adventure with its cast as they live out a seemingly ordinary life and fight aliens while slowly digging into its mysteries focused on connections that Hajime's small town have with these aliens. This is definitely worth a look if you are looking for any titles lying under the radar to many anime fans.

Ooh. Where to start. Well, I'm bad at writing reviews, so let's just start somewhere!

Gakuen Senki Muryou.... is very interesting.
Scratch that.

AGH I just finished the series and I have so many questions!

Anyway.
Gakuen Senki Muryou has an interesting premise, and it has a mix of SciFi and Slice of Life. And lots of secrets. Aliens attack one day, or somewhere, while the main cast goes off to school and has their school shenanigans. It's a weird mix, but somehow it works.

The sound. Well. This is from 2001. The songs were nice, I found some a little cheesy, but overall, totally enjoyed it. The voice acting is ... great, very good.

Characters are varied, all have their uses, personalities, most get some form of character development throughout the series, etc. And they're all important somehow! Most of the main cast gets at least one shining moment of awesomeness, where only they could save the day and they did.

When there's anything happening, there's either some very slow-paced plot development, or character development. Everything's useful in some way.

There's also a lot of perspective shifts, from the middle schoolers, to the adults, to the other adults, and to the aliens somewhere who-knows-where. It changes a lot, and they all talk about different pressing matters, but somehow it works together.

All I really want is some season two, or some answers, but seeing as it's been nearly 20 years since this aired, I doubt there'll be another one... But please. Answers. I need them ;(

(Although the plot pacing is pretty slow, it's a good story, though it seemed very rushed at the end. I'd still recommend, and as others have said, this is definitely some sort of hidden gem.)

Shingu: secret of the stellar wars is an absolute hidden gem that not very many people know about, it's hard to find anything about the show but despite that it's great, even though most old dubs are mediocre the dub for this show was good and i loved the whole thing.

The characters are amazing especially Muryou, I didn't really understand his past throughout the show but he is still my favorite character. Hajime was kind of a bland character but he wasn't the worst, I don't really think there was a "worst" character in the show because they were all very interesting.

The story is what ... hooked me in, The fact that in the beginning there was some alien thing and none of the towns people cared just seemed kinda funny but still odd.

All in all this show is a must watch and I think it's a solid 8

Looks like I am the one of the few people to watch this show and probably the only one to watch it recently if the other review dates are anything to go by but that's a shame because this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. I was hesitant to give it a 10/10 but I realized that despite being somewhat low-key Shingu manages to achieve everything it sets out to do and doesn't fumble once even considering the fact that they had to rush the ending. This show is just chill personified, watching it makes me feel like I'm biking around the ... neighborhood with friends on a late summer night in grade school, wrapped up in a blanket on Christmas eve, and enjoying a glass of wine with a lover on a crisp fall day all in one. It's relaxing to the nth degree and for that I will always be thankful for this show. It's also just incredibly well written. It's been a long time since I've watched an anime that achieves the level of literary merit that's usually reserved for highly regarded works of literature but Shingu knocks it out of the park. There are no bad episodes or plot-lines or characters, nothing is ham-fisted or thrown together haphazardly, the show is just flawless in it's execution.
It's a shame that so many find it boring and dropped it early on. I can see why they would because the show doesn't really have a lot of action going for it but it's still a shame that so many missed out on this because of the unavoidable misrepresentation in it's trailer/promotional material. It looks too Eva like for people looking for a relaxing show and it's too relaxing for people wanting an a show like Eva but I assure you if you feel any connection to the themes and vibes of this show in the first few episodes then stick with, you won't be disappointed.

10/10