Simoun

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Shimuun, Simoon

Japanese: シムーン

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 26

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 4, 2006 to Sep 26, 2006

Premiered: Spring 2006

Broadcast: Tuesdays at 01:30 (JST)

Producers: Bandai Visual, Sotsu, TV Tokyo Music

Licensors: Media Blasters

Studios: Studio Deen

Source: Original

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Girls Love

Theme: Military

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.47¹ (scored by 11,995 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1994²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3379

Members: 43,226

Favorites: 444

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

In the peaceful theocracy of Simulicram, everyone is born female. At age 17, each maiden undergoes a special ceremony where she chooses her sex. However, only Pairs of maiden priestesses can synchronize with the ancient flying ships known as Simoun needed to defend Simulicram. These Pairs refrain from undergoing the ceremony as long as they wish to keep piloting their Simoun.

Aer is recruited to be a Simoun pilot after a terrifying attack by an enemy nation decimates the squadron known as Chor Tempest. To earn her wings she needs to find her way into the heart of Neviril, Regina of Chor Tempest. But Neviril's heart still belongs to her previous Pair, lost in the battle when she attempted a forbidden Simoun maneuver.

(Source: Media Blasters)

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:

Simoun

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Aaeru

Main

Niino, Michi
Japanese

Mamiina

Main

Morinaga, Rika
Japanese

Neviril

Main

Takahashi, Rieko
Japanese

Paraietta

Main

Koshimizu, Ami
Japanese

Yun

Main

Nazuka, Kaori
Japanese

Morinas

Main

Mizuki, Nana
Japanese

Dominura

Main

Yukana
Japanese

Limone

Main

Noto, Mamiko
Japanese

Alti

Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi
Japanese

Rodoreamon

Main

Takahashi, Mikako
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nishimura, Junji

Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Tsujitani, Kouji

Sound Director

Jinbo, Masato

Episode Director

Yoshida, Shunji

Episode Director

Edit

Opening Theme

"Utsukushi Kereba Sore de Ii" by Chiaki Ishikawa

Edit

Ending Theme

"Inori no Uta" by savage genius

Reviews

Jul 12, 2021

Saucinator

Recommended

overall Review 9

The storyline or plot is clearly understandable until we reach the final episodes that somewhat leaves the story in pieces. what happend to the Neviril and Aaeru? did they go to the past or to the future? Is Dominura and onashia the same? What happend to Limone and Dominura in episode 26?

in short the story leaves us in quite possible theories that the author wants us to discover.

this anime really leaves me in a lot of questions,, I don't even know if the ending was supposed to be a good or a sad one.

But overall I love how they Introduce ...

Open

Gift

Apr 11, 2024

Quaggy

Mixed Feelings

Simoun is a perplexing anime. It's a political war anime with a heavy focus on character drama, usually relating to their relationships with each other.

At the start, the anime throws a lot of terminology and such at you very fast, and it feels as though it's starting in the middle of a story instead of the start. That isn't an inherently bad thing, it can be done in a way to throw the viewer into an interesting situation immediately, but I found it a little jarring and hard to follow for the first few episodes. Eventually you do start to understand what these words ... mean and what's going on, but it took me a few episodes.

While this anime is about a war between two factions, the heavy focus on character drama made what the opposing side was fighting for kinda vague. A few episodes early on focus on the enemy side, but it feels as though their motivations were given less focus to give more room for drama between characters. I don't mind this focus on character drama, but I feel as though that had the consequence of making it very hard for me to get invested in this war when we really only see one side's conflict. Another thing about the enemy faction is that they speak a language the characters cant speak, which they portray with reversed Japanese. I guess this decision gets across that the characters are unable to understand them, but every time I heard the enemy soldiers talk it sounded awful ;/

Speaking of the characters along with the drama, at the start it felt like there was too much of both. Starting with like 10 main characters, and ending with like 13, it became hard for me to get invested and as a result I felt quite bored and confused. But as I stuck with the anime I grew to understand these character's dynamics and became quite invested in most of their drama, especially Aeru and Neviril. They're both deeply flawed people with intriguingly similar yet repellent personalities. Seeing them come together feels quite engaging and very interesting. I think my favorite characters were Rodoreamon and Mamiina. The themes of class disparity and the discrimination Mamiina went through for being lower class made their relationship my favorite. I would have really loved to see more of it TvT.

