steccolandia

I can understand the hype about this anime, but as it happens most of the times, reviewers can't write an objective review, so giving unrealistic evaluations (9 or 10? this isn't spirited away).

This anime shows from the very beginning a stunning art work, that is portrait until the end. The musics are beautiful and the story intriguing. It tells the adventure of a young girl into an unknown world following in search of her lost mother. To do so, the writer created a detailed and immersive world, that is somehow coherent and stimulates your interest. But as I hinted, there is just too much material for a 13 episodes anime. You begin to realize that around the middle of the series, when you notice that the two main characters are still struggling through the beginning of their journey. I think it takes three entire episodes before they depart for the adventure, wasting 1/4th of the anime just talking about characters that we'll never see again nor we need. What's more, toward the end instead of making progress through the story they kept adding so many unnecessary side quests and backstories that we don't need and care of (literally the last episode is a side story). As result, the anime is incomplete, there is the hint of a sequel but in these 13 episodes nothing is concluded, it is just like reading a book and stop at the middle.

To sum up, this anime start off great but becomes pointless. It could have been a great anime if only they waited a bit more and made a 25 episode COMPLETE anime. A good advice is to watch this only when (and if) a second season is released, or you'll have only empty promises and waste your time

This anime tells the story of a young man that comes to the capital to make money and save his village, but instead joins a group of rebels that want to overthrow the government because it is too much corrupted. The story goes around this group of people, their training and their missions, and it doesn't deeply describes the society, nor the setting, which are interesting. You just need to know that the society is corrupted and the rich take everything they want from the poor. It does a great job visually, and the music is also well suited, and it is perfect for those who seek an anime with adventure, fights, a tiny bit or romance and a slightly dark athmosphere. The characters aren't deep but they are all different, and their backstory is explained, making it easier to become affectionate to them. As I mentioned, the atmosphere is dark, but it has some funny moments (perhaps too many). One of the things I liked the most was the fact that it isn't obvious whether a main character will die or survive, which makes the story less obvious. On the other hand, the sadness caused from the death of a main character is soon replaced by a sense of anger, because too many of them die, and you end up wondering whether it was necessary for the plot or just a cheap way to make you feel bad for the others. Nevertheless, when I think about it I still have sad/bitter feelings for some events that happened to some characters, and these after-feelings aren't often found in an anime.

Some things could have been done much better, like spending more time in developing some characters or making sure to describe the setting more deeply, and it I didn't like the fact that when someone dies, in the next episode they're almost forgotten and only mentioned casually when needed for the story. In the end the only problem with this anime is that it is a bit shallow, and it could have been really great if only it was spent some more time in the writing.

I recommend watching it because it does its job of carrying you away in a different world and making you live, for a little while, the lives of these people, in a world far away and far easier than ours. For this I give it an 8/10, that could have easily been a 9 or even 10 for the reasons just mentioned.