Pandora Hearts

Original title: Pandora hãtsu

Genre: Mystery, fantasy, action, comedy, romance.
Origins: Japan.
Author: jun Mochizuki.
Director: Takao Kato.
Studio: XEBEC.
Debut: April 3, 2009, ran until September 25, 2009.
Lenght: 25 episodes.


"It's never fun to reject a single person.
But he can't be allowed to exist."


Pandora Hearts, was definitely a good surprise. At first it didn’t kept my full attention I must confess, but it suffered a significantly boost episode after episode. The plot its quite complex at a first sight but it can captivate you if you give it some time, and the same goes for the characters.

Oz Vessalius, it’s the main character and heir to one of the 4 duke houses that you’ll find at the series, well, 1 of 5 to be more accurate. And as you already may figured, this is not the kind of anime bursting with modern buildings and filled with hi-tech equipments – it is actually an anime linked to a past where nobles leads the social pyramid and horses and carriages are the great and luxurious ways of travel.

Attempting to not spoil too much, this 15 years old guy is wealthy and he just got in that kind of edge that all the teenagers feel sooner or later, he’s becoming a men. What’s the great deal about this detail? Well you’ll notice that Pandora Hearts will attempt to mess a bit with your own thoughts, this can be a quite cerebral anime sometimes and it will help that our leading character feels lost in this transition (it may not be even the main reason for this, but it will help for sure…). Oz is rich, the guy is straight in the way to become an important noble, perhaps even a duke, he have an uncle that cares about him, a really loyal servant and a cute and dependent sister. He is a cheery guy and he plays a lot… happy scenario, uh? Not quite, in fact his ego is broken, he feels lonely and he acts sometimes much more like a depressed person than he actually attempts to appear.

Disappointed? Don’t! After all, it’s not just Oz, but all the main characters, none of them stands full of certain and even the smartest ones are in a desperate need to discover something (well maybe 1 or 2 will also endeavor to avoid those kinds of unwanted researches).
Why are they in a sort of common demand? Well they actually were connected at same point with an epic tragedy and even some of them just lost their memories somewhere across the plot. And why this is a good thing? Above all because it accentuates the individuality of each character with the plus of extract any single point of stability, you may actually don’t feel certain about much.
To make the things even better, Pandora Hearts gives us the Abyss, where you’ll find the chains, contractors and the own will of abyss. I shall not give you many clues about this because it’s this the main vector of the series, it just boosts Pandora in originality and complexity and it’s what in my opinion turns it so much appealing after all.

Is Pandora Hearts that good?

Honestly I just think it’s your won if you watch it, but I can’t say that it’s the loss of the year if you don’t keep your eyes on it. Unfortunately Pandora Hearts ends too suddenly and after an obvious decrease of its overall quality… In the last episodes I just felt that something was changing, and not in a good way, sometimes it even seemed that the graphic quality of the series got less accurate and the worst thing was the script – it happened some kind of inversion to the plot, I can say that I almost watched 2 or 3 episodes where nothing new was bring to the story, any kind of development, almost like the teamwork was expecting some kind of defined destiny and that, it’s only my guess, didn’t happened.
Plus, you’ll probably observe that after all the characters got drunk and depressed, they suddenly find the headquarters of their enemies, which by some unknown reason wasn’t achieved by the vast resources of the significant organization (which is Pandora), linked to many of the main characters (if not all)… and besides this fact, you’ll just feel that existed a sudden need for desperate action in the 24th episode, almost like a run against time to give the series a decent end and avoid an abrupt ending but this, clearly isn’t succeeded.
Notice that at 5 minutes, before the end, it didn’t happened yet the “boss battle”, nothing really defined for the story were revealed and the destiny of a lot of characters remained unsecure and ambiguous.

In the end you’ll be trigged to read the manga if you need to keep following Pandora Hearts or, besides that and just like me, you’ll wait for a good new, such the announcement of the release of a second season (unfortunately nothing of this its yet granted).
The anime itself follows really close to the manga, which can be a good thing if you want to follow the story but it didn’t went too far ahead yet, if compared to the current ending of the series.

Even so, the story filled with riddles appears to be solid, with a good add of humor and drama. The approach to Alice in Wonderland in a twisted way, almost like a piece of work of Tim Burton it's as well, an enjoyable side of Pandora Hearts. The lack of action it’s also evident, but it works well as it is, at least at some point of the plot. But it’s clear that this same plot gave much more chances and opportunities to input more action than they actually did. The script it’s not that revealing but at least it will make you think. You may find some insufficiencies on the sound effects but the themes and the soundtrack are huge and it works perfectly well. At the graphic level, the medieval and dark environments are interesting but notice that the approach present in this anime will not satisfy everyone. Even I can say that the amateur design (deliberated) that you’ll watch sometimes can hardly take your breath away but at some point it actually can be a good bet and turns the animation much more original, specially at the treatment conceded to the abyss, the chains and some characters.

About the high and down points, I already mentioned them, so I’ll only pick 2 of each, the ones that I considered utterly relevant :

High points:

• The originality of the script, the story itself;


• A great soundtrack for sure that suits perfectly in the environment of Pandora Hearts.

Down points:

• The sudden and hasty ending;


• Less action than I would enjoy to watch and some insufficiencies with the dynamic of the animation.

Rating:

• Story 9/10


• Characters (Voice performances 8/10; Personalities Construction 8/10)


• Animation (Design 7.5/10; Dynamic 6/10)


• Sound (Soundtrack 9.5/10; Effects 6.5/10)

Overall: 7 cookies and a half glass of milk as it is for now, eventually, if comes out the announcement for the release of the second season, make it 8 cookies.

Well that's all for now, enjoy your anime ;)