I’m really torn when writing this review. I feel like this anime could be absolutely amazing, because it is, and yet it isn’t. For starters it needs to have about 50 more episodes. I feel like the creators intended a very long series and had to wrap everything up very quickly.
Story 6/10
The story is pretty interesting and has a lot of potential; however there were just too many plot lines brought up and left hanging. There are concepts that are simply short-lived and there are incidents that happen on the basis that it will be explained later…but they never get around to it. The whole idea of this badass kid trying to fit in like a normal person and not being able to because he’s so badass is just great. But there are about fifty other things going on that tend to take away from the “main plot”. Like I said before, if the series had more episodes and could be spread out a little more, than I don’t think this would be a problem. The setting of a dying world with moving cities run by electronic fairies is pretty neat, but there again is a whole story (especially the Haikizoku) that is never really clearly explained or resolved. You’ve also got the 11/12 Heaven’s Blade receivers that are never really introduced, the whole story going on with the queen and Leerin, the whole story with Leerin and Layfon, the inter-platoon relations, Layfon’s past, Nina’s past, Layfon’s many relationships with many young women, Nina and Dick and Saya, the Psyharden, oh and the ongoing search for Selenium which again is kind of a fuzzy topic. Plus, you never really get an explanation for the black and white, semi-TV show/might be another world story with absolutely awful English that interrupts the show every episode.
Animation 8.5/10
The animation is pretty sweet. The fight scenes with kei and dites are really fun to watch and I really enjoyed the animation for using kei by itself to increase speed, throw up a shield etc… There were a few scenes with simple face panning and then simple sword to sword meeting that dropped the rating of this category overall, but I did really enjoy most of the fight scenes.
Sound 8/10
I don’t usually pay much attention to sound quality and such, it’s only when a track annoys me that I tend to rate this category differently.
Characters 9/10
I rated this category pretty high but for a just reason, most of the characters are pretty great. Layfon alone could run the show for me. He’s goofy and awkward and turns into a ridiculous fighting machine. However, you never can really gauge the power level of Filth Monsters from Layfon. One minute he’s cutting through hundreds of them and the other minute he’s taking days to defeat one. I realize there are different stages and such, but I also feel like maybe that classification got thrown out towards the end when they are trying to wrap everything up. But that aside, Layfon was a pretty legit main character and it made me sad to see how awesome he could be (in the last episode) and know that I wouldn’t get to see anymore. Nina was kind of a downer to me, but she never really annoyed me or anything. Her fighting style is pretty cool and her whole story with the fairies and such could have been a neat side plot…if it had had some explanation and well, ya know story to it. Felli was another favorite. Her powers and attitude towards Layfon made her a very likeable character. The other platoon members and students were also, for the most part, pretty interesting. You only get a few episodes with the big guns from Grendan, which was upsetting because some of them looked pretty friggin sweet.
Overall 7/10
A little above average is the perfect way to describe the series as a whole unfortunately. Like I said before, so much potential! Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely worth watching but just don’t expect any closure of any form. I’m hoping that the series will get picked back up again someday and someone can help it reclaim its full potential.
Another time, another review.
Vague.Tana 