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Reviews for Shangri-La (5.66) 5c85j

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summoner Bessho Makoto Ishii Kumi Note: This review is based on O-L fansubs. Yeah, yeah, I know my reviews are too long. I believe the first paragraph and conclusion sum up my opinion of this particular show quite well. I... Home Twitter - Unrated u4541

- rs7310)
Rating
Vote 5
Average 5.33
Animation 6
Sound 6
Story 6
Character 5
Value 4
Enjoyment 5

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Note: This review is based on O-L fansubs. Yeah, yeah, I know my reviews are too long. I believe the first paragraph and conclusion sum up my opinion of this particular show quite well. If you don't care about the details you might as well skip the stuff I've wrote after sectioning... It's not that long now is it?

Quote:
The world has long since ended and there is no new beginning near in sight.


Originally written as a novel by Bessho Makoto Shangri-La[/b] is a dystopia sci-fi show with some nice action as a side dish. It tells an ambitious story behind humanity's last hopes to cling to life after it failed its carbon management thus obliterating human-friendly environment. You are put in the shoes of a young girl, Hojo Kuniko, who appears to be a respected leader-like figure of a terrorist group Metal-Age, which strives to make government put all people, disregarding their political status, into a perfectly human-habitable sky fortress, Atlas (as it appears some poor guys got left out to live on the earth's surface, where rain is enough to kill you). As usual in such shows there is a considerable amount of occult stuff going on and you'll be seeing many twists and mysteries unveiled, it's just too bad that the bigger half of the fascinating setting has no credible justification.

Personally I found Shangri-La to come off much like a watered-down version of last year's Bounen no Xamdou. In other words, it's a half-assed realization of a story with great potential and is a waste of fascinating setting. At the same time, however, I believe it's not as bad as its average rating might lead you to believe. Sure, it has many unjustified details in its setting, pace of the plot hiccups every now and then and the cast is dull, but, you know, even if half-assed I'd take a dystopia full of occult mysteries and sci-fi stuff over an adolescent pervert chasing girl's panties what seems to be all the rage in the anime community these days. It's not like Shangri-La is particularly original, and it's likely you can predict many of its stuff before it unveils it, but, nonetheless, it definitely has a few good surprises to make your day. It's just too bad that an utter lack of explanations for many things will at times only let you hypothesize at best, at what the hell is really going on (or happened). The show also offers a number of action sequences which though not particularly outstanding aren't that bad either, at least I did get the kicks out of boomerangs destroying the planes, heh. All in all, Shangri-La is a show which could have been good but failed to live up to its potential (and it's certainly not the first time for GONZO). It's not really bad, it's average, that's it. Give it a shot if you have nothing better to do, but don't expect too much.

Animation: 6/10

Animation made by GONZO is... okay if looked from the present day standards. For starters, backgrounds are certainly the best part of Shangri-La's artwork, there is a moderate amount put into things like forests and city rubbles making them look relatively realistic and attractive for the eye. The scenery of Tokyo covered by carbon forests might as well be the best atmospheric device to suck you into the show. The insides of buildings, however, are the usual sci-fi blue walls and halls of nothingness, so you wont be exactly satisfied if you are one to look for interior detail.

There is some serious inconsistency between the quality of character designs when you look at different camera zooms. When up-close they look above average with enough lines to fully immerse you in the show, and when the camera is panned-out it looks as if the the labor gets forced on a team of trained monkeys which can hardly produce similar, much less attractive art. It's good, however, that camera doesn't pan-out that much so you wont be bothered by an inconsistent quality that often. Original designs aren't particularly marvelous, however, as the show strives to be realistic, kind off. We actually have pink, green, silver hair and the like, but none of the designs are worthy of fashion label. Well, the green haired sadistic CEO from Atlus company does change her outfits a lot, but like the state of her mind, her fashion sense is at best questionable. The only other design which comes off as memorable belongs to the transsexual friend of Kuniko, but frankly, I wasn't particularly comfortable about him demonstrating new sexy outfits every episode... I wonder what were they aiming at, heh. Anyway, you wont main heroine, Kuniko, for long as her design is a short pink cut and that's about it. Other characters come off as 'meh' as well, unfortunately. Though the doll like attire of that creepy Moon Palace priestess, or whatever, does look kind of cool when I think about it.

There is nothing significant in fluidity of animation department in Shangri-La. Action scenes are few and they are okay, there are no choppy moments, nor you will notice anything breathtaking. Inbetweens aren't forgotten and are used whenever the show needs it, though now that I think about it, it never needed them that much. There is nothing particularly special with direction either, you see what you are shown, that's all. Nothing surreal, nothing artsy, but I guess everybody can't be Shaft, can they... and I'm sure that GONZO of all the things certainly can't.

