4.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting Tale of War's Effects on Children, March 13, 2008
This review is from: Now and Then, Here and There - Anime Test Drive (DVD)
Not for the squeamish, this anime series starts with the miraculous capture of the teenaged protagonist, Shu, by futuristic machines apparently seeking a mysterious girl, Lala-Ru, who had already captured Shu's attention. Lala-Ru is sought because of a mysterious power she is rumored to possess: the ability to produce water from a pendant she wears.
The setting shifts to a desert world in which systematic brutality is the way of life in the new place Shu has arrived. Many elements of this new world are identical to those common to war-torn regions today, such as kidnapped children made into soldiers; genocide; mass disease and starvation; rape, torture and murder; rule by warlord; and barbarism (i.e., identify self with tribe while designating all nonmembers nonhuman, all under absolute autocratic rule). In this place Shu soon meets a girl, Sarah, that superficially resembles Lala-Ru in some ways.
Although the story doesn't dwell on the visuals of the brutal life Shu now endures, it is extremely unsuited for younger children and should be watched and discussed with any older teenagers you think able to profit from such a story. Prescreening is strongly recommended.
I have seen only the subtitled Japanese original and do not know whether any of the violence against children has been edited out. Be warned: late in this series there are events critical to the plot that cannot have been removed that are unavoidably graphic and portray the violent death of several children.
I recommend this anime because the vast majority of the story revolves around credible characters responding to realistic challenges in self-consistent ways. Moral and personal questions abound, and each person struggles to make sense of life according to what they know and believe. Although Lala-Ru's miraculous abilities are an occasional part of the story they rarely touch on the kinds of questions that the characters face most of the time. Of particular note is that none of the characters espouses any specific religion, yet it is clear that the differing views on the value of life as well as the definition of who is human is drawn largely from uncritical acceptance of what the person has been taught. Shu's cultural matrix is very different from almost everyone he encounters at first, yet he eventually finds a kindred soul who has arrived at the same values he shares even though her beliefs were drawn from great suffering.
The resolution is heartrending yet ultimately hopeful. Each character reaches a believable conclusion with several surprises, both good and bad.
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