Category: Shangri-La

Okay, you know that a series is is badly received when even the raws of the local World Masterpiece Theatre series get released faster. It’s really such a shame to see that Gonzo is going through such bad times right now. In July 30th, they’re going to be delisted from the the stock exchange, and a large part of their staff has left by now. We can only hope that they’ll end up well in other places, like for example David Productions. It’s going to be such an incredible shame to see all of their talents to waste like this.

In any case about the episode: for each season I obviously have my favourite series, and damn, this time my favourite show of the season really is the most controversial one I’ve had so far. With these kinds of episodes, even I have trouble to suspend my disbelief: where did the poisonous gas come from, and why did it disappear so conveniently? Why, after the cease-fire, did Takehito suddenly appear somewhere completely different? Why, after the cease-fire, did Kuniko and Momoko decide to wander off to Atlas’ residential area?

Agh, this is really driving me crazy! These flaws are definitely there: the plot is really stupid at times. And yet I still love this series, and not in the way of a guilty pleasure like I do with 07-Ghost. Even though there are series that are much more solid this season, like Pandora Hearts and Phantom, Shangri la still stands out the most for me. I’m still surprised myself, but aside from the really sloppy scriptwriting, this series does have everything that I’m looking for in anime: a grand and evolving storyline in which there’s always something going on, a diverse, well developed and fleshed out cast of characters, an imaginative setting with a lot of different settings and layers, an excellent sense of mystery that slowly but surely reveals itself to the viewer, and making the story more intriguing with every revelation, a terrific sense of eye candy. It’s ambitious, experimental and always offers something interesting.

My guess would be that Gonzo indeed is in a lot of trouble, and so they simply lack the resources at this time to properly pace and plan out the storyline in the finest detail, and so instead they’re trying to end this series with the biggest bang possible. And seriously, that’s something I appreciate a lot. Nevertheless, we can only imagine how incredibly awesome this series could have been if it was animated during the height of Gonzo’s quality.

This series is also making me question what it means to be a good series. For example, Code Geass also had a lot of flaws, yet was very ambitious, but it really didn’t work with me. I think that the reason why I wasn’t able to stomach Code Geass at all, while I continue to sing praises for Shangri-La that for the latter, I’m able to give an entire washing-list of things that it does right and which I love about it, while Code Geass… never really impressed me anyway. Characters felt flat, the plot tended to repeat itself, there wasn’t much variation and the plot was mostly dull and incredibly politically incorrect.

Okay so yes, this series isn’t going down history as the best series ever, but I’m definitely going to remember it, because this is one series that made me really question what it means to be a good anime. You of course have the powerhouses that are Kaiba and Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, which are awesome in every single way, but the reason why they were awesome was because they took risks: they looked outside of the box and came with a story that rocked in nearly every single way. However at the same time, it’s incredibly hard to come up with such a storyline. It’s not a matter of “is this flawed or not”, but “is this good enough”, and I admit that in my recent reviews and summaries, I’ve been focusing a bit too much on pointing out random flaws instead of looking at what’s really important. We all know that plotholes are a bad thing, but in what way and how much do they bring down an otherwise awesome story?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
MAJOR plotholes, and yet the setting and characters thicken even more. This is a really weird series to be a fan of.

What an incredibly awesome cliff-hanger in this episode. Absolutely fantastic how I never saw this coming. It has been a long while since I’ve been this impressed and shocked by a sudden plot twist. Obviously, MAJOR SPOILERS coming up. This sentence is there to prevent those spoilers from showing up in the blog aggregators.

Because holy hell! Kuniko’s grandmother was the first CEO of Atlas?! Now that gives a totally different meaning to the entire story. I just kept thinking that she in her early days worked as some sort of idol or something, and while I did suspect that there was more going on with her, I never expected this. That figurine turns out to have a completely different meaning now. It wasn’t just one of grandmother’s escapades when she was younger, instead she had quite a following in those days because she was similar to Kuniko, and hence why her loyal fans started to make figurines of her (something which I suspect is going to happen with Kuniko as well at this rate).

This now also explains why she has one of the daggers, and this makes it a bit more plausible as to why Kuniko of all people turned into a Digma. Something must have happened, involving her decision to step down and leave Atlas. Now we also know why Kuniko’s mother is in Atlas: for some reason she decided to stay, while Kuniko’s grandmother took Kuniko along with her for some reason. But really, it still baffles me that her initial ideas were so much different from Kuniko’s.