Sound: 6/10

The sound stage of Shangri-La doesn't particularly stand out, save maybe for its pretty nice energetic OP Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare by Kuroishi Hitomi is a mixed bag. There are a few nice tracks, but you'll be lucky if you hear a nice one twice in the show. The overall stage is dominated by silence and bland melodies you'll hardly notice. It does get quite nice during important moments though, but nothing nice enough to make you get the OST.

There is absolutely nothing memorable in the voice stage, main characters, like Kuniko by Nakata Jouji act like that... It made me want to hear how Norio Wakamoto would do in such a role now, damn. Anyway, I couldn't find a single voice to be charmed with here and while I couldn't find any to loathe either, the end result isn't something I'd call particularly pleasing.

Story: 6/10

The setting of Shangri-La is fascinating, and, mind you, it's not the first time GONZO fails to deliver everything the setting begs from them. Humanity has basically fucked up in its carbon management and the earth is now covered in carbon forests and all the other things not particularly friendly to human life. Most of humanity (at least in Japan) lives in a special fortress above the ground, while only the outcasts and the poor are forced to live in special territories on the surface which still , if barely, human life. Economy is now based completely on carbon and there are these Neo-Carbonists who manipulate it to completely control economy of the world. There is also this group of anti-government terrorists who seemingly enjoy being led by a young girl, heh.

The first impression of Shangri-La is that it's just another one of those dystopian fictions where environment is fucked up, humanity is on verge of extinction and there is a lot of weird occult inspired sci-fi going on. And you bet, the first impression sums the show up quite perfectly. Though Shangri-La gets an extra point for having carbon forests rather than desert wastelands. Anyway, though not a new idea overall Shangri-La does indeed spurt much original, albeit seldom explained stuff to fascinate your imagination. Unfortunately the pace of the show is quite uneven, offering you many yawn-inducing moments at the beginning and going down the roller-coaster near the end with enough twists and new information to blow your head up. But hell, what else could you expect from a team that GONZO hires...

When watching Shangri-La I seldom got the feeling that I'm not actually seeing everything what is going on in it. There are many moments where matters get resolved and characters overcome their troubles somewhere in-between the episodes and you are at best only hinted that such stuff actually happened. In a sense it does make the show fractured, but at least it makes this snail-like anime move a little bit faster. Nonetheless, the usual Gonzo'ish refusal to explain all the fascinating parts of the setting is unforgivable. While you can overcome the pesky itching if you can tune your suppression of disbelief at will, it still is annoying when in the middle of the show you find yourself completely lost of how and why some things work. I mean, seriously, what the hell is that Medusa after all? I think I've changed my perception of him four times through the show and I feel neither of times was I any right. If it's really alive and living somewhere in the sea, how the hell can it hack into things? Heck, how could a little girl create him and put him unto the other part of the globe?

It's really nice that an anime has a beginning and an end for a change. It's not really nice, however, that the conclusion of the show failed to deliver the big boom it was building up. That is, of course, attributable to the last few episodes being rushed to the level where you can actually notice stuff getting purposely omitted, like scenes suddenly jumping into the future or conclusions being made from something that was never shown happening. Frankly, I can only hypothesize about the meaning behind half of the things that happened in the show as there is simply not enough explanations in it to come up with a solid theory (thanks GONZO, you never let me down). I also feel I've gotten quite a different impression from the ending than the creators themselves did. Shangri-La my ass, I'd like to see what's going on in that hole after a few years has ed... *cough*. Anyway, Shangri-La, like many other GONZO's anime, is a piece with much potential, many nice ideas and putrid realization. The story it tells is not exactly bad, but it's hard to call it particularly good either, it's hanging there somewhere... around the middle.

Characters: 5/10

The team behind Shangri-La weren't particularly good at making their characters as you can notice many, and I mean many, awkward scenes where the cast say or do something to fit the plot with no regard to heir own personality traits. The cut off of many scenes where our guys develop also hurts the character department much... Not to mention that most of them have no backdrop and exist in situations that are simply impossible. For example, my favourite character in the show, a 10-or-so years old girl super hacker and Neo-Carbonist, Karin, who appears to have created the Medusa system herself is living shut somewhere underground without an option to leave. Ok. How about food? How the hell does she get her candies there without leaving the damn place? Moreover, where in the name of hell is she, and why a ten years old girl is in a place like this, doing stuff like that?... GONZO syndrome you say, well, sure it is. So if you can't stand your characters existing in unjustified hardly possible setups, you are better off not touching anything with GONZO's name on it.

