Now and Then, Here and There

Full Title: Now and Then, Here and There
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Military, Science Fiction
Episodes: 13
Uploaded By: Mavrik
My Age Rating: PG-13 (Language, Graphic Violence, Disturbing Themes)

Ever woke up one morning and thought to yourself, "You know what? I want to be really, really depressed today..." Well, then do I have the anime for you. I started watching this one after hearing all the good things about it, and make no mistake it is very good, but if you're looking for complete and utter lack of happiness, Now and Then, Here and There is for you. After the sunny, happy-go-lucky first episode, things go to hell... fast... It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It's utterly horrifying, but you can't look away... *shutter* anyway, on to the review...

Shu is an average Japanese boy with a not so average sunny disposition on life. Everything has room for improvement, and life is great. (He also seems to have very little fear of dangerous situations, but that kinda helps him later so...) One day, while walking home from kendo practice, he spots a mysterious girl watching the sunset from one of the abandoned large industrial smoke stacks in his neighborhood. He climbs up one of the other ones and has a sort of one sided conversation with her for awhile. That is until a couple robots show up, snatch her away, and accidentally take Shu with them, 6 billion years into Earth's future...

Yep, this anime has it all... plenty of murder, training the young to kill, showing the young killing each other, death of the innocent, weapons of mass destruction, child abuse, child torture, child rape, purposefully impregnating little girls, and all around cruelty most anime won't touch. Most of the really bad stuff is not shown, which allows the anime to mantain it's PG-13 rating, but don't be fooled, many of the twelve episodes will leave you staring in blank horror at what you have just witnessed as the credits roll. It's also not an anime you will probably ever want to see again. That being said, it has my full recommendation and should be viewed by just about every anime fan at least once.

Even though the anime itself is not very old, the production is a bit old looking. Don't let this deter you, the show is great and the animation sequences are incredibly smooth. No 3D effects, but eh, I'll take realistic movements over those any day. The voice acting is great, especially later on, though you'll probably want to shoot yourself rather than listen to another crying child again. The opening is... low budget to say the least, but the ending is nice. I'm not sure how this anime will affect you, so, you kinda have to know yourself whether you can handle something like this. All I can say is that it never gets too graphic, and it is well worth the watch. (Oh, and it has a way of haunting your dreams...)

My Rating: 8.2/10 (Excellent)