But the rest of this episode also kicked ass. The whole mind games that involved the strange machines that can fully alter their environments (to a certain limit of course: sand remains solid floor) gave a really nice effect to the infiltration scene this episode. Because the metal-age has broken up into three different groups, this sense of Kuniko not exactly knowing what’s going on and still having to hand out orders worked really well.

And then to think that Sayoko was released by some mysterious member of Ryouko’s assistants. Who exactly was behind it, and why? And what’s in the future for Shion? His lifetime as Ryouko’s personal toy really seems about finished. And Ryouko too is starting to become really interesting now that she can’t move freely anymore.

For me, I think that the reason why I’m enjoying this series so much despite its flaws is that I tend to overlook flaws in series, as long as it has enough to make up for it. Personally, I’d rather watch something with a lot of flaws, but very ambitious, creative and daring, rather than something flawless without ambitions. Although flawless series are definitely worth the watch, they really need to do something extra for me to consider them a classic. For that, it becomes much easier to make mistakes, but that’s exactly where anime needs to go.

So what if this series has its flaws? It’s imaginative, ambitious and it attempts to be ground-breaking despite Gonzo’s financial issues. Is it really that much worse than those solidly produced series that don’t take any risk and just repeat a tried and true formula? Heck, this episode reinforced even more that this is my favourite show this season. Phantom is going to have to try hard to be able to beat it.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Great cat and mouse game, followed by an awesome cliff-hanger at the end. The setting just keeps getting more intriguing by the minute.

Oh my god. I’m not sure who exactly was responsible for the dogfights in this episode, but I have to say, that these were the most visually pleasing scenes that I have seen this season. Yes, that includes Guin Saga and Eden of the East; it was THAT good. With this episode, Gonzo has really shown why they are the masters of CG. It may not be the best blend with the rest of the art, but damn. These guys are getting closer and closer to perfection in making CG action scenes engaging. I don’t care what the popular opinion on them is, it’s going to be SUCH a shame if these guys are going to close down due to poor sales. Their bad series are indeed really bad, but their hits really are one of a kind, and for me, Shangri-La has been their best series ever since Bokura no ended. Say what you want about both Gonzo and this series. I’m too busy drooling over the incredible visuals in this episode.

The rest of this episode was also really good to close off the first half of this series. This episode was intense, in which Kuniko for the first time has to really display her leadership, and even though she still has a lot to learn, at the same time you can see that she’s trying her hardest guiding the Metal-Age, instead of sitting back and letting the others do the dirty work.

And while most of this episode was about the Metal-Age trying to bust into Atlas, there also was something interesting going on around Ryouko, as some sort of upper chief has decided to pay a visit. His influence on Ryouko is going to be pretty interesting. There was also a pretty touching moment about Miiko and Mikuni, where you can see that the two have gotten even closer since Sayaka left.

I’m wondering when Kunihito is going to play a role in the story again. He obviously is important, he has a dagger, he is a digma, but so far the only thing he’s done is screw up when Kuniko was around. He definitely was a character meant for the second half of this series, but I’m really wondering what kind of role he’s going to play in the whole series. I’m definitely pumped for that second half. With such an ambitious setting, if this series manages to avoid any major screw-ups, it’s going to be epic.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Incredible CG visuals, very exciting dogfights

I really must say, that despite the rocky start Shangri-La is quite possibly turning into one of my favourite series this season. If it wasn’t for the likes of Phantom and Konnichiwa Anne, I’d be sure of it. As messy as the beginning episodes were, as solidly everything is coming together at the moment. It just shows how series can completely change for the better as they go on.

I think what sets this show apart is that for this season, it has managed to find the best combination between a complex multi-layered and epic plot, great aesthetics and audio and a very varied and coloured cast of characters, and yet it doesn’t drag or go too fast. I really hope that this can continue on in its second half. It relies a bit too much on coincidences at times, but it’s really nothing serious to get in the way of what’s really important. It’s not necessarily the best at one front, it may have some rough edges, but when combining everything together the picture really makes for a top-notch series.

