Eden's Bowy

I loved Eden's Bowy. The internal struggles of the characters, especially Yorn and Elisiss, are great. And the haunting past of Spike, he is one of my favorite characters. Now granted, don't watch it expecting the smooth art style of anime done today but it's the older style that makes it lovable too. If you like fantasy type anime then at least give it a try and hopefully you won't be disappointed.

A really great series and you can find a dub version out there. I tried to watch this once and discarded it because it had an older artwork look. I came across it again and watched two episodes and was hooked. Not only does it have a great storyline, but it also has some comedy mixed in that makes you laugh. Not many anime actually humor me.

Eden’s Bowy made for a solid fantasy/ adventure series focused on the journey of Yorn, Elisiss and Ulger Dyne as they tried tracking down the whereabouts of Yorn’s father and dealt with hostilities they faced from those in the floating cities of Yulgaha and Yaunes. The series does a great job at fleshing out many of its prominent characters and exploring the world in which Eden’s Bowy takes place. Many of the characters that the series focuses on are involved with and have had tragic pasts and developments that they are trying to overcome while dealing with the hostilities from the actions of authority figures in both of the floating cities. The most interesting of these developments for me came from the story concerning Hairra’s origins which proves to be quite the tragic one and effects the developments of Fennis and Vito’s characters throughout the series as they handle her not so normal situation and being pawns of the crooked Yulgaha priests.

The show also does a solid job at its world building to establish the different societies that those on the ground, Yulgaha and Yaunes have. Yulgaha and Yaunes are seen as very sophisticated societies in the future setting of Eden’s Bowy which shows itself rather well with the seemingly modern city landscape of Yulgaha and the futuristic like environment of Yaunes. This is considerably different compared to the barbaric and feudal lifestyles and clothing that those on the surface experience and dress in on a regular basis. The series does resort to the typical “science vs religion” clash between Yaunes and Yulgaha as their societies are governed by both respectively (Yaunes uses mecha, Yulgaha having six magical priests) and use them as their primary means of combat.

In terms of plotting, Eden’s Bowy switches its focus between the differing factions and characters seen throughout the series with Yorn’s group, the six Yulgaha priests, Hairra and her group, Yaunes leader Nyako and her two incompetent cohorts and Yorn’s rival Spike Randit. The series takes its time unraveling the true nature and goals of these various characters and factions with the first half mostly focused on exploring its world and the situations faced by its characters yet dropping hints of tensions developing between the factions and motives of the characters. The second half is when the plot starts to escalate when Yulgaha and Yaunes finally go at each other’s throats, some characters come to terms with the problems they have faced throughout the show and we come to learn more of the mysteries surrounding a few key characters alluded to from earlier episodes. The show reasonably explores its world and develops both its plot and characters within its 26 episodes without leaving behind too many loose ends.

If there is one major problem I had with Eden’s Bowy, it would have to be that those within Yaunes are quite underdeveloped compared to what we see of Yorn’s group, Spike and characters within Yulgaha. For the most part, characters in Yaunes seemed to be used as some form of comic relief throughout the series, especially in the case with Nyako’s two incompetent cohorts she sends to capture Yorn. While comedic moments with these characters were effective for the most part and didn’t do too much in killing the more serious mood of Eden’s Bowy in later episodes, it would have been nice if these characters were given more serious moments for me to connect with them, especially as the only Yaunes character with any reasonable development was Nyako’s niece/ second-in-command.

In terms of presentation, Eden’s Bowy does have a solid visual presentation with clean details and good color shading with its settings and character designs. It does a good job at showing detail and vastness with a diverse number of environments such as a desert, mountain areas and the city environments of both Yaunes and Yulgaha. Character designs have a decent amount of detail applied to them and are appealing on the eyes as well. The show does usually resort to animation shortcuts such as reused and still frames, but the quality does improve in later episodes and has its moments during battle scenes.

Eden’s Bowy did a solid job in keeping me entertained throughout its 26-episode run. The series did a good job at developing and exploring its world and characters, as well as slowly building up its plot while adding in the occasional comedy moments with the characters to ease the mood from tense developments or a couple filler episodes. This is a definite watch if you are looking for a good fantasy/ adventure anime to get into, especially as this title seems to be fairly obscure to most anime fans.

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Edens Bowy was one of those anime i glanced at and thought it would be rather dry and sad in comparison to other anime of its time, i was wrong. I found great enjoyment when watching this anime, it seemed a lot more mature than it looked and used a lot of themes that a mature audience may appreciate more.

Visually Edens Bowy is great in most aspects, i think they made the female lead very badly with her gigantic elf ears and pulled back hair. It makes her look more like a alien than anything else. I consider this a major problem since its hard to for me to see past her design even her colors kinda throw me off cause it goes /brown/off pink/puke green as you scan down her body. She reminds me of a really distance cousin of one of the girls from Oh My Goddess with her forehead symbols and such.The main lead resembles quite a few male leads from the early 90s to 80s with his red hair, blue clothes and largely over sized sword.

I felt some of the best art was in the villains and landscapes/city's. I think the Gods themselves set themselves a huge distance away from anything else in the show visually and i liked that cause it gave them a very strong presence and serious tension when they appear. I also liked the backgrounds and general artistry of the the upper city, it reminds me a lot of a lot of other great anime of that time who used themes like past advanced civilizations and future technology existing in a small segment of the world.

The characters of Edens Bowy feel very right for the plot in most instances, i feel like the main characters could have been a little older to make the show look a little more serious though. I also acknowledge the theme of using young characters is because they want to create a greater feeling of helplessness and fighting against fate and such. Having children face God,Creation and Existence itself is a heavy theme and tossed in with romance you can see them struggle harder and harder for a more triumphant outcome.

Ultimately i think Edens Bowy is something i have truly and honestly enjoyed in its entirety. With a few improvements it could have been a highly acclaimed classic. I feel like if you have a interest in classic anime you should really give this a watch since it is a very forgotten yet enjoyable title. I can also see where other people would be critical of this anime but i think if you give it a honest chance you will walk away enjoying it.

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