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Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for This Ugly Yet Beautiful World

Story & Characters

As I have just finished Gainax's noted 20th Anniversary Anime, Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai, I will now be reviewing what I would see as a highly misunderstood series, just by scanning through the comments made by viewers on the series's page on this site.

Kono Sekai, which will be the short form I will use for this anime title, is a very short series, with only 12 episodes, so before even watching I felt that it would have a satisfactory ending and flow. In fact, I wasn't even going to watch it at all, finding that the anime would be full of fanservice to appeal to male anime fans, as usual. However, after the first episode that my Newtype magazine's included DVD offered, I went on the computer right away to download more of it.
Despite its extremely sterotypical and common story base, I found as I watched further into the plot, I was very impressed by the inner themes it suggested.

Fifteen-year-old Takeru, living with his childhood friend's family (because his mother abandoned him at a young age), is trying to search for the meaning of his life. One day, his best friend Ryou see an amazing light head towards the forest, and upon searching for its remanents out of pure curiosity, he finds a beautiful girl named Hikari who claims to be lonely, and to have come from Space. A while later, a similar girl is found by Ryou, a girl named Akari, and the two mysterious girls blend with Takeru and Ryou's friends to explore the beauty of life... or are they?

Later, we find out much more interesting details, such as Takeru's abandonment and what has been left in his heart after the event, and of what the house's new tenant, American scientist Jennifer Portman explains to be "E.D." - Extended Definition, something to do with Hikari, Takeru, and another mass extinction on Earth - maybe to wipe out humans this time around.

What I found even more admirable for the series was that it had many characters - perhaps too many for such a short series - yet the anime was able to introduce the characters in exactly the right amount of screentime they were supposed to get in importance to the series and give them enough characteristics so that they were noticeable and different from the others.

Akari and Hikari are most definitely not realistic at first, to be expected. What startled me was how much their character developed after twelve episodes. In that way, it was like seeing them grow - I hardly noticed their maturing throughout the episodes, yet when compared to the first episode, they somewhat different and seemed to have been affected by the events. This was a very realistic development that Gainax made with characters, and I was very glad that it happened. I felt that the characters, where other than the two girls, most important characters were shown to have deeper sides to them than what was shown of them at first, were one of the highlights of the series.

Rating

8 (good)

Art

Just like many anime nowadays, Kono Sekai has beautiful girls with glossy skin and big, shiny eyes. However, the character designers took care in their characters, making it so that the normal Earth girls in the story had more realistic hair and seemed less attractive than Hikari and Akari, who both had unusual and bright hair colors. I also noticed that apart from Jennifer Portman with her tall height and blond hair, none of the characters seemed foreign.

One thing that I found unnecessary was the amount of nudity that was allowed in the scenes. All of them were somewhat related to the event or further defined the characters and what others thought about them, but I felt that they could have used a bit of censorship.

I honestly don't exactly like loads of tactics being used to cover up nudity in anime, as they are sometimes obvious and therefore somewhat annoying, but Kono Sekai fails to even try at refraining from what I would call excessive nudity, which is sometimes so much that it seems unecessary and even somewhat on purpose. I can understand the complaints that some people are complaining, that "the producers show breasts for no reason whatsoever." As I have explained before, Jennifer Portman's obvious pride of her body is part of her character, and the oblivious nudity of Hikari and Akari would be to emphasize their innocence and lack of self embarrassment.

Sometimes, I felt that the color was a bit off, making some scenes look low-budget, but some images were beautiful, such as the red butterflies near the end, and the blue sky tainted with masses of red made a wonderful background. Somehow, the art is able to cope with both the cheerful and dark aspects of the storyline, which somewhat reminds me of the anime Elfen Lied. I don't know why, as I have never had the guts to see it.

Another thing that I must comment on are the character designs of Hikari and Akari. They look very similar to each other, but in hairstyle, clothes, and body proportion, they are very different, making them look like real siblings - something that many character designers understand as 'making two girls look the same, while making the first one a bit taller and wearing different clothes.' And so, in that aspect, Kono Sekai is able to give off a realistic factor in its fantasy base as well.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

Kono Sekai's music is absolutely beautiful. However, other than the opening, which seems to have been sung and written specifically for this series's title (by hearing the lyrics), the ending is a complete disappointment by using the cheery melody to enter a color-filled, sunny atmosphere that fails in closing the episode or balancing the story's themes, like the opening.

The soundtrack is nice to hear, but sometimes becomes tiresome as the same tracks run on for every episode. Action scenes lose their flair when the influencing music is not entered, which makes it just an action scene - not much else.

Other than the points that I have just mentioned, there is not much to say about Kono Sekai's music, except for Hikari and Akari's duet at the end of the series. Certainly, is is a change from the previous tracks, but the singing is somewhat boring, although it is able to end the anime on a calming, somewhat bittersweet note.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

Presentation is one aspect that Gainax continuously fails at, yet in this case, I felt it did quite well in carrying out Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai's project. The characters are all introduced well, as I have mentioned before, and the romance and action scenes collaborate to keep from loss of balance. Surprisingly, the dark themes are introduced right from the first episode, which gives it space to come in smoothly when the plot is thickening.

I also found that the climax seemed to come at exactly the right time, although I felt that the producers lingered a bit too much on Hikari's "nice side" finding the good things of the world. The interesting thing about the flow was that it was exciting to watch - it went from slow to a rise and the climax was so interesting so that it sped right to the falling action, then the ending.

I am sure many will disagree with me with the praise I have given for Kono Sekai. However, when watching this series, it was necessary to pay attention to the small details and what they meant, and keep from lingering on the nudity. I was disappointed that not much of the audience were deep thinkers. Rather, some of them seemed to watch for only the fanservice. I don't want this series to go to waste, as I can tell that Gainax put some effort into it.
Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai will not be the best anime that I have seen so far, but I don't think I will forget it anytime soon.

Rating

9 (very good)

Final Verdict

8.17 (good)

Reviewed by Rosegirl18, 2y 8wk ago