This episode again had lots of revelations. Indeed, Mikuni is not unique: Kunihito and Kuniko posses the same power that she does. This is why Ryouko was so interested in her, and why she had Kunihito’s personal data blocked (it’s also a nice touch that all three of them have “Kuni” in their names). I’m really going to wonder what kind of impact that’s going to have on Mikuni: she obviously of the three of them is the easiest to manipulate, but there has to be another reason as to why Ryouko is so interested in Kuniko: if she can already read Atlas through Mikuni, then why does she need all three of them?

This episode also marks the end of Sayoko, as she gets arrested from trying to hack in the Atlas server in order to try and find out this information. This means that Miiko is going to have to take care of Mikuni. And speaking of Miiko, it’s great to see how far she’s already developed: now that she doesn’t have Momoko anymore and instead is going to be the one who needs to protect, she’s proven to be a really strong and dependant character, and ended up saving Momoko that way.

For Kuniko, it’s also good to see that she didn’t choose to become the leader of the Metal-age just to save Momoko, but instead because she really doesn’t agree with Atlas’ principles. She even says in this episode that the mission that they’re going to undertake has the priority above saving Momoko (but of course, it never gets to the point for them to save her because she already escaped on her own).

Oh, and Karin was downright adorable in this episode. Especially when she ran into Kuniko, who recognized her from the time she accidentally hacked into Karin’s server. Seeing her shopping and walking around in a bear-suit was just awesome.

And on a side-note: it’s interesting how the names of Atlas are all related to Greek mythology: we have Atlas as the main organization, Zeus as their main server, then there’s Medusa as their oracle. The names don’t really relate to the stories that their mythological figures had, but then again, I don’t think that such an obvious level of symbolism is needed anyway.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Lots of stuff happened again in this building-up episode.

Those who made fun of this series, brushed it off as a trainwreck and dropped it after one or two episodes are probably going to be surprised when I say this, but oh my god: this episode was amazing. What an incredibly solid installment to a series that just keeps getting better and better. I even admit that this series had its chaotic moments and episodes that even made me question whether it was going something. But this episode made up for it all. It’s totally different from anything we’ve seen in this show thus far.

This is exactly why I stopped hyping myself up with season previews. You really saw a lot of people looking forward to this series, but as a result when its first episode aired and it didn’t turn out the best thing since sliced bread a lot of people simply ignored it. While in fact there are a lot of series with mediocre starts that simply need to take a while to get really awesome. That’s why when judging first episodes, I mostly try to look at the potential of a series as a whole, instead of whether its first episode was awesome or not.

I never thought that Karin would turn into such an interesting character, but her development in this episode was really well done. We’ve thus far only seen her as an annoying brat who can make lots of money, but this episode didn’t just show a different side of hers, it also developed her character and made it change significantly when her parents finally give her a message, and it turns out that they’re actually quite fond of her, but they’re only too often away from her. As a result, Karin shut herself in, to the point at which she didn’t even dare to go outside.

A big theme of this episode was bird cages: Karin’s house turns out to be shaped like one, symbolizing the cage in which she locked herself up. Mikuni at the same time is caught up in another bird cage, due to the fact that she can’t stand the sunlight. It’s really ironic: Karin has all the freedom in the world. She probably is the only character in this series who can really do what she wants, and yet she chooses to stay locked up in this closed space without any real-life contacts.

The white-haired boy introduced himself as Karin’s other side, and yet there turns out to be so much more behind it. What was up with the cat? Why did it turn into a leaf? Why did Atlas know about him when he is the same as Karin and what does he have to do with Kuniko, Mikuni and Kunihito? What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?

Oh boy, we’re in for something really awesome if the creators can keep this up. 🙂

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazingly solid episode on Karin’s development.

First of all: small Kuniko was AWESOME.

Now that that’s out of the way, its good to see that with a series like this one, which has a huge amount of different characters and parties, if one of them angsts there’s plenty of other stuff to keep the viewer busy with. I know that when a character experiences a huge shock like Kuniko did in the previous episode, she of course needs some time to settle down. Unfortunately it is too easy to just follow this character angsting for an entire episode and be incredibly boring in the process.

Here though, while Kuniko was putting her thoughts together, we got to see a bit of her past, and especially Atlas isn’t waiting for her to catch up as they’re setting plenty of stuff in motion in this episode. The awesome bitch-fight between Momoko and Sayoko also continues. I was surprised to learn that Sayoko isn’t Kuniko’s mother, neither Mikuni. Instead her child seems to be called Midori, who I have no idea who she is. This begs the question… where exactly did Kuniko’s mother go? The only other notable woman in Atlas we’ve seen so far is Ryouko… and that’s just scary.

