Earthian

Earthian is from the late 1980s- early 1990s but in no way should be viewed as a classic. It's just...average. There isn't anything special about it but it isn't completely horrible. Each episode was different: one was alright, one was bad, one was good, and one was cheese. Average. Even though there needs to be credit due to the age it's still alright. Earthian screams 80s, which can be a good thing, but only the sound was exceptional for the time period. Earthian is shonen-ai but the characters fell into the yaoi stereotypes. There was one guy who was emotionless and the "man" in the relationship, while his parter was emotional and the "bitch" in the relationship. Even the artwork milked the stereotype. During the "scene," one guy looked so much like a girl it was like watching hetrosexuals. He may be a man but his eyes are girly, his hair is pretty, and his frame is womanly--he is a girl! Too stereotypical. I thought this was yaoi... Putting the couple aside, even the other characters personalities weren't original. The antagonist was pure evil and the girls were too emotional. It was almost as if their personalities were picked out for them instead of being developed. Again, too stereotypical. The animation is old and gets better with each episode, but even for the time period it wasn't a work of art. The palette is neutral and some of the animation was shaky in fight scenes. It didn't match and seemed like some frames were missing. The lines are choppy, and for those who aren't into the 80s style would not like this anime. The music is, again, very 80s. Synthesised music was played in the background followed by a couple of electronic instruments such as a keyboard and guitar; vocals and percussion were the only natural sounds. The occasional pop ballet was played, especially towards the ending credits, but the genre of music was electronica. There was a lot of chasing electronic music that was very 80s, which was enjoyable. Though the music was pleasant, it wasn't musically difficult and stuck with a few notes and chords-- not special from a musical perspective. Usually 80s sound effects have horrible quality, Earthian didn't. The guns shots weren't completely realistic but for the time the sound effects were good. The voices quality in the sound was done well for the time period and the acting was good. It wasn't the best acting, but it was good. The Japanese Messiah voice (Hikaru Midorikawa) was a little too soft and high-pitch for the character but the other actors suited their roles. The sound was the saving grace to this OVA. The story had potential. The pacing was a little slow, and could have been more developed. The second episode's story line was boring and one could easily ignore that entire episode to save them a wasted hour. The plot, as well as the animation, was best at the third episode; all the other episodes were fair. If one thought Titanic reeked of bleu cheese they should see the last episode. It was cheesy, yaoi angst at it's finest. Earthian needed some comedy, even if it was unintentional. The plot could have been amazing, but was mediocre. Despite the harsh criticism, Eathian was surprisingly enjoyable. It's more of a "rent it" anime but some may wish to buy it. In other words, a guilty pleasure. It's like a poorly written song with one beat you can't stop listening to. Those who like science fiction and tragic yaoi, Earthian is the anime. For those who aren't into cheesy yaoi can avoid this OVA.

This anime tried very hard to cram a lot of a complicated plot into a short OVA. One would think this would result in a very fast-paced show, but it still manages to crawl at a snails pace. This isn't an anime that you should watch without reading the manga. If you've read the manga, it's nice to see some aspects (SOME) come to life (kind of) in an anime. As a stand-alone, it leaves you with more questions than answers. They should've just not called it a shounen-ai and cut that one scene because it does nothing for the anime but throw you for a loop (they were dating????). If you're going to cut out such a big plot point, might as well cut the entire thing. If you're looking for yaoi, look elsewhere. If you're looking for an amazing, intricate plot, same. And if you're used to the quality of animation the 2010's have to offer, it will be a little painful trying to watch this. My eyes hurt at the 144p.

