L/R - 6/10
This series tried so hard to be smart and cool, yet only managed to be confusing and mildly entertaining. The pacing was off right from the word go because it opened with a bland episode involving the spy duo stopping an old man selling a fake item connected to the the royal family, the reason being to avoid bringing shame on the royalty of Ishtar - a country modeled on the UK, the exciting country where every spy lives, as all James Bond fans know. Not exactly the best way to kick-off what I had expected to be a flashy and fun little series.
The people in charge really did think they were making something stylish. An example is that whenever possible, one of the spy duo gets asked which of the two is L and which is R, and the question is always avoided. Who gives a damn? Why should the viewers care about the initial a pair of underdeveloped characters go by? Instead of throwing in lines like those, dialogue of significance should've been put in.
When the series wasn't focusing on episodic stuff of no importance whatsoever, the main plot was busy letting me down. It was never clear exactly what was going on because the episodes tended to start after the point where explanations should've been inserted, but the basic jist of it was this (spoilers): a 15 year old princess had lived her life not knowing about herself, she finds out, she reveals that her father (the prince) hadn't tried to kill his brother when she makes a speech to the public, she fakes her death under overly dramaric circumstances...and the series ended. It could've been decent but the confusion caused by the lack of explanations and the way the good guys fooled the public into thinking the baddies had tried to kill her (a mask) ruined it. Attempts and adding depth by making a simple story confusing never work out too well.
The worst part of the series? The lack of any character development. Near to nothing was revealed about the spy duo - not even one flashback was used to add depth. Plenty of time was wasted on pointless one-shot stories, yet no episodes could be spared for the unimportant business of getting viewers to care about the main characters. It was like watching Cowboy Bebop without understanding the reasoning behind Spike's almost arrogrant looking smile.
Overall, not a great series. It's something anime fans shouldn't go out of their way to watch. If you're looking for a series with lots of exciting action (not L/R) and SOME character development (not L/R), go for Black Lagoon instead. At least you'd have some hot pants and a tight arse to look at if you watched that instead!
NieA 7 - 8.5/10
A diamond in the rough. For a series with such a lowly average on MAL, it's surprisingly good. It's reminiscent of Haibane Renmei because of its slow, dialogue heavy and relaxing style.
After watching the first volume, I wasn't too taken with it. It started off reasonably well, showing the struggles of a very believable young woman, Mayuko, as she tries to survive with little money and, at the same time, studies to get into college. But my interest levels dropped as soon as it was revealed that an alien, NieA, lived in Mayuko's closet, eating some of her food and causing her trouble. My interest continued to decrease as more cartoony aliens got involved and the usual anime silliness ensued.
Why did this bother me, you ask? Because NieA 7 didn't need an alien living in a closet and attempting to build a UFO. The highly enjoyable and realistic slice of life elements were, from my perspective, getting damaged by the random slapstick comedy elements. I can see and fully understand one of the reasons for the involvement of carefree NieA - to show the contrast between stressed Mayuko, trying her best to survive, and NieA, an alien so carefree that she comes across as thoughtless - but I feel the main reason was to take the anime away from the realm of the real. The thinking probably was that most viewers want to use anime to escape, and that if the story was too realistic it would've taken away from the enjoyment. This sort of thing is viewed as a negative by me because I like to see some anime that contain believable stories.
The good news for people like me is that after the mixed opening volume the series started to focus more and more on realism and less on anime insanity. Rather than having a UFO blow a hole through the roof and the like for giggles, the second volume had an episode where an arcade gaming competition was used for laughs, involving the staff at the bathouse where Mayuko lives and works playing against a small army of kids. I found it funny because it wasn't over the top; because it tried to be real. In my the eyes, the best kind of comedy is the kind I can imagine happening in the land of the real - not just on some nutyy planet on the other side of the galaxy.
After the first volume, there were also a lot of episodes that focused on the serious sections of the story without resorting to slapstick humour in an attempt to brighten up the mood randomly. My favourite depressing episode is probably the one where Mayuko gets invited to a 'Go-Con' (basically random group dating) and eventually decides against going because she doesn't have any nice clothes to wear and can't afford to have her hair cut. Simple, I know, but the feelings and thoughts Mayuko had during that episode are the kind many people have over the course of their lives and it was effective on an emotional level because of that. Slice of life is at its best when it allows you to go into the shoes of the characters and feel how they feel, and Niea 7 achieves this on a number of occasions.
Really, the reason Niea 7 is so endearing is because the cast, aliens aside, come across as real people. Mayuko struggles to get by and lacks a goal to work towards; the owner of the bathouse attempts to handle two jobs in order to keep the bathouse running, despite it bringing her debt, because of her ties to the people who work there; Genzo, the shy guy with a crush on Mayuko because of her helping him when they were kids, tries to help Mayuko by bringing her rice, yet struggles to express his feelings for her...etc, etc. It's very easy to get into the heads of the cast and see things from their points if view, and that's what makes NieA 7 a fantastic series to spend time watching.
The message of NieA 7 is to live life to the full, instead of worrying about everything constantly. Life flies by very quickly and there's little joy to be had if everything is always too difficult. That's why Mayuko is envious of NieA for being so carefree, like nothing can bother her. As Mayuko lives with NieA, she understands how it feels to be 'free', and I'm sure the objective of the series when it was created was to make the viewers feel the same way as Mayuko.
Watching the series is a relaxing, occasionaly depressive and mostly fun ride - a journey worth the time of any bored anime fan looking to unearth a gem. Do I recommend the series? Providing you can handle lots of talking and little in the way of action, yes. It's a charming series that fans of Haibane Renmei and its ilk will lap up.