I’m also wondering why Kunihito had a dagger that strangely resembled the one that Kuniko’s grandmother gave her at the end of this episode. There’s definitely something weird going on with these daggers, but I’m not yet sure what they’re made for, but they seem to be able to receive Atlas’ waves. In this episode, we see Kunihito, Mikuni AND Kuniko being able to catch these messages that were thought to be only receivable by Hiruko. I’m also glad to see that not only did Kuniko pick herself back up and decided to do something, but she also resolved to take up the leadership of the Metal-Age. There you go, here’s one girl who knows what she wants.

Rating: * (Good)
Very nice build-up episode.

Now these really are the episodes that show why this series rocks. There’s just so much going on, it’s mostly building up, and yet it’s still intriguing and compelling, it cleverly uses things from past episodes, while also progressing forward with its plot. My biggest fear was for Kuniko to go emo, but even taking that into account I have faith that she’s strong enough to pull herself past this and grow even more.

I love how at first, the tunnel Takehito and the other members of the Metal-age was used as a cute gimmick in order to keep them busy, and yet in this episode it actually became relevant to the plot again when Kuniko wanted to rescue the rest of the inmates. While it may have been a bit extreme to kill all of them off like that, it definitely made impact: with it, the creators really show that they’re not going to pull any punches and that Kuniko has been majorly underestimating her opponents.

The fight at the beginning of this episode also rocked, especially Momoko vs. Sayoko: two sadist who take on each other. It was overall a very well coordinated fight: it showed a lot of things at the same time while never staying too long at one point. If the creators can keep this up we’re in for a very good second half. I’m also interested to find out what in the next episode, Momoko’s impact on Atlas will be, including the revelation who she actually was for Mikuni.

And there was so much more going on in this episode. The revelation of what exactly Hiruko is also was awesome: it’s basically a possessed schoolgirl in Atlas. Karin also has major troubles with her own Medusa, who seems to have taken a random nap, only to awaken again in this episode, but much more aware of his surroundings, it seems.

The one issue for this series is of course going to be whether or not the series can come together in the end, but that’s of course the thing with any series with a huge setting like this one. I’ve seen quite a few people label it already with a “Gonzo Ending”, but really, are Gonzo’s endings really that notorious? I can actually recall quite a few endings from Gonzo-series that were really, really good. Of course they’ve had their shares of disappointing endings, but that’s the case with any studio. I’m actually much more wary about Bones’ Endings (rushed ones) or Sunrise ones (overly epic ones).

And on a final note: I’m liking the soundtrack of this series more and more. After Phantom, it’s definitely my favourite soundtrack of this season, and you can hear that a lot of effort went into producing it. It’s really varied and every piece seems to be different and complements the series perfectly.

Rating: **
Really well told episode: there’s always something going on but nothing dragged or rushed.

This was a very strange and unusual episode. It was a nightmare for physicists, it featured some strange coincidences, but despite that I still like this series. If only because of the sheer GUTS it had during some of the scenes in this episode, which really showed that this show really isn’t going to pull its punches. This definitely is the most controversial series of the season.

To start with the lesser parts though, Kuniko’s escape is definitely going to raise some eye-brows, but then again, this series has always had its share of strange physics. There is carbon-trade, so why not make a hot balloon fueled on fermented orange juice that’s able to carry two people? That solar eclipse also had a bit too convenient of a timing. But then again, with all of the weird technology it’s of course also possible that the nanomaterial the girls found in the junkyard offered the solution. This is science-fiction, after all.

And yet I really love the rest of this series, and especially the characters. This series definitely has its issues now and then, but Kuniko is truly a remarkable lead who has the guts to go where most people wouldn’t even dare, and inspires others to do so as well, up to the point at which the fellow inmates start flirting with the prison guards in order to get all the preparations for the balloon right, and start offering their bodies.

And god… I was really shocked with how this episode ended. Kuniko has escaped, everyone is happy, people are starting to feel confident that Atlas can be beaten and that they have control… only for all of the inmates to be killed off by a simple order. WTF! It feels nowhere near a heroic sacrifice, and much more a death due to stupidity, and yet these girls did such a wonderful job of getting Kuniko out of prison.

