Oh, man, Now and Then, Here and Now definitely isn't that.
The show has garnered a reputation for being grim, and it's definitely deserved. Our protagonist, Shu, seems like typical shounen fare - a brash, headstrong young boy who believes the best about everyone and stands up for what he believes. Things are very quickly twisted, however, when he's whisked away to a hellish desert world (or, perhaps, Earth long, long in the future), where a tyrannical warlord uses his army of soldiers (many of whom are children) to exterminate all who would oppose him. We watch young children be beaten, tortured, raped, and murdered. It's grim, heavy stuff, but it creates an interesting challenge for our young hero - Can he cling to his ideals in such a place? And can he somehow convince the people around him to change their ways?
Now and Then, Here and Now wastes little time with its 13 episode run. Its characters are strong, if archetypal, and the plot unfolds at a brisk pace. For all the cruelties and suffering our characters undergo, Shu's optimism and idealism serve as a strong counterbalance, and makes the series' finale feel so, so earned.
I love so much about this show, and I really wish I could heap more praises upon it - but then we come to the villain. The evil King Hamdo is so ridiculously, ludicrously, impossibly manic from the first second that it's difficult to take him seriously at all, let alone believe that he has somehow maintained any position of power. The seiyuu certainly goes all out with the Doug Walker-esque shrieking and the screaming, but when you start at "batshit raving looney" it doesn't give you anywhere to go; I'll be charitable and chalk this up as a failure in the writing or in the directing. I found every scene with King Hamdo to be grating beyond measure, and unfortunately there's a lot of them.
The actual method of isekai (a teleporter device controlled by King Hamdo's faction) is also very transparently a convenience to force the plot to happen and nothing more. You would think a device that lets you go to other worlds/places in time would be incredibly useful for a resource-strapped army that can barely scrounge up enough soldiers, let alone water or food, but somehow it just apparently never comes to mind. It's also noteworthy that Shu never once seems to vocalize any interest in going back where he came from, despite the day-to-day agony he's supposed to endure. Again, you'd expect the thought to occur, but it just never does. I wonder if the writer dreamed up the setting first, and only later introduced the "modern kid in a fantastical setting" plot element as a means of introducing and exploring that setting.
Despite those flaws, there's so much to like about Now and Then, Here and Now; I might even go so far as to say it's got soul. If you're tired of most of the anime that's shoveled out today, I'd definitely recommend giving something a little bit older a try. There's a world beyond seasonal anime (another world, you could say), and it's well worth exploring.
