The show starts off in a whole mess of bing bang boom action proper of a Bones production, with what can only be described as a shitload of sci-fi fantasy mayhem. There are long-lost princesses, magically infused technologies, airship battle castles, marginalized ninja clans, and every deadly mythical creature you would never actually want to have the misfortune of running into (as much as you think you do).
Unicorns of your muthufuckin nightmares
The plot itself, after it is finally revealed out of the mists of overstimulated confusion, is simple enough. Chaika, a woefully inept amnesiatic daughter of the overthrown king, requires the help of two saboteurs to gather her father's remains in secret in order to bury them.
However crowded the list of anime tropes there is for this series, the story ties together different spheres of fantasy rather nicely. The plot becomes slightly more complex at a steady pace throughout the "WTF, there are dragons and tanks?!" labyrinth of spectacle.This helps the story keep from becoming too twisted in the first couple of episodes. The world is rounded out episode after episode in sparkly bursts of action alongside with a few necessary dialogues explaining the more intricate aspects of the magical, technological, and political systems. Once the plot twists come in full swing, you are more inclined to beg for the next episode than give up in disgusted confusion. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many viewers have run into with this show.
Dragoon jack in the box?! *shuts laptop*
The hodgepodge of Western sci-fi is much more overwhelming in the first running stretch, without a definable genre to shape the viewers' expectations. Unable to fully incorporate the audience's desire, the show can fall flat for many.
Once you get past that nagging need to categorize it, though, the series can show the extreme lengths it has gone for its production value. The character designs are vibrant and beautiful...
...as are all of the action scenes, towns, and creatures. The fighting is exciting, clean, and choreographed with interesting mobility throughout changing settings. Dialogue is quick with delightfully charming comedic timing. The plot is straight forward without being boring, and it's twists and turns are consistent.
My only real complaints have more to do with character choices themselves, as much as that's worth. Surely, these characteristics would have been conceptualized and realized by the original authors, and they may well work in a literary context, but on screen they feel... poorly executed.
Despite being a rather complex character with combat and wizardry skills, Chaika's clumsy and child-like nature is complemented by a unique form of speech: retard baby half-sentences.
It would be one thing if she were simply not endowed with the social experience to speak in complete sentences, but this girl has a full and extensive vocabulary, with plenty of encounters ranging from royal formality to the informal casual, and she still doesn't understand how to construct a full goddamn sentence.
Why? Why would you do this?
What the series makes up for in stunning imagery and well executed action sequences, it loses in what can't be helped: the original story and characters. The main hero is boring and unwilling, as heroic and noble as he is.
Just look at that boring...
...smug...
...stupid...
...fucking face of his. What the shit. I can only suppose that it can't be helped; the animators and directors are stuck with the material they are given.
The story is also much more extensive than what they have time to reveal. This is only a review of the first season, 13 episodes in length. Once the next season starts (in September) perhaps the full depth and reach of this world will be more completely explored. So far, most of what we have been exposed to has been limited to the immediate need of a band of theives in search of rumors from some out-of-body creepazoid.
Yo.
