Earth Maiden Arjuna

Earth Maiden Arjuna is an excellent example of why I don't give star ratings to what I review.  There are some things that this anime series does well that deserve four stars; on the other hand, some things drag this series almost down to a two.  It doesn't feel right to give it four stars for the things it does right, because it's not a four-star series; however, I don't like to degrade the whole series to a two because of certain elements.  Even averaging the series to a two-and-a-half or three doesn't seem right to me.  That is why I just let my review speak for itself and do not summarise with number, letter, or star ratings.

Plot: Juna Ariyoshi is riding on a motorcycle with her boyfriend Tokio when they are in an accident, she falls off, and dies  (That's it, show's over...okay, it's just starting).  She then sees visions of the Earth's future--flames, flooded streets, and skeletons--while a boy named Chris appears to her and tells her that he will save her life if she will take his place as the Avatar of Time and protect the Earth from its death.  She accepts and is sent to protect a building from one of the Raaja, strange creatures that destroy everything and appear to be enemies of the Earth.  But, as she's about to strike it down with her bow and arrow, Chris asks her why she's about to kill it, leaving her confused as to what she's supposed to do.  So, she has to save the world while having no idea about how to do it, with very dismal consequences if she fails.

(Quick aside: Arjuna is a Hindi prince from mythology.  Like Juna, he uses a bow and his name may be the origin of the word "archer.")

Earth Maiden Arjuna is a magical girl anime, but a bit more mature than most of them.  The issues here are more grown-up and realistic ones.  It talks of philosophy, the enviroment, and the prospect of the modern world collapsing, which is a far cry from other magical girl shows where the threat is one that could not occur in our world (i.e. CardCaptor Sakura.  Not dissing this CCS, just saying it's different).  Sure, the Raaja monsters wouldn't exist, but the problems they cause in episode 12 are a very real concern for the world, as we are not equipped to handle that kind of disaster.  There isn't a long, time-consuming transformation sequence in every episode.  Juna doesn't even transform in all of them.  When she does, the transformation into her glowing avatar form is instantaneous, except for her first one, which understandably merits the attention.  When she's transformed, those around her don't see her as the glowing pink-orange-cyan creature with the enormous bow; they see her as Juna pretending to hold a bow and arrow.  She does not fight monsters in every episode, which is astounding for a 13-episode series that at first appears to be a monster-of-the-week show.  The story focuses more on how Juna relates to the world as she becomes more attuned it and how she relates to her people now that she can physically see invisible creatures and connections.  The series also does not have an opening credits sequence, starting the show right away each time while the credits roll over the action.  The show can give us much more story this way.  It really is amazing how much more story you can get when you dispense with opening credits and drawn-out transformation scenes.

A major theme is disconnect.  Juna feels, and then literally sees, the disconnect between her fellow humans.  At one point during a phone conversation with Tokio, she astral projects to his room and feels what he feels; as he tells her he loves her, she feels that he does not actually feel the love, and is instead going through the motions of a romantic relationship.  In another episode, she watches her boyfriend and his father argue; she sees the soundwaves traveling, but the things that each wants to make the other understand miss because neither is listening to the other.  They're so rigid in their opinions that they can't make an impresion on the other and change anything.  Juna also has a disconnect with her own philosophy.  She recites an archery mantra about becoming one with the target and breathing with the Earth.  If she actually followed the advice all of the time instead of just stating it, she would have no trouble with the Raaja, and...well, we would have had a very different ending (and a much shorter series).

The visuals are beautiful.  The series integrates hand-drawn animation and 3-D animation very well--the lights on the Ferris Wheel and most of the Raaja are integrated seamlessly with the 2-D animation.  On rare occasion the show even inserts live action footage to bring home its point about environmentalism.  These inserts are usually in the epilogues.  The color palette is extensive, sometimes conveying a wealth of bright colors that rival Gankutsuou (though without the stationary patterns), other times giving darker tones when the story demands it (such as the final two episodes), all displaying the new world that Juna sees.

The music is some of the best I've heard for an anime.  It's done by Yoko Kanno, who also did the music for such series as Wolf's Rain and Escaflowne, and she always delivers great music.  It's very appropriate for every scene and the material in general.  One piece has a girl singing acapella; more energetic pieces with resonante chanting appear in the action scenes; quiet, slow, and mournful themes underscore the ending episodes.  All great, though I wished they'd used "Didn't It Rain?" more than once.  There is a special feature on the DVD (which features audio in 2.0 and 5.1) that allows you to listen to the isolated score, so you can watch the visuals and hear the music without having to listen to all that pesky dialogue.

Wait a minute.  Does that mean that something in the dialogue drags this show down?

