Laughter, sadness, pain, anger, fear, and hatred. These are all the emotions that a typical human being should know to make someone truly humane. At first, a human is born in the form of a baby, crying is the first form of emotion they experience. Then later they experience all sorts of different emotions. To your eternity is exactly that except, the protagonist we'll be following is actually an orb. That's right, it's an "it'. That is, it doesn't experience any form of emotion but it does stimulates them to experience all sorts of different things an emotions.
To your eternity is a beautiful experience. One that you haven't experienced this type of enjoyment from any other anime. It starts off with the maker sending an orb to the Earth to preserve resources.
The orb first takes the form of non living things. Then a wolf passes by who is at death's door and "it" takes the form of the wolf. Yes, that's the first living being he has taken the form of. Babies in real life, first experience the emotion of "crying" but that's not the case for the orb. The first emotion he experienced was "pain" which he later overcomes it.
[Spoilers]
People refer to the first episode as the "Nameless boy" arc but it isn't because he doesn't have a name, it's just that there was no one out there to call out his name.The nameless boy's optimistic whom we first meet is so unreal that it's sad. He knows that his family is dead that is why he has drawn all the images of his family's faces on his wall or there would be no reason to. He knew he and his best friend Joan(the wolf) would die too that's why he also drew both of their faces. The boy basically went to an early suicide the moment he set foot to go to the so called "Paradise" but the thing is, outside of his Island, there is no such thing as "Paradise" which you'll see later why. He wants to meet new places and nice people but the boy is just being delusional because what's out there is just a cruel world. The part where he said "Remember me" gave me literal goosebumps and that was a powerful scene. The nameless boy then dies and the wolf then takes the form of the boy.
People will say it isn't right to take the form of the dead but I say that if he takes the form of the boy, he'll carry on the wish the boy had and that is, to meet new places and learn different things. Some may also say that the nameless boy deserved to know that Joan died but I say it is a small mercy bestowed upon him when all the suffering he has been through.
[No spoilers]
It then meets March who just wants to be a grown up. This is kind of like a first world wish at first glance compared to the nameless boy but then again, she is just a child who is innocent
I love the realism that is showed in this series. It shows that the author isn't afraid to show dark themes it has. This series gives you a gist of realism that the society was back in the past which I'm amazed because this is the think that today's battle shounen seem to lack of.
Gugu's arc is literally beautiful. His brother is a scumbag who leaves him in a middle of a crisis. He meets a girl whom he is in love with. Both wishes what each other wants. So you can say both of their wishes are connected in a certain way which makes this arc even more beautiful. You may find Reen super annoying but you'll most likely grow on her by the end.
The Soundtrack in this Anime is phenomenal. I get goosebumps everytime I listen to it. It feels like, the music is describing Fushi's entire journey. Literally the most unique soundtracks I've heard.
However, every show has it's faults and To your eternity is not an exception in this one.
The problem by which the show suffers from is the places where Fushi visits isn't connected by anyway. In other words, the arcs are disjointed, thereby not leading to an overarching grand finale. Even Assassination Classroom didn't had any overarching arc like To your eternity but at least it led to an overall grand finale but To your eternity is making it seem like, the story isn't going anywhere. Sometimes, an arc is episodic, sometimes an arc is like 4 episodes, sometimes an arc is about 12 episodes long. It doesn't know what it's trying to be.
Another problem where it suffers from is that, it's repetitive.
The only way Fushi develops is if someone dies and he uses those characters as a tool for him to survive. This is a huge pet peeve of mine if the author uses character death's as the only way for character development. In my opinion, that's called poor writing. Sometimes, I feel like the author is playing with our feelings it's like she doesn't care about our feelings at all.
The deaths in Jananda Island also felt meaningless and forced. There was literally no need for the characters to die as they contributed nothing to the plot. Maybe it will make Tonari independent but the end of that arc literally showed that the villagers will continue to support her so she's not all alone.
Even with it's faults, that does not make me to not like To your eternity. In fact, it was one of the most memorable and quite unique Anime I've ever watched. Fushi learns what it means to be a grown up when met March, he learned what it's like to have a family when he met Gugu and he learned what it's like to have friends when he met Tonari. He'll surely learn all kinds of emotions as the story progresses, but he'll never learn "something" which will make him truly human and that "something" is called Death
