Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan

I write this to you as a fellow anime fan; a comrade who you can trust... someone who only wants to save you from the fresh hell that is this anime. Leave now. And never look back. Usually a show has SOMETHING to offer, whether it be by way of characters, plot, fan service, or other devices. Shining Hearts' one forte is the ability to lull you into a deep sleep, one which you wish never to wake from.

Story - 2

What story? They bake bread, offer no foreshadowing, then fart out a deus ex machina ending and treat it as a special twist. It is ... a half-baked attempt to knead some plot into a stale series. All puns aside, the story is trying to be both a battle fantasy and a slice-of-life-harem. It focuses on one throughout 90% of the series and snatches away what could have been some modicum of a satisfying slice-of-life-harem conclusion and replaces it with the most terribly written battle sequence ever produced. If you're going to have the story focus on romance the entire time, BATTLES AND FURY does not a good ending make.

Art - 8

Character designs by Tony? Yes please. Decent production quality all around, but a sexy looking turd is still a turd.

Sound - 2

No memorable tracks, and by god the ending is scary to watch.

Characters - 2

Picture a blob; a peach colored gelatinous ball of goop. Now imagine this blob growing three heads; one blonde, and two brunettes. Congratulations! You've successfully imagined the three main heroines of this story! They are a perfect match for the main character because all four of them share one thing in common! Can you guess what it is? Thats right! They're all characters with no personality! Rick, in his infinite sadness, spends his days contemplating the meaning of bread while commanding his three mindless sheep to run the shop. And the sheep do exactly that. What, were you expecting character development? Or even characters to begin with? Shame on you.

Enjoyment

On a scale from "Oh god my insides feel like they're being incinerated in a sea of napalm, kill me - KILL ME NOW" to "It was aight yo" I'd have to say its at about a "Oh god my insides feel like they're being incinerated in a sea of napalm, kill me - KILL ME NOW"

Overall - 3

By the powers vested in me as a fellow peer and anime watcher, I sentence the plot to be improved by a grade schooler. I sentence the character designs to be the source of many doujinshi. I sentence all copies of the OST to be delivered to Beethoven so he - and only he - can listen to them. I sentence the characters back to their childhoods in hopes that whatever stopped them from having a personality doesn't occur again. Finally, I sentence that the show and all it's merchandise be cursed by blackbeard and cast into the endless sea in hopes that none shall ever be taken by its evil clutches ever again.

After just watching the first episode, I can tell that Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan is objectively one of THE BEST shows this season. And by objectively the best, I mean its pretty good. And by pretty good I mean I liked it. Well, I didn't hate it. At least not after muting it, turning the subtitles of, and playing metal at maximum volume.

After I did that, WOW! The art was excellent, the music was excellent, and the combination of dark music with the sweetness of this show made for a perfect balance. I certainly would watch again (only) under the same conditions.

Since I already wasted my time by watching this anime to its end, I decided I might as well do something of doubtful usefulness by writing this list of why Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan is an utter and complete waste of time.


Story: 2/10 Character: 1/10
This anime is a pseudo action-fantasy/slice of life, that does really badly at both genres. If you consider it as a slice of life, you keep getting barraged by random mystery plot shadowing scenes every few ... minutes, making you think "OMG GET ON WITH THE STORY ALREADY!" By the time the series gets you to resign on how the story will never advance, it suddenly gets thrown into a hasty, 2 episode conclusion and sudden ending that ruins the slice of life atmosphere.

The show is even worse if you consider it as an action/fantasy, since the story progresses really, really, really slowly. The first 10 episodes are used to introduce new characters that do not really appear in the finale, and the climax is very disappointing, especially with the 10 episode buildup and you just want the story to end already. The final fight scene lasts all of 3 minutes, and the show is over without anything being resolved. In conclusion, this series would have been better off as a 9 episode slice of life + 3 episode OVA. Of course, you would also have to remake the entire story, scrap all the characters, and remake everything from scratch.

Aside from being confused as to what genre it is trying to be, the show also has many other aspects which makes it horrible. One of this is that the characters and setting just plain suck. The ISLAND the characters are on, is isolated. In fact, there are no indications that other people exist in their world. So in a pre-technology village with 100 people, with nothing of value in it, why is there a CASTLE, with hundreds of guards, 2 rulers, and a treasury filled to the brim with gold? Furthermore, around 80% of the main characters seem to have come to the island by washing up on the shore, has complete amnesia, don't seem to care they have amnesia, nor find it strange this phenomenon happens every few days. Why is there an antique shop, and where the hell do antiques even come from since there is no trade at all - the island is isolated remember? And why the hell are there PIRATES in the village? Who the hell do they plunder treasure from, if the village (where they come from) is the only livable settlement in the entire world? Either the creator just randomly adds factors to attract viewers (wow this anime has pirates, it must be good) without any effort to create a logical world, or the animation completely fails in portraying anything of significance to its viewers.

