When you lose the one you love, what would you do to get them back? Would you fight the world for another chance to tell them how you feel? Do you love Mecha, magic, monsters and parody played straight as part of extensive world-building? Welcome to my review of number 9 in my personal top 10 Anime List from the last 30 years I've been a fan. Will we be in parallel or at a divergence for this one?
The premise for this series is kind of difficult to explain. There are many moving parts and a very large cast of characters. This was also part five of a multi universe, time distorted epic tale spanning across six different sub series with almost no direct crossover between any of the parts, yet the events of each one fed into each other to build the history of a setting pretty similar to what Type Moon had done with Fate. You don't need to previous parts to enjoy Horizon, but expect to get lost quite a bit. That's by intent but I will bring that up briefly in the spoiler section for anyone that's curious or has seen this.
Sometime in the past, an apocalypse happened that made the Earth uninhabitable but also caused humanity to return to it after traveling the stars for centuries. This event erased most of their history and trapped them inside of a pocket dimension with the task of restoring all of reality by reenacting what's left of their history. Most of the series and plot took place at Musashi Ariadust Academy, a prestigious high school that happens to also be a full blown nation on what seemed like a reference to the Star Destroyer from Star Wars.
Most of the story followed the antics of the school chancellor Tori Aoi and his classmates as they navigated their lives in a doomed world and defended themselves against other nations. It was this weird combination of war drama, school life battle shonen, ecchi harem, and philosophical debate over whether or not humanity deserved to continue. It was also about Tori and his class dealing with the loss of Horizon Ariadust several years back and their search for meaning from it.
The setting and actual plot were extremely dark but most of the tone was absurd and comedic. I adore how completely nonsensical the moment to moment situations were in this. It's not classified as a comedy but so much of it makes me laugh each time I've watched it. For example, almost every scene Tori's in where he must use his authority, he would get completely naked and diffuse the situation through the fourth wall breaking power of Anime censorship. Most characters were shown to have the ability to pull up a holographic menu to access different skills, do their schoolwork or communicate across distances. He frequently used his to hide his private bits during moments of confrontation.
This is one of the few English dubs I'd fully recommend over the original Japanese for the first season. The original Japanese leaned heavily into the darker moments more than I was comfortable with and took the material as serious as it would be if it was a pure Anime drama. The English dub, on the other hand, had fun with it making random references to obscure memes, pop culture and at least one related to a character the voice actor had voiced prior without any of them feeling "of their time." One throwaway line involved a metallic bat like sword being named "Venus" but the accent of the voice actor made it come out as "Penis." I'm almost certain this was intentional; if not, it still gave me the full Pikachu face the first time.
The soundtrack consisted of a tantalizing cacophony of electronica, techno, and equal flourishes of American frontier and Celtic melodies. It was a very rich and flavorful mixture that typically shouldn't work but did for the themes and tone throughout. My favorite part of the experience was the entirety of the musical soundscape, composed by Tatsuya Katou. Until I looked him up for this review, I hadn't thought about Phantom: Requiem of the Phantom in over a decade but still revisit some of its soundtrack when I'm in the mood for atmosphere and suspense. I didn't realize they shared a composer but it makes sense now.
Both openings complimented each other and told a complete story when combined together but also stood well on their own. "Terminated" - Minori Chihara had a mixture of comedy and action set pieces for its visual presentation. The vocal performance reminded me of that of the first opening for Ikkitousen from the early 2000s mixed with the opening for Chaika , both of which are on one of my playlists (labeled "Smexy Mix" for those that are curious).
"Zone/Alone" - Minori Chihara (the correct opening that doesn't spoil most of the of the second season's story was surprisingly difficult to find, so here's a beautiful woman instead). This one was just a race to the finish and I was all for it. When this opening showed up after I finished the first season, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, but once the story was finished, the choice was made clear and possibly the best one any Anime studio had made. It was perfect for where I was left by the end.
Now, the endings I'll leave to your discovery. I want you to go out and watch this series as soon as you can if anything here has piqued your interest. Both endings were in opposition of each other but equally serviced the two halves of the total experience. I could gush for days about both on their own and have a desire to, you know. They may show up on a future A-Side. I haven't decided yet.
This was a Studio Sunrise series when they were at their peak with Mecha designs for Gundam and their other properties. Despite not being shown often, the mechs in this had appeal to me as someone who's not a huge fan of the genre. They were mostly not these massive metal monstrosities but instead the more plausible kind that you could realistically build in your garage with enough skill. They were primarily a major part of the Catholic army during their early invasion and were briefly shown in the first opening if you have any interest in seeing what they looked like.
Flying vehicles were a staple of travel such as the two witches' pseudo mechanized brooms, the Mana powered military carriers slowly traversing the skies in various backdrops and the one or two hovercraft. They all had a similar treatment. Many of the 3D elements were smoothly composited in with the 2D characters and backdrops. They felt a part of this maddened world and used sparingly enough to not overstay their welcome. There was one instance of it that took awhile to get used to. I'll briefly bring it back up when I talk about the few things I dislike (which will probably never stop being a problem for any future rewatch).
Almost every character was designed around either a character archetype, something the designer was playing at the time, or a random reference to something very Japanese. This was not at all a detriment for me; this choice gave variety and life to a world that probably shouldn't have it. It's refreshing when creators do a grab bag like this and make it work as well it did here.
