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Sound of the Sky Sora no Woto |
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Atria35's Review The world as we know it has ended- a war has split the world into many countries, the old technology has been lost for the most part, and all that remains is a legend of maidens at a city at the edge of the border to nowhere, and a song that has managed to last through time. At this outpost in the middle of nowhere, four girls welcome their newest member and interact with the villagers in ways that wouldn’t be approved of by the military or Church headquarters. They take part in local celebrations, help the children that the Church also takes care of, illegally make and sell wine to supplement their meager rations, and fix an old tank left over from the war that ended scant years before. These activities make for some memorable episodes, from the one where they get involved in a tomato-throwing festival, to an episode where they foil some yakuza and scare Sorami in the process, to the one where the villagers honor the dead in a time-honored tradition. The first two thirds of this series are all about daily life in the fort and village, and while not all of it stood out, it most definitely had its moments. The less memorable moments would have been far better had the characters been stronger- as it is, they’re just carbon copies of all the other girls from 5-girl shows. There’s nothing really memorable about them or their personalities, so it’s the situations themselves that end up being what you really remember. Then you get to the last few episodes. The drama really begins there, with a girl from the other side of No Man’s Land having traveled to find the village that was spoken of in tales from her homeland. From here on in, the story is serious business. There’s risk of attack, the fort is taken over by the main military force, and there is a surprising, out-of-nowhere reveal about one of the girls. And of course, music helps save the day. As nice as this is, the first two thirds of the story aren’t all that special though it does have it’s moments. Overall,this was a nice but indifferent slice of life (until the military storyline kicked in, which is where it became an indifferent story about the war). Violence/Gore- You see a battle that one of the girls was involved in- her squadron is killed in action. You do see the bodies. She also comes across a skeleton of a soldier that died many years ago, and hallucinates that it’s telling her to give up and commit suicide. Nudity/Sexual Content- There’s one or two scenes with undetailed nudity, one when a girl is dressing and another with the girls in the bath- they’re having a slumber-party setup- but it’s like Totoro in execution. Theological Themes- The town has a rather peculiar ceremony to celebrate the passing on of people they loved, by lighting candles and sending them floating downstream. This is mugh like a Shinto ceremony. The local Church does participate, but there are no religious overtones to it. |
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| Added: March, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