The whole way in which everyone close to Kuniko reacted to the news of her execution: nobody getting scared, and everyone just thought that it was going to be another heroic escape from her with the necessary help from Momoko. It all shows how they’re trying to rebel to Atlas in even the smallest things. And then this episode comes and gives them a wake-up call even though they don’t even know what happened.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
I can really imagine that the cynics like Hanners are going to hate this episode, but for me it served its purpose: I was seriously shocked by what happened here.

Ah, screw what the popular opinion on this series is. This show rocks.

With this episode, I was reminded what makes Gonzo’s best series so good and unique. It’s indeed true that they like to take risks, but what I’ve found in their top series is that they’re really good at variety: every episode or two episodes, the mood, themes and nature of the show completely shift while still forming a whole in the end.

With this episode, I realized that Shangri-La is the same: four episodes ago, we were in Akihabara with lots of otaku references, then we went on to hacking, techno-babble and the world carbon trade, and now in this episode the focus becomes the youth prison that Kuniko was locked into. It’s really this sense of unpredictability that’s really made me like Good Gonzo.

One of the big question-marks in that first episode was why Kuniko ended up in prison in the first place. This episode actually finds a pretty plausible reason to return Kuniko there (because people are starting to realize that she’s special, and what better place to test this out than in prison, where they have full control over her and she can still show what she can do). This episode really established Kuniko as special; not just because she has some mysterious powers that can influence carbon trade, but also because of her personality. This episode really established that she is a born leader: where most people would be scared in the situations she’s thrown in, she instead looks at opportunities, and bringing people together. While her character at first seems a bit cheesy, it’s starting to come together now.

I believe that the whole point of her character would be the strong leader that breaks through Atlas, and for that you really need careful build-up, otherwise you’re just going to end up with a hopeless flower-child. As long as she’s going to be well developed, this shouldn’t form any problem though, and the past few episodes have done a pretty nice job at fleshing out her character, and showing her in different situations.

I also liked the portrayal of prisons in Shangri-la, it showed that the creators really thought about it: with Atlas sending everyone and his dog to prison, there are of course a lot of girls who normally shouldn’t be there and only committed small crimes among the ones who really are causing problems. That’s probably why Kuniko became so popular during her first visit there: she could relate to most of them and therefore easily became friends. This time, a bunch of new girls was introduced to the prison who were rather dominant and violent, and when you promise them a place in Atlas then yeah, they’re going to do their best to make Kuniko’s life miserable.

Oh, and on a side-note: I’m really not sure what the heck the animators were smoking in those first few episodes. Yet again, the animation in this episode looked really good, and nothing like the inconsistent mess of episodes 2-4.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
I usually dislike geniuses because they’re often badly portrayed and used as cheap plot devices. Somehow, Kuniko avoids this completely.

Having a flawed character as Kuniko is always a bit of a double edged sword, since she often ca get on people’s nerves, but I find her to be surprisingly solid as a lead character. This episode was mostly meant to build up and shed more light into what kind of powers she has, as she seems to be able to track down Medusa when it’s manipulating the carbon industry. It’s already been hinted that there is some kind of connection between Kuniko and Karin, and the two of them might have some similarity that allowed Karin to so easily take over the carbon industry.

I’m personally a big fan of mystery-series, and that part is getting pretty well developed in this series. Kunihito for example: we learn that there’s more to this guy than meets the eye, which when you think about it makes sense: why else would Atlas send a rookie out to such an important mission? We know that he is in some way important to Naruse Ryouko, and important enough for her to consider his record as secret.

And where does Kuniko’s grandmother fit in all of this. She clearly plays a role, since she’s able to follow the world carbon markets, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she played some part in getting Karin to the place she is now. With her daughter highly placed in Atlas, and her granddaughter having someone related to Mikuni as her mentor, she sounds like one of the key persons in this whole mystery.

It’s obvious that this series is still building up, but what makes the difference between this show and Valkyria Chronicles, which is doing the same, is that with Shangri-La, I can really see some potential for the future: there are lots of things going on and built up that can promise to be so interesting for the future, while Valkyria Chronicles is just stuck in stereotyped side-characters and formulaic battles. I’m not sure how many others still like this series, but I’m pretty much sold and eager to watch the second half of this series.

Rating: * (Good)
The animation turned buggy again but it’s still much better than the first four episodes. This pretty much was an episode of building up, and it did this well.