She, the Ultimate Weapon (Saikano)

I watched the first 6 episodes a few months ago and I still haven't gotten around to finishing it. It's simply not very compelling, but when one does watch it, it's enjoyable (though there is a lot of crying)
 
Meh. I got up to episode 3 before I dropped it. I really did hate it. When they weren't crying, their cheeks were scribbled in with red. It's a generally boring anime and, in my opinion, is definitely not even worth the £10 >_<. Although, you may like it.
 
The concept is alright, nothing particularly intreaguing, but rather than use the concept to do a science fiction love story, it basically used the sci fi bit as nothing more than a simple plot device and went all for the love story. Hence, it feels padded even for 13 episodes, simply because love angst is not ever going to carry 13 episodes on its own.

I believe I said it before, but I felt the background was unbeleivably shallow for the concept. Indeed the one sentence concept is essencially all the background. Hence it felt superficial, no depth to speak of, no...nothing really for me. It had a handful of moments where I seemed it might take off, but they were few and far between for me.
 
I liked it just for what it was and being, well, different. But I do believe it tries a wee bit hard to make you cry/feel sad etc.

It's a sci-fi love story on the outside, but it doesn't really focus on any of the sci-fi elements as such. As Warmaster said, it's merely a plot device.
 
I enjoyed it, though that isn't the right word. It's worth watching, but maybe not buying. The Dub is appalling, the artwork put a lot of people off, however the central concept of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, repeat, world ends is nicely done and despite the Radio Head levels depression that over flows from the series it does end very well. Not Happily Ever After, but well.
 
The angst, dub and art were kinda annoying, but otherwise, it was half-decent. The concept would have been good if it hadn't been ruined by angst.

I got the boxset for £12.99 off Play.com, so it's not a big loss if you don't like it.
hopeful_monster said:
it does end very well. Not Happily Ever After, but well.
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I got an End of Evangelion vibe from the ending. Having the world being destroyed is lazy and a cop out since it wasn't inevitable.
 
Actually my mam picked this up randomly at a sale in HMV recently bless her^^(Knowing I love anime)

I havint even bothered with it yet, just too generic and unnapealling to me..........on a brighter note, she also picked me up the macross boxset, which I havint watched yet(broken DVD player) but Im quite looking forward to it.
 
I couldn't get my head around the concept that a meek schoolgirl was the world's ultimate weapon, especially considering that the anime is devoid of any other fantasy elements. I mean, it's so... ridiculous. What Warmaster said, really; it's nothing more than a plot device.

Then there's the crying. Saikano wasn't going to let me forget that I was supposed to feel upset, and after a while that relentless bombardment of tears and angst made me feel indifferent towards the plight of the characters.
 
I admit I only watched the first 6 eps but still I could never understand why she's called the ultimate weapon. She has wings and a mini-gun just like a fighter plane? How does that make her the ultimate weapon.
 
From what I recall - which isn't much as I have repressed most of the memories - Chise had considerable destructive power. And you must have missed the part where she fired the missles from under her skirt. Christ knows where she was hiding those :eek:
 
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The animation is a bit 'meh' but at times the innocent watercolour style to the art actually makes it more powerful - you have your bishoujo moeblobs but the subject matter is really quite mature and hard-hitting.

I can see why some people hate it (oh, the ANGST) but I was very deeply moved by it. The characterisation is superb and you actually get attached to the characters by the end. I don't know when I'd find it in me to watch it again though, because it's a very tragic story. I recall I bought the series/OAV box set for a knockdown price as well - I couldn't afford not to, really.
 
Martin said:
The animation is a bit 'meh' but at times the innocent watercolour style to the art actually makes it more powerful - you have your bishoujo moeblobs but the subject matter is really quite mature and hard-hitting.

I can see why some people hate it (oh, the ANGST) but I was very deeply moved by it. The characterisation is superb and you actually get attached to the characters by the end. I don't know when I'd find it in me to watch it again though, because it's a very tragic story. I recall I bought the series/OAV box set for a knockdown price as well - I couldn't afford not to, really.
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I got the individual dvds for £5 each at a sale in Virgin in Exeter (Just before they turned it into 'Zavvi' - It was the only reason I even bought the series really, I had seen several trailers ALL of which seemed to point to the sci fi element being matched with the romance, but that never happened. But then again, I was intreagued and at that price I could not say no really. I am glad I got it, for even if there was not much from it there are few Anime dvds I regret getting completely (Kai Doh Maru, and the Virus box hit the majority of them right out.) and this is not in that league of pointlessness by any means, but it just doesn't really go anywhere for me.
 
I actually liked the different style of animation and I think that the character development was the strong part of the show.

Shuji in particular is such a flawed character in contrast to Chise's "perfection" that he feels really human. I liked and I would recommend, but still I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea.
 
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