Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

just finished watching it. for the first time in the series, i was able to expect what was going to happen in the episode. while this episode wasn't fantastic (no pun intended), it served as a good conclusion to the series

Hmmm...this is a rare, effusive review--I'm intrigued. I think I'll check it out.

Yeah, it ended in a way I expected it to end.

I agree with you... I didn't hate how it ended, but I was disappointed in how short it was. I would have loved to know what happened to Thoma, Chitto, and even Alice and Cooks :-P. But most of all, I wanted to know what happened to the Befort Children. Besides Helga and Thoma, I found Agi, Soreto, and the rest of the bunch the most intriguing characters of the show. It truly is a shame that they didn't get the send off they deserved.

I, too, would've liked an epilogue telling us what happens to the rest of the characters. We know that Thoma/Seth's going to be okay...he's done with his sin and guilt, gotten over Tina (?) and is finally ready to go on living his true life. Now I want to see him doing so. Isn't Thoma the main character? Isn't at least half of this his story?

And the lack of anything on the Beforte's Children makes me feel a little cheated, since they're the most intriguing characters to come along for sometime. Agi and Soreto are really my favourites, at the least, and I would've loved to see how everything panned out instead of used footage of Soran-Tina love.

Still, it's a beautiful ending, and that lack of closure didn't hurt it so much that the ending is ruined. I almost cried when Hasumodai made his 'seashore' monologue, and I'm the sort who only blinks and contemplates my way through things like Air.

It's a total shame that the art style makes people shy away from the series. It's totally brilliant in every way, and as much of an FMA fangirl that I am....I agree with you that FC beats the FMA anime as a story, though it can be a pretty close shave at times. Overall, it's the coherency that FMA tries to have but just didn't, and FC manages to weave together so beautifully.

It's mostly a great series, IMO... I personally believe the first part of the series was the best, but anyway - Fantastic Children is a very very rare kind of series nowadays... No mecha (well, not really), no pantyshots, no sexy people, not as much angst, no cool aspects...

The only thing that disappointed me was the incredible use of shaking, the Grecia arc and... the ending, sort of...

I loved the series, but the end left me insatisfied. This is supposed to be a drama, so I can accept that Thoma doesn't get Helga, and just gets forgiveness for his deeds. Still, the smiling bishie was way too much for my taste: the birthmark in his arm with Tina's name and all that smiling... for god's sake, he looked like a toothpaste comercial.

I've quite enjoyed the run. The characters were well done, although Georca+Dumas as badguys were a little over the top at times. Fantastic Children and Air were standouts in an otherwise rather dreary year for anime. (And Mahou Shoujotai, but that was in a whole 'nother category).

Although it didn't really matter to the flow of the story, I do have some niggling questions left over from the early parts of the series. Agi and the rest sent Tina's spirit to Earth by the transfer device. They followed afterwards via the same route. OK, but then how did they carry along those nifty high-tech items? And Wanda? And how come Georca had a spaceship the size of a small county ready to zoom across 200 Megalightyears in pursuit, while his brother the king couldn't do better than swords to defend his palace? I suppose the swords could have been ceremonial, but if Georca already had this humongous device that could disintegrate palace-sized objects why was he drooling over the thought that he might just possibly maybe use Tina as a generator for blue lightning bolts that seemed only randomly destructive.

As I said, these are quibbles. But I do think the whole story arc would have been the same without introducing them, and would have been stronger for the lack of distraction. Dumas could have been sent by the same sort of spirit-transfer as the other. The flashback scene with his mother could just as well have taken place back on Grishia.

The ending? Well in a way I was surprised. I had half expected that Thoma would turn out to be host to the spirits of *both* Sesu and Soran, who could stage a grand three-way reconciliation with Tina. That would have left Thoma and Helga to live happily ever after. The actual ending was in some ways better, but Thoma got the short end of the stick. What is he left with (besides white hair)?

I was enjoying the ending up until the point where it went to the ten years later. I've already stated my grievences about Thoma not being Soran, but even though I came to accept the fact(mostly due to Thoma's amazing voice actress), it felt unsettling to have Helga end up with someone else. She was Helga now, not Tina. And as Helga she had fallen for Thoma.

