The Garden of Sinners first came to my attention via a
Youtube trailer while looking up Fate/Stay Night stuff. Immedietly, I was hooked by the mix of
bizzare but beautiful images, an equally beautiful musical track from the always
amazing Kalafina, and the focus on a beautiful lead protagonist. It made me wonder if this might’ve been
Animes answer to Constantine of DC Comics.
Still, I wanted to give Sinners a try one day and that day has finally
come. Whether I finish the series or
not, that’s going to be a tough call.
Right away, what was promised in the trailer is
present. Thanks to this being a work by
Studio Ufotable, the artists behind most of the Fate franchise (Zero, UBW and
Heaven’s Feel), The Garden of Sinners continues their trend of giving movie
level quality to any kind of animation…and if its already a movie production it
just becomes next level. There’s an
eeriness to every image of the first episode.
It provokes feelings of wonder and mystery but also a very unsettling
danger. This is as far from kids ghost
stories as you can get, especially when suicides are at the front of these
supernatural perils. This is aided by
Yuki Kaijura and Kalafina bringing their A-Game to the proceedings. Seriously, I could purchase and listen to
their entire lineup of soundtracks from Fate/Zero to .hack//Sign to Madoka
Magica and Id never get tired of Ms. Kaijura and her group. Then there’s Shiki. Being the first episode, of course we’re not
going to get the full deal with her situation but that doesn’t mean she isn’t
interesting to watch. Save for the lack
of cigarettes, my comparison of her to DC’s Constantine isn’t too far off, I
think. Shiki is devil may care, rushing
into face monsters without second thought.
With her powers, her investigative skills are amazing. Plus, she is beautiful, and easily to be
drawn to much like Kobuto.
Where things are a little iffy despite all these being
the makings of a solid show is the pacing and storytelling. Even without all the immediate facts present,
there’s a lot of jumping around with events and cryptic dialogue that makes you
wonder why we didn’t just start at the beginning and endure a ten minute world
building tutorial. I suppose The Garden
of Sinners could be considered an exercise in silent storytelling. The art itself could tell the story without
dialogue I think but it could move at a slightly brisker pace. Also, I should mention that this is actually
a film series, not a TV one. So each
episode looks to clock in at anywhere between 45mins to an hour and there were
times I felt the drag and was looking at the video timeline to see where I
was. It could pick up in later episodes
but maybe starting slow wasn’t the best move.
In the end, I guess I could pick at this series little by
little. Granted that means it could take
a while to finish. But The Garden of
Sinners seems like it would be worth the time and effort to do so. It is definitely one of the most beautiful
Anime titles ive ever seen, pacing be damned.
It’s mature themes and intense action prove it isn’t planning on pulling
any punches. And Shiki…well her silent
but attractive way of carrying herself could win me over completely in the
end. So yeah, I’ll keep at it. Just don’t be surprised if I don’t finish
this series any time soon.
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