Product placement and subtlety get along like Tibetan Maque in a Spain shop or however than goes. Personally, therefore, I feel that if, for example, Gainax made a deal with the Subaru to make a magical girl anime where the main character is literally named Subaru, the girls fly on broom like 'drive shafts' complete with Subaru hood ornaments, grilles, and engine noises, and the title of the anime is either Wish Upon the Subaru or Afterschool Subaru—at least I can say they're being upfront about it.
Subaru is a young girl whom, after stumbling into an extra-dimensional club room and subsequently, an extra dimensional botanical garden, becomes part of an effort to gather engine fragments to restore a space octopus' ship while foiling a mysterious young boy from the same fragments for some unknown reason. So in all honesty not only did massive amounts of product placement fail to hinder my experience—it enhanced it.
Houkago no Pleiades feels less like a car ad that Gainax wrote a script around and more like an idea that Gainax tailored to fit a car ad. See if there was one thing that surprised me coming out of this it was that this show was good. The characters fit into familiar archetypes without feeling like cut and paste jobs, they aren't defined by singular character traits and development occurs internally rather than as a result of an external force. As a result any character development feels natural, not forced down our throats. No characters change fundamentally, but important internal conflicts are resolved as the plot progresses.
While the blend of CG and 2-D artwork can be jarring (especially earlier on, where there are a lot more closeups of characters in their CG form), in general the animation looks stellar and plays well with the over-the-top style Gainax is going for. Make no mistake, while the plot may seem simple on paper (and to an extent is in practice) the anime really builds to a satisfying climax. I don't wish to say more because to over-hype leads to insurmountable expectations, which always ruins a series for me.
The other thing I found refreshing about the series was a lack of fight scenes. There is action, but it's kind of more like watching that one game with the flying balls from Harry Potter (except a hundred times larger in scale) than a traditional fight scene. It's more like a series of races; where the opponent takes the form of the aforementioned mysterious boy and some natural obstacle. It allows the anime to succeed at keeping a lighthearted tone throughout the series without ever breaking immersion.
Lastly the characters are all well acted, despite having little to no star power present. The soundtrack, while not having that one track, managed to keep me engaged, and after listening to it a bit more I'd be lying if I said it wasn't damn good.
So is Houkago no Pleiades worth watching? Yeah I'd say so. If you've made it all the way through this, I doubt you can be as pleasantly surprised as I was, but I do think that it does enough to separate it from the crowd and make for one hell of a ride—pun intended.
Thanks for reading, favorite, share, I'll be you best friend, g'night.
Subaru is a young girl whom, after stumbling into an extra-dimensional club room and subsequently, an extra dimensional botanical garden, becomes part of an effort to gather engine fragments to restore a space octopus' ship while foiling a mysterious young boy from the same fragments for some unknown reason. So in all honesty not only did massive amounts of product placement fail to hinder my experience—it enhanced it.
Houkago no Pleiades feels less like a car ad that Gainax wrote a script around and more like an idea that Gainax tailored to fit a car ad. See if there was one thing that surprised me coming out of this it was that this show was good. The characters fit into familiar archetypes without feeling like cut and paste jobs, they aren't defined by singular character traits and development occurs internally rather than as a result of an external force. As a result any character development feels natural, not forced down our throats. No characters change fundamentally, but important internal conflicts are resolved as the plot progresses.
Lastly the characters are all well acted, despite having little to no star power present. The soundtrack, while not having that one track, managed to keep me engaged, and after listening to it a bit more I'd be lying if I said it wasn't damn good.
So is Houkago no Pleiades worth watching? Yeah I'd say so. If you've made it all the way through this, I doubt you can be as pleasantly surprised as I was, but I do think that it does enough to separate it from the crowd and make for one hell of a ride—pun intended.
Thanks for reading, favorite, share, I'll be you best friend, g'night.
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