The director for the series is Junichi Fujisaku, whom wrote a for xxxHolic, Tsubasa, and even tried his hand at a Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex episode. That last one is especially notable being that 1) it was the second episode of the series, and 2) it wasn't all that good as a GitS episode. What could have been in that respect is thankfully never brought over to this series. Unfortunately, my limited experience with Junichi's work hampers my ability to properly evaluate the series and his influence, so don't expect it to be talked about beyond this.
I'm not opposed to strong, female leads in any medium. The entire cast are well-written and behave as you would expect, which is to say that they're about as "real" as anyone can get in this series. Saya starts off naive and unsure about things, but transitions into a brave, lone-wolf type before the end. When she finally re-joins the good guys, it becomes clear that her motivation is purely selfish, even if it's for a good reason. Her support, unfortunately, is such a creepy, unhelpful twat that you end up wondering why he exists.
Kai (Saya's not-blood-related brother, because incest isn't incest when we're not related, right?) serves as one-half "brave onii-chan" and one-half brother-with-fixation-on-sister. While I want to ride the "creepy brother is creepy" train, his character isn't just driven by the mad boner he has for Saya. He starts off as a truly loving, caring brother who wants to look after his family and, failing that, vows to at least save the remaining family he possesses. The character is a well-blended mix of powerful motivation and what happens when a regular person is pushed into a situation he wasn't built for.
I could go on about the characters, but you want to know the goodies. The sound is good and all of Diva's singing scenes are well-done, if only because they need to be. The OST are a decent blend and fit the scenes, though I can recall maybe once or twice their use being a bit much. In terms of animation, Chizu Hashii helms the series. I couldn't find much on the individual, but from what the series offered, I'm somewhere between unsure and moderately interested in their other works.
What the series suffers from isn't anything obvious at first. The story is decent if generic and while the characters and their motivations make sense, there are times when a simple sit-down and hash things out approach would make more sense. Saya's motivations are purely selfish and while they are good, it comes off as her not really listening to what everyone else is saying. Kai is also a bit pushy and rather possessive and while Haji works as a butler, his fixation and lack of DOING ANYTHING makes him feel like a convenient tool to push Saya into the next subplot.
There are a few subplots at work, too. The overarching plot is often shoved aside and it feels like the director wasn't sure he wanted to carry on with the main plot at times. I enjoyed the subplots more than the overarching one and want to see these characters in their own series. Unfortunately, the series also suffers from "kill everyone who isn't a main character" syndrome and does so without so much as properly building them up.
It's an overall decent series, but suffers from its shortcomings in the long-run. Check it out if you're even halfway tempted, but otherwise miss it.
