Synopsis (From MAL):
Every 30 years, a new princess is chosen from the Hime family to serve the Hayagami. The time has come again, but over these past years, records state not a single female has been born, save for one, the 15-year-old Arata. The only problem is, Arata is actually a male! Forced to disguise himself and take the place of the princess candidate until a formal one can be found, he attends the festival only to witness the current princess, Kokuri-hime, murdered, and his own life is forfeit as well, by the hands of the princess' personal guard, the 12 Shinshou. As he runs for his life, Kannagi of the 12 convinces everyone that Arata is the one who has murdered the princess instead, and now everyone in the Imperial Court is after his head!
Review:
Three episodes in, this action show about a kid with serious self-image and trust issues who is thrust into another world filled with intrigue and magic holds great promise, if it can avoid getting whiny. So far that is the biggest worry I have about the main character, Arata. He seems to be a bit of a whiner. Not that he doesn't seem to have a reason to be a bit down on the world, based on the bits and pieces we've been shown of his life before swapping bodies with the Arata from the magical world, not to mention the rough time he has had after the change.
Art wise, the show is fairly impressive. The backgrounds in the mundane world are fairly standard, but with good use of color and lighting. The magical world, on the other hand, is vibrant and alive, with imaginative landscapes and impressive magical effects. The animation in the mundane world was a bit less impressive, but it was still solidly done. The character designs are also good, though I'm never a huge fan of the perma-chibi characters like the grandmother, she does provide a good amount of comic relief. The other character designs are all quite attractive, though it is a bit heavy on the male characters. I realize that the manga this is adapted from is published in the Shounen Sunday magazine, but with the bishounen designs and the general male heavy cast, it almost seems more like a shojo title. (Though I would expect it to be a reverse harem if it were one, and the main character isn't a girl. I suppose it could still turn out to be shounen-ai…)
The story, three episodes in, is quite strong, though also quite standard. Boy gets transported to a fantasy world where he discovers he has magical powers and is some sort of “hero they've been waiting for.” (Though, technically, it is boy from a fantasy world switches places with boy from the real world and the real world boy finds he has powers…) The twist here is that the main character has about as much self esteem as a turnip and some serious trust issues. It appears that his personal problems are the driving force that will make him strive to make sure that he doesn't let down the people who are placing their trust in him, regardless of how foolish he thinks people are for trusting other people at all.
Episode Highlights:
The first episode starts out with a fairly lengthy section with the “real world” Arata, demonstrating how much he hates his life. It doesn't give any major back-story about why the people who appear to want to bully and isolate him at school act the way that they do, but by the time we get to the end of this part of the episode, his only friend has betrayed him, though it looked less like real betrayal to me and more like “these guys are gonna beat me up if I don't say what they want to hear”.
The action then shifts to the fantasy world, where the fantasy world Arata is having a pretty bad day himself. It seems that their society is held together by the magical power of the Princess that rules the land. The Princess can only come from the Hime clan, who have the special magical power that holds the gods, which are embodied in swords called Hayagami, in check. Once every thirty years, a new woman from the Hime clan is supposed to take over for the previous Princess. The problem is that there have been no females born to the Hime clan for over 60 years now. The current Princess has been serving all that time. Arata's grandmother, for some reason, lied about a daughter being born, leading everyone to believe that the transition will be taking place soon. Unfortunately, Arata is not a girl. Her idea is to have him pretend to be a girl while a last ditch effort to find some shirttail relative that can take the job of Princess is carried out.
Arata goes to the the ceremony in drag, accompanied by Kotoha, a childhood friend who is of the Uneme clan, who are healers that serve the Hime clan. She gives him a stone amulet which she was given by the Princess, for luck I presume. At the Ceremony, Arata finds out that the twelve Shinsho warriors, who wield the Hayagami, have a plot to betray the old Princess and the new one, claiming control of the world. One of the twelve tries to kill the Princess, but she uses her powers to basically put herself into stasis. Discovering that Arata is a man, they have a convenient scapegoat to pin the attempted murder of the Princess on. Arata escapes from them and runs into the Kando Forest, which is magical and is known to “eat” peoples memories.
In the real world, the other Arata is busy feeling down and deciding to never trust anyone again. The other Arata runs into the magical forest, then all of a sudden, the two of them are floating in mid-air, followed by a magical body swap.
Now in this strange fantasy world, Arata appears to be a bit over his head. He cowers to hide from the people firing arrows at him, then there is a brief shot of the old rusty sword that the grandmother had, and he is teleported away from the danger, and into the arms of Kotoha.
She leads him to Arata's grandmother's house, where the old lady seems to be the only one that gets the concept that this Arata is not the Arata that left her house in a dress earlier. Soon enough, the Shinsho that attacked the Princess finds them, and threatens the women if Arata doesn't give himself up. He decides to put up a fight and grabs the old rusty sword to defend himself. One thing leads to another and, with grandma's help, he activates the hidden power of the sword. It is a Hayagami, and because he can activate it, it means that Arata has been selected as a Sho.
Episode 2:
Starting where the first episode left us, we find out that Granny's old rusty sword is actually a Hayagami, just like the 12 Shinsho wield, making Arata a Sho. The Hayagami are the gods of this world, which, if memory serves, the Princess has to keep in check with her powers. Kannagi, the Sho who attacked the Princess and is trying to kill Arata, is shocked that Arata's Hayagami basically cancels out his. After Kannagi retreats, the house collapses, and, I presume, Granny used magic to port them away to some other location, Arata learns about the whole Hayagami thing. Kotoha still seems confused, thinking that cooking Arata's favorite foods will help him regain his “lost memories” and not understanding where the necklace, which was a present from the Princess to her and she gave Arata before he went to the ceremony, went.
