It started with great potential. I hoped it would perhaps become a historico-political steampunk classic, albeit with slightly weaker art. Instead, the abstract mental struggles of the individual seemed to subsume all other themes with the loss of many key overarching elements that I would have liked to see this anime develop.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the telling of individual stories as part of greater struggles. The problem, however, arises in the vagueness of individual struggles and motivations of the characters. I appreciate that any historico-political anime must tell the struggle of individuals (or groups of individuals). But while this anime tries to delve into these individual struggles, there is no coherence to these struggles and little is said regarding their motivations, other than vague love side-plots, comradeship, and a nebulous sense of duty.
This anime harks back to those frontier wars during the age of imperialism – far enough from the cores of power to be invisible, but not far enough for ordinary men to be sent to die. Like such stories, I feel this anime is not meant to make much sense; rather, it is a throwback of sorts, to the steampunk nostalgia of Last Exile and Laputa, even though it unfortunately pales in comparison.
