Saikano She,the ultimate weapon

Saikano (She, the ultimate weapon)

Studio: Gonzo

U.S Licensor: Viz Media

Writer: Shin Takahashi

Gender: Romance, Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic, Fiction

Episode length: 13

Synopsis:

Shuji and Chise, two high school students. They’ve just started going out. One day, while visiting Sapporo, Shuji is caught on an air raid by an unknown foreign power. As Shuji runs through the city streets, avoiding falling bombs, a mysterious weapons appears and single handedly wipes out the swarm of bombers. The weapon? His girlfriend, Chise…What do you do when you girlfriend becomes the ultimate weapon?

(Official synopsis from the DVD)

Review:

I saw the trailer for this and I thought “Oh this looks interesting let me watch it and see if I like it” Well I have to say I was pleased with the results

Saikano has some great character growth I’ve seen in an anime. The characters of Shuji and Chise come to life as real people struggling to find a piece of happiness in a quickly changing world. I certainly love that their relationship is portrayed perfectly like a real life one. It’s not two characters who are instantly deeply in love with each other; we actually see the development and growth from ‘like’ to ‘love’. Besides just the issue of love, Chise struggles with her the nature of her new existence. It’s kind of sad, when she’s finally found the courage to take control of her life, she suddenly finds herself not completely human and a killing machine following orders.

There is very little explanation about the war and who is fighting who. Instead we see the effect of the war. We see families being torn by missing or dead love ones and living in constant fear when the next air raid will come. I look at it as what will happen today if the world keeps on going the way we are headed.

Apart from the fact that this anime has wars, and that one of the main characters is a fighting cyborg, this is not an action anime. So if you are looking for a fighting anime this one may not be what you are looking for. Saikano touches more on how the war affects people than glorifying battle. In some episodes we see Chise been call into battle but we see it from far away prespective.

In terms of animations and character design, they are fairly average. The CGI animations sometimes looked out of place but considering that it was released in 2000 – 2001 it’s pretty good.

In the music department, comparing it to Yoko Kanno is a little bit too much. The opening and endings are fairly good but what was important was the love song that Shuji constantly listens to and hums. It fits so well with the story and you hear it constantly through the series, that you find yourself humming it too.

Saikano is a wonderful character driven show that while not vast in theme and scope as some other anime do, this one does a fine job of presenting two very real people and taking the viewer into their troubles. While anguish is hardly rare in anime, the characters of Saikano are desperately trying to hold onto their happiness instead of simply falling into brief despair. That makes this title all the more moving. Important item required whiles seen this Anime is a tissue box.

If you are looking for a touching anime then this is for you, if not it’s a pass.

Evaluation:

Story: C-

Animation: C+

Art: C

Music: D

Overall: C -