I initially saw this anime at an anime convention in Indiana. I saw the first episode and was awestruck by both the beautiful detail and music. It was exciting and enticing so I knew I had to see the rest eventually; Which I did. It was no easy feat finishing this relatively short series of 13 episodes.
The first episode is great in my opinion. It sets the foundation for an exciting story with interesting characters. The detail of the graphics is well above average which leads one to think that it can only get better. Normally, short anime series like these have higher detail and quality drawings than longer series. This does not prove true with Arjuna. The detail level drops off directly after episode one and continues to dwindle along with the story and character development. The storyline... actually, it's more like story-jumble. Where there should be a coherent and continuous story there's only fragments of what the first episode set into motion filled in with massive amounts of environmental ideology. The characters practically become weak and insubstantial due to the overbearing message being pushed during the series. The only people I think who might enjoy this anime are environmentalists. This production was solely created as a message and used the anime genre as a medium to spread that message.
This anime, however, does have an anomaly that I find of great interest. I gave this anime a 6/10. One of those points was for the first episode and the other five points was for the music alone. The score for this animation was done by the Japanese composer Yoko Kanno. I've heard much of the music she's produced and to this day I still think here Arjuna soundtracks are her best work. She gave so much effort to the music in Arjuna. You can hear it in the music itself and it makes me think that she really believed in the message this anime sends. I respect that, but I do wish such wonderful music would've had a more admirable and complete anime to represent.
The music itself is somewhat tribal, but does span into some other genres. Yoko Kanno appears to take music she hears and then redefines and recreates it in her own fashion. It's quite extraordinary.
