Fantastic Children

Gawyn

Magical Girl
Watched the first volume of this over the weekend and am interested to hear people's opinion of it.

It seems to be one of those stories that is forever skipping between a number of disparate, seemingly independant subplots that are ultimately destined to come together. It is not immediately apparent where the overall plot is heading or where it has come from, which seems emminently important but it has certainly intrigued me somewhat.
 
I'v been collecting the R1 Bandai releases, up to volume two atm, and I've found it to be very enoyable so far. It's the kind of series that pulls you in straight from the off, not just due to the ambiguous nature of the plot but also the exquisite visuals, which gives it a very classical feel.

I was quite surprised to see it was getting a UK release so soon after its US debut, but it's a fine addition to Beez's roster and one that I hope finds its way into many a UK anime fan's collection.
 
It's a great series, though a bit slow to start and the constant silence of Helga can be annoying (she snaps out of it soon though). I'm hesistant to say much because there are massive twists in store for you, but you're right when you say the lives of the characters eventually intertwine. It can get very tragic and sad, but inspiring and exciting too. Science fiction mixed with Greek tragedy.

Because of how it looks (very retro) and the fact it was pre-licenced by Bandai, FC missed out on a lot of hype but stick with it and I'm sure you'll be thoroughly impressed. ORIGA (Russian vocalist from Stand Alone Complex) singing the ED theme should be enough to persuade you! :)

Read some great episode-by-episode reviews here:

http://www.ass-no-ryu.com/animeblog/?cat=25&paged=5

EDIT: Furthermore, a lot of what happens is tied in with real human history.
 
I started watching it on fansub and now I'm buying the R1 DVD releases (up to volume 3 so far) and I really like the Ghibli-esque look of the characters and the slightly more serene feel of the storyline.
I have yet to see the ending, so I don't know how it pans out later on in the series, but I know I'm really enjoying it and I love the soundtrack (that OP theme is lovely ^_^).
I'm watching the dub which is strange, but very enjoyable; infact I haven't heard accents that strange since Strange Dawn!!
 
You're watching the dub? It was done by a Singapore company called Odex (releasing Monster with english subs :D) and is very bad in my opinion, the scene where the orphanage director is ment to get angry doesn't even sound upset to me :lol: and his "henchmem" sound like something from a 4Kids show.

My favourite thing about Fantastic Children is the alternate version of the OP song used in a later part of the series, still impossible to get the instrumental version of it anywhere but Japan (only on some pay download site that has it in some weird non-copyable format) :(
 
Its a fantastic underappreciated series. The story is an excellent one, the cast is fantastic, and its gripping from start to finish. It could give many series a few tips on how to do backstory effectively.

The character designs are retro, which for some may be offputting, but I found the designs grew on me after a while. There is a Ghibli feel to this series and I believe some Ghibli staff were involved.

On a more serious note, the production leaves a lot to be desired. WHile not bad, it is very low budget and shows up in the action and designs. Especially the mechanical designs really, 'easy to animate' seems to be the order of the day, which translates to 'no moving parts'.

What I found to be the most severe problem was the series ambivalence towards its protagonist. He is a pure virtuous hero, but very uninteresting, surrounded by a cast of very interesting characters. As a result its hard to engage with him. Only Miyazaki can make interesting pure-virtuous main characters, like Conan, Nausicaa, Pazu, Sheeta, Lana, and Ashitaka. This situation actually gets worse over time, the opportunity to integrate him into the story properly at a great-exposition-moment is actually squandered. At the end of the story he starts to feel like a secondary character - you should never demote your lead like that.

These are nitpicks, but I felt that the latter stopped this from being one of the greats. Its just a really good adventure anime instead. It did everything else so well - even down to really fleshing out secondary characters like Mulder & Skully, and the story itself is wonderfully imaginative and entertaining.
 
Necromancer said:
You're watching the dub? It was done by a Singapore company called Odex (releasing Monster with english subs :D) and is very bad in my opinion, the scene where the orphanage director is ment to get angry doesn't even sound upset to me :lol: and his "henchmem" sound like something from a 4Kids show.
I usually watch a dub if I saw the fansub - makes a change!
It's not THAT bad :lol:
 
Necromancer said:
My favourite thing about Fantastic Children is the alternate version of the OP song used in a later part of the series, still impossible to get the instrumental version of it anywhere but Japan (only on some pay download site that has it in some weird non-copyable format) :(

I have the whole FC OST, which includes this instrumental version of "Voyage". You're right, it's probably the best piece of music on the OST ;)
 
Paul said:
I have the whole FC OST, which includes this instrumental version of "Voyage". You're right, it's probably the best piece of music on the OST ;)

I was talking about Voyage...Meguru Toki no Naka de from the OP single, has the same lyrics as Voyage from what I can tell but has different backing music.
 
Back
Top