Earth Girl Arjuna

An Anime Review

by Shad

I decided to buy the HK dvd set of this show because 1. I have no money and 2. I have a habit that needs feeding, and it is anime. The first episode of Earth Girl Arjuna came out on a free catalog disc from Bandai at Otakon. After watching the first episode, I was hooked by the high quality animation, interesting theme of the show, and the diversity of the soundtrack. I was happy when it arrived in beautiful HK packaging as a 2-disc set containing all 13 episodes of the show.

Juna is a young girl in high school. She studies a classic Japanese style of archery because her mother wanted her to have a hobby where she could practice discipline, poise and grace. One summer day, while riding towards the sea with her boyfriend Tokio, she died. A voice comes to Juna as she is having a kind of out-of-body experience floating in midair as doctors try to revive her body below. The voice tells her that she can have another life if she agrees to help protect the planet and to thwart the Radja, a supernatural entity that threatens all life on Earth. Juna reluctantly accepts and is soon thrown into the mix with no training sequence, no knowledge of what is happening or what she should do, and no one to help her…everything is a mystery.

Most of the show is about how Juna learns about the Earth and how people live, and how her new life affects her relationships with her family and friends, and especially Tokio. We also see a lot of progression in all of the characters throughout the show. My three favorite not-quite-main-characters would be Chris, Cindy, and the weird looking Japanese military guy who reminded me of Mel Gibson in The Man Without A Face. In the very beginning and moreso towards the end, Juna has to stop the Radja from destroying the Earth and its people, and at the same time worrying about the humans and the Radja devouring the planet’s resources and poisoning the environment.

Unlike other magical girl anime, Arjuna is not all about transformation sequences, cute guys, and big bad meanies. There’s a much deeper purpose to this series. I learned a lot about things that I had forgotten when I finished school… Things about the way our ecosystem works and how organisms work together, about how much things are alike and all related even though they are all different, and about how useless and destructive a lot of conventional things are that we take for granted every day. This isn’t a depressing series by any means, unless you choose to look at it that way. Instead, I kinda thought it was a lesson in how we live and what could (although an exaggerated example) possibly happen someday if we don’t slow down and stop producing so much waste, pouring so many impurities out into the environment, and depleting the planet of its natural resources without cultivating them in return.

The animation quality of this show is excellent. The HK dvds were a rip of the region 3 discs so the quality was maintained from the original media. The CG looked a little rough at time, but it was close. Also included a digital 5.1 sound track in Japanese. I was very impressed by the 5.1, because it was only the second or third time where I thought an anime 5.1 track was flawless, appropriate, and just unbelievably amazing to hear. The subs started to decline in quality on the second disc, and the last 2 episodes had some timing issues, but if you’re buying the domestic release there’s really nothing to worry about. I thought the English dub on the Bandai disc I got was very well done and I liked Juna’s and Chris’ voices a lot. Oh, and the music has some Yoko Kanno and a few other artists on the soundtrack, and all of it is quality, but a lot of the tracks are also very different, which I thought was a great idea and kinda symbolizes different feelings and emotions, and also I guess the way everyone around the world is different but kind of the same in many ways. I just can’t say enough about the quality aspects of this show.

However, I have to say that I am happy I bought the HK set instead of the domestic release. This was a really great series, but I thought that for a show that comes off as an action series in the first episode, about 9 to 10 episodes out of this 13 episode series are all about philosophy and nature. The show is extremely environmentally-oriented, and not that it’s a bad thing, I just thought that the show could have used a little more action and suspense. My first impression was that this was gonna be a kickass show, and it didn’t turn out to be as much of a kickass but more like a really neat idea and a good story. It was a little disappointing around the middle of the series, but I do have to give credit where credit is due… Arjuna brought up some issues that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Such as the connection between all things on the planet, the way emotions and words can become somewhat tangible and create invisible barriers or restraints between people, and the way a small change, accident, or minor adjustment in a way of thinking can have a huge affect on the entire world.

Altogether, I thought that Earth Girl Arjuna was a really good show, but not good enough that it should get a 25-episode TV series unless they changed some things. It’s just way too philosophical to be longer than it is now, so I believe that 13 episodes was adequate. The action that is present in the series comes off very clean, the motion and sequences are done very nicely and looks very cool. The emotional involvement between all of the characters is pretty impressive, and the overall outcome of the story is very satisfying. The audio, video, and subject matter is excellent, but the execution leaves just a little more to be desired. I’m glad I bought it, but I wouldn’t like it as much if I had paid oer $100 for the domestic release.

And now for my new grading scale, I hope you enjoy it.

I give Earth Girl Arjuna 7 out of 10 Shin-chan’s!