Spring 2009 Anime Impressions – Pandora Hearts
Even after watching the first 3 episodes of Pandora Hearts, I keep expecting to see a Keyblade wielding protagonist in this anime. I don’t know if I should disappointed that the closest thing is a shape shifting girl named Alice, who can transform into a very intimidating rabbit, or should I be happy that I probably won’t be subjected to a duck with a speech impediment and a creature, of unknown type, that has an IQ of 75.
Rating: episode 1 – 5/12 C+
Rating: episode 2 – 6/12 B-
Rating: episode 3 – 7/12 B
Anticipation Level: low – medium
In yet another anime with a fantasy setting, Pandora Hearts introduces us to Oz Bezarius, a boy about to turn 15. He belongs to a very rich family and is probably looking forward to a comfortable life until, on the night of coming-of-age ceremony, he is thrown into an extra-dimensional prison known as the Abyss by 3 hooded and cloaked figures known as Soul Reapers. He meets a strange girl known as Alice who has been looking for someone to help her get out of the Abyss and in return she’ll let this person also escape.
I was very under-whelmed with this title.
One of the disappointing aspects of Pandora Hearts is the animation style and quality. Xebec is behind this show and a look at their other recent works (Wagaya no Oinari-sama, Chrome Shelled Regios) shows that none of these three works look particularly high quality. edit: I confused two different studios, which throws off the some of the this paragraph but doesn’t take away the fact that the animation is sub-par. In the case of Wagaya, is wasn’t as big of a problem since it was character-focused anime that didn’t suffer much from the sub-par animation. This is not the same case for Regios and Pandora Hearts; they’re more action oriented and thus would benefit a great deal from excellent animation, much like Sengoku Basara has, so the yawn inducing animation quality hurts the show. Along with the animation quality, the animation style is mediocre. Watching all three episodes makes the viewer realize that Pandora Hearts has a style similar to Soul Eater but it’s no where near as proficiently executed as Soul Eater.
I try never to disapprove of a show just based on it’s animation but nothing else of this show really does anything that makes me want to forgive it for it’s animation faults. The characters feel generic; Oz, for example, is just like every other rich, pampered teenage protagionist seen in equally generic fantasy RPGs and anime. Without getting to like Oz, I don’t particularly care to see what happens to him in the future. It’s awful hard to get a person to continue watching a show when it’s not pretty to look at and it doesn’t have interesting characters and the plot is about as interesting as watching grass grow. So far the only thing that has interested is the Abyss prison and is the reason that the ratings were not lower. It’s interesting in a trippy way and has bought the show at least a couple episode reprieve from being dropped.
i dont usually dig fantasy titles cuz i find them hard to relate to but so far pandora hearts has been ok not eden of the east but also not queens blade………but it is closer to the bottom end of the spectrum……r u gona do impressions for Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~………….i find that show better than this one at the very least……….the main character intrigues me because i want to know if he is gona turn into a crazy killer or if he will escape that wanted (the movie) like association……
I thought Wagaya and Regios were made by ZEXCS and not Xebec?
But yeah, the animation quality was hugely disappointing. The manga has a certain pretty style to it that didn’t translate over to the anime at all. The one-measly-chapter-per-episode thing doesn’t really help with the pacing either.
On the other hand, I really like Oz as a protagonist. There are certain aspects of his personality revealed later in the story that make him really interesting to watch.
@Shiina: Thanks. I was copying info from elsewhere without double checking for it’s accuracy – both Wagaya and Regios is done by Zexcs. Looking over what Zexcs has done, I find that I’ve watched a few of their series but never completed one.
It being paced at one chapter per episode also explains why I also thought the pacing was really slow. If Oz becomes a more interesting character, I might stick around.
@JayyG: There’s probably at least 7 shows I still need to get to their impressions post and Phantom is one of them. In the case of Phantom I’m waiting to watch the third episode before writing since I’m hoping the show gets past training and gives me an idea of what the rest of the show will involve.
I was reading some of my old first impression posts (taken after only seeing the first episode) and for some shows I was really unhappy with them because in hindsight, I didn’t have a handle about the series as a whole. Which made the post not really an impression of the series but of only the first episode. I’d like these to somewhat accurate for the series as a whole so for some series like Phantom, I’m waiting.
I was very intrigued after the first 2 episodes and I am also interested in the male main character for the same reason.