I usually never write reviews, but this was just so horrible that I had to write something. It's not really much of a review as it is just me rambling about how this is the worst of the worst! I watched this expecting a good shounen-ai story that was not necessarily enjoyable, but still somewhat decent. What I got was the complete opposite. You'd think by the time You finish a 4 episode series you'd be saying it was too short, but by the 3rd one, I was already wishing it would just end. I just wonder how I still had it in me to actually finish this that can only be called "crap". I'm not talking about the story because I was literally left off wondering what the hell was the point of this; I saw no real story in it. Sound and Art were decent. Not really the art style I prefer but I guess it depends on the person. Character developments were poor and the main character, Chihaya, makes you watch just thinking: "How the hell did an anime revolve around this guy?" I seriously went through the whole thing wishing there would be any kind of bomb exploding, killing him in the process. Also, even though I liked Kagetsuya, his partner, I just could not handle how we would just do everything for Chihaya's sake. It was so hard to watch. The romance was just.....dead, all thanks to Chihaya of course! I can say with real confidence that this was the stupidest, most pathetic thing I have ever seen. Even though the first 2 episodes where somewhat decent, the next 2 just kill any kind of enjoyment you could have obtained from watching. I will warn anyone who reads this, if you want to watch, just watch the first 2 episodes. Do not proceed further, or else you WILL be sorry for life, just like how I am right now.

I don't get the bad reviews. Maybe it's because my expectations are low for someone who would find and watch this nowadays. I just stumbled upon it with not much care. Most of them are pointing out common, detrimental flaws in yaoi, such as problems with role tropes and characterization of women, which I'm already used to. I too hope to see them improved upon. I didn't mind the yaoi because I saw the tag. The romance part is pretty downplayed, which I like because there is less dumb drama. That's what I like about old anime. None of the cliche modern romance "You betrayed me!" between characters that only exist for messy misunderstanding purposes... I needed a break. Apparently, based on AnimeNewsNetwork's summary, the manga was more about the love between Chihaya and Kagetsuya rather than Earth's dilemma and dark angels but the anime chose to emphasize those parts instead. I admit the story and the characters were not the best... I mainly liked it for the overall feel of the show and the enjoyment, how each episode wraps up neatly though forcefully. It was like the characters were acting under a spell to deliver themselves according to the plot set by fate. For example, one scene Kagetsuya just somehow knew where to go, unexplained how he found such crucial information. I also understand that the concept of angels portrayed was unrealistic and simple. I just didn't care. This is fiction. I enjoyed the author's creativity. I liked how this addresses nuclear war and our carbon waste. How much waste and ruin humans are doing to Earth and that Eden was going to pass judgement and destroy the us! There was some moments I felt awed by the detail put into the movement, like the guitar playing, scenery, and fight scenes. Though sometimes the animation felt stiff because they cut corners. When an angel was landing from flying for example. It was a glide downwards rather than a flap of wings... There was also one scene where Kagetsuya dodged the bullet by doing flips in a straight line, no zig zag, wtf impractical. How did they not hit him. As for the sound and art, I loved the traditional, old fashioned feeling. The unrealistic sound effects and limited electric music another reviewer pointed out, I loved it too. Old anime induces such nostalgic, homey and saccharine feels. q-q I seem to really like old anime because of the reassuring and novel feeling one gets from familiar yet different sights. Old anime also makes me think of how far animation quality has gotten and the aspects that remain. The ending was rushed and random... The other reviewers were right when they said this was average, plain or boring. I wish they put more thought into the events. I recommend reading the manga for more depth, though it won't change there are loose ends. All 5 volumes have been translated, hurrah. You can find them on Amazon. Apparently the author planned on drawing for more than 5 volumes but was cut short so the loose ends were not tied as fully. That is unfortunate. I haven't read the manga yet but I'm genuinely interested in the story: the world of Eden, the mystery behind Chihaya, and what's going to happen. I'll read this for the same reason people read harem manga. All in all this was better than I expected. The concept touches on human nature, humanoids, science, and morals. I think this anime will be more enjoyable for people who like philosophy, mythology, and sci-fi. And angel boys (and girls?). Chihaya is so moe kyahhh...Moe uke angel ftw. Call me vulgar but I watch anime to relax and this does it for me.

