Earth Maiden Arjuna Review

I haven't been so conflicted watching an anime in a long while. The show is interesting at points and it can be thought provoking, but the whole story kind of just feels confused to me. It could be because it wasn't what I wanted it to be or that the first 2 episodes may have put my expectations out of whack but I was expecting this to be some kind of superhero globe trotting adventure show where Tokio, Juna and the SEED orangization go on adventures together defeating Raja and then some lesson and points about enviromentalism would be brought up while it was going on. I was expecting this to be some kind of monster of the week with an underlying over arching plot which would slowly reveal itself.

But it was ultimately a slice of life show with heavy enviromentalism themes with the show occasionally reminding you that Juna has superpowers. Juna would be struggling to live her day to day life and has that weird love triangle while problems around the world were happening and Seed was dealing with that. The latter was more interesting to me, and I care more about that because it felt bigger and more important then Juna's family problems or whether or not she still has the ability to eat "manufactured" food. I also got annoyed by the character of Chris and his endless philosophical ramblings and him constantly telling Juna that she "doesn't get it" throughout most of the show. The best way I can say it is, I wish the show had thought provoking themes and all that enviromentalism talk while also having a plot that was more engaging. Maybe I just wanted this show to be something like a cross between Blood Plus, Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex and Witch Hunter Robin but with heavy themes about how humanity treats the planet. I do feel being more like those shows could've quelled how lukewarm I am on the plot of this series overall.

I will admit, the OST and the dub did carry me through much of the show. I have a soft spot for the Ocean Group since back in the 00s, those guys were in a lot of animations and I get nostalgic listening to them. I always did like it when Shadowcat from X-Men Evolution pops up in anything.

Overall, this show was a weird experience, I can't decide I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would because it "subverted" my expectations or because the overall writing execution was sub par. It's alright, but I was very conflicted while watching and I probably only finished it at all was because I don't like leaving short anime series "unfinished".