I have very mixed feelings about this anime. It was at least worth watching but also nothingoverly profound happened that made it a need-to-watch anime.
Story:
It starts off with heroine and her guardian knight running away from the generic fantasy army antagonists, and being rescued by the hero. Sort of... Actually the hero gets his butt handed to him and ends up getting killed to protect the heroine in the first episode. But this is anime so we can't have that. Heroine revives hero, but at the cost of linking their lives together.
That gave me some hope for the anime. Linked life force could have been a nice twist, but almost nothing was done with it for the rest of the anime. At one point they knew which direction the other was in after they were separated (ep 8), and another time the Hero was able to pull Heroine out of a coma sleep because their souls were linked (ep 10). It was disapointing. Even fantasy stories need comedy sometimes and they could have at least used the life-link for some comic relief but they didn't.
Also, the series finale is basically episode 12. Episode 13 is a bit of a genderbender I think. They turned the main Hero into a girl and redrew flashbacks as if He'd been a She the whole time. No one else did a gender flip. Only the main Hero. Then they explained what happened after the battle of episode 12, and all the new people in their crew, all the while with the Hero being a Heroine. If they had just redone one of the episodes like this and shown how things would have been different had he been a girl the whole time, I might not have hated the last episode.
Instead they made it a swimsuit fanservice episode, with no purpose to the plotline at all. The genderbend was completely unnecessary, other than having another pair of tits to fill a swimsuit. There was even a moment where the flat-chested Lolita stared at everyone's chests in their swimsuits and then chose to stand beside the main Heroine just because she wasn't big breasted. I definitely hated this episode.
Animation:
I actually really loved the animation. The lineart had a rough uneven style to it, and the sky ships were beautiful. I have trouble explaining how I rate animation but I really enjoyed the animation in this series.
Sound:
The opening and ending songs fit well, and the OST is also nice and pulled a mood out very well. It all blended so smoothly to scenes that I hardly noticed it was there. Nothing that made me thing something was off.
The voices were also well done, expecially the antagonist army voices. There was a nice variety and they didn't sound goofy despite many of their appearances not being what you'd expect for a "corrupt army general" type.
Characters:
Again, mixed feelings. Characters were very believeable and relateable, and this became even more true the less they were connected with the main Hero and Heroine. The background cast and side characters really seemed to have their own lives outside of their 3 lines of dialogue. They had nice personalities and good variety. When episode 12 hits a large number of characters with very unique appearances, worthy of main cast lives, are introduced/shown during a battle. This is one thing I liked, they seemed like real people rather than just side cast, and make you wonder who they are, but at the same time they almost make the main cast look plain by comparison.
The main cast wasn't quite as good but definitely wasn't bad. You had a Hero and life-linked Heroine who acted like a battery to charge his power and make him stronger. Despite the obvious love interest positions, I really didn't get that vibe from them. The Heroine was only having her first chance at life outside of castle walls, and the Hero was casual, but also preoccupied with keeping everyone alive. While his goal of finding his father was what drove the new locations for the journey, the story was more about the Heroine who was being pursued by the army.
The support cast included a mature and calm lady knight with a thing for cute stuff; a determined and understanding helmsman as the father figure of the group and a dream of repairing a ship, which he succeeds in doing in his second episode; A lolita mage who after rescuing her teacher/father-figure, desides that she's going with the crew to improve her magic, while constantly fighting with the helmsman and being friends with the Heroine (my least fav character);and a dragon friend who grew up alongside the Hero. Overall they aren't bad, no one is too much of a trope. Even the Lolita Mage is useful and has some practicality to her.
All character designs were unique and made you wonder about the backgrounds of the characters.
Other than the ONLY DRAGON OF THE WHOLE SERIES, the fantasy designs were very beliveable, and the guardian dieties seemed true to character and well animated. But that Single Dragon... the friend of the Hero... seemed more like a mascot than having any purpose. Don't get me wrong, he had a great personality and was important for the emotional stablility of the group, but why did he have to be a dragon? It really seemed that the only reason was to have a mascot character. Which is a sad reason if you ask me.
Overall:
The guardian dieties were my favorite parts, with the background characters and animation being my next favs. This isn't good for the main cast or the anime in general if I like the BG/temp-antagonists better than the main cast.
The Heroine gave power to the Hero so he could fight impractical enemies but still be casual about it in a "Betsuni/No biggie" way. The Black Knight antagonist hardly apears, and isn't seen till episode 8, and even then has little to no interaction with the characters. I'm guessing this is something that can only be known if there is a second season or by playing the game (Yes this is a game turned anime).
The story seems like one you could get into while playing the game, but like I said before, nothing profound or really catching happened. I kept waiting for something but episode 13 rolled round and I was left disapointed. Battles weren't particularly intense and I just kept wondering why the Heroine was never given any new clothing to wear other than the basic white dress she wore.
I liked it, but there was nothing special about it. There was so much they could have done with this story but didn't, and it was worth the watch but also I wouldn't have cared had I not watched it. In the end I rate this with one very big shrug.
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