4 episodes... If you think I will say it wasn't enough, you are mistaken. I think it was enough, no.. I think it was enough by the third episode. I was completely bored, and tired by this anime that I ended up stopping about ten times just to find something else to do. Usually resulting in a more interesting movie, such as Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaur.. oddly. The story, well.. I am not sure what it really is. I get that they are angels sent to evaluate us on good or bad habits but really... what else is there to this other than utter nonsense. Yes it is a good yaoi story compared to some others but I say there are better ones out there than this. This was utterly boring, dragging on.. or just wasn't thrilling enough for my taste. You have a Chikane who is an outcast angel.. alright.. and his partner (don't ask me the name, I have already forgotten)... alright.. and what do they do besides dealing with angerment issues, Chikane wanting to know if he is the only angel born with black wings, a scientist creation.. Really it is just episodic almost. I rather take up a ridiculous love story than bother with this again. And trust me if you knew how much I hate romance you'd know I would have suffered with the love story. Compared with some of the anime I have seen, this doesn't compare. It is descent, yes, it has some nice effects, true. But it could have been better. It is obvious that it is low budget, but from the first episode to four you can see that it has steadily improved somewhat. I still say they could have done better, but it was okay and standable. Like any other english dub.. I found their voices basically annoying. Personally I think that is why I didn't find much interest in the story while watching. The voices really didn't seem to match, Chikane's voice was too loud, and obnoxics sounding.. I litterly was wincing. His partner.. well to be honest I just wanted to punch his partner, anways. I didn't like his voice either, sure it matched the character somewhat in his ignorance, but honestly I was sort of twitching while humming Ring around the rosy.. And it takes alot for me to sing a childish song such as that. Personally, I would have perfered Sebastian's terrible English voice to his. And that is saying a lot seeing as I REALLY hate Tatum for butchering Sebastian. So no, the english dub isn't very good.. it is still watchable but that is at your own risk. The songs.. well.. I didn't like them either. They were okay, but I perfer never to listen to them again. Characters now... Well what do I have to say about them. Dull, dull, dull.....'hums' Chikane, what is it with him that isn't in any uke.. he is fisty, check, he is seemily girlish, check, he has a great deal of care, check, he is an outcast. Yeah.... not really anything I haven't seen before. I did like him enough to remember his name though, he had a strong care and understanding to other people, and he wasn't afraid to stick up to his snot-noise partner. His parnter... as I repeat myself, I just wanted to punch him in the face.. arogant like any other angel, considers almost everything bad...'glares' I could go on with point out his flauts but I have other things to do. Anway the characters where okay.. they provided well to the story, and they were well rounded enough.. I will not say they were completely well rounded to a point where they can be likeable in my opinion, but they were well rounded enough. My enjoyment to this was pretty much dreadful. As I said perviously.. I was completely bored, and had to stop the dvd about ten times just to sate my starving interest. Sometimes I found myself wanting to bash my head against something when it came to some really long scenes that were just.. oh stick needles in my eyes moment. I did get giddy once when it showed a particular hot scene, but that was once. Overall, I have to give it a four. Though I was completely and utterly bored, didn't like the sound, or the characters all that much. I must give it a fair rating which is that of four. It was descent enough to sate any yaoi fan, but do expect to be somewhat annoyed. It was okay for those who like old art work, and alright who likes crappy music. So yes, it was descent.

Probably the worst sin of Earthian is that is seems to want to take itself so SERIOUSLY. But, really, with a story idea like this, can you really take it all in with a straight face? Billed as a "boy's love" story, you would have to search hard to find anything remotely titillating. The two main characters (star-crossed angels) are apparently a "thing", but I can't recall any thirsty action taking place. It's four separate stories, with totally different plots (although the two annoying main characters remain throughout). To give you an idea about the ridiculousness of this, in the first story, the girl character who is on the run is bio-engineered, and has a nuclear reactor for a heart, and if she gets too emotional, the blood will get too hot and it could explode. Yeah, you read that right. Stories not very good. Characters not very good. Uninteresting main plot. Artwork uneven. Same with the animation. Just avoid.