I was also disappointed with the conclusion to Soreto and Agi. I thought that they would stay together. Out of all the Befort Children, I liked them the best. Their relationship had the most chemistry, dispite the fact that they never really admitted to loving each other. It would be nice to see the that they had an inseperable love after the tragic conclusion to Mel and Paruza. I guess that the ending left the relationship pretty open ended though, with the "we'll probably meet again."

I check out FC because of your rave reviews, and I have to say I'm completely blown away. Truly an astounding series. Thank you for recommending it.

I agree 100% with hayama's first paragraph. After all that talk about how Helga was Helga, not Tina, she falls in love with a Soran reincarnation.

And I agree, I really could have done without the Soran-Tina love flashbacks in the credits. I would have much rather prefered seeing what happened to everyone else.

In fact, I would have been very satisfied without the 10 years later bit.

Great great series!! Just plain... awesome. Saw the rest of it yesterday... and... I'm going to tell you i was completely blown away by the series. Especially when I found out Thoma was Sesu. I couldn't believe, I though he was Soran (although half of me said he wasn't).

I was kinda disappointed in the ending. I mean... it was great until sesu takes over Thoma and says "I'm sure you'll meet up with Soran again." I was very mad. I though it would have been much more effective to end the series with Helga and Thoma living happily together forever. So that was really disappointing. I was sure she would have forgotten about Tina and Soran anyway... if they lost there memory... so it kinda destroyed the ending for me.

Also, The flashback were really well paced in the show... I thought. Really well done. Although at times it did get a little boring because most of me wanted to see what Thoma (my favourite character) had to do with the plot.

Either way... just plain fantastic, i'm probably going to by the dvd's just to see how they did with the dubs! Also, the soundtract... MUST HAVE IT! There were some songs in there I really liked... although I can't say I really like the beggining or ending songs, but the actual music in the series was just awesome.

Well, anyways, tata!

I only began watching the show when I saw how much you (and other bloggers) loved it, considering how you seem to like pretty much the same kind of anime as I do. I had tried to watch the first episode, without knowing anything about it, but the style kind of threw me off... I can be... a bit picky on that side. But I decided to watch a couple of them, and am I glad I did! I almost watched the whole series non-stop (it had almost ended when I began watching) and fell completely it love with it! By far one of my favorites!

I agree with those reviews up there that I would have liked to see what happened to the Béfort Children and Thoma, Chitto and the others.. but I still liked the ending.. it wasn't overdone and the romantic in me liked the thought of eternal love ;)

Well, thanks for reccomending the series! That's one series I don't regret giving a second chance!

I prefer to think that Thoma was a combined reincarnation of Sezu and Soran... He looked like Soran as a kid but carried the painful memories of Sezu which just happend to come out when he saw Tina's giant body... I think that is also why this mysterious visitor said "So you drew this picture?" I say it was Thoma who remembered that Helga drew it, but Helga had no recollection, so he was just playing it off ^^ As for the bruise, well, Thoma always wore long sleaves! I prefer to look at it like this, cuz, some random dude that ain't Thoma getting Helga just ticks me off lol.

Nororu and I just finished watching FC yesterday night. Incredible series, probably one of the most beautifully conceived series in the last years. How everything ties together in the end, pure genious. I dont have much quibbles in the end, and it is not so much as what happened to Thoma and the rest of the cast, as this was Helga/Tina's story. And the redemption and forgiveness of Thoma/Sesu was just the most beautiful and heart wrenching things I have ever seen in Anime. Thanks for recommending it Mr. Cinnamon Ass.

Just two things :

1 - DEATH TO SOLAN !!!

2 - GLORY TO SETH !!!!!!!! (and Agi, of course !!)

...

And yeah ! It was a GREAT anime !!!

PS : I've already reserved a flight in the near twenty years to Malaisia, with a snipe gun and a lot of ammo, in case I find a "cheesy-looking" traveller with a bruise on his arm ... ;)

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