Chrono Crusade PG14

Chrono Crusade

Storyline *****
Graphics ****
Character Structure ***
Soundtrack ****
Entertainment *****

I apologize first and foremost that I didn't review for awhile. It's been busy where I live and I haven't had all that much of a chance to sit and write a review. But, here is one, and old one, but a review none the less.

Considering I haven't used up five stars for any of my ratings yet, you have to expect this one to be good. I honestly didn't think I would like it when I first started watching it but it won me over completely at the end.

I hate it when animes deal with religious icons. Evangelion, for example, was one of them. I loved the story but hated the imagery. Chrono Crusade has a thumbs down from me for it being so religious imagery oriented. However, if I were to look at it with no biases at all, I'd have to say it was ingenious how they used the Bible in the whole series.

The story is about a nun in the Magdalene Order named Rosette Christopher and her demon sidekick Chrono. The time is somewhere in the 1920s. The World War just ended and many new changes are happening in the world. In such state of change, demons and devils appear and the Catholic Church organization "Magdalene Order" is there to exorcise them.

The story was amazing. You take an unlikely heroine and put her with an unlikely partner in a setting that would normally reject both of them and you've got yourself an interesting setup. What church allows a demon to exorcise demons? None! Even the Magdalene Order didn't want Chrono. Where in the world do you find a nun that destroys everything? Nowhere!

The story just moved forward at an amazing pace without rushing things. It did a great job keeping viewers on their tippy toes and stirred up emotions left and right. The characters that so easily clashed with each other added to the storyline and jerked or pulled the story making the whole thing unpredictable yet not annoying. The action scenes were well done as well as they weren't too chaotic but not too short. Overall, story and execution were done beyond my expectations.

The graphics for an early 2000 anime wasn't bad at all. In fact, I think it was incredibly beautiful. The cinematic setup of backgrounds and actions scenes made this whole thing eye candy to people like me. When the atmosphere was gloomy, the shading matched as such and the saturation was muted. When they are in the sun, the entire screen shines with heavily saturated colors and lush greens as well as highlights in every which place from the sun. The occasional flashback transitions were also done very artistically. My only disappointment for the graphics would have been that every once in awhile, the angles and sizes didn't seem to line up. I also give a thumbs down to the big breasted lady with too much aerodynamics to her breasts. Sorry, it doesn't really work like that in real life.

The characters were made beautifully. Each character was independent and stood out with their own personalities. Rosette was the hard headed girl with one goal but with a sense of righteousness. Chrono's character was the man who hid himself but is a nice guy in reality. Satella was cause driven and very mature. Azmaria's character grew and flourished as the series progressed. All characters just screamed personality without habitual change and all characters matured. Why did I give this three stars? Because many of the characters weren't explained well enough. The viewer finds out so much about Chrono and Rosette, who are the main characters but I know I was disappointed not fully finding out Azmaria's role and about Satella's inner feelings. When you lack a good back story to side characters, that's when it does nothing more than meet expectations. So for the lack of well rounded character development, I gave this part of the review three stars.

This also happens to be one of those animes that I want the OST for. It was operatic and dramatic. It had a song for each and every mood. Some songs, to this day, I well up with tears in my eyes just by listening to it. I don't know how to say that it was amazing, I can only say that it was. I wish I could write more about it, but it's hard to transcribe emotions via music into writing. Either way, well worth the listen. It's emotionally written and well executed.

I really did love this show. Some of my non-anime friends watched it to the end and loved it as well. It ran the typical 24 episodes so it required a bit of investment in time but not all the episodes were cliffhangers either. I took a good week and a half to finish this but the story stood out to me so much that I probably could have waited longer between episodes and remembered where I left off. Overall, I recommend this to anyone. It works for the girly girls and the action boys. Seriously, go watch it.