Story starts out slow and feels like a bunch of vanilla characters living in happy happy land.
Harshness of war is revealed, tragedies happen, pop-idol princess is forced to grow up, the story gets good.
While seemingly shallow at first, this anime gets really deep into the internal conflicts that arise within soldiers in a war-thorn situation. It asks questions such as what is "right"? and what is "wrong"? As the characters from both sides of the war are developed, you can't help but take a liking for characters of both sides. What once seemed like the enemy has been humanized by showing that the "bad guys" are also capable of being good people.
The anime makes good use of occasional comedy and slice of life moments to lift the tension of war and build the characters' relationship with each other.
One of my favorite things is how the anime delves in the backstory of the characters which reveals another dimension, making the characters fuller and relatable.
While some characters might come across as annoying or dull in the first 2-3 episodes, the anime does a good job on slowly building on them. The once annoying pop idol princess starts to take her role as a princess seriously and as her backstory is revealed, you can't help but want to cheer her on.
OP theme is awesome (majiko sings in it!)
