Pandora Hearts
Genre: Action – Adventure – Comedy – Drama – Fantasy – Historical – Mystery – Psychological – Supernatural
Length: 25 episodes
Year: 2009
Studio: Xebec
Director: Kato Takao
Script/Writer: Sekijima Mayori
Character Design: Kobayashi Chizuru, Yamaoka Shinichi
Music: Kajiura Yuki
Animation: (…) Kobayashi Chizuru, Yamaoka Shinichi, Hori Taeko (…)
Licensed by: NIS America
Site: TBS
Based on: Pandora Hearts manga – June 2006 (ongoing) – Author: Mochizuki Jun Illustrator: Mochizuki Jun – serialization: GFantasy
Characters: Oz Vessalius (Minagawa Junko), Gilbert/”Raven” Nightray (Sakamoto Azuma/Toriumi Kousuke), Alice “B-Rabbit” (Kawasumi Ayako), Xerxes Break (Ishida Akira), Sharon Rainsworth (Hanazawa Kana), Oscar Vessalius (Umezu Hideyuki), Ada Vessalius (Fukuhara Kaori), Jack Vessalius (Ono Daisuke), Zai Vessalius (Ohkawa Toru), Vincent Nightray (Oura Fuyuka-young/Fukuyama Jun-adult), Echo (Hirohashi Ryou), Elliot Nightray (Nojima Hirofumi), Leo/Reo (Watanabe Akeno), Cheshire Cat (Yamaguchi Kappei), Rufus Barma (Uchida Yuya), Liam/Reim Lunettes (Suwabe Junichi), Glen Baskerville (Taniyama Kishou), Charlotte “Lotti” (Toyoguchi Megumi), Zwei (Hirohashi Ryou), Fang (Kondou Takayuki), Doug (Shirokuma Hiroshi), Rabbit (Yuzuki Ryoka), Mrs. Kate (Hisakawa Aya), Phillip West (Higa Kumiko), Phillip’s father (Okiayu Ryotaro), Flower Vendor Girl (Nazuka Kaori).
Synopsis: Oz Vessalius is the heir of one of the four dukedoms: Vessalius, Nightray, Rainsworth and Barma. Oz, his little sister and the family servant, Gilbert, have fun at the mansion where they arrived earlier, the place where Oz’s coming-of-age ceremony is going to be held. As the youth prepares to continue with the mansion’s investigation, Oscar, Oz’s uncle warns Oz he better not to mess up the party or he would call out the Emissary of the “Abyss”, an emissary that will snatch those who committed heinous crimes and take them to a terrifying place where they are said to never come back from. Oz chuckles and replies that those threats no longer work on him.
Outside, the group finds a hidden garden and a grave, but the name is too faded to read. On the cross a clock is hung. As Oz reaches the clock, a mysterious feeling invades him and in a blink of an eye he finds himself in a room filled with creepy dolls that welcome his arrival and a young girl appears also welcoming his return. However, when Oz, confused, asks her who is she, the girl wickedly says “I’m you” and tries to kill him. Oz returns to himself and calms Gilbert and his little sister worries over the momentary lack of consciousness.
At this point of the coming-of-age ceremony, Oz sighs with relief with its imminent end. But as he swears an oath at the silent clock tower, the clock moves. Oz attack by a mysterious group in black cloaks, who also controlled Gilbert, who grabs Oz while the Baskerville make a kind of ritual. However they are repelled by him and the mysterious girl from Oz’s dream appears and transforms into Bloody Black Rabbit, or B-Rabbit, claiming that Oz is her key and that she will fight them. She is begoned by one of the group members and Oz consciousness too is engulfed in darkness.
Lost in the “Abyss” he is helped by Alice but when Oz thanks her for saving him again, Alice gives him a puzzled look since she says it’s the first time they meet. As they chat, Alice confesses Oz that her wish is to get out of the “Abyss” and persuades Oz to make a “contract” with her that will enable her power enough to be capable of making an exit in the “way”, a distortion between the two worlds. Eventually, Oz makes the contract and Alice takes control of his body and fulfills her words.
Oz wakes up at a strange bedroom and discovers later that he is at Pandora’s headquarters, an organisation formed by the 4 dukedoms that focus in research concerning the Abyss, where he encounters Sharon Rainsworth and Xerxes Break from the Rainsworth dukedom and Raven from Nightray. After Xerxes having expelled Alice from Oz’s body and learning about her wish of recover her memories, the group invites them to join.
Now members, Oz and Alice, along with the others, depart in search of memories and answers lurking in the darkness.
Openings:
- Parallel Hearts – FictionJunction [HQ]
Endings:
Notes: The anime follows the manga, even though some very minor changes were done, which I presume solely with the purpose of enhancing.
[Iru Edit: Bugger, I forgot of historical genre in the header... not that it would fit though...all good, it's the most obvious genre after all. Still tagged.]
Appreciation: This review will be majorly considering the anime as I haven’t keep up with the manga.
The first thing I wanna say is: I’ve missed a show like this. I’ve come in contact with the manga first, so when it was adapted to anime I was curious about it. However, when I started watching the first episode there was something about the character design which kept bugging me, and, for another than this reason, I didn’t finish the episode (sweatdrop). After some absence of contact with Pandora Hearts, I was remembered of the anime adaptation again and decided to give it a go. My aversion was gone and my curiosity gained.
The primary thing you should know about Pandora Hearts is that it uses an unraveling system as plot development. The story is a bit complex, but I actually never had a hard time following it (one thing I noticed is that they recapitulate things or give you info at some point of the ep. in the anime), and the comedy is very welcomed. From this peculiar psychological-thriller manga, the development was surprisingly smooth and easily understood.
I really like the plot and how the characters are presented and developed in Pandora Hearts and gladly the anime adaptation didn’t disappoint it. This was especially aided by the voice acting; I must say the seiyuu befitted the characters very well and brought the character’s personality out. An initial exception to this was Break (I have no idea why but Jun Fukuyama for Grell is at fault). He sounded a bit too melancholic, but that was a character’s personality trait flaw from me, which I couldn’t grasp before the plot’s development, and so, the exception disappeared.
As I mentioned above, the character’s design is overall very good (lame chains aside), though there were some minor things that fortunately were subtly worked on (I found the hair’s shading interesting). The animation was also good, however, I think some parts could have been enhanced to give the anime more of the thriller that you see in the manga. That’s where majorly lies my dissatisfaction.
The anime leaves too many things left to explain so hopefully a 2nd season will be created, otherwise it would be a shame.
If you fancy riddling plots and will of good-will advance when things get «curiouser and curiouser», you’ll have a good time watching the historical setting and mysterious plot of Pandora Hearts.
Rate: Very Good
Copyright © 2009-2011 Sugardrops: Iru's anime reviews and Co - series synopsis and reviews with sugar - Some Rights Reserved | Best viewed on Vista, Firefox
