Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii – 01 – 04 Review

Episode 01 – 04 Review

I think I’ve found my favourite series of this season.

Yeap, it s a shoujo one.

Although this series may not have the best animation, nor the prettiest characters, or anywhere near having the most intriguing or original storyline around, it definitely has charm.

As vague as this sounds, there’s just something about it that makes me loves this series so much that I am off to re-watch the first four episodes again.

But before I do that, I shall try my best to restraint the fangirl in me and to provide you all with a review of this series.

Summary

“Nike, the fourth princess of the Rain Dukedom and one who holds the power to call forth the rain, travels to the Sun Kingdom to marry Sun King Livius for her country, despite her own reluctance. She soon discovers that the King, who conquered the world in only three years after his ascendance to the throne, is still a child! Furthermore, for trivial reasons, he has demanded that Nike call forth the rain…?!”

-source: MAL

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo

Review

I have been looking for a decent shoujo series to watch recently and I am glad that this came along. After watching a few disappointing ones, I wasn’t very optimistic about this show.

Right from the start the main character Nike had me hooked. It is rare for me to find a main female lead that I could tolerate much less love, but Nike’s brass yet gentle personality had me hooked.

Nike has all the traits of a typical loud-mouth strong-headed female character, but unlike many of those stereotypical characters, Nike often shows us a soft side to her and she comes across as being more human and sensible than stupidly rash.

But instead having me jumping straight into the characters, lets talk about the show in general.

The series throws together a bit of everything from magic to royalty, minor action scenes to touching flashback moments. The show does a careful balancing act of entertaining the audience with a bit of each, all the whilst ensuring to never take itself too seriously. Thus the fun, comedic and over the top dramatic moments.

If you are looking for a logical and realistic show, then you would have to look elsewhere. If you are looking for a show with an awkward romance fueled by light laughter and “magic power” moments, then this is what you’ll get. Nonsensical moments are a plenty, but as I had said previously, the show doesn’t even pretend to take itself seriously. (Plus it doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack of this series is lovely and addictive.)

The series pretty much follows an episodic structure with an ongoing A plot of a fight over the power of the throne (go drama. lol.) except for episode 4 – which ends on a cliffhanger (damn you cliff hanger! (>_<)o ). I sincerely hope that this series lasts longer than one season as I am enjoying it so much, but many series tend to lose it’s steam half way through the season so I am hoping that this stays strong.

Ultimately, the main hook for me on this show is the chemistry between our lovely main characters – Nike and Livius.

I just love the relationship between these two characters and how the show constantly reminds us that there is a emotional-need type of connection between them, with Nike fighting to teach Livius things that he had long forgotten (such as connections with those around him) and that it’s alright not to have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Yeap, it is a pretty typical storyline and I can see the romance between the two playing out in the typical structure of them hating each other, and then liking each other. Like I had said above, it doesn’t have the most original storyline around.

Although I do like the show, the first episode might but people off, so here’s where I have to put a disclaimer warning everyone about the pairing between the main two characters. Not everyone would be able to accept the pairing of a teen with a young kid. I mean, it’s pretty much borderlines on pedophilia. But I would suggest that you give the second episode a shot because the first episode is primarily an introductory episode.

You can also tell that the writers of the series took care in writing Livius’ character to appear older than he is through the mature voice actor, the actions that he displays and this particular point is reiterated many a times throughout the show with supporting characters commenting on his (un)child-like personality.

One fun fact thing to take note of is the fact that the voice actor for Livius’ character is played by Shimazaki Nobunaga, who is currently also the voice of Furuya from Diamond no Ace and Haruka from Free!. With such an adult sounding voice, and character designs that attempt to make his face appear older than that of a little kid, the only thing that is really hitting home about him being a child is his height when standing beside Nike.

I could go on and on about scenes what I had enjoyed about the show, but I know that in all honesty, but then this review may never end.

All in all, its my favourite shoujo series out this season and I will definitely be watching more of it.

Episode 01-04 Rating: 7.5/10 – The series knows how to pull on your heartstrings just like a korean drama. lol. Doki doki.

Who should watch it? I would recommend it if you are looking for a romantic comedy with some silliness in it.

On a fun non-relevant note, I just realized that the mountain that my friends and I had visited whilst at Hakone in Japan earlier this year, was the same mountain in the game Initial D. Lol, my friends and I were talking about how the winding roads it seemed so much like the Initial D game, but didn’t realise how right we were until we saw this article.

Anyway, until next time!

-ra