stats
# eps: 26, apr 2006 – sep 2006
anidb rating: 8.13 (2921 votes)
my rating: 8.50 (7.50 if not for aruruu =P)
thoughts
nothing brings me out of blogging semi-retirement faster than encountering a new theory of evolution in anime. excuse me, darwin – according to utawarerumono, there’s apparently a missing link between monkeys and humans! and the missing link is a.. MECHAAAAA.
impossible indeed.
by the way, the mecha’s organic in nature – red blood gushes from the wounds inflicted on the mecha. do i hear “cruel angel theses” wafting in the background?
oh well, i fully understand that utawarerumono is set in a fantasy world – a world where females have cute tails, floppy ears, and either A cups or G cups. but how dare they put organic mecha into the tree of evolution! don’t you know we humans are creat-? oops. that’s fantasy as well.
to be honest, i loved the series initially – i liked the characters, and the feudal-era setting was believable, to say the least. the story started off with an injured, amnesiac dude being nursed back to health by eruruu, the village elder’s daughter. within a short period of time, he gained the trust of the villagers, and was named hakuoro by tusukuru, the village elder. she unfortunately died from a slash wound, and thus he became the next village elder.
as the country leader had an afro hairstyle hedonistic lifestyle that hakuoro disapproved, he led the black rebellion against mr. afro dude, assuming the throne in the process. being sentimental, he renamed the country tusukuru in memory of the murdered village elder. (the murderer’s fate is a big plot hole in the story, though. his life was spared, but he just.. wandered off.)
in the next few arcs, we were shown the challenges faced by the new country – domestic issues, suspicious neighbours, and seemingly random events that brought the best and brightest people to tusukuru.
hakuoro puts countries like singapore to shame – to him, getting the best talents in his time is as effortless as collecting stamps. somehow, hakuoro manages to get these people to swear their loyalty to him either through a) thwarting their suicide attempts or b) after eruruu heals their wounds..
things took a turn in the final third of the series. there’s a country called kunnekamun, with an emperor with an even longer name:
(ugh. this series is full of long, unpronounceable names, eg it’s called utawarerumono, there’s a god called witsarmeteia, and a character called karurawaturei. how ironic that the nastiest baddie is called.. dii.)
anyway, kunnekamun worships some deity that provides them those imba mechas that i referenced earlier. yes, in an age (and 19 episodes) where people fought with swords, axes and bows, people built walls using wood, and rammed others’ with logs.
no surprises how easily those mechas massacred their opposition.
but wait! hakuoro actually has mecha genes in him! when he saw kunnekamun’s mecha killing aruruu (screenshot of her later), his dormant genes were rapidly expressed, turning him into an uber mecha. those who watch code geass, substitute “kunnekamun’s mecha” with “glasgow” and “hakuoro” with “lancelot”. oh, and hakuoro revived aruruu with his powers. hooray.
let me put it this way – my disbelief didn’t just get suspended, my internal logic OS BSOD-ed after watching the last third of utawarerumono.
however, all is forgiven in the name of aruruu. anime that feature kawaii lolis are always welcome =P
music- and art-wise, it’s rather typical of any other anime released in 2006. the well-drawn characters and great seiyuus (i liked aruruu’s seiyuu) made the anime a rather enjoyable watch. if not for the “astounding” last third, i would have rated utawarerumono higher.
ps newsflash: the church of england apologized to darwin for criticizing his magnum opus. better 150 years late than never =P