“Earthian” is a whole lot of nothing. This 4-episode OVA is simultaneously both episodic and not. It acts like it has an overarching plot, but the story just meanders around without arriving at a destination. “Earthian” leaves viewers with a load of questions. Who are these people, and what are they doing? Why are they doing it? Why build a bio-android with a nuclear heart? Why does the record company act like a criminal organization? Why make a bio-engineered angel hybrid robot to destroy the world? Why have satellites with killer laser beams? Just why? From what little that can be gathered about the plot, it seems that angels, or aliens that look like angels, have been observing Earth for a long time, and they don’t like what they’ve seen. On the brink of deciding to destroy humanity, they send “plus and minus checker” angels to Earth to count the good and bad deeds of humans. Whichever side gets to 10,000 points first cements humanity’s fate: if it’s the plus side, humanity is saved, and if it’s the minus side, humanity is extinguished. This is all glossed over in favor of drama and defeating incredibly shallow evil villains, though. The two main characters, Chihaya and Kagetsuya, are the most developed of the bunch, but that’s not saying much because they’re hardly developed at all. The only development they get is negative, especially when it comes to Kagetsuya, who seems to be angry all the time and constantly snaps at Chihaya over nothing. They are supposed to be in a relationship, but you wouldn’t know it from watching this OVA, except for the fact that they threw in a short love scene between the two out of the blue in the middle of the series. There’s no buildup to it and there’s not much reference to it afterwards — it just pops up for a few seconds and then is quickly forgotten. The main villain, Dr. Ashiya (the subtitles say Ashino), is a stereotypical mad scientist with unclear motives. He’s experimenting on bio-engineered humans at first, and then when that blows up in his face (literally), he decides he wants to die and take the rest of the world with him. His backstory, original goals, etc. are not explained. All of the other characters are just barely there. A few look like they’ll become important later on, but they either die or barely, if ever, show up again. The structure of this series is a bit messy. Episodes 1, 3 and 4 follow a linear plot line, while episode 2 has a separate, self-contained story. Episodes 3 and 4, which are shorter than the first two and directed by a different person, came out over 5 years after the first two. The designs of some of the characters are different in these last two episodes as well, so it is kind of difficult to recognize them at first. Key elements of the stories either don’t make sense at all or go unexplained. Scenes are disjointed; it can be hard to tell if you’re looking at what’s going on in the present day, a dream or a flashback. The background music is noticeably bad. It’s generic synth music that often doesn’t fit whatever scene it’s in, and sometimes abruptly stops. The ending themes are hit-and-miss, but not particularly memorable. However, there are also positive aspects to this OVA. The character designs (at least in the first two episodes) are decent, as is the voice acting. The animation is not bad. The premise seems like it could be interesting if it were executed better. Also, the first two episodes have a lethargic, hazy quality to them that makes them feel like a fever dream. (That could also be considered a bad thing, though.) As for potentially objectionable content, in addition to the short love scene mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of blood and graphic violence, characters getting killed, etc. There is also a brief reference to drugs. There’s some semi-nudity, but it’s at a distance and no details can be made out. There are a few religious references (this is about “angels,” after all). Overall, although there are worse ones out there, this OVA is not good and is rather taxing to sit through. Nothing really happens in it. Characters do things that don’t make sense, backgrounds and motivations are barely explained, and basic elements of the plot are so outlandish that it’s hard to suspend your disbelief for them.

Episode 1 is cool. Everything after that is pointless. Episode 2 was too long and didn’t contribute to the story much. Then episode 3 and 4 were too short. Overall it had a lot of great ideas that felt limited for whatever reason. The quality declined serverly each episode I probably would have enjoyed it more if 2-4 were not made. :3 in summary just watch episode one then don’t bother with the rest. Damn how long does this review have to be to just post it? :3 Other stuff >> :3 :3 :3 :3 :3 :3 :3 this post is awesome :3 :3 :3 :3 :3 ..................................... Yes post best post wow post :3 such review wow review yes review all the review :3

Crammed too much into this short behind OVA which made the story jump all over the place and skip A LOT of details. Clearly this was made for people who were already fans of the manga. The characters expressions and movements were so dry and emotionless you couldn't get attached. The characters that did emote were all selfish and stubborn that didnt listen to reason and we're supposed to sympathize with them. The random cut offs of music in the background takes you out of whatever "feels" you were supposed to be having. So many plot holes even just in the single story episodes. The only thing I did like about the story was the relationship between Kagetsuya and Chihaya. Then they couldnt even commit to that relationship. Also MAD DISRESPECT TO KAGETSUYA!!!!!