Pandora Hearts. Once upon a time a series that I worshipped and groveled at, simply because I loved the manga ( and Yuki Kajiura's sick OSTS am I right? ) so much that I would fight tooth and nail to defend the anime despite it's flaws. Anyway. Now that I'm older and rewatched the anime as well as having several original series as well as better adaptations to compare it to, I can fairly say that the Pandora Hearts anime is good for what it is...but it could have been so much better.
This is one of the several series that got the short end of
...
the stick when an anime studio decided to pick it up when the manga wasn't even halfway finished being published. And due to the lack of material ( and lackluster inconclusive filler ending ) fell flat on it's face after the studio decided it didn't need a proper ending, which probably gained it a lot of backlash, as well as having it sort of disappear, forgotten and buried underneath other more successful series.
At Oz's coming-of-age ceremony he gets dropped into the Abyss after being told his "sin is his very existence." This "Abyss" is a big black hole filled with water, chains, and weird macabre shit out of Alice in Wonderland. There he meets Alice. Alice is a chain, or a creature born from the Abyss who wields weird supernatural powers. Unlike other chains however, Alice takes on a human form. Alice helps Oz escape the Abyss and they join an organization called Pandora which researches the Abyss.
The story is about three main people. Oz, Alice, and Gilbert. Oz is a happy-go-lucky but sadistic little shit who can't stay out of trouble and also has to flirt with every girl he meets because he thinks he's hot shit. Alice is feisty, excitable, not super bright, and has a fatal attraction to anything made of meat. And Gilbert is Oz's servant( but is treated more like a friend ) since childhood who tries to act tough and cool but is actually a totally incompetent but lovable wimp. Both Gil and Alice don't have any memories of their childhood and they go on a journey to both find the lost memories and figure out what Oz's "sin" is.
The anime starts out a bit slow ( the introductory arc is 5 episodes long and could have been shorter if they'd cut out some original content that was mainly added in for spooks and additional conflict ). But I digress, the series is slow-paced in general so that's also just a part of the narrative and the way that the story builds up to get to the interesting stuff. The beginning of the story still could use better pacing though. It's necessary in order to get to know the characters and understand the world they're a part of, but the slow pace could definitely be a turn-off for some people. Unfortunately that pace stays slow for a majority of the series and doesn't start to pick up more until halfway through the anime.
A majority of the screentime is dedicated to world-building and fleshing out the characters, which is always a good thing. But the first half of the series focuses more on getting to know the world than advancing the plot. The plot is still there, but if you aren't familiar with the story then it might just look like they're introducing a new villain every few episodes without actually getting anywhere storywise ( which to be fair, a lot of action-based shounen are guilty of ). But this story is less about the action and more about the feelings and how every little event effects the characters one way or another.
If you aren't into emotional stuff or messages about companionship then this one might not be for you. Another thing, all relations in this series are platonic ( sans manga we aren't discussing that right now ) So if you're looking for romance look elsewhere. All of the characters have at least a bit of depth to them and this can be seen through flashbacks as well as the way they act around each other. Oz gets the most development in the anime, which makes sense because he's the main character, but every other main character is shown to have a full range of emotions as well, which is something we don't see in anime every day.
The art tries to emulate the style of the manga while still maintaining it's own distinctive look. And the art on it's own is alright if you're looking at a still frame perhaps. The animation itself is pretty wonky though. There's one specific moment in one of the episodes where the wind blows through Oz's hair and there's like no outline on any part of his moving hair and it's just super sloppy and looks horrid every time I see it. That one scene of animation alone pretty much describes my thoughts on that.
The voice-acting and music are a couple of things I can praise. Each of the voice actors put a lot of effort into their roles and you could tell that they really tried to make these characters come to life. And the soundtrack is just. Love. You can praise the Madoka soundtrack all you want, but the Pandora Hearts OST is where Yuki Kajiura's work truly shines. And even if you aren't interested in watching/reading the series I'd still tell you to go listen to the soundtrack just because of how beautiful it sounds. Some of my favorite tracks are "Crush" which is used often as a sort of bg "theme song", and "Cradle" which is used during heartwarming emotional moments.
Overall, the Pandora Hearts anime is...alright. It's good. It's certainly not as terrible as some people make it out to be. The characters are good, the music is good, the story is good...until it suddenly diverges from the plot and tries to fabricate a really fake ending that doesn't even really make much sense within the story. Honestly even though it's not much of an ending I feel like the anime still could have ended better if it just ended after episode 22, without the need for the 3 filler episodes. It ends on a weird note after we hear one of the secondary main characters' backstories, but there's a message there. And even though it would be a weird note to end on, I still feel like it would have been a better ending than the one you can tell they just messily put together so that the anime had some sort of ending. So yeah...the Pandora Hearts anime is good. Just good. It has it's flaws, but it also has it's good points. It's not terrible. It's not amazing. And maybe it could be if it had a full adaptation, but until some magical studio comes by to make a remake of it, that's not going to happen.
To be fair, as a manga reader, the anime did a pretty good job at adapting the series up to the last three episodes. Aside from a few plot holes it actually follows the main story of the manga pretty well. The problem in itself isn't that the anime is a terrible adaptation. The real problem is that the anime studio couldn't wait until the series was finished to get their money-grabbing hands on it ( but that's a common thing in the anime industry nowadays isn't it? )
If you like the anime I would recommend the manga. If you don't like the anime I'd still recommend the manga. And you don't have to read it if you don't want to. But it does have a better ending than the anime and actually answers the questions that are left hanging in the air, if anyone needs something good to read and were disappointed by this adaptation.
Jul 7, 2019
Pandora Hearts
(Anime)
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Pandora Hearts. Once upon a time a series that I worshipped and groveled at, simply because I loved the manga ( and Yuki Kajiura's sick OSTS am I right? ) so much that I would fight tooth and nail to defend the anime despite it's flaws. Anyway. Now that I'm older and rewatched the anime as well as having several original series as well as better adaptations to compare it to, I can fairly say that the Pandora Hearts anime is good for what it is...but it could have been so much better.
This is one of the several series that got the short end of ... 
Dec 9, 2016
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira
(Anime)
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Kira is notoriously known as the most hideous thing to come out of the Higurashi franchise. However I feel the need to write this review since the top-rated negative reviews seem to be highly-misinformed on the history of how Studio Deen "created" this "abomination" which has spawned such negative reception since it first aired.
Batsukoishi-hen, the first arc introduced to us in the Kira ova was actually the first arc to appear in the Rei visual novel. Before it became a part of Rei it was originally written as an "epilogue" to Meakashi-hen( aka the Shion arc. ) but Ryukishi07 decided to add it ... |
