Erin

VDon's review is very good, but I'd like to add my own voice in support of this show. It's not magic girl, or action-packed, or all Mary Sue/Pollyanna cute girls winning everyone's hearts. It has a slice of life feel, and describes the ups and downs of the life of Erin, from the time she's a young girl until she grows to adulthood and becomes a beastmaster. Erin faces many harsh realities of life at a young age, but because of her strength and the support of those around her, she grows from them. She doesn't always do the right thing, but she does learn from her mistakes.

Because of this, there are terribly sad, and also very uplifting moments. But a lot of the show is taken up with Erin's day to day activities, the things and people and events that shape her in more subtle ways than catastrophes do. And this is why I love the show. Yes, the highs and the lows really touch me. But that's because I have come to know Erin through watching her simply doing her best to live the life she feels she must. These slower portions give all the characters depth and definition, and make you come to care for them.

A note about the music: I love it, and feel it sets the perfect tone for the animation. And about the animation: I love that as well. The backgrounds have an unusual watercolor feel to them that reminds me of children's fantasy novel illustrations, slightly more artistic than typical anime fare.

I've had the pleasure of being able to really explore this title and while I was expecting some sort of cutesy nice girl anime, and it does have those moments, what I got instead was an anime with so much depth, plot and heart. This series is full of political infighting, civil rights struggles, war, and all sorts of action while still being able to relay a very morally grounded message of understanding and tolerance. The depth and relationships of the characters from Erin, to John the Bee Keeper, to the faculty and students of Kazalm very well written. It's a very well rounded anime that falls under the radar because of it's title and poster shots but it really is able to reach out to multiple audiences.

The story starts by building the character of Erin and giving you an idea of her background. Erin and her mother are descendant of the People of the Mist or the "Kiri", which is a nomadic tribe shrouded in mystery. The mystery surrounding the tribe is what causes the people around Erin and her mom to be discriminated against. Her mother married a man from a small town and left the Kiri lifestyle in order to raise Erin in her birthplace. Erin's father is deceased, but her grandfather is the village chief and allows her and her mother to stay because of his late son's wishes.

The backdrop of the story takes place in a country ruled by the Queen who depends on the Grand Duke's military to defend her territory through the use of toudas, which are large reptilian, almost dragonlike creatures, giving them an edge against foreign invaders. Erin is very sympathetic towards the touda, pitying them for being used by humans for war through use of the silencing whistle, a tool which emits a high pitched sound that a person can't hear, but will paralyze a touda. As war continues, members of the Grand Duke's faction start to put into motion assassination attempts on the Queen against the Duke's wishes to try and have him succeed the throne. These actions are born from members of the Queen's faction who are of noble lineage that carry disdain for the Duke. The political power struggle begins as people are trying to acquire and tame beastlords/King Beasts/Ohjus because they're the only animal strong enough to defeat touda's.

As the story goes on, Erin eventually has to learn a lot of harsh lessons in life as she grows up. Her problems, ranging from loss, abandonment, prejudice to her unfamiliarity to being part of a group, and her endless curiosity and impulsive nature. The main theme of the story though is not all sad. What really grabs you is HOW she deals with everything from a perspective of not having much experience, yet having this incredibly sharp intellect and amazing kindness. Her amazing understanding and compassion lead to her touching the hearts of everyone she comes across, human and beast alike, and coming to an amazing discovery of how to tame an animal without torturing it and simulating the animal's wild habitat. This knowledge of course comes with it's price as it is an extreme political asset were her methods to be discovered.

All in all, the story is magnificent, the characters are all well established and interesting. The animation and still backgrounds look amazing and the music is beautiful and while it doesn't change much, it absolutely fits in its scenes well. Overall, I absolutely recommend this title to anyone.

Are you a fan of Serei no Moribito? Are you also interested in fantasy with a slice of life kind of feel to it? Well, you don't have to look any further. This story revolves around a young girl call Erin. Her life is split so far into chapters of her life. From episodes 1 to 10, she grew up in a small village with her mother who is a Touda vet. But her life changed the summer of her tenth year. With these circumstances that befell her she came under the care of a professor name John. From episodes 12 to 21 it follows her life with John. From 22 to 30 follows her life in school. And from 31 on, you follow her as a young adult. Within the 30 episodes three main events occur to change her life and her convictions in where she stands a future beast master.

Many people are led to believe that this series is for young children because of the unique art and graphics. But underneath the simple artistry of the series, lies a complex story dealing with politics and how those in power use beasts for political leverage. And within this struggle, comes along a young girl who will unknowingly either turn the tides against or for the movements that are currently being fought over.

Okay its not like bleach or fairytail. It's for more mature audience 16+... the storyline is so good!!!! :)

The music and animation is a bit dodgy and repetitive sometime but the story IS THE BEST!!! :D

If you can watch the worth thing without tearing then ur a man! :P

SO WORTH WATCHING

^^

This anime is pretty, the character is growing fantastic. I love Erin n Lilan.
A possible same fate but different path and point of view.

