Anime: Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

THE STAFF
- Animation is done by a team of retarded monkeys called studio DEEN. They almost always screw up badly in whatever they produce and this is yet another case.
- Directing is done by Yamaguchi Yuuji, who has produced nothing but bad series and mediocrities. Just to give you an idea of how bad he is, his best work is the adaptation of Fate/Stay Night. Exactly, he is that bad.
- Based on an erotic game by some minor company. Yeah, it’s a story you watch to masturbate.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
- There’s this famous series of point & click videogames called Mist. The protagonist enters the worlds in books, where he seeks something.
- There’s this series of manga and anime called Tsubasa Chronicles. The protagonist travels to parallel worlds looking for something.
- There is Revolutionary Girl Utena, an artistic anime full of lesbos looking for something.
* Stir all three in a bowl with lesser production values and duller pacing, and the result is Yami to Bushi to Ho… Man, the title is long. I will just call it Tabibito.

SPECIFICS
So Tabibito is the adaptation of a lesbo game that created a sensation when it was new because of its weird premise and setting. It is not just about yuri and it is also about an adventure to numerous realities as means to find the girl the heroine loves. Combined with some really weird character designs it just looks too weird to the point it is memorable just for that.

On the other hand it is not exactly what one would call an enjoyable series. Being memorable is one thing, being enjoyable is another. To put it simply, it is like the opposite of your average harem. No, I don’t mean a reverse harem, I mean it is not your typical “watch once, laugh, and forget” show. It is basically a “Wow, what the heck I am watching” type, which in a way it is better than the alternative.

The story is separated into arcs with little to none relation to one another, jumping almost randomly from one time period to another; a thing which can be annoying to people who like on going stories. You do learn a few things around how the world works in each case but in effect you get stand alone missions of… nothingness. And by that I mean there is very little going on in terms of action or plot, and even less in terms of revelations. And speaking of revelations… ok half the time I didn’t even understand the terminology. And when I did, I was more like “So what is the point of all this in a girl’s search to find another girl?” And the answer is simply “Because it looks cool.”

And that is basically the only attraction in the show, the fact that it keeps feeling mysterious around things that in the longrun are useless to the core theme. So there is a library full of worlds and the librarian there is looking for the person that connects them all, and they go all over the place to talk to and antagonize various people. It happens in a very confusing and slow manner to the point that you are no longer watching for the story but for the mood of the story.

The mood can only be backed up by the production values, which in this case are closer to weird than well made. There isn’t super awesome symbolic artwork in it but super weird imagery. Heck, even the characters are drawn with strange proportions and weird clothes. As for the music part, the songs are moody as well but nothing overall impressive, and the voice acting ok for its context; although I never was a fan of chipmunk squeaky voices.

The characters are nothing but basic yuri material thrown in a confusing setting of dimensional jumping. The three main girls are colorized and slightly developed but eventually you will be watching this not for them but for the yuri fan service, and the weird atmosphere. All secondary characters may as well be decorations as they are ephemeral and are never seen past their arc; a thing which eventually makes the main characters’ development go unnoticed next to the yuri/setting.

FINAL THOUGHTS
So is it a good series? If you belong to people who like the premise and the mood of a show more than its pacing or directing, then yes. Otherwise, this will be a wtf watch at best you will forever remember as something different but not good. There is very little chances you will ever rewatch it since it is only meant to confuse you with a weird setting that have very loose plot continuity and a hook of a more than typical yuri subtext.

And now for some excused scorings.

By way of animation, it is of an exceptional quality, albeit sterile and slightly weak (unavoidable caveats of digital media).

Being based on an H game, a large emphasis is placed on light ecchi, which, in certain situations, helps reflect the mindframes of the characters (lol, nubz plya 2 win arfenhouse^elventy11!1!)

The soundtrack was an ingenious work of art. Each and every piece evocative; crafted down to the last to conform utterly to their situations.

The OP is rather stock jPop, but in no way does that blunt its purpose: it serves wonderfully as an opening, one feels the infectious sense of adventure the series so direly attempts to represent (in no way do I mean to say that it fails in this regard!)

Likewise, the ED punctuates the sense of relief one ought to feel, having just watched an episode. It is suitably mellow, with just the right twist of Hatsuki's desperation.

The story plays quite creatively with what could have easily been a shallow, formulaic love story (Just go to your local cinemas... I dare you).

With several predictable (yet enjoyable), and several somewhat surprising wrenches, the story batters and sways you as it does Hatsuki, lending the viewer a very real sympathy for the ordeal Hatsuki must face.

The characters are deep and realistic, one truly feels an understanding for them and their motivations--it is, quite simply, an unavoidable situation.

What fight scenes there are, are dealt with accordingly: Hatsuki quickly despatches the opposition, as they are nought more than a [feeble] obstruction. The focus isn't on Hatsuki trying to become stronger, therefore the series does not dwell on this.

Solidly paced, with fascinating, loveable characters, a truly dynamic plot, and miraculous Romantic soundtrack, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito can only end too fast; but nevertheless leaves you with a warm smile 'til the very end.