The anime also has a focus on gender, everyone starting off as a girl and being able to chose your gender once you turn 17. This was the main factor that indulged me into watching Simoun since it's so rare to see any anime with something so overtly transgender, especially from 2006. How is Simoun when viewed from a trans lens? It's intriguing, I think the mere concept alone is a great vessel to tell a story about gender. Early on in the story, it's shown that gender dysphoria is a thing that can seriously harm someone psychologically, but it doesn't really go very deep with that. There are also a few characters in the main cast that don't want to decide a gender, I find acknowledging that possibility at all feels ahead of its time for this anime. It's a shame that the anime doesn't really feel as though being agender as much of a main focus.

Although this anime can also come off as weirdly essentialist when it comes to gender and portrays choosing a gender as an inevitability. Men in this world get better jobs, if a character becomes a man they have to have short hair and boyish clothes and vice versa. Multiple times, characters will say they want to become a man to be in a relationship with someone. As if the show feels two women can't be in a relationship, and that one person must always be a man and one a woman. Which is especially jarring for this anime! The Simoun are literally yuri powered, like they literally kiss and use their connection to each other to make the ship fly properly xD. It's a very odd double standard.

As flawed as the commentary on gender is in this anime, I would have liked to see more of a focus on it within the story. I think even more of a focus on these characters' gender identity and how that meshes with their psyche would have been fascinating, adding an extra layer to these characters and their interactions. Alas, the anime somewhat does this, but it never feels like a main focus.;/ Even then, for 2006 this anime tackles the topic in an interesting and not immediately hateful and stereotypical way and I respect that a lot.

Artistically, Simoun is very apparently low budget and the visual style can be slightly inconsistent. Characters will usually stand around or sit in place, not moving much, and most of the action is shown through extremely dated 3D models of the simoun flying around and drawing symbols in the sky. Despite that I do quite like the look of the characters, especially when they're given varying line weights in their line art, that kinda thing is very appealing to me! The character designs were all around solid, and I grew to appreciate the dated 3D models. As much as they stand out from the hand drawn backgrounds, the ships are well modeled for the time, and I think there's a charm to the slightly shitty mid 2000s CG look!

I also took note of the soundtrack. In many of the fights or preludes to fights, they use these accordion and piano tracks instead of a more traditional battle music. Some have said that this is unfitting and took them out of the fights, but I found this really caught my attention as a unique directing choice. It's as if the simoun are dancing in the sky as they draw patterns in battle, cool stuff imo.;3

In the end, I was very mixed on Simoun. It could have been a lot better in quite a few ways, but I think that there was an okay story and I don't regret my time watching this anime. I wish I could have liked it more

Open

Gift

Jan 22, 2021

Ernacram

Not Recommended

Simoun is a 2006 version of Darling in the Franxx with lesbian romance and bad production quality. It involves a war where young girls have to fight against an enemy by pairing up and piloting technologically-advanced war machines, but the story is centered on the relationships between these characters rather than on the war itself.

THE STORY IS UNIQUE

The story takes place in some sort of lesbian transgender world where people are born females and can choose their sex at the age of 17. Most of the characters are Sibyllae, i.e. girls who haven’t chosen their sex yet and act as priestesses who perform “prayers” ...

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Hidden gems for yuri lovers

by jaded-eagle

50 Entries · 533 Restacks

anime with wlw couples/themes

by evilpetergriffin

44 Entries · 11 Restacks

Bisexual Characters in Anime

by Keizakomu

50 Entries · 23 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Simoun Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Kotori - Apr 6, 2008	75 replies	by teaknight »» Mar 1, 11:52 AM
Poll: Simoun Episode 10 Discussion gohdan - Sep 22, 2011	10 replies	by SlammyHammy »» Feb 4, 7:20 PM
Poll: Simoun Episode 8 Discussion gohdan - Sep 8, 2011	13 replies	by SlammyHammy »» Feb 4, 7:16 PM
Poll: Simoun Episode 4 Discussion MagEarwhig - Aug 7, 2012	8 replies	by SlammyHammy »» Feb 4, 6:31 PM
Poll: Simoun Episode 2 Discussion Ksanclaire122 - Aug 8, 2013	5 replies	by SlammyHammy »» Feb 4, 6:24 PM

Recent Featured Articles

Top 20 Best Yuri Anime of All Time: Girls Love to Love

Girls are said to be the most loving beings in existence, something that is true in real life and in anime. So what about girls who love other girls? Well that, my friends, is the definition of yuri anime. From just friends to more than friends, here are 20 of the best yuri anime of all time.

by Jankenpopp

1,829,312 views

Recommendation Collection Cute Girls Love Moe

Simoun

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Aaeru

Mamiina

Neviril

Paraietta

Yun

Morinas

Dominura

Limone

Alti

Rodoreamon

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Simoun

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-