Anime: Wellber no Monogatari: Sisters of Wellber

This is straight up one of the worst animes I've ever seen. When plot inconsistencies happen people go, "Well it's a TV show." But this show decided to bend space and time to try to hold the story together. First off there's a 14 day deadline they are trying to beat while enemy soldiers chase them. The enemy soldiers appear to be able to enter any country at will. The enemies also magically warp around the world from being in their capital to riding a steam ship across the ocean to the latest spotting of the princess in the same day. The deadline straight up gets canceled by the enemy, but the story continues to act like it's still on, including the enemies who canceled it. The characters are unbelievably shallow. Their motivations either make no sense or flip 180 degrees with the utterance of a single sentence. The good king is ridiculously naive and such a bad head of state and weak that it's obvious that not even the most loyal of soldiers would be able to reconcile his self destructive actions against maintaining the kingdom. The main characters often act frivolous enough that it makes you want to tear your hair out. Oh and apparently you can burn down an island sized castle fortress with just two small cannonball shots from a street urchin, bypassing their whole navy that is such a huge threat to the good guys and by the way, stone bridges and towers burn faster than dead dry pine trees. It's as some one said very bland, but beyond that the incomprehensible story telling banishes this anime to burn in cell shaded hell. A big you suck to the director and story writer for expecting people to not call BS every 5 minutes.

One of the worst animes I have ever seen. FIN

I was very reluctant when I came across this anime series. I read the reviews and some comments about Sisters of Wellber and for the most part all were saying to pass on this, but like always I took a chance on this anime and don't regret it. I wouldn't say I loved this series, but I didn't hate it. In my eyes, this was above average.

Animation
Very basic. However, you could tell the animators for Sisters of Wellber tried with this category because they added 3D animation where they could. For example, horse rides or water had 3D effects... but the only draw back with this was that it stood out too much, it was like everything was 2D then all of a sudden there is a horse chase and the horses are in 3D, they stood out too much and really didn't allow the viewer to focus on anything else like scenery or the characters because it just was too obvious.

Sound
OP is very peaceful. When I took a chance on this series at the beginning the OP drew me in, because of the music and flow the intro animation had.
ED is neat. By far the best music in this anime series. The music is very catchy and I enjoyed it alot and I don't normally like ED music because it is too soft/boring for my taste.

Voices were solid, nothing seemed forced. Sound effects were good, nothing out of place. Sound is a very solid in this anime series.

Story
Ah yes... the story. The story is what most people didn't like for the few that watched this series. The story is very linear and at times predicable.

Sister of Wellber starts off with 2 countries that don't like each other and were at war with each other 10 years ago. In order to gain trust for each country, a political marriage was made between a princess and prince. Through some events, the princess ends up backing out of the marriage and escapes. She hires a female bodyguard and they make there way to another country to explain the situation. And that's about the whole 1st season of this series. Obviously there are other matters that occur, but the bulk of the plot is what I just mentioned.

The story is very simple and I would agree why some might not like it. However, even though this story was linear, simple, and predicable... I still enjoyed this series.

Characters
Tina - Is the female bodyguard. She starts off as a thief, but later becomes the bodyguard of the princess.

Rita - Is the princess that is meant to marry into a political marriage but backs off after certain events occur
*As a side note about Tina and Rita. When these 2 get into an argument, they sound like school graders... an argument for them goes something like this... Rita - "You did", Tina - "No I didn't", Rita - "Yes you did", Tina - "Don't you trust me anymore"....... and add in some crying between some of those lines... kinda annoying when these 2 argue.

Sherri - Is the fairy that serves no purpose in this series. The only purpose she serves is to make you show your forehead vain for being annoyed with her. All she does is say some lines but adds "beru" to it. Though it might not sound annoying reading it here in this review, but when she keeps doing it like 10 times per episode... it easily gets on your nerve.

Girano - Is a talking tank. When I first saw this tank in ep 1... I laughed my ass off, saying "you serious?!" But after tossing logic out the window, cause you normally do with anime in general, you get use to the talking tank and start to realize that he is a useful character.

Galahad/Jamille - Are cool sidekicks to have in this series. They start off bad but then warm up to you.

Gernia - And lastly the prince that likes committing horrible crimes. No one likes this guy!

