Toaru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku Episode 1 Discussion

callmetheBigD said:
I dont even know what to say! this story is rife with cliches and, wholly feels like they are prodding a fully milked-and dead cow with a stick trying to make it get up and get back to work.

the execution is sub par, as if they were playing a game of "pin the overused trope on the anime" or something like that. from the chance childhood meeting of the two kids, to the overly and overtly genki friends, to the "love that can never be", to the rapidly changing personality of the princess, to the sheer boringness of charles' character. all of it has been done before, and almost any other show out there has done it better. and while all of this may be bad, what really gets me is the whole idea of Charles as a "bestado", the lowest caste in the levamme empire.

The idea of the lower caste character has been done well before. just look at Suzaku from Code Geass. the creaters wove a real conflict between Suzaku's goals, and his status as a "lowly Eleven". interactions are done extremely well in that show, and this status defines him. in this anime however, the idea of the Bestado doesnt fit in well at all, and seems like the writers wanted to include an extra obstacle in Charles' path to love.

to start, the whole idea of the Bestado isnt really explained at all, and apparently all we need to know is that Charles is of the lowest class, a hated "sewer rat" who lies, cheats, and steals to make a living. But looking at him, or even looking at the story, you'd never expect it. this guy seems like a perfectly normal person, completely unaffected by all the things that happened to him in the past, no hatred for anyone, just brushes off taunts

the reason why this idea fails is because every time his class status is mentioned, there is always a character telling us why the world hates him. they never show his plight to anyone. we dont even know what the qualifications for bestado status are, or even why it is so bad. If the creators have ever written a college essay or even seen code geass, or some other similar anime with good execution, they would know that you are supposed to "show dont tell".

it is so poorly executed in the anime, in fact, that taking out this minor plot point would barely affect the direction of the story at all. this is supposed to serve as a sort of "class based love affair that can never happen", but it would be almost exactly the same if he were just a simple citizen/commoner, albeit without the unneeded bullying.

but by far the most Out-of-the-blue thing they do in this anime, and that really set me off, was that these supposedly "high class" people GIVE HIM THEIR PRINCESS, TO FLY ALONE, WITHOUT ESCORT, ACROSS DANGEROUS TERRITORY AND THROUGH ENEMY LINES!" i mean COME ON!!!! WHO THE DEVIL WAS MAKING THIS DECISION? am i missing something here? what kind of general trusts the "lowlife sewer rat" with their princess and expects him to deliver her to the kingdom without all help, in an inferior aircraft, and completely against all odds? DID IT AT ANYTIME CROSS THEIR MINDS THAT THE BESTADO MIGHT STEAL HER AWAY??? there was nothing stopping him! i mean, if he were just a neutral citizen/commoner, i would completely understand that he should do all in his power to deliver her, despite getting none of the credit, but COME ON! EVERYONE HATES HIM! he could just hightail it away somewhere else and start a life with her. thats what she wanted. and then he could have had a princess and no money, versus having no money and no princess and dying like a dirty dog. oh yea, which brings up ANOTHER CLICHE. the honorable and morally good anime character that just doesnt make the right decisions! none of it fits within the context of the show, and contributes next to nothing to the story. add in some dumb samurai pilot, a bunch of ships, and a cursory glance at some falling dudes in an attempt to humanize the enemy, and you have this anime, a steaming pile of poorly written jank.

overall, trying to stuff a bunch of romantic cliches into an already milked-dry and dead cow is not going to yield delicious milk, and this anime is the poster child for that fear. apparently someone thought that they could teach us a lesson that things are not like the movies, but in overusing tons of ideas from previous shows, they cause this one to just flop right on its face, effectively eliminating the hour and a half worth of enjoyment you may get from it.


on a positive note though, the art was pretty nice.

Overall: 6/10

mdz said:
Mixed thoughts on this series. It's cliche, but it pulled it off well, it wasn't irritating. Nothing exactly came as a surprise, but it was eye-candy nonetheless. The fights were cool, and it was animated really well by Madhouse. The characters weren't the most developed or creative, they could fit any given archetype, but it didn't subtract much from the enjoyment of the movie.

mwalimu said:
That said, I had several problems with the story. Charles and the decoy pilots are seen discussing their top secret mission in a pub, quite recklessly and in a fashion which would be a serious violation in any real military force. We are never told what the outcome of that decoy mission is, nor how the top secret flight was leaked to the enemy; Charles and Juana discuss and speculate on these things, but I had expected these things to be revealed in time and they never were.

And then there's the ending. I concur with everyone who thought the ending was lame and unsatisfying. Juana and Charles never see each other again and their whole outcome is relegated to a few onscreen sentences. There was no real "Act 3" to speak of once Juana was transferred to the battleship. I liked that Charles did a fly-by, but the gold dust shower was hard to swallow (I presume that was only a fraction of it and he kept enough to retire comfortably as he had planned).

During the film I had predicted incorrectly how it would end. They would discover they had been set up and weren't expected to succeed. Perhaps Charles's superiors couldn't handle that their best pilot was a merc bestado, while Carlo (Juana's fiancee) found someone else and needed a convenient way to get Juana out of the picture. That nothing anywhere near that interesting or surprising came about was a disappointment.