Anime: Eien no Aseria

It brings food on the table.

Eien no Aseria is a show which feels like a company has to do in order to bring food on the table. One of those lousy ideas which simply have to be animated in order to bring in some money. The result is clear; there is no passion in anything this show has to offer and it will more than likely bore you to sleep or make you stop watching prematurely. At least, I would have stopped watching, if it were not for the mere 2 episodes it took to finish it.

Animation: Why does my protagonist look either 12, 20 or 40 years old from different angles?

I could appreciate some of the character designs and there were a few nice scenes inbetween where I could see that the show had some class. Unfortunately, those scenes are scarce and the character designs are inconsistent, so the cute girl in one scene could just as well look very average in the next scene.

There is a lot more to criticise when it comes to animation. Sloppy artwork, characters without any expression while the situation (and the voice) shows clear emotion, and much more. One of the worst parts to notice in the animation is the fact they dared to make use of reused frames, scenes which you've seen earlier in the show already. That is something old series or budget series do to keep the costs down, but this is an OVA, which should usually be getting more money for producing it rather than getting cut on the budget.

But the worst of all is that the characters aren't consistent. The easiest to notice is the protagonist, who gets displayed in a lot of angles, but seems to be drawn by completely different people as he looks either 12, 20 or 40 years old, depending on the angle.

Sound[/u]: Odd casting, lousy BGM, okay music.

It became a challenge. Whenever someone new appeared, I was wondering what kind of voice would come out. Because, honestly, most of the voices don't match the characters at first sight. Male classmates with a low, dark voice; a princess with a forceful, yet tired voice; we have it all. Unfortunately, the voice actors aren't giving their all either, which makes the show sad to listen to.

Kaori's voice is annoying most of the times, not even including the fact that 90% of her lines are composed of the word Onii-chan in various tones. But other than her, most other voices are equally sad to listen to. Emotions which don't fit the scene, voices which sound crooked while supposedly happy, there is not much good when it comes to the voice actors. The only voice which sounds decently is the voice of the king, which is fitting his image and the voice actors makes a bit of an effort to give the man the stature he supposed to have.

BGM is forgettable and sometimes even plain annoying, but the ED-song is fairly okay. I could even sit through the ED-animation (which consisted of 5 images shown in 10 seconds, then textual credits for the rest of the song) because the song was actually nice to hear.

Story[/u]: Unfinished business.

The major problem of this show is that the show starts, but never ends. That doesn't have to be bad, as we know from Angel Sanctuary, which was still a good show despite stopping at the point the story was starting. This show does the same, but is not backed up by a good plot. We have a really drawn out plot about some school guy who gets all of a sudden teleported to a different world, together with his sister and her senpai, who seems to believe her brother is attracting evil. Why he believes that is completely besides the point, as it never gets explained. Just like most other things which might eventually become interesting – they're all just loose ends.

While in Angel Sanctuary we were craving for the rest of the story, Eien no Aseria leaves us with nothing. We simply cast the show aside, both in real life as in memory and start with something else. There is nothing which would make us remember the show.

Characters[/u]: What was the name of my protagonist again?

There is not much to say about the characters, really. We have a few, they get names, but none of them are really remarkable. It's been only a few hours since I've seen the show and I already can't recall any of the names already, except for crybaby Kaori. The other characters are all from the book, but they're also all so incredibly boring that there is nothing which makes you remember them.

You even hear the protagonist's name only once in the first episode, while hearing it 4 times in the second one, as he's usually mentioned by his title. There is a gap of a month or so in the show, where all of a sudden the characters don't call him by his title anymore, but by his first name. I was at a loss trying to recall who the hell ‘Yuuto’ was, before I realized it was my protagonist. So much for a strong protagonist.

Value & Enjoyment[/u]: Not worth making, let alone watching.

There is absolutely no value in this show. If the thought of buying the DVDs even crossed your mind, go stand in the corner and feel ashamed. There was no point in making the show, let alone watching it, as it only frustrates because of the lack of quality in all aspects. I believe it could be a promotional DVD for an RPG with the same name, but they better rename the game then, as nobody who has seen this show would want to play the game anymore.