Another point that makes this show terrible is that it is filled, completely, to the brim, with inconsistencies. If any effort was made to answer the inconsistencies however, there would have been no story at all, so I guess the creators can't be blamed for this, right?
- The bakers are very successful. But when the furnace breaks, they have 0 life savings and can't afford to fix it. However, one of the main characters, despite washing up on shore unconscious, with nothing but the clothes on his back and a sword, owns a SHIP, which, because they are on an island in an uninhabited world, is very important, can't sell it, and get money to fund a new furnace.
- The "broken" android who disintegrates an entire fleet of ships with a single laser beam, suddenly loses the ability to do so again when she is finally repaired.
- The completely loyal android whose only task is to keep her master safe decides to use the village and castle as a shield to protect her master. Then after a few seconds, changes her mind and decides the best way was to remove the only item that would protect her, bring her into the middle of the enemy troops, and leave her there.
- Rick, the "great swordsman" who lost to a cat burglar, suddenly acquires wings, a sword that fires energy beams, and manages to nearly get killed when he fights too low and gets knocked down by someone on the ground, and that is the climactic fight scene of the entire series.
- The "great swordsman" is the only person who can save their village, manages to lose within 2 minutes of fighting. The fight is actually won by the mage (there's magic in this show?) and by the blacksmith's cannon "I guess being the only person who can save the village" means, being the only idiot stupid enough to become bait.
- The "Robin Hood" character steals from the royal treasury, to donate to the orphanage. This shows that the government in this show is despotic. This image is further strengthened by how the soldiers seize stuff that isn't theirs, randomly decides to try to kill a civilian, imprisons the thief and take credit for funding the orphanage, and how the prince lies and deceives the main character to sacrifice his life for the village. However, the rulers are still supposedly "good", "care" for the village, best friends with the main characters, and loved by all. Right…

Aside from this (yes there's more), the show is littered with a ton of random, one shot characters, that do not do anything for the story. This includes 2 elves (what there are elves too?) that 2 episodes devote to, a girl who makes ice cream (who is a loli of course) who takes up an entire episode, and the very important character the entire summary talks about, the mysterious "girl with amnesia that pirates are chasing". In truth, the "girl with amnesia" is nothing but a minor character with a smell fetish, with 10 lines in the entire series, 8 of which are "this smells good."

However, the VERY WORST aspect of this series is that it utilizes the "we are the game masters, we can do whatever we want" philosophy. There is no set plot, no set story. Instead, things are randomly included into the show, for no reason, and with no explanation. Come to think of it, it is already quite fail how the show can easily make up a story, or make any person suddenly acquire any random skills at an expert level by just saying "I have amnesia, I must have learnt that in a previous life" (and again, almost all the main characters have amnesia). The fact that the creators have to resort to the "there's a different dimension" explanation just to get the story moving just confirms once again how incompetent they really are. It's like saying "we can't kill an unconscious squirrel with a gun, can someone buy us a grenade launcher please? (while standing beside a grenade launcher they just have to pick up)." The ridiculousness includes
- In a fantasy, pre-technology world, there are suddenly flying androids who can decimate entire fleets with her laser, using the VERY CONVENIENT explanation of "there are actually two worlds, I'm from the other one."
- There are suddenly beast men, lizard men, and elves in an otherwise isolated island in an isolated world. Unless the humans in this story can breed with their dogs and cats, where the hell do these different species come from? From the fanservice gods of course!
- In the final battle, magic suddenly exists, which, just watching the entire anime, there is no indication of existing.


Art: 9/10 Sound: 9/10
The art and music is pretty well done. However, like all my ratings, I don't really factor both these in how an anime does overall. I mean, if I wanted fanservice anime, then I'd watch fanservice anime after all. And if I wanted to listen to great music, that is what iTunes is for. The reason I would watch an anime, TV series, or a movie, is because I love reading/watching/listening to great and interesting stories. And that is what I base my anime ratings on. That said,


Enjoyment: 3/10 Overall: 3/10
Watching the show as a "therapeutic" slice of life just managed to piss me off. Because some kind of mysterious foreshadowing is randomly inserted every 3 minutes, I keep expecting something exciting to happen. And watching it as action/fantasy just made me bored to tears.

The Anime has nothing going for it. There is practically no action even when the big climax comes about. The interactions of the characters aren't there either and even a small amount of romantic inclinations between the main character and one of the girls would have spiced things up nicely to pull this Anime out of the doldrums it tanked out with. There was also way to much pandering the concept of a bread that makes everyone happy no matter what. Really? The only good thing about this Anime is the beautiful art work.

Well this anime is pretty damn disappointing.... they seal the action and I barely able to finish it..... First things first

Story(1/10)
I accept the first episode just a prologue I though it'll be a Lord of the Ring style settings but it's a big disappointment I though elf will play a major role in here... I keep waiting and waiting and yet no action come... and the fuck with it? making a story with a bread?It's pretty plain boring. And it's very annoying all people says "Hmmm It smells good" over and over again...goddamnit!! it's getting on my nerves...If you plan to watch it you better ... not...

Art(9/10)
Atleast the art is acceptable... very well detailed... atleast this anime has a good art not bad

Sound(7/10)
Well the sound is pretty calming for this anime befitting it's genre.. (thought it's not really action pack)

Character(3/10)
All of the character is pretty BOOOOOORING... All of the women is pretty annoying for not letting Rick have an action... and as of Rick his weak resolve makes me kinda irritated... don't watch this

Enjoyment(1/10)
I could not say less it's Booring Pathetic and worst anime I've ever watch so far....

Overall(2/10)
It's dreadful... well I respect the people who watch it and stay with til the end and have a little enjoyment in here... This is pretty damn booring don't watch this if you are expecting a LOTR like anime