Reviews for Fantastic Children (7.18)
mseitz
Nakamura Miyuki
Nakamura Takashi
I rated this anime very low, and I seem to be one of only few people who did not like it. The reason, I watched "Fantastic Children" is the award, it received. That is why I wrote this revie...
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- Approval: 62.2% (8 votes)
01.12.2006 22:59 - direct link
(rs4401)
I rated this anime very low, and I seem to be one of only few people who did not like it. The reason, I watched "Fantastic Children" is the award, it received. That is why I wrote this review, to give an opposing opinion from someone who completely disagrees.
In this review, I do not intend to just bash "Fantastic Children" but try to reason with objective arguments. Even if you do not agree with me, please consider this before giving a bad vote.
Animation
The first time I saw this anime, I was kind of disappointed by the animation. It looks old-fashioned, cheap and I missed the typical "big round eyes", most other animes feature. The characters do not have a detailed face and it looks, as if this has been compensated with strange hairstyles. The nose and mouth often are nothing more than a mere streak, and this makes the characters look mean, even if they aren't.
But style is no reason to give a bad rating, and I considered the strange look to be the animes style.
What i really didn't like, is the way, feelings and emotions are expressed. The characters very often tremble because of the strong emotions they experience. This trembling looks like the affected character just vibrates violently because the motion consists of only two or three animation-frames that repeat for some seconds.
The backgrounds sometimes look good, but some objects in front of them are sleazy computer animations, that don't fit in at all (eg the big Autozone on earth, Enma, OSL-spheres). Several Computer-monitors often display „the same excuse of a moving "background" ... --_---^-^-__---------- ...
Well, at least some detail has been spent on hair, that floats in the air. Sometimes this looks good, sometimes I just wondered about an abruptly rising storm inside of a room.
Sound
This is a major drawback! I don't care for opening and ending music, but the background music is most annoying at times. They use three instruments mainly - the flute, the piano and the violin - to "support the mood". This is done in endless repeats and (for me) doesn't really count as music but as annoying "noise". The real music I sometimes noticed, doesn't fit to what is happening on the screen. when i see a traitorous murder, I don't want to hear a "longing mood".
The voices of the characters are alright for the part of speaking. As with the animation, some vocal expressions are way too exaggerated, when deep emotions are involved. Often, the characters stand with their mouths open, moaning "hu u oh! hu!". To make things worse, in a group, every characters face is shown in long shot and you have to hear them moaning one after the other!
There are also some repetitive "dialogs" as well. Names are enunciated way too often, and there is Wanda with its "wUoUUU-sound". The following dialog surely is exaggerated, but expresses well what I felt during many "conversations":
Chitto: "Tohma, Tohma!"
Chitto: "Tohma ..."
Chitto: "TOHMA!"
Chitto: "Wanda!"
Wanda: "wUoUUU!"
Chitto: "Tohma, Tohma!"
Tohma: "Chitto!"
Tohma: "Helga!"
Chitto: "Helga!"
Agi: "HELGAAA!"
...
Story
The story got me interested at first, but after the biggest mysteries had been revealed, I didn't care any more. Especially the Zone, existence of a soul, Enma and giant aliens from Girishia repelled me. I also don't like the mix of fantasy and scifi in "Fantastic Children". This has been done way better in "Fullmetal Alchemist" (for example).
Some things seem to be copied from movies or books (eg the Autozone and its construction from "Contact").
I know that fiction isn't reality, but a fictional universe has to be reasonable in itself. "Fantastic Children" more often than not just appears stupid and far-fetched.
Character
This again is a big annoyance. From the start on, I didn't like any of the characters, whether they were the good ones or the bad guys. And this has not changed during the whole 26 episodes.
I have not been able to assign any positive qualities to the characters, even though I tried to. The only things that come into my mind are terms like stupid, annoying, whiny, naive, selfish ...
Name calling (not name-calling) and moaning add much to my animosity against all characters, as well as overly expressed emotions. I like action and fighting, but I also like romance and tragedy. And (if no one is looking) I also drop a tear or two during a touching moment. This is true for animes like "GunZ" or "Planetes", but not for this one. Tragedy is just completely overdone and unbelievable here.
Value
Yes, I also gave the lowest rating for the animes "Value", since I never want to see it again or even remember it. I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone ...
Enjoyment
I only watched all 26 episodes, because I wanted to bee done with this anime and forget about it forever ... it was at least that interesting ...
Conclusion
I still cannot understand, how this anime got its award and why it is liked by so many people. I assume, that people, who like it, cannot understand my opinion either ...
