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Tuesday, 24 January 2012 11:57 |
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 Going into the autumn season, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere was probably one of my most anticipated new shows. Reliance on a backstory that the anime barely touched upon sadly leaves it a confusing mess, though...
History is coming to an end. When humans came down from the sky they brought with them the Testament, the guide to the path they must follow if they wish to return to the skies again. Now, in a strange world where only the islands of Japan are habitable, the nations of the world vie for power and protect the portions of Japan that they have claimed, each armed with its own ultimate weapon: a Roysmoi Opro, the Armor of Deadly Sins. But there may be a far greater threat to mankind than the Roysomi Opro, for the Testament ends abruptly, signalling the beginning of humanity's last year - unless Tori Aoi and his fellow students from the aerial metropolitan ship Musashi can somehow affect the course of destiny...
That's the offical blurb from Anime Network's site, and when you read that and see the series trailer - an all-action affair - it's easy to go "Ooooh!" and think about how awesome this series is going to be. We're in the far-future, we've got some great high-technology to play with, and the promise of some spectacular battles to go along with it. What's not to like?
Let's back up a little, though. The background of the series is a little hazy, unless you can read Japanese - the series' lengthy backstory and relationship information, by most accounts fairly essential information, is all contained on the show's official Japanese website, but hasn't been translated into English. Same applies to the source light novels. So those of us who like to watch the anime without having to learn the language are left trying to divine what's going on from what little background is given in the actual show - which isn't a lot. The Testament is a book that contains mankind's "future history" - a prediction of how the world is going to be, or a cast-iron guide for how humanity should develop, depending how you look at it - and mankind has been living according to its scriptures for hundreds of years now, under the guidance of the Testament Union - a future United Nations, with teeth. But the Testament's record only goes so far - so when it ends, does the world end with it, or does a new age begin? It's in preparation for this that the nations of the world are beginning to gear up, with posession of the Armor of Deadly Sins eventually proving to be core to the story.
So far, so good. Flying city-ship Musashi is one of the nations of the world and where our hero - the goofy and annoyingly cheerful Tori Aoi - lives. He's in love, and about to declare his love to, Horizon - a girl who died ten years earlier, but whose soul now resides in an automaton. He attends Musashi Ariadust Academy, whose student council appears to be the effective power in Musashi (whut?), and who in turn will soon be faced with a decision that brings the flying ship into direct conflict with the Testament Union. Meanwhile, the leader of the city-state of Mikawa has set his city's power reactor into meltdown mode, hoping to trigger a new war himself.
And this is where it all starts to get confusing. I spent more time watching the series going "What? Why? Who!?" than anything else - there's a huge cast, with a complex web of relationships between them that you need that background information to decipher; there are more than a few different nations in the mix as well, with it never being clear who the allies and enemies are; and it doesn't take long for terminal confusion to set it. In a way, that's not a bad thing - if you can't be bothered trying to actually follow the "story", there is a certain amount of fun to be had in just switching off and enjoying the battle scenes, which do look the part. But I found it immensely frustrating that there was a larger story going on here that I couldn't get into for lack of prior knowledge. Protip for companies bringing shows over for simulcast: if you can't be bothered to bring the necessary background material with it, please, don't bother.
I also found the cast to be an uninteresting bunch. Horizon is an emotionless doll, Tori's continual smug cheerfulness quickly becomes annoying (there is a plot reason for it, but that doesn't really help to reduce the annoyance), and most of the rest of the cast don't get enough time to make any sort of impression. Masazumi would be the possible exception, as she has some interesting issues to deal with, but one decent character does not a show make.
For all my hopes at the beginning of the season, then, Horizon has ended up being the most disappointing out of the shows I finished - and if the trailer and setting hadn't intrigued me so much at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have stuck with it to the end in the first place. I'm fairly certain that the problem is simply not knowing the full background story - but unless an English translation of that appears at some point, I'm not likely to bother with the sequel season that's due in the spring. Very disappointing.
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