One of my favorite characters was the Anime equivalent of Bill Nye the Science Guy in the first arc of the story. He was unhinged in both English and Japanese while looking like a scholar and coming across as the friendly grandfather archetype seen in many children's Anime. He wasn't on screen much but still left a lasting impression on me the few times he was.
I'm surprised at how well handled the around 50 total different power systems on display were. Each had their own rules, unique animations, required costs, and sound work, all of which did not need any of the time or resources put into them but would have destroyed their scenes without. At the end of my first watch, I had to pause and take a breath. The biggest strength of this series was the amount of extra effort and care put into every aspect of its presentation. It is an obsessively polished product from a time when that was starting to go out of style as studios focused more on releasing multiple series simultaneously to gain the most reach and chance of return on investment. It will forever be one of the most aesthetically pleasing works of fiction I've seen.
Screenshot taken from Episode 1
And now, some of the bad parts of this almost ruined the experience for me on my first watch until I finished and spent countless nights just processing things. As shown in this screenshot, the women in this series were all very much designed to be pure fan service in every frame and Tori was a sexual deviant in a multitude of scenes. His introduction in the story involved him groping his teacher as a form of tactical assault during a combat training exercise. It was uncomfortable despite how much fun I was having with the rest of that opening episode. The first four episodes were such a great introduction to everything to come outside of the groping.
Season 2 also replaced around half of the dub cast and the vast majority of the replacements were not the characters I grew to love. The worst was the Vatican Pope, Innocentius, for me. In Season 1, he had a substantially larger role to play in the story and was played by a voice actor that sounded familiar but was largely uncredited in most official sources. In Season 2, I'm pretty certain he was replaced by one of the original 2006 Higurashi dub voice actors and that was not a trauma I needed to experience again. He wasn't the only victim but his character profile was completely changed from that of the head of an evil organization with plans for world domination to a court jester that happens to smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day and owns a cat named Karen.
Now, let's briefly discuss the OVA sequel to the end of Season 2 that was animated by a different studio. I think that it shouldn't exist at all. Even though I would love for a Season 3, where the Anime ended was a satisfying conclusion for me. The OVA took place several years in the future during the next apocalypse, which was prophesied in one of the first scenes in Episode 1. It's not that it was bad on its own; I think it's a fun stand alone. It just didn't work as a Horizon extended episode. Some of its implications retconned established lore in the main series, certain characters were wholly altered in a way that didn't make sense and the animation and voice work felt rushed. There was a noticeable dip in quality in both animation and audio presentation.
The only time the 3D really distracted me was when it was used for breast and butt shots. There were many sexy, busty women legal and otherwise in the cast. There were several camera pans to both regions and at least one instance I noticed a frame where the seam in the model briefly showed. It's one of those instances where if I hadn't been as engrossed and invested in the series, I wouldn't have noticed it. It's such a minor detail that barely affected my experience but still was a negative once it became apparent to me.
Brief Spoiler and Trigger Warning for This Next Section
This spoils the end of the first arc but ripples through the rest of the story.
The moment I fell in love with Horizon was the same moment that Tori learned she was still alive and inside the body of the grey haired doll (think something like a Replicant from the Bladerunner franchise) shown in the promotional artwork. In this setting, souls can be processed, refined and sold as both a currency and a material good as revealed in Episode 4 that the Bill Nye reference was Horizon's tortured father. In his grief, he harvested and divided her soul into the 9 Armaments of Deadly Sins, the weapons that were prophesied to bring upon the end of all humanity. It was also revealed that Tori accidentally killed her and then attempted suicide soon after. She was his most precious comrade; he was just chasing after the girl he had a crush on like he frequently did prior.
They were around the age of 9 or 10 when this happened and how the Anime presented these two reveals was a master class of show and tell without breaking the tone or pace setup in the episodes leading up to it. It gave context for every action Tori made during the entire run time. He will forever remain a partially broken man but will not let that harm anyone else. Soon after, he made a contract with a god to gain the power to protect Horizon and everyone he cared about at the cost of never being sad again. Any tears he cries out of despair will kill him. His resolve to protect those he loved in such a permanent consequential way was something I could resonate with and relate to. It didn't make his perverse tendencies any less despicable but did add weight to what was presented as the comic relief character in a setting where he didn't initially belong.
My Closing Thoughts
This wasn't a delayed review by the way. I've been trying to release content every three to five days but needed a bit more time with this one because of how special it is to me. This is one of my top 10 Anime of all time and something that I needed to process my thoughts on. There's quite a bit more I'd love to say about it but I can't emphasize enough how hard it was to not double or triple the length of this review.
Have you seen this series? If so, what were your thoughts? Did you enjoy it too? If you enjoyed this review, feel free to vote, reply and reblog it. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful night.
Important Information
- Adapted from a light novel series written by Minoru Kawakami and illustrated by Satoyasu
- Studio: Sunrise
- Seasons / Episodes: Fall - Winter 2011 (26 episodes + 1 OVA)
- Genres: High School Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Parody, Romance, Post Apocalypse
- Similar Recommended Content: Helck (for a similar type of tone and not many people really talking about it; it's also getting a dub soon); Dream Eater Merry (for coming out only two years prior but being a bit more rough but just as abstract and fun for me)