My mother dying almost pales in comparison.

After watching this series on dvd i was emotionally destroyed for 2 weeks!, yes 2 WEEKS! and at one point, i cried after replaying a few scenes in my mind.

As a fantastic Anime i would recommend it to anyone. On the other hand i would recommend it to no-one other than ex military hardened soldiers, whom even so i believe would be fighting back tears after this.

I have to agree that the motives and actions of the main cast were rather convoluted through out the series, which hampered my attempts to connect to the characters. I think actually if that problem didn’t exist, I would have liked the series a lot better.

In summery, I would say this anime had quite a bit of potential, and in the beginning it did. But as the series went on it got worse and worse in terms of characters, story, and presentation.

@Sasa: I try to avoid political commentary wherever possible, although I admit I take it for granted that my lack of opinion in that subject and my pacifist views are obvious from my writing already. Misunderstandings are bound to happen I guess. As for the way the characterisation is handled, I was really impressed but like you had a lot of mixed feelings concerning the characters’ motives and decisions. Your points are noted though, and will hopefully be addressed in my second post on the series. Sadly I have a bit of writer’s block today so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow!

In my eyes, Saikano had both: It was glorifying war and showing its cruelties at the same time, and I seriously didn’t know what to think about the series. In addition, the morality of love was somewhat blurry and questionable too: Chise and Shuji were portrayed as a truly loving couple, but then, both of them engaged into an at least physical relationship with somebody else, even resulting in jealousy scenes.
However, Akemi’s death has had a huge impact on me, I think it is one of the most powerful scenes anime has ever produced, and considering these memorable merits, Saikano is still very high in my esteem. I am glad that people still talk about this series and lots have actually watched it.
There also is a really great AMV with Shiina Ringo - Love is blind, I can’t find it on Youtube though. -.- It really reflects the emotional impact Saikano has on the viewer.

@kdp: I found the same thing with Grave of the Fireflies - it’s a brilliant film but I still haven’t brought myself to rewatch it yet.

@Chris: I’ve heard good things about Now and Then, Here and There but I think it may have been one of those series ‘lost’ in the Geneon fiasco. I hope this isn’t the case because I’m quite interested in watching it. As for the violence I’ve never served in the military but Saikano’s approach really left an impression on me - it’s going back to that contrast with, say, Gundam and Appleseed, who have this jarring contrast between condemning the morality of waging war but at the same time making entertainment out of the action scenes. I think news coverage is desensitising us, but that’s a whole issue all of itself.

@korosora: the review for the OAV is coming up later. Promise! ^_^

@Cameron Probert: I can’t be sure on this until I’ve read it, but I suspect that the art style of the anime may be trying to replicate that of the manga, so that’s more the original author’s decision than the studio’s. Either way, I concede that it’s very effective at lulling the viewer into a false sense of security with all the carefree summer school days, before everything goes horribly wrong.

Although, I’m largely torn on SaiKano. On the one hand, I think it does all of the things that you pointed out. It definitely portrays the effects of war in a way that is heart-wrenching. In fact, I actually think that the childish, pastel character designs highlight rather than detract from that distinction. One of my favorite things about the series is that fact that everything in the town “felt” normal but there was this undercurrent that something big and horrible was happening somewhere else. And it was lurking right on the edge of the consciousness of everyone. But they were forced or needed to (depending on which way you look at it) to keep on living.

In a lot of ways, it reminded me about my feelings on Iraq. Especially with movies like Stop-Loss coming out over here and the fact that they’re met with such a cool shoulder because people really don’t want to face what’s going on right now, they’d rather stay in their pastel world.

Which is probably why I’m torn on it. In general, I partake in fiction to escape reality, to see people do things that I can’t or won’t be able to do. So while I think Saikano is an experience, it’s a painful, heart-wrenching and emotionally draining experience. Because like one of the commenters said, no one is really able to do anything about the situation.

So I’m not sure if that says something about me. Or about the show.

The scariest thing in Saikano that depressed me the most was how little influence everyone had over the events. Most stories in books and TV follow characters that have influence over the future. However, here we have a story where even Chise, who is extremely powerful, is basically just one of many powerful things being thrown around. As she comments at one point, her presence as a weapon was not required - she was just a convenient way of doing what they could have done with other weapons. It’s a sobering and depressing thought that no matter what you do, it might not matter.

I once again wonder why anime, and modern Japan in general, portrays warfare in film in the way it does.

This is a country where the people who remember WW2 remember it VERY clearly, and treat the subject very sombrely. Their war memorials have the same tone towards this–that of a grave mistake, and humanity’s need to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

Japan remembers its humiliation in WW2 VERY well; perhaps you might want to not phrase your question quite this way. After all, your country won the war.