Animation: 80
A fun series
I'm writing this on December 7, 1998. Last viewing: 4 days ago
Dragons, big swords, a really nice primitive/high tech blend, a cat girl, a dash of mysticism: what's not to like?
I just finished watching the series. I was quite impressed. At the time of the last writing, I thought I had seen most of the series, but as it turns out, I had seen less than half. I liked it quite a bit.
Here's what I originally thought about the series, before I had seen the whole thing:
Nothing truly outstanding, but so far, it's been pretty strong all around. It's got a good, strong enemy, and some other assorted "bad guys" who fill the role pretty well. A few interesting heroes, and the necessary deaths of important friends. I guess if a show had to try to follow a formula to success, this would be it. Still, it's got a pretty fair bit of originality and the occasional scene of outstanding animation. Very solid, and a fun show. And, while it really hasn't gotten all that much better, it certainly hasn't gotten worse either. I look forward to seeing more, and perhaps it can move up in the ranks.
Well, it has indeed moved up. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the twists in the plot, and by the introduction of some fascinating new characters. The way they treat the general notions of fate, wishing, predicting the future, etc. meshes nicely with some of my own feelings. The plot moved along quite well, and all of the plot twists were well foreshadowed. This had the effect of making them somewhat less surprising, but it also reinforced the impression of a well thought out, coherent whole. The ending wasn't all I hoped it would be, but in many ways it was fitting.
The addition of new interesting characters and the satisfying development of the primary characters led to my raising its ranking in that category. The twists in the plot were thoroughly appropriate, and it got much more intertwined than I had expected. But my rankings put the animation high, but not outstanding. This was a tricky thing to rank, since I thoroughly enjoyed the smooth flowing animation of the fight scenes, the details of the various lanscapes of the many places they visited, etc. One thing I could not really get over: I don't really like the way the faces of the characters are structured. Just not like the styles I prefer. Others may prefer this style of face, but I often found the way the boundaries of the eyes, and the elongated noses to be distracting.
Overall, a series well worth watching. It managed to bring out in a visual medium something which I rarely find outside of novels: a coherent plot that develops along many different branches, before coming to a satisfactory conclusion. I hope that more of the extended series can live up to this standard.
