(68.55%) PRETTY AVERAGE:
This was just an anime that I came across looking through Crunchyroll. I will say that fantasy-romance anime do happen to be my favorites. I've already talked about how great the romance in "Dusk Maiden of Amnesia" was, and actually, this one wasn't too far from being as good as "Dusk Maiden". The World is Still Beautiful was pretty much a mixed bag for me. there were some things I thought were great, some things I thought were okay, some that were annoying, at least one of everything on the menu. I will say that the things that were great were really great.
(29.70%) STORY: (6.6/10)
The beginning of the show has a ship basically dropping the girl off at a kingdom called The Sun Kingdom, which to my understanding is basically the whole world minus one country. Our main character is, NIKE LEMERCIER, one of four Princesses of the Principality of Rain, a small country whose residents have the ability to summon rainfall by singing, as well as manipulate the air to be able to cut through objects like knives and swords. She and her sisters were called upon to marry the King of the Sun Kingdom. In an unfortunate loss at "Rock, Paper, Scisors", NIKE is sent to the country to meet the King. Being from a small and poor country, she has a tough time getting used to the people at this new kingdom. Eventually, she reaches the castle to meet King LIVIUS I, or just LIVI's request for marriage. She soon finds out that the "King" is just a child and is very unaware of the beauty of the world he owns. The first thing he asks her is to make it rain. She refuses and is thrown into a jail cell. She escapes easilly by cutting the bars on the door. Eventually the two start to warm up to each other, fall in love, and eventually marry.
Honestly, that's pretty much as deep I think I can go with this story summary. There really isn't much going on, which is okay since it is a romance anime. What I really love about this anime's romance is that, well, in a lot of other romance anime, the relationship usually starts off one-way, but here, almost the instant they meet, their feelings for each other are the same throughout the anime, meaning that as NIKE's feelings get stronger, LIVI's do, too. It it, too me, a more unique way to portray a relationship. Both characters play off each other very well and I'd say that this was the best part of the story.
Unfortunately, that is where my praise for the story ends. There were a lot of things that I had either seen before, didn't make sense, or that annoyed me. First off, the near the beginning of the anime, there is a plot point that was addressed that was never really accomplished. There was a part where LIVI asked NIKE to summon the rain. She answered talking about how it required the singer to be shown the beauty of the world around her so that she could get a feel for how she should sing. This sounded like it would have been a really good and emotional setup, but It's almost like the creators completely forgot about this plot point the next few minutes, because very shortly after, she summons the rain anyway. They actually address this once in the show, where LIVI asks why she was able to summon rain without her said requirements. She answered with yet another unexplained plotpoint, saying that it was because it was an emergency. This is, again, backed up by her being able to summon rain for pretty much every episode afterwards with no explanation or proof that she has been shown the beauty of the world.
There were a lot of characters and moments that were basically mood killers. Some of these were kind of funny, and some were just annoying. This included many predictable character introductions, comedic moments, and misunderstandings. Most of these characters were common stereotypes you would find in other anime. You had the rival girl who also has a crush on the male love interest, you had the "ladies man" character who actually had a small twist to, you had the anti-priest, the wise grandma, the jealous other guy, the other guy that the male interest gets jealous over. It's all here. None of these lasted too long, and the focus was still kept on the relationship between NIKE and LIVI, which was really what kept me from not liking this story.
(31.05%) CHARACTERS: (6.9/10)
The only interesting enough characters were the ones that should have been. NIKE is actually a pretty welcomed change too many main characters. For one, she's a female main character. Any time the main character in a non-magical girl anime is a female is an automatic plus. She is also not the "damsel in distress" stereotype that is usually associated with a princess. She can hold her own, and is also protective. LIVI... unfortunately, every time I saw "LIVI" in the subtitles, I'd almost immediately think of CAPTAIN LEVI from "Attack on Titan". Coincidences aside, I like how his emotions changed throughout the show. The fact that both of their interactions ended up with the same outcomes for both of them is kind if smart. I wish I could say that for the rest of the characters, but unfortunately, their presence in the story was so small that I can barely remember the names of them, with the exception of the butler, NEIL, who had a couple chuckle moments, but that's really it.
(7.80%) ATMOSPHERE: (7.8/10)
The animation was nice. However, nothing was really outstanding. Considering that this was released in 2014, I can't say that's a good thing. However, since it is a Shojou, I wasn't really expecting any stunning. The music, however was great. I liked the opening, I loved the ending, and the ost including the rain summoning songs were just beautiful. I didn't even mind that "Tender Rain" played in almost every episode.
OVERALL: (6.855/10)
I wouldn't say this was on par with "Dusk Maiden", but it was decent to watch. It's not something I'd probably be watching again, but I will say that I definitely am glad I saw it. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a decent romance that they hasn't seen just to see a small bit of drama.