At first few episode seems kinda ok, but as soon as that I can not kept my eyes away from Erin.

Erin shows the life of a young girl who can understand specfic animals. it has both intresting and tragic parts but overall i think that it was some that is fun to watch, i think its unque from the rest of other animes i have watched. i loved all the characters that are in Erin. this animes has some parts that are amzing and surprising.

Kemono no Souja Erin defied any and all of my expectations. I originally decided to watch this anime because Crunchyroll lists it simply as "Erin", which happens to be the name of my sister. I wasn't expecting such a truly compelling anime which had me staying up waaaaaaayyy too late on multiple occasions.

Summary:
Set in an ancient civilization, this anime follows the life of a naive young girl named Erin who aspires to be a great "Beast Healer" (sometimes "Beastinarian") like her mother. Throughout the story, Erin experiences many happy and sad events and grows through them. However, the world is slowly changing around Erin, and she finds herself in the midst of a brewing conflict.

A few notes first:
What is particularly refreshing about this anime is that it features virtually NO fanservice. While some fanservice is nice every now and again (and I must admit I like it just as much as the next guy), it is good to see an anime which focuses on compelling story and characters instead of appealing to the physical appetites of young teenage males. Costumes are stylistically appropriate for the ancient era in which the anime is set. As opposed to having costumes composed of a hundred different bits and pieces, the costumes are instead relatively simple without being overly simplistic.

Storyline: 5
If there was an 'over 9000!!!!!' option, I would pick it here. This is where Kemono no Souja Erin truly shines. Most stories can be split into 3 'acts': Act 1 involves the background information, act 2 is the conflict, and act 3 is the climax/resolution. Many animes (and video games) try to compress Act 1 as much as possible because it is generally boring. Instead they focus on Act 2, since this is where all of the action and drama takes place which builds up to Act 3, the climax (which is generally also short).

Kemono no Souja Erin differs from this by instead focusing on Act 1/the background elements as it does on Act 2/the conflict. In fact, whereas try to reduce the need for the first Act by dropping bits and pieces of background information throughout the second Act, this anime instead does the opposite. It focuses on Erin's day-to-day life and drops in bits and pieces of the conflict which is slowly coming to life around her. Eventually, the story transitions to focusing entirely upon the conflict, but this doesn't happen until the second half of the anime.

Music: 4
I found it surprising that many people did not like the music for this anime. Originally, I felt that the OP and ED could use some work, but they grew on me with time. There are many songs in the OST which are thematically spot-on and are used in the perfect places in the anime. Unfortunately, there are also a few songs which felt out of place to me, or of lower compositional quality. At the end of the day though, I feel that the good far outweighs the bad in terms of music.

I particularly enjoyed the pieces which featured lyres/simple harps. Such instrumentation fits thematically with the anime which helps draw the listener into the story. Other pieces featured majestic yet ancient themes - perfectly fitting an ancient civilization at the peak of its prosperity.

Characters: 4
Character development occurs in only a handful of characters, and even then focuses almost entirely on the main character, Erin. I would have liked to see more development in the side characters.

Despite this failing, the characters in Kemono no Souja Erin feature a vibrant diversity of personalities. While many of these characters are static, unchanging personalities, this is made up for by how solid the characters are.

Animation: 3.5
And this is where this anime could use the most improvement. While the artistic style is thematically appropriate, there are times where the animation quality is poor enough to break the immersion. "Really? It's flying in a PERFECTLY straight line?" The animation does improve as the anime picks up, but it really saddens me that such a great anime didn't have a better polish on its animation.

Overall: 4.5
The excellent and compelling storyline more than make up for the failings in other areas, and most of these failings are really quite minor in the grand scheme of things. I personally would recommend this anime as a "must-see". Fortunately, you can watch it for free here on Crunchyroll. As for me, though, I'm a premium member and I think that watching it without the commercials is definitely worth the money to support the industry.

Thank you, Crunchyroll for giving us access to this amazing anime legally!

[Well I did happen to write a review on myanimelist, but chances are that this will get more views here]

Now how good is Kemono no Souja Erin? So good in fact that I decided to write my first anime review (ever)...

[side note]
After I received a small hole in my heart after watching The Twelve Kingdoms, I was searching around for a nice fantasy anime with a certain scope and detail in a fantasy setting. I did not know that my small open wound would be ripped further and leaving me *gasp* in further pain; anime is my heroin.

[review begins]
We begin the story that would have had the typical children's story feel, yet as the memorable character Erin encounters her major lessons in life particularly of death and passing, she develops a strong trait of maturity and her resolutions after each trial is really admirable. Yes, Naruto might have a similar lesson, but the story of Erin is something that I find more invoking of feeling and somehow more consistent as she continually remembers her saddening past and tackles the future.



