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Simoun
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Animation - 7.7 |
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Sound - 8.1 |
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Story - 7.4 |
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Character - 8.1 |
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Value - 7.9 |
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Enjoyment - 8.0 |
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Average - 7.9 |
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| Average |
8.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Simoun has alot going at one time and is intresting enough to give a shot if you like romance and yuri. And there is action in here too.
The animation is solid but the music chosen for the series is top notch.
Like alot of anime's involving romance there are multiple characters who like one. But I don't feel the actual feeling of love wasn't conveyed very well.
Most of the characters are intresting when you get to know their personalities but character development takes a bit for a few characters.
I did enjoy this anime once I got into it. Give it a shot.
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| Average |
8.7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| This series originally caught my attention because I had heard about its premise, about children who must choose a gender themselves, but in order to do so they must give up their roles as high priestesses. It sounded like there was great potential for lots of character growth, so I decided to check it out. And "Simoun" did not disappoint.
This series has substantial depth. Starting around episode 13, it really starts making you think, begging questions about purpose, love, growing up, the nature of war, and of religion. All of these different themes come full-circle in this anime, and it is bound to leave a lot of questions in your mind by the end.
The real drive in this series, though, is character. The first half of the show is almost all about character set-up. And this is one series that certainly doesn't start and end with the same characters, because their inner growth is so substantial. You feel for all of them by the end. And although Neviril and Aaeru are technically the main characters, the other ten sybilla get just as much development, personality, and full-circle stories of their motivations and struggles with finding love and purpose. This leads to an anime that starts a bit slow as it sets up, but by the end you can't turn it off because you just have to know what happens to all the characters. Give it time, and you won't be disappointed.
The animation is a bit strange, mixing richly-detailed CGI ships with traditional character animation, and watercolor backgrounds. It is somewhat annoying at first, but it works. It really highlights the splendor of the Symoun aircrafts, and it loses its annoyance very quickly once you get sucked into the world with the characters. The same goes for the character design. In the beginning, you'll probably think that they look weird, almost like wax sculptures, but by the end you'll wonder what you were upset about.
Also, don't be put off by the yuri themes. It's extremely mild, and the relationships between sybilla really don't feel like yuri at all. There's basically nothing sexual about them. It's more about companionship and support, and actually feels beautifully like true love.
The beginning of the series is a bit slow, basically introducing the characters and establishing the core emotional conflicts. I did almost stop watching around episode 10, though, because for a couple episodes you feel like the characters and the plot have both stopped moving, but then around the midpoint of the show it started picking up again and by the end I couldn't turn it off. It took me four days to make it from episode 1 to episode 14, but then I finished episodes 15-26 in one sitting.
My only real complaint comes in the fore-mentioned episodes, 6-10. The plot and character weren't doing a whole lot in those episodes, and I really wished that the show had fleshed out nature of the global conflict or elaborated on some of the religious issues instead of focusing entirely on the sybilla during that time. This could have pushed it to the next level, and given the series more depth and meaning. It still had a lot, but the lack of exploring some of the war motives held it back a bit.
With that said, though, I think that the ending of this series is one of the best I have ever seen, but I will leave it at that. It's like the ending to a classic Hollywood movie, in contrast to the modern endings that just throw all the most difficult battles at you at once, and the main characters all join together to defeat them. It's not like that at all. It's a very real, and contemplative one. Some might not like it, but I absolutely loved it. It's not a solid block of sugar like the ending to "My-HiME" was.
So, although it wasn't quite perfect, it still managed to do a lot, and I really liked it. I wouldn't call it the "best" in anything, but it was great in almost every aspect. I can't really say anything bad about it. So although it's not quite top ten material IMO, it's still one hell of a great series.
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| At first this anime may come across as boring or strange but 2-3 episodes in you get totally hooked. A lot of characters are introduced at first but each one definitely get treatment, but not too much for you to get sick or bored. The story is always progressing. There are a few very minor inconsistency issues but nothing to fret about. This is probably one of the best anime I've seen. The ending is sort of upsetting and strange. Though in a way you knew it would end up being something like that. Not a terribly sad ending, mostly everyone is happy at the end. It is a happy ending....just a strange one.
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| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Simoun is a fantasy anime that will most certainly appeal to yuri lovers. A lot of girl love, emotions, an almost all-female cast and a "feminine" visual style for object and building designs make this series ooze with "yuriness".
However, the characters -while detailed, quite credible, lovable and paramount to the mood of the series- are not mainly what convinced me to spend hours with Simoun.
Unlike my rating would suggest, it was actually aspects of the story that captivated me (see details for caveats affecting the rating negatively).
The series regularly takes a deep plunge into a great many "human nature" topics, with a rarely encountered naturalness and non-obsessiveness both in terms of the character's involvement and narrative means.
For someone who likes yuri, interesting characters or soft science fiction / fantasy, this should be one of the best recent series.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
2.8 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
2 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| Simoun is an extremely poor anime that makes you really wonder what its creators are smoking. For those of you who have a fetish for watching poorly drawn anime "girls" make out and partake in a seemingly forced and unrealistic war by drawing pretty patterns in the sky, this anime is for you. As for everyone else, I urge you to stay far away.
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0 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
7.8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| There isn't any really great thing about this anime that makes it stand out. In fact, there are some stills and images where the animation differs, a loss of quality in my opinion. It's tough to integrate one art style into another, whether you want to slide in stills in a "Monet" kind of style, and then switch to a "Van Gogh".
There are little things here and there that can bother someone viewing this anime. It's probably not for everyone, and the character development is pretty slow. I also think it may start to get problematic since they are trying to build the story around so many characters. As of now, I have seen 7 episodes and I have to admit, I tremendously am enjoying the show.
There's nothing tremendous about Simoun, but I guess that's where the deception is. Though the story seems lacking, there is something there that intrigues me and I think there is a lot of potential. The anime feels realistic, as much as it can, as the girls do act both physically and mentally immature.
It's an intriguing anime so far. I only wish the animators had/will show more of the world of "Simoun".
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Soulshift |
(2006-10-18 22:06:56) 2006-04-27 18:04:24 |
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| Average |
9.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| I was somewhat turned off by the character designs and the somewhat yuri themes in this series, but after watching 4 eps it has proven itself to be above these issues.
The setting is unique and imaginative: The Simoun fighter, for example, has no weapons per se, it only does damage by tracing luminous lines in the air which results in "prayers" being created, some of which are quite destructive. The mechanical design is also unique and beautiful, and draws on the natural world for inspiration, to great effect.
Finally, the soundtrack for Simoun is excellent: orchestral pieces set the mood for this deep and thoughtful series.
[Update - Finished Series]
After finishing the series, I must say that this easily ranks as one of the top ten series I've ever watched - I have to say it's nearly perfect. Review scores have been updated to reflect this.
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