Oh, yes.

This series has a message: environmentalism is good and humans are screwing up the planet.  That's a fine message to have, and it's admirable for a show to tackle it.  The problem is, Arjuna doesn't just preach--at times, it hits you over the head with a grand piano until you're dizzy.

Case in point: Juna eats at a place called Meriken Burger, which is a too thinly-veiled shot at American food that could have been removed.  She cannot eat this kind of food at all because, now that she has hyper senses as the Avatar of Time, she feels the processing, preservatives, pesticides, and cruelty to animals that went into making it.  The chemicals in food are a worry to consumers because of the dangers they pose to the body, which is brought home by Tokio getting sick, so this is a valid concern for the series.  The over-the-top moment comes when Juna tries to eat a burger but finds herself literally repulsed by it.  It's as if her mouth and the burger are both north poles of a magnet and repel no matter how hard she tries to force them together.  We already know that Juna is disgusted by processed food--the creators didn't need to hammer the point home this much.  We also don't need to see Juna's friends forcing her to eat it so much--once is enough.

In episode 4, Juna and Tokio spend some time with an old hermit who lets his garden grow wild because he despises the techniques of fertilisation and tilling--they strip the land of the bugs and weeds that plants can grow with.  He spend almost the whole episode preaching to them about the benefits of letting bugs eat vegetables and letting weeds grow, as weeds are plants too.  He does have a point about the weeds, but the heavy-handed way in which he lectures the two and shoots down all of their comments gets grating.  You feel like you're in school instead of watching a show.  Also, he doesn't acknowledge the actual necessity of having a greater vegetable turnout in order to feed the very large population that didn't exist hundreds of years ago when the world could get by on fewer crops.  He attributes crop dusting and tilling to laziness rather than the need to feed a growing population.  The messages of all plants being neither good or bad and food becoming a part of you are fine, but executed in too preachy a manner.  I don't want to see a guy just lecturing me about natural gardening.  I have to say, though, you'll probably watch what you eat a little more closely the day after you watch this.

The show does much better in its philosophy when it gets off the topic of environmentalism.  Juna goes to a teacher's house to hear what he really thinks, as he teaches strictly from the book and mumbles all class.  He decides to teach her something, and he leads her to that message by asking her questions that seem to be unrelated until she displays just the thing that he wanted to warn her against doing.  In another episode, Juna talks to S.E.E.D. employee Teresa, who dislikes most uses of medicine because her mother used a certain medicine while pregnant with her which caused Teresa to be born a hermaphrodite.  Raised as a girl and not told the truth until she was much older, she was crushed when she found out she couldn't have children.  (Could this also be a subtle jab at the fact that parents and doctors want all babies to be easily classified as male or female and don't want to deal with intersexes?)

This series would have been more effective if it had been done like Kino's Journey, which presents its philosophical issues as they are and lets the viewers draw their own conclusions.  The "Before Birth" episode of Arjuna approaches this as Juna, via astral projection, watches a child being born in a hospital.  The doctors tell the mother that they are doing the right thing by inducing labor early.  Juna can feel the newborn's thoughts: she wasn't ready to be born and is scared in this bright place where she is immediately separated from her mother.  Juna and Chris's interpreter Cindy then talk about what Juna sensed.  The show doesn't let us take any side here, but I'm willing to give it a pass because nobody seems to talk about various childbirth methods and how the cold, bright, stressful hospital environments are often bad for birthing women and their babies.  It also connects back to the teacher episode where everybody does what is easy rather than considering each case separately and doing what's truly best for each individual.  (In fact, lying on the back is a very bad birthing position--it puts too much strain on the back, legs, doesn't make use of gravity, and contricts the pelvis.  The reason doctors recommend it is because it's the easiest position for the deliverer to help deliver the baby.)

Another odd thing is that nobody tells Juna what she's supposed to do, even though they know.  Chris tells her to fight the Raaja and to use her bow, but not to kill it.  This makes sense--Juna may kill Raaja, but more always spring up because the problem that creates Raaja still exists.  Nevertheless, someone might have been a little more clear to Juna about what she was supposed to do instead of killing, and then leaving it up to her to draw on her inner strength and that of the Earth to accomplish her mission.  If you're going to trust the safety of the world to one person, you'd better make sure that person knows what she's doing after a certain length of time.  If the writers had figured a way to make Juna's objective less confusing to everyone, and if more of the preaching had been done like the teacher example, then this show would have been something quite special.

Nevertheless, I would still recommend it to those who like good music and visuals, want a magical girl anime with a more grown-up storyline, and to environmentalists.

Next up: more anime action with Kino's Journey.