Here and There, Now and Then

[Dracos]

This is the tale of a young boy with a wood stick.  Who lives in a small house.   With a wood stick.  And who can get beaten really simply in Kendo.

Oh, and is a super powerful character who take on three robots with a stick before living hellish in a post-apocolyptical where everyone you ever loved is systematically killed in order to shove a moral down your throat at the end that life is good and should be cherished.  Oops, I spoiled it, damn, now you'll not have to bother watching the series.  No matter really though as this moral is revealed in around episode two and shoved hard at you the whole darn way through so it's not like it's going to be missed if you do watch it.

I should start from the beginning, no?  

Lala Ru.

This is a name that you will hear over and over again in this series.  It will be screamed by the hero.  It will be screamed by the villian.  Little babies will appear, look cute, and then suddenly scream out this name.  Basically about five percent of all dialogue in the entire show will consist of nothing more than saying "lala Ru".

This show will also continue on to kill everyone cool they introduce while reducing anyone 'bad' to nothing more than rabid dogs in terms of perception (largely rendering the moral context uninteresting).  It was a fair attempt, but was simply too heavy handed, often abandoning what could've made the characters deep in favor of just showing extra brutality.

And boy does that show have unnecessary amounts of that.  Rape, murder, explosives.  Boy, war is miserable...it's a pity it just goes so far that it becomes almost parody.

In conclusion, the anime isn't that bad, if you are looking for cheap sci-fi drama, but really it's not that exciting, the action scenes aren't that interesting at any point in it, the moral of it is heavy handed and the context is damaged heavily by the lack of depth in the villians.  The animation is done well and some of the general plotting is obviously well conceived, but it's clear that the directors talent lies far more in stuff like Jubei-chan than it does producing such a serious work.

Dracos
who hates blatant moral plays

[DB]

You know, every time I want to do a review of a newer series you do one and I feel inadequate ^_^

I'm inclined to agree overall with your assessment of this. It's too dark, dismal, and in your face. Although my major problem is with the head bad guy. There's a difference between being an insane mastermind, and just being insane, and he falls in the latter. Here's a leader that chews on the furniture and is lucky if he can find his way to the bathroom, yet is supposed to be in charge of his regime (yes, I know the chick general runs the day to day stuff, but anyone coming in any contact with General Droolbucket would realize he's not even remotely capable of leading a pack of cub scouts, let alone his own domain). There's no way the babbling twit would be in charge of anything at this point.

Actually, no, there are a series of other logic inconsitancies as well. They can observe and travel to other dimensions, but can't locate enough water to run things? You're doing something seriously ass backwards here. The whole Lala Ru thing, and a host of others. Like Drac said, they're trying to show abject misery everywhere but in a manner which isn't feasible. I can't suspened my disbelief long enough to stomach it.

I had to give this one 3 out of 10. The artwork was tolerable, and some of the characters were actually likeable, but it was too excessive and sensless when it wasn't trying to be.

[Dracos]

He's a rabid dog.  And when that villager became 'evil' he acted barely any better.  The fact is they reduced everyone who was 'bad' to basically farcical 2-d jokes.

Dracos