Older Children (May contain mild bad language, bloodless violence)
Vintage:
July 15, 2008
Status:
Completed
Summary:
Enter Sentan, a lush, tranquil island encased in war between the military and those with Hiruko, known as X'amd. On one of these warlike days, Akiyuki Takehara heads off to school and gets caught in a raid by the creatures. Through a series of events he is transformed into a X'amd, and with the help of a Tessikan woman Nakiami along with his highschool friend Haru, Akiyuki is forced to learn to live with the Hiruko or faces the danger of losing his self-control and turn to stone.
We just finished this series last night so I wanted to write up a review while it's still fresh...
From the first episode, I could tell this was a quality release. The animation, soundtrack, dialogue: they're all well constructed and well thought out. Something about the series made me *want* to like it even if it turned out poorly. Fortunately I can say it didn't.
The series is quite unique from my experience. The world that we're shown is different than any other I've seen in an anime and at times seemed quite complex. The story moves slowly but surely toward conclusion and although there are conflicts and battles, it is the emotions of the characters that pull you forward. Each episode was well-crafted and reveals just a piece of the story, enough to make you want to watch 'just one more'. I didn't feel like it contained any filler episodes whatsoever. For me this is a huge plus as the storyline, by the conclusion, felt well-rounded and complete, if somewhat abrupt toward the ending...
The abruptness of the ending would be about the only negative aspect of this anime. Although I felt like the various character's storylines as well as the primary story itself were wrapped up neatly, it was a little difficult to understand some details in the final episodes and the ending itself, while bittersweet (in a good way), felt like it could have used a little more 'fleshing out'.
Overall, this was an excellent anime and will be a permanent addition to my library. The quality of this release is just far too good to pass up. I'm not a huge fan of the bittersweet endings of some anime but the conclusion was positive enough that it left a happy, if somewhat painful, feeling in my heart at the end.
BTW: I watched a dual-audio version (not available currently from this site) and can say that the Japanese VA was much better. The subs of the version I saw were from the blu-ray rip and were very well done.
