Born from a bunch of Satoshi Kon's shelved ideas, Mousou Dairinin explores an amazingly vast multitude of issues, everyday matters, and themes through a the medium of a singular clear motif. As such, it is not as clear and clean-cut as his other works, which follow one message. This creation explores ideas wherever it can, but it is all very masterfully and creatively tied together. It is, for lack of a better way of conveying the message, a Durarara!! of concepts. Excuse the profanity, but if I had to sum the series up in a phrase it would be: fucked up – in two senses. One applies to the realistic side to the show, the real world issues, which is always displayed in a uncompromising and graphic light, pulling the viewer out of their comfort zone. The other applies to the surrealistic tones of this show, shown artistically and feels like a trip, which become more and more prevalent and overbearing as the show progresses. The two collide at the end through the medium of symbolism to create a beautiful blend of contrasting ideas, two literary devices also frequent throughout the series.
Aside from all this, the execution is amazing. The art for both realistic and surrealistic parts bring out the best of the themes. The music is simply amazing, especially the ending song, a daunting lullaby theme which is the perfect music to stare, flabbergasted and distraught, at your screen to, as you will after each and every episode. The characters are interesting, and pretty much of icons of the story's messages.
This show is simply amazing. It is definitely not for everybody, but to the right crowd, it might be the most intense experience they could possibly have through 13 episodes of animation.
