This Ugly Yet Beautiful World

This anime sounded promising, the concept of an ugly yet beautiful world where life is cleansed and reborn every so often fascinated me. After a promising start however with a great opening battle with great action, the anime seems to have shifted gears and quickly became a ecchi / school-life, slice of life comedy. Then it sprinkled some "sad, but true" stories of the past. Let's start off with the good. The art is fairly decent. For the most part, colors are nice, and natural features such as the trees and character outlines are quite nice. Hikari's outfit in particular is great. Sound isn't reallynoticeable for me until near the climax, in most cases it was absent at all, which sometimes is a nice change of things. The humor and ecchi was entertaining, I found myself cracking up from time to time. The side characters do a surprisingly good job blending in, almost better than the main roles! My biggest irk with this series was the fact that it starts to become interesting right from the start. Then suddenly, it sidetracks into something different. Only near the end are we reminded of the first episode, and "Oh, by the way, the world is in trouble!" The idea behind evolution and fate is an interesting one, but it's a bit difficult to comprehend and follow. You are left with a lot more questions than answers. The producers kind of through you into it and expect you to eat it all up and nod your head. Some characters are decently developed, while others are flat and stale. Sure it was only 13 episodes, but I've seen animes do better with fewer episodes. I personally am not fond of the guy loves girl concept occurring after only the first episode. There are two sides to the story. Akari's side and Hikari's side. I found Akari's more interesting than Hikari, maybe because Ryo's personality was interesting and mysterious. Takeru on the other hand is a piece of work... The story was rushed and it feels as though we're sidetracked for six entire episodes before things start to get interesting. By then, it's too late to save the show and the ending is predictable. It will please some certainly and like other have said, you could watch the first two episodes and then skip to near the end and not lose site of anything. If you can look past the story and just take it rather lightly and enjoy the humor and cute girls, then you might be alright, but even that gets stale eventually. If I wanted to watch several episodes of filler, I'd watch something else. This anime tries to be too much - an action, school life, ecchi, and romance/drama. My advice is to give it a shot, and if you find yourself not being drawn in, then walk away. It wasn't a complete waste of time, but it fell far short of what I had been expecting it to be.

Konomini is sadly that one anime that always seems to be overlooked by bigger, more popular titles. It’s such a shame, because this series is a little jewel. There is something in this anime for everyone. Story: The only reason the story gets a 9 instead of a 10 is because this anime was so short. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy short animes. However, the basic concept had so much depth this series could've easily had 120 episodes instead of 12 without repeating itself at all. One thing this series can be described as is dynamic: shojo, shonen, slice of life and certain elements of thesupernatural are seamlessly interwoven from episode to episode. This change of pace helps keep things fresh. Art: Probably my favourite aspect of the art is Hikari and Akari’s designs. It’s hard to find cuter girls anywhere. It doesn’t stop there, however. If you are able to peel your eyes away from the pretty, pretty characters, you’ll see that the scenery is also rich and detailed, and the brief, but very epic action scenes will knock your breath out. The opening is really nice and the animation is smooth. Sound: What is guaranteed to capture everyone’s attention from the start is the opening theme, Metamorphose. It’s sung by Yoko Takahashi, the same singer who did Cruel Angel’s Thesis in NGE, and is probably the best opening music I have ever heard. With that said, it overshadows the ending theme a little bit, but both are really nice. Granted, the English dub could’ve been a lot better. Takeru and Ryon especially don’t always sound natural, but it’s not bad. Character: I dare you not to fall in love with Hikari or Akari. I DARE you. You will fail. As the series nears the conclusion you’ll find yourself caring about the characters a lot – and even sympathizing with some of the more annoying ones. (Cough – Mari, cough.) Not to mention, there is also a great variety of characters with different designs or personalities, so you can definitely find one to fall in love with. Enjoyment: I think this is probably one of the most entertaining animes I have ever seen. It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s got action, fanservice, relationships, you name it. Given that each episode gives off an almost completely different vibe it’s really hard to be bored or not amused by this at any given time. Overall It’s safe to say that if you like anime, period, you’ll like Konomini as well. If you’re looking for a short series to watch or are a fan of Gainax you should this a try – you won’t be disappointed.

Being a major fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I'm going to say this with some limitations in mind. I consider this series to be on par with NGE. Mind you I never thought I would ever make a statement quite like that, but that is why I try everything and anything when it comes to anime - more often than not it tends to catch me off guard when I least expect it. This series has an interesting concept, which unfolds itself after a decent bit of foreshadowing. The story itself has a somewhat predictable ending, in my opinion, but it finishes quite well. Art-wise, I think presentlythat most of the prolific stuff is coming out of Kyoto and Artland, with Melancholy/Luck Star and Mushishi, respectively. While it didn't blow me away it didn't take away from the series itself, which is the main reason I gave it the score I did. Music: Personally I think it has one of the best opening songs in quite a while, with the simple music carrying the words rather nicely. The insert music has a habit of blending in with the dialog, which is a plus in my book. At the end of the series I really cared about the characters - a lot. On top of that there was a lot more main characters involved, unlike NGE, but it did not get bogged down. Obviously I found it entertaining, but if I would really have to classify it it would be Evangelion's drama mixed with Furi Kuri's humor, then some relationships development tossed in for good measure. All the same it was balanced rather well. In general I would recommend this anime to pretty much anyone, especially someone just interested in the genre but not really well versed in it. Admittedly I was quite surprised to see that there were so few people that had actually listed it under their anime list, especially given that it is a GAINAX, and I think it is being overlooked by too many viewers.