Back in the mundane world, it seems that Arata's mom and sister, while wondering why Arata isn't answering his phone, find him sitting in the middle of town with no shirt on. It is clear that they see “their” Arata, just like everyone on the other world see the one they expect.
Back in Fantasy world, Kannagi has tracked down Arata, threatens to kill Granny if he won't come peacefully, and Arata doesn't have his Hayagami to fight him with anyway, so Arata is captured and taken to face trial. The 12 Shinsho have decided to do a trial for show, and to impress the people with their authority, as opposed to just killing him outright.
On the way to his trial, the necklace starts glowing and a portal to the other world appears. Arata sees the other Arata in his room. They come to an understanding of sorts about their situation and the fantasy Arata tells our hero that it was Kannagi who tried to kill the Princess while the rest of the 12 just stood and watched. Their betrayal strikes a chord with Arata.
At the trial, the 12 Shinsho accuse Arata of attempting to murder the Princess. When he tells the truth about how the 12 Shinsho betrayed the Princess and that it was Kannagi who tried to kill her, the crowd just take it as a desperate plea of a guilty man. However, since he wants to learn the secret of Arata's Hayagami, so his sentence is not death, but an island prison that seems to be something along the lines of “death on the installment plan.”
On his way to his new prison island home, the guards bring in Kotoha, who stowed away so she could go with him. The guards have no problem with condemning her to Arata's fate. However, she managed to sneak in his school bag, with the Hayagami in it. (One wonders how exactly she carried it under her dress without them figuring it out… hmmmm… Impressive thigh muscles?)
He tries to activate the sword to escape, but nothing happens. The necklace lights up and he hears the voice of the Princess calling his name and then they are apparently suspended in mid air and lights converge, turning into an image of the Princess. She calls Arata her new Shinsho and asks him to hear her request. Cue the ED!
Episode 3:
Starting where the previous episode ended, the Princess tells Arata that his speech about the betrayal of the 12 Shinsho made her very happy and it confirmed for her that Arata's heart would “open the path.” She explains that she has used the Amatsuriki, the magic of the Hime clan, “to keep the Hayagami together as one and control their Kamui.” (Kamui is the power of the god in the Hayagami, I guess.) However, with her out of the way, the Hayagami have been freed. It seems that, if the Sho start wielding the power of the swords freely, it will distort the justice of the world and cause the people to suffer. She says that she doesn't know how long she will be able to survive and she wants Arata to lead Amawakuni (their country? their world? I don't know. I think its the first time the name was mentioned…) She also requests that he bring her his Hayagami before her life ends. When he says he can't because he has no power she tells him that she can only trust him. (There seems to be a theme here…)
With that, they are back in their flying ship. Arata is grousing about whether he has what it takes to lead a nation. Kotoha tells him he can, obviously, since the Princess trusts him and she does too. But she suggests that he put away his Hayagami for safe keeping. Where should he keep it? She shows him:
Evidently, Sho are able to store their Hayagami inside their body, which only freaks Arata out a little bit…
They reach their pleasant little island prison and the welcoming committee is a bit underwhelming. While most of the prisoners are muttering about him being “the Princess Killer”, one young kid and his even younger, and quite annoying, sidekick go on the offensive. They are a bit taken aback by the fact that he has a “hot chick” with him, but decide that taking off his head is the best course of action.
Their plans are interrupted by “The Reckoning”, when the warden of the prison randomly selects two people to be devoured by some big tube things. An opportunistic woman tells them how things work, in exchange for one of Kotoha's hair pins.
We find out that the rest of the Shinsho have no idea why Kannagi chose to send Arata to the prison island instead of killing him, but he seems to be the guy in charge, so they'll wait to find out what his plan is when he reveals it. Afterward, Kotoha finds a nice hot spring like bath for Arata, but doesn't join him in the water, though she does offer to wash his back for him, much to his embarrassment. When he winces in pain about the cut he got in the fight earlier, she heals him. She explains that the women of the Uneme clan have healing powers so they can protect their Hime clan masters and that her powers can heal more than just wounds.
While getting dressed, he realized he needs to thank Kotoha for all her help, but before he can get it out, another Reckoning comes and she falls into a hole that opens up in the floor. Arata tries to find her, but is attacked by a bunch of thugs thinking they can get off the island by separating his head from his body. While he sulks about his general uselessness, a strange figure asks him why he, a Sho chosen by a Hayagami, is weeping. When he tells him it is because he couldn't protect Kotoha when she trusted him. The figure asks if he will betray the people he trusts and then disappears.
After that, the a woman who told them about the reckoning shows up and tells him that Kanate took a her someplace. Kanate is the boy that attacked him earlier. She gives him the info for free, musing about how painful it is to be separated from someone precious to you. Meanwhile, Kotoha is chatting with Kanate and Ginchi, the annoying sidekick character, and thanking them for saving her. Ginchi goes to “get some food” as an excuse to give his “big bro” some alone time with the hot chick, but Kanate has no idea how to deal with that, so he goes to check on Ginchi to get away. What he finds is Arata kneeling over Ginchi's body and makes the assumption that Arata had attacked him. Using an “attack first ask questions never” approach, he goes after Arata, who draws his Hayagami to defend himself.
After some manly attacking and stuff, Ginchi wakes up and tells Kanate that he has it all wrong. Then the guy that actually hurt Ginchi comes around the corner and attacks. Arata dispatches him pretty easily.
It turns out that Arata had saved Ginchi when he was attacked by some thugs that were holding a grudge against him for some reason. They took Ginchi's ring, which Kanate runs off to get back from them. Kotoha heals the boy and he tells them their back story: He was kidnapped by a gang of theives when he was “a kid” and that is where he met Kanata, who he calls “Bro”. The gang got into trouble and he and Kanata were framed for it and ended up on the island prison. The ring was something his