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The Last Love Song on this Little Planet
The Song Begins...
Saishu Heiki Kanojo (or as the fan base refers to it: Saikano) is a story about love. On Japan's north-most island, Hokkaido, the majority of the characters are students at a high school. Like most other high school aged kids, they live their lives through contact with their friends, and try to seek out romance and discover what it's all about. Their biggest cares are who likes whom and what they're eating for lunch that day, until the war that has been going on around them comes to their city. Shuji and Chise had only been dating each other a short time when their city, Sapporo, was bombed by an unnamed enemy. It was during this time that Shuji learned two things: he couldn't shut his eyes to the reality that the war was real because it had claimed classmates already, and that his cute, small girlfriend had been somehow transformed into the Ultimate Weapon of their nation.
This anime wasn't written to be a happy story. While it's true that there is a lot of science fiction involved as far as Chise's weapons and capabilities are concerned, the interactions and emotions of the characters are far more real. This story depicts what it's like to love, to be loved, and to lose things that are important. Throughout many hardships that concern both the war, and the characters' difficulties in discovering their feelings and sharing those feelings with the people they care about, it's a story about the frailty of love and how desperately you can chase after it. The love that Shuji and Chise try to hold onto, even though the world around them seems to be crumbling, is "The Last Love Song on this Little Planet."
In Depth Character Information
If you have seen the anime and wish to read about what happened to each character, or if you simply do not mind spoilers, feel free to read about them in this spoiler section.
Storyline
The story itself is a little unbelievable of course, because it's rooted in the midst of a sci-fi war. As such, who or what they are fighting isn't ever very clear. I think that was intentional though, because the students in the story really didn't get to hear much about the war or what was happening, similar to how a country might really be locked out of communication with it's outlying areas during a war of this scale. I think those details aren't revealed so that the viewer may feel that underlying sense of fear and anxiety that the characters are having to endure.
Music
The musical score not only sets and fits the somewhat sad and dark mood throughout the anime, but it also plays an important role during the story. There is a song that Shuji likes to hum when he's happy that Chise readily recognizes throughout the show. Other sound effects are great as well: heartbeats, gunfire, and building destruction just to name a few. The noise Chise makes when she's flying in weapon form is a little strange, but it somehow didn't seem out of place to me.
Characters
I think this is probably the brightest shining point of Saikano. The characters all feel very real: by that I mean they are easy to relate to. Their persona are all well thought out and their interactions feel like what could happen on an everyday basis. The impact of how genuine they are is further amplified by the fact that most of the story takes place in a real city (if you ever visit Sapporo, you may recognize some of the cityscape from this anime). Feelings of helplessness, of not knowing what your lover or friend is thinking and feeling, and of struggling to hold the threads of each bond together when they threaten to come undone can be found in these characters. For more detailed information on each character, read the spoiler section above.
Animation
The animation is also good in this anime. I didn't give it a perfect score because of a few minor details. One such detail is the way the land vehicles make impossible looking maneuvers in a few scenes that seem poorly drawn to me. But for the most part, everything flows very smoothly and is well drawn. The city and countryside are especially well done, right down to the details of how Hokkaido's traffic lights are vertical as opposed to horizontal like the rest of Japan due to increased snowfall. Truly a lot of thought and work went into many of the scenes.
Overall and closing thoughts
This is probably one of the most touching anime's I've ever watched. Somehow this story has a way of making me feel personally connected to each character rather than being just a spectator because of how well their interactions and feelings are portrayed. Though it certainly isn't the happy smile-filled romance that you typically find in anime - indeed can be heart wrenching at times - it is no less a true love story, and I think most mature audiences will also be as touched by it as I was.
Saishu Heiki Kanojo (or as the fan base refers to it: Saikano) is a story about love. On Japan's north-most island, Hokkaido, the majority of the characters are students at a high school. Like most other high school aged kids, they live their lives through contact with their friends, and try to seek out romance and discover what it's all about. Their biggest cares are who likes whom and what they're eating for lunch that day, until the war that has been going on around them comes to their city. Shuji and Chise had only been dating each other a short time when their city, Sapporo, was bombed by an unnamed enemy. It was during this time that Shuji learned two things: he couldn't shut his eyes to the reality that the war was real because it had claimed classmates already, and that his cute, small girlfriend had been somehow transformed into the Ultimate Weapon of their nation.
