Unlike most anime based off manga written by professional mangaka or popular writers and their light novels,
Kemono no Sōja is a novel tetralogy written by Nahoko Uehashi, an Ethnologist, writer and a professor of ethnology.
And that really shows throughout this work.
She was also the latest recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award (aka the Nobel Prize for Children's literature).
And as such the story and the character development was downright phenomenal.
The studio also does a really great job giving the anime an unique, artistic fairytale-storybook-like feel to the show.
It does feel a bit slow at times but I wouldn't want it any other way.
The show can easily be put off as just another children's series, and it might very well be. But the depth of the series and the themes it explores set it far above most other series of the same genre. Allowing the series provide plenty of enjoyment, as well as sentiments of all sorts for viewers of all ages.
This is a series that I will definitely read if it ever get's published in English or when my Japanese get's good enough, whichever comes sooner. Probably even both.
I look forward to watching/reading more of Uehashi sensei's works.
