This series was interesting. Although not a lot of questions are answered, (such as where the Haibane come from, and why) it is intriguing.
The series is mostly focused on Rakka, and her relationship with others and the town.
There's not much that I can say about this series. Recommendation wise, I wouldn't put this on the top of my list, but I wouldn't say that it should never be watched. So watch it when you have time, if you really get into it, you could finish it in within a week (depending how you watch it) since there are only 13 episodes. Here is the first one from Hulu.
OK, so I ran across the series of Munto thanks to this handy-dandy anime music video. And, I would definitely check out that music video because it is very upbeat. The song is "Release Me" by Agnes.
According to one of my internet best friends, Wikipedia, Munto was first released as a OVA (original video animation). And this is my first OVA that was more than 30 minutes! From my experience in the anime world, usually an OVA is about 30 minute video and the whole plot or story line is usually shown or finished within that one episode possibly following with some other episodes showing another point in the character(s) life.
SPOILER ALERT! Any point from here I will be talking about parts of the story and my thoughts on it. So, if you don't want to know the "important" details, might be best not to read because I might jump around since I am writing in journal format and not in academic format.
Munto, is the king of the Magical Kingdom. Unfortunately for him, Akuto is running low in his world (which is called heaven or considered Celestial ^.~ ). His kingdom is being attacked by other kingdoms because they think the Magical Kingdom is "wasting" Akuto. As his kingdom and the others struggle of what is left of Akuto, Munto goes down below to the earth (terrestrial) risking his life to find Yumemi Hidaka who he saw in his dreams that could help him save the Heavens. If he doesn't get her help in time, he will disappear like those before him who tried to go in search for the Akuto.
Yumemi since she was five could always see these islands in the sky. She thought it was normal like the clouds are in the sky. While trying to tell her class mates though, they call her a "liar" and a "day-dreamer." As the small group that mocks her leave, two girls call her over asking her where the islands would be. The three of them become friends even though Ichiko struggles with not being able to see the islands her friend is seeing and becomes frustrated. Due to her frustration, Yumemi will make sure to carry and use an umbrella even on sunny days, so she could avoid seeing the islands in the sky. Her other friend, Suzume, seems to have an understanding nature and trusts Yumemi, hoping that she one day will see the islands in the sky and perhaps go there.
While Yumemi is walking to school with her friends, Munto lands with force on the ground only to appear in front of Yumemi. Munto tries to ask her to give him her "power," so he can save his kingdom. Yumemi is confused and does not understand what power he could be talking about and thinks Munto is a figment of her imagination or a hallucination. In his third attempt to get her help, Munto tries to explain to Yumemi that if she does not help, but of their worlds would be in trouble since they were connected, even though now they are unable to see or "cross" into each other's world. Yumemi may have been about to respond when her brother starts speaking in his sleep distracting her, and at the same time, Munto is getting attacked by the assassin sent by the other kingdoms, thus their connection gets cut off.
During this time also, Yumemi is worried about her friend Suzume. Suzume has recently got a boyfriend, and told her friends that she was getting "married." Yumemi and Ichiko had tracked down her boyfriend, Kazuya. Kazuya explains to them how Suzume had saved him and how the two of them will be "married" the next day. Their marriage ceremony was to cross the river together that Suzume had saved Kazuya from drowning himself. After seeing the two of them cross the river, Yumemi realizes that she has a responsibility (which she struggled to understand earlier in the 1st episode when her mother tried to say that she could not take care of herself yet, and that her only current responsibility was to do her homework) and that she must help save the future so she can be with her friends and family.
At this point, the Magical Kingdom has lost its Seventh Pillar, its final support structure. The Magical Kingdom is falling down to the earth. Yumemi runs away from her mother and Ichiko with the excuse that she must take care of something. Yumemi collides with Munto's side of the world at a bridge. By the time she gets to Munto though, he is starting to disappear. Munto tells Yumemi that she is a little bit late. As Munto is disappearing in front of her eyes, Yumemi starts going against the force of time and space reaching for Munto. Munto is surprised by her being able to do this and reaches out his hand towards Yumemi's hand. As their hands touch, a bright light of energy explodes, pushing the two back into their own worlds. This touch was able to restore the Akuto plentifully in Munto's world and somewhat calm the strange storms/happenings in Yumemi's world.
