Animation
The animation isn't the best in the world, there's a lot of freeze-frame shots during the fight scenes and sometimes you have the characters making these jumpy, erratic movements when they walk, run or fight. Plus I spotted a few inconsistencies with the coloring as well as with some characters' wardrobes and even inconsistencies with the lengths of their hair. Do I care about all this? Am I that nit-picky? No, but it might bug other viewers so I'm stating it as a matter of fact.
Overall, to me at least, all those flaws and errors made the show more unique and somewhat valiant. Also all those little imperfections in the series help to create [however unintentionally] a kind of vintage feel to it all, like it was something out of the late 80's/early 90's.That's how I was able to cope with it anyway.......
SOUND
Both the OP and 1st ED Theme songs have this very 80's retro vibe to them. The OP especially sounded like one of those cheesy 80's soap opera theme songs. It's all kinds of dramatic and melancholy. And then there's the 2nd ED Theme was more of that forgettable 90's electro-synthesizer POP sound. Was this on purpose? Who knows....but it does kind of fit the overall feel of the series since it did kind of look a lot older than it actually is.
ANIMATION
I think the most important thing to keep in mind when watching this series is that this is really a love story, even though there are tons of action scenes with lots of gunfire, explosions and bloodshed. That somehow even with all the dual personalities, back-stabbing and betrayals worthy of most soap operas, the plotline still remains incredibly basic which is that everyone wants or is somehow connected to the Aya/Ceres character.
At first while watching episode 1, I thought “GAH! What a yucky cheese-fest!” but as soon as they get to Grampa's house for their birthday “celebration” things got pretty good pretty fast.....and that's what make this show a good show to watch! It's not just a cheesy soap opera in anime form nor does it adhere to just one type of basic shtick. This series has a whole bunch of stuff to offer, of course it has the more obvious romance and drama elements, but there are tons of gritty, bloody fight scenes, suspense, shocking revelations and freaky plot twists. Though sometimes I do think they get carried away in some scenes, like for example, which government is going to allow some agency [multi-conglomerate, big business, mafioso or otherwise] to fly a helicopter around the city armed with live ammo and missiles to go around chasing civilian cars and blowing up the highway in the process?
But even with those incredulous moments, I still must say it was a very good story that will shock you and leave you questioning, “how will it all end?”
CHARACTERS
Though Mysterious Ceres isn't considered a 'bishonen' anime exclusively, in my book, it still falls in that category since it's jam packed with lots and lots of extremely good-looking, if not somewhat effeminate, pretty boys! I'm not opposed to bishounen animes...in fact, the more the merrier I say. However I do think these guys kind of looked too similar. Only their hair and eyes were colored differently but they were basically from the same mold as if they were the products of mass production not unlike a certain factory line of Ken dolls. Speaking of mass production, Ceres' face seemed to be the main template being used when drawing women's faces, tho it was rather ingeniously explained away in the story as simply being a coincidental phenomenon thru genetic heredity.
Personality-wise, the main thing I noticed was that the dudes seem to do way more crying than the girls and while it's nice to see a little male sympathy & compassion, they did seem to go a teensy bit overboard with all that bawling, but it's to be expected sometimes with female oriented shows where the girls are empowered in all sorts of ways while the guys are considerably much weaker and also much more emotional.
Also I thought that the Mikage family at times seem a bit too overwrought with all this drama with people dying all over the place it was like something out of one of those ancient Greek tragedies. Every time you met a 'family' member they had a tale of death and personal tragedy to tell, it made you wonder if anyone had a happy childhood or even a happy adulthood for that matter.
ENJOYMENT
All in all this was a pretty good series and despite it's shortcomings art-wise and music-wise, it was still a pretty compelling story that was told in a way that's enjoyable and pretty easy to follow. It's the kind of story that will get a reaction out of you. I found myself saying “Daaaaaaaamn!” out loud lots of times and there are many episodes that will end leaving you wide-eyed with shock and racing with anticipation to see what happens next in the following episode.
It's a show, I would definitely recommend to those interested in this type of show or is a fan of shows with lots of bishounen