The presentation of Erin is without a doubt unique, with its rustic-fantasy themed colors and selection in music. The only potential flaw that I see in the series is the continual reuse of certain scenes. Everybody's tolerance differs, but even as a person who might finish a 20 minute episode in 5 minutes (hell why not read the manga), I found myself watching through 99.9% of each episode. The pacing is that good.

In terms of pacing, the series has two time skips, which implies a total of three sections to Erin's life (about equally divided throughout the series). Each segment of Erin's life is again, well-paced with enough development in each episode to seem seamless. There are two filler episodes however, before the third time skip and I skipped over them to get into the real meaty juicy part of the main plot. What one should note, however is that Kemono no Souja Erin is an anime with several layers and three very different stories. In the beginning is the childish dream/anime that is similar to the story of a small blonde haired girl who lives in the mountains. As we progress it's the academic life of a beastarian scientist, and finally it's the story of a national hero who is involved in court intrigues and romance. It is this miraculous bildungsroman across genres that I think makes Erin not just a 9.8-star anime, but a 10-star.

The realistic lessons and involving, touching lines, dynamic character portrayal, and a plot that is just "so right" all deserve a good watch.

[warning]
There is the end of my review, and I have to say, I was really finding myself in withdrawal, but I'm more seriously addicted than I ever expected...this is more serious than heroin

PART II
...
I find that one of the more critical, compelling, and powerful moments in a series, just like human life, is in its poetic end. This series has been adopted from a series of novels, and as expected, the level of a conclusion of this anime is to me, so touching. Hell I've been crying throughout all the sad parts in this, and the last time I can remember crying was that first pokemon movie when I was really young...heck

This series to me has been a really moving piece with a similar impact to the Studio Ghibli movies, only that the artistic force has been slowly growing since each episode. To me, this is one of those animes that I will remember and cherish, a true masterpiece in my eyes.

I think that I've learned that it's not the special effects and sophistry of an imagery that makes a series worth watching, but the cumulative effects that pass to its viewer a deep sense of understanding. It appears to me that this anime focuses on a very beautiful story on the nature of relationships between species and the question left unanswered- will human relations be the same? This is a question I've also considered and I'm sure that many others have also wondered, thought, and perhaps gave a small sigh of despair.

I think that this is a masterpiece with a few small flaws if one considers them flaws. The messages throughout this series become increasingly complex and always emotional and powerful. How will I ever find an anime to match this I wonder (funnily I was watching Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit) before this (same author and animation studio(?) I believe). It's just a small coincidence.

Again, I think that most can understand and truly appreciate this series. It goes beyond simple "character development" and the sense of realism and life is apparent. I do hope that you'll all take the moment to enjoy this experience.

Thank You~

=SPOILER=
My mistake, there were actually 3 time skips show less

I heard about Kemono no Souja Erin though a friend of mine who recommended it... At first I was hesitant due to the fact this show looked like it was going to be a boring little kid anime...
I was wrong.
It has an excellent story line that will keep you coming back until the last episode, and the soundtrack is actually quite good.
(There are only a few instances where the music doesn't fit the scene.)
The best part of this anime is the character develoment, I grew to love a lot of the characters,
and they were really the main reason I kept watching.
(The Ohju's, Erin, Ia lu and the teaching staff especially.)
Okay, now to the bad parts...
The opening wasn't the greatest thing, it was just okay.
While some of the characters are great, some others you may just want to shoot after awhile.
(Mok and Nuk, also Tomura.. kinda.)
It reuses the same clips WAY too often, and the last episode was rushed and disappointing.
---
Never the less, KNS Erin is a wonderful show that will make you laugh and cry at parts and keep you at the edge of your seat for the last 14 episodes. It's sad to see how unknown this anime is in the U.S, because it's such a joy to see and listen to. I highly recommend it.
It's worth the watch.

I watched this whole series in two days. It was sooo good, but slow and had too many flashbacks for my liking, even though they were short. However, I still love it.
Okay, the art style isn't for everyone. The characters look pretty simple, and the backgrounds and some animation sequences are very asymmetrical and look like they were done with crayons. Keep in mind that this was done deliberately to demonstrate one of the biggest contrasts in the series between childlike innocence and harsh reality, so don't immediately hate it.
You will go on an emotional roller coaster with this anime. It's hard to watch as a charming precocious girl suffers greatly, matures, and becomes embroiled in a conflict that will decide the fate of the nation and that forces her between a rock and a hard place.
The important characters are explored and explained well, and Erin's transition into adulthood is dramatic but believable. You'll be kept interested and surprised throughout the series because there are very few stereotypical moments that make you feel like beating up stupid characters. But there are many moments when you want to ask the writers "y u do dis? :'<." The music is good and I don't have much to say about that. Voice actors are wonderful as usual, except for the moments when the characters laugh because it sounds too forced :P.

Overall, excellent series that's well worth a watch but requires patience and thinking to understand and appreciate it fully.