In the next episode, the role are reversed somewhat. Munto is refusing to go to Yumemi, thinking she may be fragile (since their contact, Munto and Yumemi are able to see each other's past). The enemy kingdoms have made the move to go after Yumemi after finding out what she had done. Munto is pushed by Gass (who is the protector of the gate of where people can travel back in time to earth) down to earth. The enemy ship had started to attack Yumemi's town in search of her. Yumemi runs to Munto convincing him that he does need her. Yumemi jumps down to Munto, and as they make contact, the spell Gass put on Munto as he pushed him, activates, destroying the enemy ship. Munto with Yumemi in his arms flies up to sky to Heaven to finish on making both of the planets balanced or safe.
With an ending like that, I'm grateful they continued it with a small amount of episodes hopefully concluding the story! I haven't seen the episodes yet, so I can not give my thoughts on it yet. And I'm sorry every thing before was just me summarizing the two episodes.
Now onto my thoughts!
As I watched this, I thought the animation was beautiful! Although, from the previews I've seen of the series, face of Munto seems "soften". In the OVAs, he looks like he's been through quite a lot and looks older compared to Yumemi, who by the second OVA episode would be 14.
The idea though, of an "extraordinary" child makes me think of the Wrinkle of Time series. I think for this series and like that one, you definitely need to use suspension of disbelief. I struggle a bit with the whole power idea, especially how the heavenly beings seemed a little powerful and were hard to kill (take a look of a battle scene in episode two where Munto is fighting). I could suspend my belief of the two different worlds and Yumemi to be the only one to see the island in the sky though. =) Maybe it is because I'm older and "experienced" more of the world. I have to say though, I have enjoyed this films and been able to watch both episodes within a day (each episode is about an hour. So, that means the OVA was able to hook me enough to take away two hours my life. Haha. Am a Otaku or what?). I do love how though, that in the series itself that there is a sense of reality itself. In the first episode, Yumemi is constantly trying to ignore the existence of the islands in the sky until she runs into Munto. In the second episode, Ichiku is constantly trying to bring Yumemi "back down to earth." I think Ichiku is also worried about the mentality state of Yumemi after the phone conversation she has with her in the second episode. After Yumemi confesses on the phone how she doesn't understand what she sees or hears, you see Ichiku screaming her head off outside bringing attention of everyone outside wondering what happened. Also, before Yumemi jumps to Munto, Ichiku is still trying to protect her by convincing Yumemi that she could stay with her friends, and that they could protect the earth that way. Yumemi just replies to her how she must do this and jumps down to Munto. Ichiku is most likely freaking out right now, only to see Yumemi floating in the sky and heading up to the Heavens. Now, I don't know if she saw Munto also, but I do know that she must definitely saw Yumemi going up to the skys.
So, here is a short list of what I like about the film again:
Animation (I love how they zoom in the eyes and show the details!!!!)
Taking advantage of the suspension of disbelief method.
I just typed this in a group discussion on Goodreads . Just wanted to share my thoughts on my blogger also. Like I said towards the end, I will be trying to dig into this a bit more.
"So, I fellow DeviantArt user said that I should give Death Note a try. I at first avoided the manga because I was not really getting into it (granted, I only read a couple of pages) and from what I heard of the story lines, I felt like it wouldn't be my kind of show.
So, I have given Death Note a second shot, and it's been interesting so far. (Maybe I've been having a craving for dark series or something lately. I've been getting into Hell Girl also). But, what I noticed was that Death Note has had some copycats. One was actually a real murder in Belgium. In Wikipedia, I counted five accounts of students having a "Death Note" notebook and writing classmates and teachers names of people who they didn't like. 4 of them were middle school and 1 was a senior in high school.
Anyway, speaking all of this, I am curious into doing more research into this. I'm wondering if there has been more accounts of this outside of United States or if it is about the same amount in other countries.
I don't know how popular Death Note is, but I do notice that there is an anime series, anime movies, live action movies, and (light?) novels out there of this.
Another random thought is how media (books, comics, movies, I mean every type of ...communication? Stories are a way of communicating I think) can positively or negatively effect our society and culture.
Hope you guys will forgive me for my random long rant.
Just one more thought, I wonder who's version of "justice" will win in the Death Note series."
Here's a link to the article I read on Wikipedia.
Also, here's the first episode. It is also available on Youtube, but I feel like Hulu is more legal compared to Youtube. So, if you really want to skip those commercials, go to Youtube.