This anime wasn't written to be a happy story. While it's true that there is a lot of science fiction involved as far as Chise's weapons and capabilities are concerned, the interactions and emotions of the characters are far more real. This story depicts what it's like to love, to be loved, and to lose things that are important. Throughout many hardships that concern both the war, and the characters' difficulties in discovering their feelings and sharing those feelings with the people they care about, it's a story about the frailty of love and how desperately you can chase after it. The love that Shuji and Chise try to hold onto, even though the world around them seems to be crumbling, is "The Last Love Song on this Little Planet."
In Depth Character Information
If you have seen the anime and wish to read about what happened to each character, or if you simply do not mind spoilers, feel free to read about them in this spoiler section.
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Storyline
The story itself is a little unbelievable of course, because it's rooted in the midst of a sci-fi war. As such, who or what they are fighting isn't ever very clear. I think that was intentional though, because the students in the story really didn't get to hear much about the war or what was happening, similar to how a country might really be locked out of communication with it's outlying areas during a war of this scale. I think those details aren't revealed so that the viewer may feel that underlying sense of fear and anxiety that the characters are having to endure.
Music
The musical score not only sets and fits the somewhat sad and dark mood throughout the anime, but it also plays an important role during the story. There is a song that Shuji likes to hum when he's happy that Chise readily recognizes throughout the show. Other sound effects are great as well: heartbeats, gunfire, and building destruction just to name a few. The noise Chise makes when she's flying in weapon form is a little strange, but it somehow didn't seem out of place to me.
Characters
I think this is probably the brightest shining point of Saikano. The characters all feel very real: by that I mean they are easy to relate to. Their persona are all well thought out and their interactions feel like what could happen on an everyday basis. The impact of how genuine they are is further amplified by the fact that most of the story takes place in a real city (if you ever visit Sapporo, you may recognize some of the cityscape from this anime). Feelings of helplessness, of not knowing what your lover or friend is thinking and feeling, and of struggling to hold the threads of each bond together when they threaten to come undone can be found in these characters. For more detailed information on each character, read the spoiler section above.
Animation
The animation is also good in this anime. I didn't give it a perfect score because of a few minor details. One such detail is the way the land vehicles make impossible looking maneuvers in a few scenes that seem poorly drawn to me. But for the most part, everything flows very smoothly and is well drawn. The city and countryside are especially well done, right down to the details of how Hokkaido's traffic lights are vertical as opposed to horizontal like the rest of Japan due to increased snowfall. Truly a lot of thought and work went into many of the scenes.
Overall and closing thoughts
This is probably one of the most touching anime's I've ever watched. Somehow this story has a way of making me feel personally connected to each character rather than being just a spectator because of how well their interactions and feelings are portrayed. Though it certainly isn't the happy smile-filled romance that you typically find in anime - indeed can be heart wrenching at times - it is no less a true love story, and I think most mature audiences will also be as touched by it as I was.
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A look at characters' situations
Like all good stories, this anime takes the audience on a ride that reveals itself little by little. It focuses on the lives of a small group of high schoolers who strive to explore their adolescence but lose track of something important along the way. It begins as many high school romance stories begin, but ends in the darkest corners of what a heart in love is capable of.
I'll cover a couple of characters now and the situations they found themselves in. I'll place these into a spoiler section as well, but my review only makes sense if you've seen this anime in its entirety.
I think the most chilling aspect of this story, as others have indicated, is that the potential to do terrible things to the people we care about is in each of us. Many people eventually feel the sting of each side of the fence: to betray someone, to be betrayed, to want what someone else has, to want out of your situation but not have the strength to break it. Everyone's pain is great and there is no easy way to handle it from any character's point of view. It's the ugly part of us that we try to reject and ignore. We try so hard to look at life through rose-colored glasses that when we see something like this we're repulsed by it. But I think the revulsion is often not with the characters themselves but with that small voice within our hearts that says, "I could do that... I can understand those feelings."
I'll cover a couple of characters now and the situations they found themselves in. I'll place these into a spoiler section as well, but my review only makes sense if you've seen this anime in its entirety.
** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
I think the most chilling aspect of this story, as others have indicated, is that the potential to do terrible things to the people we care about is in each of us. Many people eventually feel the sting of each side of the fence: to betray someone, to be betrayed, to want what someone else has, to want out of your situation but not have the strength to break it. Everyone's pain is great and there is no easy way to handle it from any character's point of view. It's the ugly part of us that we try to reject and ignore. We try so hard to look at life through rose-colored glasses that when we see something like this we're repulsed by it. But I think the revulsion is often not with the characters themselves but with that small voice within our hearts that says, "I could do that... I can understand those feelings."
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