*Oh*, DayBreak Illusion, you poor, poor, poor, soul. Why did it have to turn out like this?
Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is the prime example of how not to do a dark magical girl anime- No scratch that. Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is the prime example of how not to do anime collectively. It's not absolutely dreadful, but it should have never turned out how it is.
The anime has a collection of six actually good episodes, where there's emotions and development that seem realistic. And then there's the rest of the anime, which is unable to decide what it wants to do with itself as it hoplessly meanders through the plot, trying to grab as many plot points and characters as it can but only getting the most minimal grasp. That's not even mentioning all the down to earth, heavy, real-life topics featured here, like pedophilia, rape, possibly off-screen sibling complexes and the idea of sacrificing one for the good of many.
Except none of those - sans the last- are done as a problem in the narrative. Instead they're plot points that are addressed as some kind of twisted romance between the characters- Actively sexualizing and objectifying twelve year olds for the sake of what is played as making the antagonist seem disgusting, but is really just gross fanservice.
The sound design is okay, but the only things that are really memorable are the OP, Traumerei and the ED, Mirage. The only really memorable voice acting comes from Seira's seiyuu, who seems to have a penchant for blue haired magical girls. The art can be really nice, especially in the Opening, where the animation is truly at it's best, along with Episode 8, which probably does the best job of all the episodes. In a thirteen episode show, mind you. The story started out nicely, and the concept really could have gone somewhere, but then they decided they wanted to be the new Madoka Magica and it all went down hill from there.
I personally really enjoyed watching the show, whenever I didn't question anything and pretended there wasn't as much fanservice as there was. All in all, DayBreak Illusion was okay at best and really awful at worst. It's actually worth the watch- if you have absolutely nothing better to spend your time on, and chances are, you probably do. It's not nearly the worst but when it comes to choices, your time is better spent elsewhere.
