Leviathan

There was something of a show here. The revisions to history were alright, not the best. The animation is top notch, deep and beautiful. My biggest complaint and ultimately what stopped me from finishing the season were two things. First, the writing, just bad, the story is boring. It just meanders on its revised historical story with Darwin and mechs and ugh.. it just didn't hold up. Second and still with the writing, is their obsession with making Sharp say "barking" all the time, every sentence she say starts with "barking"! It made her time on screen just silly. Lots to pick apart on this one... barking stay away from it!

I actually feel bad for not giving a better rating for this series because it is technically flawless and it is clearly visible that the entire staff poured their heart and soul into it. The animation is great, the voice actors - in the English dubbing at least - are well-casted and the action scenes are great.

Basically, my concern about this series that it shouldn't have been an anime.

This pairing simply doesn't work. Keith Thompson's extremely atmospheric and unique illustrations replaced by some generic anime scenery just takes away something from the book trilogy's essence. You listen to the Scottish Deryn Sharp singing 'Anime Opening Song #536' in Japanese puts me out of the vibe.

I am really sorry for having to say all this, because the idea of spreading the popularity of Scott Westerfeld incredibly original and clever book series with an adaptation sounds good on paper... just not in this genre.

They reimagined the world war I with bio-engineered animals and some walkers, at-at style, plus other kinds of technology.

From the worldbuilding to the characters to the story itself, I really enjoyed the show.

I could get through even though the CGI is, at times, not so smooth; and I'm definitely not a fan of CGI, up to the point to skip a show if it has any, but everything else was so well created and tailored that it didn't bother me, much.

In any case, if you're a fan of sci-fi or alternative realities, give this a chance because I promise you it will deliver, if only due to the amount of imagination involved in its creation.

This is so typical for these anime stories; the most important persons are involved in war, but how much hurt do they really get? It says it all.

I get so tired of these "war stories" that don't really show any dangerous conflict they way it should be shown. This story could be about anything really. The reactions from the two most important people after a long involvement in war, is shrugging and making small surprised sounds? They look so cute both of them that one understand that their looks are more important than the story. Boooh! Boring. That is why, at the end of the series I don't really care for any of them.

The plot is very well produced, and the voice acting is excellent. The animation is spectacular, with talented characters. The character development was natural, not at all forced, and balanced. The work is excellent; there's nothing to complain about. The praise has been so good. I hope there's a second season and a third.