Now and Then, Here and There (anime): First Impressions

This encompasses up to episode three or four of this series.

Let me just go ahead and give you an idea of where I'm coming from in this review. I picked up the boxset from a used bookstore, and this is the cover:

You get the idea, it's a cool, gritty, apocalyptic-y cover. Cool art style. Weird, overly wordy title. Everything points to an intriguing series! But then you put in the disc, and the art style looks like this:

Wha-huh? Weird. Weird weird weird.

However, I try not to be a style snob. (I'm totally a style snob though) I decided to give this series a chance. Based on the style, I was expecting a light, somewhat childish series. Little did I know what was in store for me.

This series is BRUTAL. The whole of episode of 3 is the main character being tortured, beaten, strung up to die, and picked at by a crow. It's got child soldiers and moral quandaries. This is not kid's stuff. I'm not sure who this is for, actually. It's actually a little on the brutal side even for me...I don't like seeing girls get beat up (happens a lot).

Alongside some confusing political intrigue, with the MOST ABHORRENT CHARACTER EVER CREATED, King Hamdo, there's also a full scale war going on.

I actually don't have too much to say on the story, because it's kind of confusing up to this point. They're actually on some sort of other planet/dystopia/other dimension/future earth. It's one of those, I think the translation was not particularly good and a bit of lingual finesse was lost. There's also the factor of the English voice actors being a little annoying. Not real real bad but annoying enough to take away from it a little bit. There's a lot wrong with the series, but in general it is pretty well done for a slightly aged series.


I mean, I haven't turned it off yet. ;)