Overall, the characters in general were weak because most of the time was focused into the simple storyline instead of investing some time on character development.

Value
This is an adventure/fantasy anime series and because its this genre, it could have been made into something great... it had the ingredients to be great but unfortunately due to the simple story that is predicable, Sisters of Wellber was made into an average series... however, in my eyes, is still watchable and decent.

Enjoyment
Even though I have mentioned about the simple story and weak characters, I still enjoyed this series. I wouldn't say this is a "ZOMG, drop whatever your doing and pick this up", but instead "try this out and you might surprisingly like it as I did".

Conclusion
This is a tough one. I would say this is a mild recommendation. If you have other anime series you want to watch and you are wondering which one to watch... this one or another one, most likely you should pick the other one. But I would add it to the queue of "anime series to watch" and watch it eventually.

It's time for a good book.

When I started watching, the show felt average to me. After having watched half of the show, the series turned out to be even less than average; it turned out to be boring in mostly every aspect. Neither the comedy, the characters, the story or the plot twists manage to stir anything and the show dies down at the end just like the rest of the show.

Animation: Adequate, but applies fairly decent CG at times.

The animation is done okay. There are a few nice CG scenes displayed, but there are also times where a moving camera feels just as realistic as Doom 2 feels in this age. Nothing remarkable about the character designs, but there are a few inconsistencies here and there.
All in all, an average job.

Sound: OP/ED are good, the rest of the music isn't.

The OP-song sounds as if it would suit Emma, which got me interested at first. The ED is a more active song, which isn't all that bad either.

What bothered me was that they reused music. While I hear a fitting music for a tense situation, they also use it when there is a romantic scene, and just as well for a dramatic scene. I don't have to tell anyone that this is a bad choice of picking music, do I?
Add to that that the music is also from the level of old computer games' BGM and that should give you an indication of how lame the music is at most times.

Voice acting is done properly, although the dialogues it comes along with are pretty sad. However, I blame that on the lacklustre plot rather than anything in the voice section.

Story: As if it was thought up by a grade schooler.

Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of cruel and gruesome things happening in the show. Eyestabbing criminals, a city full of prostitutes, everything screams that it is meant for adults to watch. Unfortunately, the plot bubbles along so ridiculously that it is mostly boring – or annoying. The realism, which at first seems to be the prime of the show is easily set aside for a talking tank and a fairy, but lots of other aspects are quite silly – like assaulting a castle with a handheld cannon and still hanging in there. Or, when you're a princess on the run, your companions address you as ‘Princess <insert name here>’ in the middle of the city while trying to be undercover.

I have to admit that the plot is thought out pretty well – or at least the general outline. The events happening and the plot twists is what brings shame to the makers. It feels as if they didn't even bother much with the outline the further the show progressed. So many inconsistencies made the show feel lousy and cumbersome that it simply became boring, despite all the mature aspects and the well-done drama which is integrated every now and then, like a couple of lovers, of which one has to kill the other.

Characters: Childish characters for such a mature themed show.

One would say that it is about the characters rather than the plot itself, but the characters are often annoying or simply silly throughout the show. I'm not even talking about the fairy in spandex or the talking tank which are chosen as sidekicks, but the two protagonists are often quibbling on the level of a grade schooler.
While it is perfectly understandable for Rita, who is practically unaware of human life, being cooped up in an ivory tower and all, one would imagine that she would get an idea of how things work throughout the show. But she doesn't, most of the time. She is the epitome of justice and naivity, but while that may work in series like Slayers or Mai-Otome, in this one it doesn't. She just feels silly. And that's what most characters emit – being silly. Even the two sidekicks add to that, even besides their appearance.

Galahad, a dedicated soldier, is one of the most developed characters in the show, but even he seems to suffer from the ‘what am I supposed to do again’-factor. I have the feeling they tried to display the famous ‘two sides of a story’ with him, but it fails majorly. A series like Scryed works it out much, much better.

Value & Enjoyment: Go read a good book.

I've seen midieval shows which were much better, but the one thing which I felt an urge to do was to read a good book while watching this series. The show is mostly boring, none of the characters are captivating or capable of feeling with them. None of what happens to the characters triggers any of your feelings, which means the show is on the verge of failing. Hell, even Berserk was better.
But once you don't care what happens to the characters, it's time to go read a good book.