Saikano - Reviews

I felt the need to give this a rating after seeing the okay ratings others have given it.

 

This anime had some interesting ideas, but its poor execution, hamfisted 'morals' and terrible characters combined to the worst anime I've ever finished.

 

Saikano deals with the question if an innocent girl becomes a weapon, what are the consequences.  It is an interesting question, but this anime ruins it with making her so unbelieable, and hateful that it drags any good points away.  This anime tries to stay fairly real, but then suddenly stupid stuff starts happening like 'don't look!' while bombs start dumping out of her dress.  What?  Is she a mutions factory now?

Further, some of the side characters are pretty interesting, but they are dispossed of fairly fast, and we are left with the main girl.  The guy is only there to profess his love for the main girl, he shows no change or growth.

 

The largest problem stems from that the show makes it seem like we should feel sorry for the main girl, but it is immpossible to when she nukes a city just about every episode.  Her 'innocent' voice claiming 'but Im a ulitmate weapon, i can't love' feels as unbeliable trite as it sounds.  Why would I feel sorry for this girl when she has a kill count in the millions and grows with each episode?

 

This is nothing like Elfen lied (its closest recomendation) so forget this anime, and watch one that is actually good.

Saikano is a pretty old manga, dating back to 2000, made into an anime in 2002, given two OVAs in 2005 and then was finally turned into a live action film in 2006. This review is about the anime and somewhat about the OVAs which I recommend you go and watch if you plan to watch this series. Due to the fact that Saikano is an anime from over a decade ago, don't expect any stellar animation. In fact the animation seems to be perfectly based off of the manga which is pretty damn bad but then again, it's from 2000 so I can't be too judgemental about it. The voice actors are actually really good but the dialogue seems kind of repetitive to such a point that you may be a little annoyed when Chise constantly refers to herself as a weapon and Shuji is always calling someone an idiot. What's really important about this series is it's romance between Chise and Shuji which comes under constant strain from Chise being turned into a super weapon to fight a war with practically zero chance of victory. Not only does Chise's status as a WMD put her in a position where she is no longer considered human but it also begins to eat away at her, mentally and emotionally. More importantly this series really focuses on how warfare completely destroys the future (kids and teens) and how no one really wins during a war. An interesting point to make regarding Saikano and it was actually conveyed quite well if not perfectly but the ending will confuse you a bit.

Saikano can get you to really feel for the characters if you're a sensitive individual but don't expect to really feel anything for the cast. There are a few select moments that will get to you and surprisingly, those moments do not revolve around any drama between Chise and Shuji. In fact many scenes involving Chise and Shuji that should normally be quite romantic, dramatic or saddening are actually kind of annoying because it always turns into the exact same conversation. Chise's a weapon and therefore cannot love nor should she be loved, then Shuji loves her anyway, then Chise has to go off to destroy another city and Shuji is left contemplating their relationship until her return. This happens repeatedly through out the series. For a short time, the two of them get romantically involved with other people and it makes for interesting drama but nothing truly note worthy comes from it. 

Saikano is a great tragedy based anime when it focuses on the war and it's effect on both the soldiers and civilians. This part is probably the most interesting thing about this series but I only think that way due to my obsession with war documentaries. The psychological impact of the war (in which Japan is losing) plays the most important role in the development of the characters. The lives of the main cast are brought under stress as the battle makes its way to Shuji and Chise's home town and really everyone undergoes a major change in response to the war and the increasing number of earthquakes. Overall, Saikano is an okay show. Nothing horrible and nothing exceptional.

There is a very important aspect of writing that my teachers in highschool tried to drill through my brain. "Show, don't tell."  Basically display what you mean through an action rather than just saying it. Ex. "Mary felt the edge of the blade, and gasped as blood began to well up from her finger." VS "The knife was very sharp."

This becomes even more important in a visual form of entertainment, where you can literally have mary cut herself accidentally on the knife. The worst mistake you can make in a movie is having tons of naration, with people just walking around, which is all this show does.

That being said, the story is intrigueing enough that if you haven't seen this cliche already, its worth a watch.

Mini-review:

This is the anime that could have been so much more. It tries really hard to be a sad show, but it tries too hard. It feels like I am just getting overloaded. Like when I saw my first R rated horror movie. I was really grossed out. Now, I don't get effected by that stuff anymore. This show desensitized me to the sad moments in the same way. I also feel that for a scene to be really sad, it should be unexpected. I was always expecting something was going to happen. In the end, it wasn't that sad to me. It was depressing, but not sad. The actual plot was good though, and the characters acted more human than in most shows.

I should also mention the animation. It is very unique. I usually like it when they have a different style from the norm, but it didn't work this time. I found it really unattractive. I also found it to be really inconstant.

 

I'm going to start this one off by acknowledging the fact that my review isn't based off the full series and therefore isn't as reliable as a lot of the other reviews on this site. If that annoys you, don't follow my advice and take my opinions as ill-founded.

Story

Stupid, clumsy girl (Chise) is made into part-robot weapon... boyfriend (Shuuji) tries to protect. Girl is constantly annoying with what seems to be an attempt at adorable clumsiness. Shoots stuff out of her dress and grows weird robot parts occasionally. Goes boom boom smash and cries.

I couldn't watch it right to the end even though I paid money for it (which I'm certainly not swimming in). It was that bad.

It's like watching Coronation Street (except even Corrie's more interesting), with a robot lady. Rubbish.

Animation

Ugly. Quite smooth, but the drawing style just doesn't seem right at all to me. That was a big factor in me being unable to watch it to the end.

Sound

Voice-acting isn't particularly distinctive, music incredibly forgettable. It's not awful but it's by no means good either. A little bit below average.

Characters

What characters? Oh, you mean Chise and Shuuji?

Chise is a clumsy douche who is constantly fumbling her words and tripping over herself and... well, she's quite embarrassing to watch if I'm honest. Shuuji is unremarkable - just a prop to show that someone cares about Chise and what happens to her at the hands of the government, really.

Secondary characters barely had a real mention. Unless something drastically changes in the few episodes after I dropped it.

TL;DR

She: The Ultimate Weapon (as it was called on the box set I bought (can't believe I spent money on this)) is a sappy, soap opera style drama with lots of blushing and fumbling of words, the occasional bomb and next to no proper character development. Others on AP seem to like it a lot though, so I wouldn't say to avoid it based on this review. Go read other peoples' before you make up your mind on the subject.

Reccs

The reccs for this one are taken from the anime info page since I honestly couldn't think of anything.

*Elfen Lied

*Voices of a Distant Star

*Now and Then, Here and There (from the synop I'd agree - depressing story about a kid caught up in war... oh and it has a place called "Hellywood" in. Surely that warrants a recc in and of itself, right? ¬.¬)