for the scant few who are unfamiliar with this magnificent piece of work, it's a piece of godliness from the divine beings that are GAINAX...those who did Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL...in other words, it's like FLCL (animation/music-wise), except more shounen and easier to understand (also, better characters and plot).
the plot is very structured...it reminds me a lot of harry potter, which IS SOMETHING. spirals, anti-spirals...the symbolism talks deeply about human nature, but at the same time is easy to understand and doesn't mess around with complicated and obscure wording (like some animes that try to sound mysterious but fail miserably). everything falls into place in the later half of the anime (they actually give justifications for the fights, unlike some animes), but at the same time you are not left confused in the first part. it truly is a well-thought plot.
the animation is amazing, very fluid and smooth and definitely doesn't have those awkward, stupid pause moments where either a pan-shot is going on for too long, or a character is just not moving and standing there emo-ly. in fact, each character's ALWAYS moving...they're all really active and stuff, which makes for a great-paced anime...AKA EPICNESS in its purest form...
Pace-wise, it's fast and furious and dramatic, but not so much that you're annoyed or confused or dizzied by it. once again, the animation is FLUID, which is VERY RARE in tv-animes (maybe occurs more often in anime movies, like miyazaki's movies, but almost never in tv anime because of budget shortages...) and everything looks really natural, unlike stiff, slow CG animes...
The art is amazing, with a lot of bold colors. the character have lots of emotions and are very flexible in terms of their expression, also, they have the ability to do this and remain sexy at the same time.
speaking of sexiness, the characters are all very very nice. most of them are dressed scantily (well, think of desert-bounty-hunter attire).. the main, named simon, is a small kid who may not look like much at first, but after the time skip becomes really really cool. kamina, the second main and simon's "big bro" is also really cool-looking. as for the women, yoko is just an assload of fanservice for the guys, but at the same time not annoying to girls because she actually has a brain and is useful. yoko is a shooter, which means she carries a big gun with her almost everywhere. she's brash, loud, but she doesn't blush when she doesn't need to. she's badass and hot...guys, what more can you ask for? the second main girl is nia, who basically is simon's love interest. she doesn't appear until much later in teh story, but suffice to say that she's the innocent, beautiful type. BUT once again she doesn't get on your nerves because she constantly believes in simon and is pretty damn strong on her own.
the only possible weakness for this anime is the music, but even then it surpasses most. the songs by shouko nakagawa don't sound like anything special, but the opening eventually grew on me (it could be the awesome graphics that went with it). the background music for this anime though is AMAZING, which is why sound earned a 9 even though i didn't like the openings and endings that much (they're still on my ipod though...haha). i LOVE "Libera Me from Hell"...it's such a fitting and great piece for the intense action scenes.
actually, you know what, im giving sound a 10 after all. i just love "libera me from hell" that much.
Story - 10
Art - 10
Sound - 10
Character -10
Enjoyment - 10
Overall - 100000000000000000000
