mDuo13

In the past week, most of the things I've been following have ended, so I can finally get around to authoritatively reviewing them. The first on this list is Shangri-La, an anime that spiked my hopes, trashed them, and then dragged them through the dirt. I loved to hate this show and the only way I can justify having watched all 24 putrid episodes is so that no one can gainsay me on this review with empty promises that "it gets better".

Shangri-La initially caught my eye because of its character designs by talented artist Range Murata - those less immersed in the culture might recognize his designs for classic Gonzo series Last Exile. The show itself is about a boomerang-toting rebel named Kuniko, who lives on the surface in a post-Global Warming world where countries live in fear of taxes on Carbon emissions and most of Japan's populace lives in a monolithic structure named Atlas. But when Kuniko clashes blades with a young soldier from Atlas, mysterious forces set to work...

Plot & Characters: Survivors of a literal urban jungle pitted against menacing mechanical tyranny, with economic intrigue and lost technology thrown in - sounds like a pretty good concept, right? Too bad! The characters make about as much sense as the economics and the physics, which is to say that they tend to operate in whichever manner is most conducive to sudden plot twists. In reality, the only thing this accomplishes is a bunch of dramatic nonsense. The show, initially, opens up many interesting questions, making you think that there are interesting mysteries at work, and from time to time it comes up with things that would have been interesting answers if those had been the questions being asked. I kept holding out hope that at the end, things would come together, but in vain - time and again, Shangri-La answered my questions with a complete head-banger. Ignoring how characters constantly have sudden changes of heart over nothing, the story's morals are broken (How about hearing a character be told "Whatever decision you make is the right one," right after her irresponsible prison escape ended in the execution of dozens of otherwise-innocent people who helped her out), just about everyone in the show has bad taste, and to top it off the show seems to constantly forget about things as they become inconvenient. (Funny how the daedalus in the 8th floor of Atlas seem not to be threatening at all, despite their cousins on the ground floor nearly wiping out the world's ecosystem. Also funny how the natural oscillatious of Atlas seem to have become a non-issue in the last few episodes.)

Art & Animation: Gonzo is a studio that has gotten a pretty bad rap in the past - and not without reason, as they gave name to the "Gonzo Effect" of a precipitous drop in production values from the first episode to those that followed, and have been a notorious offender in gratuitous use of CG for ages. But they've also been responsible for some very good-looking shows in the past (Gankutsuou, for one), and after finding themselves on death's door as of recent, they definitely stepped up their game for things like Strike Witches. Overall, Shangri-La has fairly average, uninnovative animation. There are some nice-looking frames and scenes with high budget, and there are some frames that are particularly hideous and scenes with low budget; but overall not that much to complain about unless you compare the anime art to the spectacular promotional art. That's when you realize what's been lost in the transition, and grieve for it. The fact is, when none of the characters are likable to begin with, it would take some spectacular animation to make up for it... and the studio simply could not deliver. I suspect most of their concentration this season was focused on the (deservedly) much more popular Saki anyway... which I will hopefully also review soon.

Music & Sound: There's not much to say about the background music. It's not utterly generic, but it's not particularly memorable, either - electric guitar riffs, beepy-boopy mysterious sci-fi music, bland string music... it serves its purpose and nothing more. The opening theme, on the other hand, is sung by May'n of Macross Frontier fame. Initially I was quite taken by the song. But as the show betrayed me more and more, I couldn't help but let the frustration taint the OP as well. The song now signals to me the beginning of a 24-minute chore of putting up with all the show's bullshit. Additionally, I take as a personal affront the horrible misuse the show makes of Nakata George, whose role as - I kid you not - comic-relief trannie sidekick is as vapid as Aya Hirano's swimwear choices1 (warning: linked site NSFW).

Humor: All I can say here is that I wish they hadn't tried. Then it might actually have been funny.

Viewing Considerations: While Shangri-La is surprisingly sparse on traditional fanservice like pantyshots of its skirt-wearing protagonist, it certainly makes up for it with the overabundance of innuendo and unusual sexualities, with a few characters being decidedly S&M, on top of the way it constantly cracks jokes at its transsexual cast members. The worst of the violence is predominantly off-screen, but that's not to say that Shangri-La makes any attempt to value human life like a kids' show might; on the contrary, it has one of the cheapest views of the value of life I've recently seen, at least when it comes to secondary characters. (The show always manages to find a deus ex machina to save the lives of its main characters, though.)

Overall: When I finished this show, I felt like I was escaping an abusive relationship. I kept giving the show second chances, thinking that it might get better, it kept taunting me with sweet promises and appetizing temptations, and I kept falling for them, even though I should've known better. I knew its true nature from very early on, but I kept thinking that maybe things would be different, maybe this time it would answer the questions I had with something that made sense, but I was just lying to myself. In the end, I wasted nearly twelve hours of my life and all I got out of it was a little sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Sometimes, I feel bad for Gonzo dying; I have fond memories of plenty of their shows. But when I think about Shangri-La... I start to think that maybe shutting down their business is all for the best.

1 Yes, I know it's a shop.