(Another review I originally posted at AnimeRemix.org -- For reference, I watched the Miyuki Fansubs version)

A friend mentioned this one because the character designs look identical to Kannazuki no Miko. Anyway, Yami and the Hat and the Travellers of Books is based on an H game, and is pretty weird. It's also, like Kannazuki, a shoujo-ai series.

Plot and Characters: The plot to Yami to Boushi is rather convoluted and mixed up. The series jumps around in time and place seemingly in no particular order, and oftentimes at the end of a particular story arc you're left thinking, "What was that all about?" but basically, the main character Hazuki (blue-haired girl) is deeply in love with Hatsumi (blonde girl in background of picture), and is searching for her, since she vanished in a flash of green light the moment she turned 16. With Lilith (the fansubbers call her "Ririsu" but I'm pretty sure her name is supposed to be Lilith), the girl in the creepy hat, who maintains a library of books containing worlds, she searches many worlds and meets many different and unusual people. The plot is so confusing that it kinda detracts from the show (and this is coming from someone who loves "wtf?" anime like Madlax) because it takes about half the series to figure out the point of most of the stories. The characters are OK, though a little underdeveloped; only Hazuki and Gargantua seem to develop at all throughout the series.

Animation: The animation reminds me of some older stuff; for some reason, I'm thinking Combustible Campus Guardess, but not as dark and with more bright colors. Many of the secondary characters are very well-drawn, which is nice, though some characters seem to be strangely proportioned. (Lilith's hips are rather large and her waist is REALLY small by comparison!) I didn't notice all that much in terms of still frames, though I did notice that several scenes occur which are almost identical. I'm tempted to say that they took the same couple frames of character animation and placed them over different backdrops, though I could be wrong. Generally, the artwork isn't excellent, but it works for the story.

Music: The OP theme to this show is actually pretty good, if you like Japanese synthpop. The ED is more mediocre. The background music is kinda interesting: a few times it's pretty good, and oftentimes it is exotic and almost (but not really) matches the exotic locales: for example, when they are on a train crossing Siberia, the music is almost Italian-sounding, with mandolin and accordion. Later, on a spaceship, the music tends toward pad-oriented atmospheric music. Nothing really stands out as being excellent, but it is unusual in a not-entirely-displeasing way at times.

Comedy: The comic relief in this series comes from a lecherous and much-abused yellow bird thing, most of the time, but there are several strange and humorous goings-on. Unfortunately, most of the gags are really obvious and not so funny. There are quite a few sensual jokes as well, but they are also rather predictable. Occasionally there's a good one, though. Much of the series, you could say, is comical, but it isn't really worth laughing at; maybe it will draw a grin or simply thoughts of "here we go again" from you, though. EDIT: Also, I found it funny how more of the girls in this series seemed to be lesbians than not. H-game, I guess.

Viewing Considerations: This is a very mature anime. It's not hentai, but you can tell it came from an H game, after seeing all the things the characters do and say. Often it seems like there is suggestive content being thrown in at random just to appease the ecchis out there. The nudity is no more detailed than many shows (following basic Japanese TV guidelines I guess) with no nipples, but plenty of skin finds its way onto the screen. This is definitely a 16-and-up anime, though.

Overall: It's a really oddly put-together shoujo-ai (translation: "lesbians") series, that is rewarding and touching occasionally, with pretty OK music and barely-OK animation. I didn't like it more than Kannazuki no Miko, but my friend did, so your mileage will vary.

Miscellaneous Comments: Kannazuki no Miko seems to borrow a lot from this series. The main male character in Kannazuki is "Souma," which in Yami to Boushi is the name of the ultimate power of the creator of the universe. As aforementioned, Hazuki and Hatsumi look eerily like Chikane and Himeko, though the relationship between the two is sorta reversed in this series. Also, the action scenes in this anime are about as lame as the action sequences in Kannazuki. Kannazuki has a much more typical story progression, though. Meanwhile, apparently, episodes 11-12 (which, I think I heard, comprise a storyline not in the original game) of Yami to Boushi seem to be paying homage to the original Gundam series, which seems an odd thing to be referencing in a series like this, but hey, it's all good.

Well starting with the animation, its good, it looks clean, but without too much detail I should say that it has the exact amount of detail necessary for the story.

In the sound part I really like the way some characters use a childish voice, the opening is good too.

The story, i really like hard to understand stories, but you really need to know some of the background story, i knew some of it because I'm a h-game addict, but if you have never heard about it its really hard to understand specially the way the story events are arranged.

Again, characters feelings are really great in the story (Im a Yuri fan so you may disagree,) but some character roles are hard to figure-out if you don't know the story background.

It has a good replay value, certainly you must watch it twice to fully understand it. I really enjoyed it except in the spaceship part (those who have already seen it must know why).

In conclusion its an anime that its almost in the must watch line, except that the story is missing an introduction. Thanks to the Miyuki Fansubs work, if you got that version theres a little introduction to the terms.

[edit: fixed some typos and weird grammar]