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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:00 |
 Fantastic Children gives us a story that crosses space and time, as a group of children from another world look for the girl they hope can save them. The Children of Befort - by appearances about 11 years old, but caught in a loop of reincarnation that brings them back again and again - are searching for the elusive Princess Tina, the woman who can save their world. Will they be able to find her, or are they destined to reincarnate forever..?
The Children of Befort - white-haired children who have appeared several times over the course of 500 years, apparently not dying, taking the places of children they've killed in the time period they appear in. So goes what little research has been done into them, at any rate. In truth, they're from the planet Greecia, on Earth on a quest to find an elusive girl who holds the key to the survival of their world. In 1901, they finally find what they're looking for: a woman named Serafine, but unfortunately for them she dies before they can reach her. However, both the children and the woman they're searching for are caught in loops of reincarnation. Skip forward to 2012, and young orphan Helga's about to meet someone who'll change her life - young boy and guardian-in-training Thoma. What Thoma doesn't realise is just how interested in Helga the Children of Befort are...
The first few episodes of Fantastic Children take work to watch. Written out in summary form, like the above paragraph, the story they tell makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, there are a number of key elements to that story that the episodes themselves don't tell you, or at least haven't been revealed yet. If I had been watching thpart of the series without the benefit of hindsight, the experience would probably have been a good bit more confusing. Even then, there are a few story threads that begin to become prominent by episode five that are still without much in the way of explanation.
The story initially plays out in several distinct arcs, that will eventually come together but that start off very separate. First up are the Children of Befort themselves, with their quest for the elusive Tina (first seen reincarnated in the form of Serafine) and their efforts to deal with those who oppose them. This is the darkest arc of the show and in places it can be quite abstract, as they fight formless shadows and we get some background details on their reincarnations.
Next up is Helga and Thoma's story, which has much more of the feel of a relaxed, slice-of-life show. Helga's been living in an orphanage along with her friend Chitto, but the orphanage doesn't exactly treat the children in its care as they should and the pair are determined to escape – and after a chance meeting with Helga, Thoma becomes intrigued enough by her that he's determined to help. This part of the story is based in an island archipelago, and the setting itself goes a long way to creating the laid-back atmosphere that permeates their scenes – even when the kids get involved in scrapes that introduce a good bit of action to events, you never get a feeling that they're really under threat or that things won't turn out for the good.
The final arc focuses on Detective Crooks and brings a whodunit aspect to the show, thanks to his ongoing obsession with the Children of Befort – an obsession that seems to have caught the attention of his superiors and looks likely to land him in trouble if he doesn't start concentrating on the investigations he's actually been assigned to. Somehow, I doubt he's going to give up the chase.
The three arcs touch briefly in several scenes across the disc, without ever really getting heavily involved with each other – it's just enough to show that there's a connection that's going to be developed, but not just yet. Some of how that's going to happen is obvious enough – Helga being the latest reincarnation of Tina will eventually attract the Children, their presence will draw Crooks onto the scene, and Helga, Thoma and Crooks have both had contact with the mysterious GED Project – but for now the series is really just concentrating on developing the various characters, without throwing them together too much.
That means that the pacing does sometimes feel a little slow, although without ever getting to the point of being dull or boring – despite the laid-back feel of a lot of the scenes, there is a lot going on here, and it's very easy to just get caught up in the lives of the characters and get pulled along with the flow. That's a good ability for any series to have.
As the series goes on, the Children and Helga come closer together - no surprise there, as Helga is the one they're looking for - but poor Inspector Crooks gets pushed further and further into the background. Later in the series, there are some additional characters thrown into the mix as the history of Greecia and the reasons why Tina had to be sent to Earth in the first place come to the fore, and the whole thing begins to take on the feel of a science-fiction epic. Through this, the characters of the Children develop, becoming more than the simple threatening characters they appeared to be in the early parts of the series. While some of them are still taking their quest – and their eventual fate if they fail in it – with a sense of acceptance, others are showing signs of being scared of their fate, and showing regret at leaving behind the lives they had before their reincarnated personality reawakened. This makes them much more human and easier to connect to, instead of just being gray characters with a sense of foreboding wrapped around them. You even get occasional signs of happiness, particularly once they realise that Helga's the one they're searching for.
The series as a whole has its flaws, so we'll start with the disappointments. At the beginning of the series, Inspector Crooks and his assistant seemed to have major roles to play, and Crooks himself was one of the more interesting characters in the story. As it went on, though, their role shifted ever more into the background, and by the end his appearances last mere seconds, leaving you wondering what the point of the character really was, beyond being a device to explain a few things early on. I really do wish he’d been made more use of.
Helga’s also an issue, with her personality left almost completely undeveloped throughout the series. As the real lead character, and the one with perhaps the most to lose from the efforts to send "Tina" back to Greecia, it never seems quite right that she’s so quiet and accepting of whatever she’s told. The Children explain to her the truths behind her past, and she happily accepts that; Dumas explains another version of that to her, and she happily accepts it; when Thoma’s past becomes clear, she just accepts that too. She ends up just being too bland to be believable, and by the end of the series that was beginning to get to me.
I could also talk about how some of the big revelations made could be seen a mile away, or pick on a few other little niggles, but that would be missing the point, though. Fantastic Children has its flaws, that’s undeniable, but taken as a whole it’s a high-class piece of work that has been left in the shadows through no real fault of its own. It’s beautiful, atmospheric, and moving, and the growth & maturing of the Children as the series goes on is one of its strongest points – for all that they’re hundreds of years old, and have been reincarnated numerous times, they were still children at the beginning of the series, and it’s through their interactions with Helga, Thoma and the others that they begin to realise that there’s more to life than the mission they had set themselves. That’s the real story of Fantastic Children, and the part of it that I enjoyed the most.
It’s a huge injustice that this series hasn’t received more attention – almost everyone I know who has seen Fantastic Children has loved it, but they’re far outnumbered by the people who have never even heard of it. While it’s not perfect, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
For full episode synopsis and screenshots, check out our reviews of the individual releases:
» Volume 1
» Volume 2
» Volume 3
» Volume 4
» Volume 5
» Volume 6
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