Stark700

Anyone who has read or seen Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) will recognize the name, Yoshitoki Ooima. To Your Eternity is her latest work that combines her artistic talent woven into a mesmeric story. To describe To Your Eternity is not simple. It's more than just a supernatural drama. It casts an emotional journey following an unique character And without a shadow of a doubt, To Your Eternity is among one of the best series I've seen this year. When I first read the manga before the anime adaptation, I had anticipated various degrees of emotional drama. The author has been known to amplify humanemotions to tell and show a story. By doing so, she's able to communicate to the audience why characters are motivated by certain actions. That's no different when applied for To Your Eternity. The most prominent example applies to Fushi, a being with immortality who can transform into people and creatures. What's fascinating about Fushi is that the more transforms, he becomes more human. As we come to learn and understand about Fushi's character, we can draw upon how he changes. From interactions to his own personal motivations, Fushi is perhaps one of the most complex characters in the series. And that is to say, To Your Eternity is somewhat of a niche show. It's atypical even for a supernatural drama. Following Fushi's journey shows how alienated and ignorant he is about humanity. From the beginning, his attributes mirrors those of an animal. He is curious about the world around him but fails to understand certain elements. As he witness more realistic events in life (namely death), Fushi begins to understand the concept of humanity. And because he is immortal, death is not something he fears or even truly understands. Fushi initially reminds me of Doomsday, a character from the popular Superman comic books where what kills him makes him stronger. In this series, he adapts with death and revives even more after being killed over and over. But unlike Doomsday, Fushi becomes more compassionate and understanding about himself around others. And as every episode ventures on, we get to see his character evolution by embracing the essence of humanity. Throughout the show, Fushi meets and develops meanginful relationships among with his companions. The most prominent among these includes Gugu, Pioran, Tonari, and March. They act as surrogate family that shapes his character the more he interacts with them. In fact, he even received his name from March and without her, Fushi would be nameless. Being one of the kindest characters in the show, she accepts Fushi for who he is without judgment or prejudice. And thanks to her influence, we can say that Fushi matures into a more human character. Similarly, he develops a brotherly bond with Gugu and a sisterly relationship with Tonari. Both of these characters makes profound effects in his life as he grows to care and protect them. And because of his immortality, Fushi shows fearlessness when defending his companions. Perhaps the most guidance Fushi receives is from Pioarn, as she becomes his personal mentor. With her guidance, Fushi begins to learn the human language and how every action has a consequence, something he had been igornant of since his very existence. Unfortunately for Fushi, not everyone he meets is an ally or friend. These include the dangerous Nokkers (supernatural creatures in their world) he encounters or the obsessive Hayase. The latter evolves into a more twisted character, a polar opposite of Fushi's evolution. Indeed, Hayase represents the dark side of humanity. The way she fascinates about immortality and developing a twisted love for Fushi is what seperates her from any human character in the show. In later episodes, you can just see how far her obessesion carries with her beliefs. That being said, I think To Your Eternity is able to strike its character cast with such fascinating and colorful personalities. Every relevant characters brings an important part to Fushi's development, whether it's to shape him into more human or make him into a understanding character to us. Regardless how much you understand this show, it shouldn't take long for your eyes to see the unique aspect of the anime's animation quality. Brain's Base has been know for some of their noticable work including My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU and Durarara!! In this show, they take on the approach to illustrate a fictional setting filled with emotional drama. The background scenes and chereography for its world fiction connects with its story tone. However, it is the emotional expressions of the cast that brings out the anime's drama at its finest. This is achieved through animating the behaviors and emotions for the characters. In particular, Fushi is the show's greatest achievement at showing human-like feelings. And lastly, the anime is known for some of its more mature content namely the violence and occasional sexual tone. This shouldn't distract the audience from the anime's overall presentation but it's still noticable in some episodes. To Your Eternity's stellar soundtrack also cannot be ignored if we look at how it synchronizes with its overall supernatural drama. From emotional melancholy to cherry orchestra, it's impressive how the soundtrack can further enhance the anime viewing experience. Fushi's voice also evolves from its toddler-like stuttering to a more mature human voice tone throughout the show. We can't ever forget how much of a character Fushi changes and it reminds us how important that change is. This is an anime of the year candidate and I'm not joking. Even if you came into the series as a fresh viewer, it's going to be an unique experience for a supernatural drama. Let it be known that To Your Eternity sells its story exactly how it wants to with its creative character cast, unique storytelling, and ultimately, a show that touches upon the deepest elements of humanity.

NextUniverse

To Your Eternity is a story about life. The struggles, the memories, the people we meet. As a whole, To Your Eternity initially does a solid job at presenting such events and ideas, from what I have seen of it in the past, it plays well with this whole journey concept it has going for itself. It doesn't feel half-hearted, the characters are believable, and for the most part, it was something to look forward to as you sway your way into the oncoming episodes. This, however, is true until it isn't. The latter half of the story sure goes on the same initial path asthe first, however, with a substantial objective of the former half somewhat achieved (basically intelligence acquired), the story had to drive itself around a new fundamental for storytelling, which it did, but the result was lazy writing. It was evident that the writers didn't even try to fish out new ideas and instead resorted to "generic" ideas, generic isn't bad, but I'd say a poor shift is. The characters themselves felt like they were for the wrong demographic too, with random shounen-esque ideas coming for the sake of "there was nothing else to do", when in fact, the initial dark side would come and go when it was conveniently called for. It's a sad downfall, but it isn't one of a catastrophe, just one that didn't hold up to what some could consider an "initial lie". The audiovisuals are relativity consistent, you know, they looked nice and sounded good, as they should, the general. That is until the latter half where if you are astute, you'd notice the drop in animation quality, it shouldn't hinder overall experience, in fact, it will only hinder if you care about it too much, however that is not to say it passes as a fault in my eyes. Maybe there were some background issues going on around this one, I don't have the information on me to come to such a conclusion, but considering the work ethics of studios, I think an educated guess shouldn't misinform people too much, though it's not like that's directly related to the final product anyway. Overall, it's a fun and interesting experience, that had its faults, sure, so much so that I could not possibly call this a masterpiece or those other fancy words I am too dumb to understand. The anime got me thinking about the themes it had for itself, mostly relative in its anime universe, not superimposed onto a reality. But it does get you some thought as to, what you would do if you were in the same position. Is immortality a blessing or a curse for humans? Well, that's for another time.