Occasionally, I even thought the anime to look like a computer-game or a commercial for one.
There are some truly outstanding animes with a thought-provoking story, likeable characters, great animation and so on, but in my opinion, "Fantastic Children" is not one of them.
In this review, I do not intend to just bash "Fantastic Children" but try to reason with objective arguments. Even if you do not agree with me, please consider this before giving a bad vote.
Animation
The first time I saw this anime, I was kind of disappointed by the animation. It looks old-fashioned, cheap and I missed the typical "big round eyes", most other animes feature. The characters do not have a detailed face and it looks, as if this has been compensated with strange hairstyles. The nose and mouth often are nothing more than a mere streak, and this makes the characters look mean, even if they aren't.
But style is no reason to give a bad rating, and I considered the strange look to be the animes style.
What i really didn't like, is the way, feelings and emotions are expressed. The characters very often tremble because of the strong emotions they experience. This trembling looks like the affected character just vibrates violently because the motion consists of only two or three animation-frames that repeat for some seconds.
The backgrounds sometimes look good, but some objects in front of them are sleazy computer animations, that don't fit in at all (eg the big Autozone on earth, Enma, OSL-spheres). Several Computer-monitors often display „the same excuse of a moving "background" ... --_---^-^-__---------- ...
Well, at least some detail has been spent on hair, that floats in the air. Sometimes this looks good, sometimes I just wondered about an abruptly rising storm inside of a room.
Sound
This is a major drawback! I don't care for opening and ending music, but the background music is most annoying at times. They use three instruments mainly - the flute, the piano and the violin - to "support the mood". This is done in endless repeats and (for me) doesn't really count as music but as annoying "noise". The real music I sometimes noticed, doesn't fit to what is happening on the screen. when i see a traitorous murder, I don't want to hear a "longing mood".
The voices of the characters are alright for the part of speaking. As with the animation, some vocal expressions are way too exaggerated, when deep emotions are involved. Often, the characters stand with their mouths open, moaning "hu u oh! hu!". To make things worse, in a group, every characters face is shown in long shot and you have to hear them moaning one after the other!
There are also some repetitive "dialogs" as well. Names are enunciated way too often, and there is Wanda with its "wUoUUU-sound". The following dialog surely is exaggerated, but expresses well what I felt during many "conversations":
Chitto: "Tohma, Tohma!"
Chitto: "Tohma ..."
Chitto: "TOHMA!"
Chitto: "Wanda!"
Wanda: "wUoUUU!"
Chitto: "Tohma, Tohma!"
Tohma: "Chitto!"
Tohma: "Helga!"
Chitto: "Helga!"
Agi: "HELGAAA!"
...
Story
The story got me interested at first, but after the biggest mysteries had been revealed, I didn't care any more. Especially the Zone, existence of a soul, Enma and giant aliens from Girishia repelled me. I also don't like the mix of fantasy and scifi in "Fantastic Children". This has been done way better in "Fullmetal Alchemist" (for example).
Some things seem to be copied from movies or books (eg the Autozone and its construction from "Contact").
I know that fiction isn't reality, but a fictional universe has to be reasonable in itself. "Fantastic Children" more often than not just appears stupid and far-fetched.
Character
This again is a big annoyance. From the start on, I didn't like any of the characters, whether they were the good ones or the bad guys. And this has not changed during the whole 26 episodes.
I have not been able to assign any positive qualities to the characters, even though I tried to. The only things that come into my mind are terms like stupid, annoying, whiny, naive, selfish ...
Name calling (not name-calling) and moaning add much to my animosity against all characters, as well as overly expressed emotions. I like action and fighting, but I also like romance and tragedy. And (if no one is looking) I also drop a tear or two during a touching moment. This is true for animes like "GunZ" or "Planetes", but not for this one. Tragedy is just completely overdone and unbelievable here.
Value
Yes, I also gave the lowest rating for the animes "Value", since I never want to see it again or even remember it. I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone ...
Enjoyment
I only watched all 26 episodes, because I wanted to bee done with this anime and forget about it forever ... it was at least that interesting ...
Conclusion
I still cannot understand, how this anime got its award and why it is liked by so many people. I assume, that people, who like it, cannot understand my opinion either ...
Occasionally, I even thought the anime to look like a computer-game or a commercial for one.
There are some truly outstanding animes with a thought-provoking story, likeable characters, great animation and so on, but in my opinion, "Fantastic Children" is not one of them.
