Anime: Strange Dawn

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first.

The animation is gorgeous, considering that this show is over a decade old. The character designs are very unique, especially the little guys. Even though they wear these cloak like things, their expressive facial expressions as well as their personality quirks are all animated quite beautifully. The backgrounds are soft pastel watercolor and some scenes have awesome light glares.

The music is god tier. The opening and ending themes are solemn ballads that fit the show perfectly. The BGM consists of the opening theme remixed to fit the tone at hand - whether action-packed, drama-filled, or comedic timing. I never knew just one theme song can fit so many different scenes at once.

Now let's get to the not-so-good parts.

The story starts off well enough. Two girls somehow find themselves in another world, where little guys (dwarves, midgets, whatever you want to call them) bicker a lot with each other. The two girls are seen as Grand Saviors in this world, and the two of them are conflicted on how to solve this mess of a world. I thought the show would be about the two of them embarking on an epic hero's journey, and the first few episodes do indicate that. Somewhere in the middle, however, the scope of the show becomes narrow, and the focus becomes scattered among many characters. This leads to the greatest weakness of the show - the lack of a true closure. After I translated the last episode the first question I had in my head was "What, that's it?" So many questions remained unanswered - from Miyabe's backstory to Shura's backstory to the fate of the other world itself. The ending felt like what would happen if a 26 episode show suddenly stopped airing at episode 13.

Another weakness of the show is in how the characters sometimes act without a lick of common sense. Come on, Dall, if you want to save your village, you don't have to kill off every single village male. Come on, Reka, stop being tsundere to the point of utter bipolar personality disorder. Shall, what in the world are you thinking?

In the end, though, the show was still quite enjoyable, despite its shortcomings. The swordfights are animated with good oomph, and some of the characters grow on you, like Jorg and Beret. The Grand Saviors are cool until the very end, even though you don't know too much about them. The comedic aspects of the show also left me laughing out loud.

I'll recommend this show to anyone who likes a good, if unfinished, fantasy story.