Anyway, Shangri-La is quite an ambitious (fail) show that spurts a huge cast with various traits. It's almost funny how almost no one in such a huge cast is interesting. The show has, basically, four habitats of individual characters whose paths, naturally, intervene later in the show. Kuniko's band of terrorists come first, with main lead being a cheerful energetic girl who can blow up tanks and fighter aircrafts with a boomerang. Her character, however, isn't as interesting as her super power as she is... just your usual think-little be good and energetic and save the world lead the anime world is full of. She has a transvestite maternal figure with her who takes the role of her guide of life and also spurts some interesting whip involving super powers. There is also this man who leads terrorists when on the field and is always by Kuniko's side, but near the middle of the show some weird hardly justified things start to happen with his character so you can as well ignore him. Other guys in this particular habitat aren't interesting enough to mention, so that's it for Kuniko.

Next one is the Moon Palace (I wonder what the hell it really is) whose master is a creepy doll-like girl Mikuni. Apparently she can't get out in the sun so she is kind of stuck in the place. It's good for all the people who like to enjoy the sun however, as she also has a power to unconsciously kill everyone who are not honest with her (I wonder how that works, sure would come in handy if you could utilize it via the net). She has this slightly freaky moderately sadistic woman with her who also seems to have a humiliation fetish. She acts as a scientist and develops various weird things and appears to know more than she lets of. Nothing particularly interesting with her character, but the show actually bothers to give a hint behind her past so she deserves a mention. That's it for Moon Palace.

Then there is Atlas itself with its CEO being one of the most sadistic crazy bastards of a woman I have ever seen. Her lack of fashion sense is only outlived by her unprecedented violence towards the people who work for her, particularly the poor guy who is even forced to wipe her down after a bath, heh. Her attitude works, however, to set a pretty hate-able villain and she takes most of the light near the end. She also has a harem of male characters who have some roles near the end, but lack everything, including backdrop and even any sort of fleshing-out, thus failing to do anything significant. There is also this guy from army who is almost labeled third main character (after Kuniko and Mikuni), but he completely fails to live up to the role. His kind heart and indecisive personality makes him into a pretty useless character throughout with barely anything interesting to offer... Not to mention that near the end he gives the most hilarious five-minute five changes of heart performance... without any justification, again.

Finally, the last habitat would be the Neo-Carbonist group which is by far my favourite. While in character depth they are on the same level as the other guys I have already mentioned before, they are much more interesting... at least to me they were. The main one of them, a young girl named Karin, I have already mentioned before, has a tsundere'ish pompous attitude and plans to take over the economy of the whole world. And I must say, that was certainly a more exciting plan than anything else any other characters in the show were doing. Anyway, other Neo-Carbonists are quite hilarious, particularly the French girl who goes bankrupt every now and then, deciding to enter monastery every time and changing her mind soon after.

There are many other side characters, but the only ones that deserve a mention are the three otaku geezers each of who exhibit a different part of otaku obsession. The fat guy with neko-mimi and zettai ryouiki is damn freaky. Anyway, the trio is really funny and that's a good thing. It's too bad they don't have that much screen-time. Anyway, all in all, the cast of Shangri-La is huge, but the majority of characters aren't interesting, and even the one's that are lack backdrops and justified developments to catch your attention. Some characters, at best, sometimes achieve the positive status of being simply cool, or being just funny, but that's about it.

Myers-Briggs personality indicator:

Miiko - ISFJ (E)
Mikuni - INFP (E)
Sayoko - ESTJ (E)
Momoko - ENFJ (E)
Takehiko - ESTP (F)
Ishida Karin - INTJ (D)
Naruse Ryouko - ENTJ (E)
Houjou Kuniko - ENFP (E)
Kusanagi Kunihito - ISTP (F)


Value: 4/10

The slow pace and the mystery driven plot of the show certainly don't make it a re-watch friendly material. There are barely any memorable scenes or cool moments I'd like to relive, so, yeah, I'm not watching this one again. I've seen it, I know it, and I'm sure I don't want to see it again. Thus, watch and delete it is.

  1. Conclusion[/b]:[/u] Shangri-La is an occult sci-fi filled dystopia show and chances are you have already seen something similar to it before. It has some nice twists and surprises up its sleeve, but the realization of its plot is weak and the cast is nowhere strong enough to keep your interest for long. Sure, it's a waste of potential, but it still is not a bad show, it's not good either so it's your time and you decision to watch it or not. Other shows similar to Shangri-La I didn't like that much are Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
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