Fantastic Children

After watching anime for around 25 years, I can tell you with all the confidence of this world that this is BAD, this is so bad that it is cringe bad. I am not going to go into all of the details and all of the reasons because I could make full essays just single episode based let alone for the whole anime. I am just going to point out the worst things and the biggest flaws.

Story

They try to make it seem like this story is very mysterious, very dark, very complicated and edgy but all they do is spit in their own mouth when ... it is actually revealed what is going on.

It's a very simple story that could have been said and shown in 12 episodes at best and even then it probably wouldn't have been good. With their stretching things and prolonging each reaction of a character to take at least 30 seconds when you already start praying for it to just move along and start pulling your hair out they stretch out the runtime in all the worst ways possible.

I am not going to give you any spoilers but just from the summary alone you know that there exists a group of children who are spotted throughout history and when they are there are supposed to be some calamities this world goes through and seeing them is a bad thing. No, no it isn't. All of that means almost nothing in this story yet it takes half an anime for something to actually start happening. Almost nothing of importance happens in this anime until the final few episodes and even then it is laughably bad.

Also, the amount of giant plot holes as big and vacuum filled like the black hole are innumerable in this anime. Almost every single thing you have mentioned in the summary reeks of plot holes. Why are those kids not ageing? Why do they lose their memories when they turn 12? Why some of them decide to live their lives here because they cannot take it anymore instead of just not returning back here? How the hell is Wanda here on Earth? How did that thing end up here and why wasn't it established in the story? Why did the princess' father decide to put that weapon in? Why is Dumas so obsessed with a sister he never even met? How does Dumas know all about the scientists when he was on a space ship practically since birth? Why does his father not care about his only son? What was the point of Crooks apart from the filler parts that had absolutely no impact on the story? Why would a princess choose to stay as Helga when Helga is as empty as it gets because all of Helga's life was spent on wishing to be the princess (getting to that place I know, but meaning of it is the same)? And so many more questions that I just cannot put all of them here because there isn't enough space. None of those questions get answered. It's like they are saying: ˝Just don't think about it!˝

Art

Art is the 'best' part of this whole mess and since it is quite bad, that says a lot. And do not tell me I just don't like the look of the older anime. Quite the contrary, that is what I prefer. Like His and Her Circumstances, old Fruits Basket, old Sailor Moon, old Dragon Ball, Bleach, Ghost in the Shell... all of them I love. But when something is bad it needs to be pointed out. And this is... cringe. The colour palette is dark and broody but for no bloody reason. They insist on telling this story in a broody kind of way but it makes no sense. Cringe factor is through the roof. They are cutting corners on animation everywhere. You have the universe, 'Enma', guys who are just big black blocks of darkness, you have facial features that do not move, but kind of just twitch as if frozen in space and time and set on repetition and it can make you claw your eyes out. Here and there you will have a nice scenery shot and that is why it is a level higher than the rest.

Sound

The opening song is there for all of the 26 episodes and it is soooo bloody annoying that I had nightmares about it. I truly hate that opening song. Sound throughout the series is really on a bad level especially when you start to notice how when they are holding a shot on a character for a reaction to something (and they do each character with the same expression each time something happens) then you hear the exact same sound for each of them, like 'ah', and you can hear them inserting that reaction and the way they paste it in is extremely unnatural. Also, the Helga character has one of the most annoying voice acting I have ever come across. They repeat the same music over and over and over again that you already feel like you are losing your mind.

Character

What to say that I didn't already mention in the story. Characters are cliches, they do not have a personality, they have no interests apart from what is needed to get the story going. They are one-thing-oriented characters. There are no layers and no subtlety and no depth. How you see Helga the first time that is how she is going to be the last time. Character growth is almost non-existent.

Enjoyment

Laughable. There was none. Apart from one single thing and that is unintentional hilarity. Which happens throughout almost one whole episode and here and there sporadically. In one episode where the weapon is activated somewhere and there are people trying to get to it to stop it there are so many moments of unintentional hilarity that I simply wish the whole anime was that stupid so I could at least laugh at how ridiculous it all is.

Overall

Overall I urge you to avoid this one. Do not even watch it for those brief moments of unintentional hilarity. It is bad, it is terribly bad. If you try to watch it on Fast Forward option you will notice that only then it will seem like it is happening in the actual time. This anime is a convoluted boring and uninspiring mess. I do not know why it is rated so high nor why there aren't other more negative opinions written about it but you can see a couple of the first episodes for yourself and judge the anime based on that because it only gets worse from there.

I am sorry for all the time I wasted on this. I could have watched something at least mildly entertaining instead.

The anime is as horrible as its animation. It looks like the producers watched some better anime, then took what they found good as ingredients for this one. They chose to make a “centuries-long mystery” as a mystery apparently means the viewer doesn’t need to know much details. Also limit the dialogue and add repetition to the recipe to cut the costs even more, and you get their business plan to get wealthy with minimal effort.
This is probably the reason that fear emotions have to be shown on every face of every character and in sequence because a total group reaction would make the ... episode shorter. In the beginning it does make you wonder what terrible event is happening, but it gets boring quick.
And as the anime continues you find out that there is actually no reason for fear or it gives even more questions. Repetitions of fearful events is the strategy, and it is stalling the viewer with as little information as possible.
Also the characters are on the move a lot, again slowing down the flow of the story. Especially if you see another long chase ending by someone teleporting away, why didn’t that happen immediately… Ah yes it is as logical as having soldiers fight with swords, while having also laser weapons, some ingredients don’t mix well.
There are so many repetitive events, combined with characters that are totally not necessary to the story (like the detective and the woman that is following him). A waste of time that could have been used better to give details for certain decisions. No wonder the story is full of plot holes.
The only way they make the story flow is to have someone appear at the right spot or at the right time listening in when someone else is telling some secret or information. It gives you a world with so much unused space and open doors everywhere as people need to be able to hide in it.

All the characters are so very very empty, they just do something because the plot demands it. You could be positive and say that the story is about love that survives through space and time. But in the anime this apparently applies only for the 2 main characters, others experiencing similar events abandon their loved ones quite easily.
But even those 2 main characters offer nothing else. Being their friend doesn’t keep them from flying away, leaving you heavily wounded behind. All that while knowing those wounds came from trying to save them. It all just happens to get some form of a story, but with scripted characters.
The only fun I had was jokingly predict the worst choice that the royal mother could make, and then seeing it actually happen.
Conclusion: It is not worth watching.