Pandora Hearts

I guess I’m going to be the first to break and write something about anime, as opposed to these high minded discussions on politics and economics we’ve had before. Curses. Oh well, I’ll just write something on the Technological Singularity next to make myself feel better.



So then, Pandora Hearts. Short version, it’s a mystery/fantasy/action anime taking place in a vaguely Victorian era fantasy world with many references to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. To go into more detail, I’ll borrow the TV Tropes synopsis, as it does a better job than I could:

“Oz Vessalius, a young boy with father issues is about to come of age and be recognized as the heir to his family. He has allies like his servant and best friend Gilbert Nightray. Despite his smile, it seems that all is not right as his father wants nothing to do with him. Before the ceremony, he falls into a derelict grave and discovers a watch that mentally teleports him into a girl's playroom. He is nearly killed by her before Gilbert snaps him out of it.
Falling victim to the mysterious Baskerville's plot, Oz is sent to the Abyss for the crime of 'existing.' He makes it out under the his own power after making a 'contract' with the powerful 'chain': Alice, or rather, B-Rabbit. They are met by Raven, Break and Sharon Rainsworth who tell him he's been gone for ten years. They belong to the organization Pandora. Now a part of Pandora, he is working for them to find illegal contractors and recover Alice's lost memories.”

Most of the series follows the characters trying to uncover the secrets of Alice’s past, and the truth of what exactly is going on around them. The show does a good job of keeping the mystery tone, although having watched Higurashi, an excellent mystery anime, it was a bit hard to not notice that it was lacking while compared to Higurashi. Although that’s really not much of a comparison; on its own, Pandora Hearts still has good elements of mystery in it. Actions and fight scenes are also very present, although the plot isn’t too reliant on them. Because of the mystery focus, more of the show is spent talking than in epic battles, and for this case, it works out better that way.
It’s fairly common in anime to interweave humorous and somber moments, with varying degrees of success depending on the show. Pandora Hearts doesn’t pull it off so well. The jokes seem forced and out of place; it would have been better for them to just stick with the serious tone, as it works much better with the show. The exception is in Episode 20, which comes as a breather episode after the events of the past few episodes. All pretenses of being serious are completely dropped, and while it feels very odd compared to the rest of the show, it does have a weird charm to it (“Uncle, are you sure that was juice?” “It was juice with just a little alcohol in it.” “The rest of the world calls that wine, uncle.”)

At the start, I mentioned the show has many references to “Alice in Wonderland”, and it indeed does. The female lead is named Alice, there’s a character named the Cheshire Cat, one character is fairly obviously based on the Mad Hatter (and this becomes pretty blatant when he starts using his Mad Hatter power during fights), and so on. However, these are mostly just shallow references. While I cannot claim to be an expert in Lewis Carroll’s literature, the show just seemed to take the names of things from “Wonderland” and fit them in where it would work with the plot. There are a few moments where the show does a good job of giving a dark Wonderland mood (basically, whenever something is happening in the Abyss), but these are scarce. Expect to see some nods of acknowledgement towards “Wonderland”, but don’t go in thinking the show will contain numerous well researched and deep connections to the story.

One of the show’s major failings is the art. When I first started watching it, I assumed I was watching an older series, as the animation wasn’t nearly up to par with what I’d been seeing recently. I was therefore surprised to learn that it came out in 2009, not even a year ago. The animation budget gets a massive bump in time for the last few episodes, but all this seems to achieve is putting the show on the same level as its peers, instead of being inferior. All I can really say in support of the animation is that the outfits people wear in this series look really cool.

Pandora Hearts suffers the same problem as many other animes based on a manga where they catch up with their source material. Thankfully, the producers didn’t start pumping out episodes of filler, which would have likely completely destroyed the mood of the show. Instead, it just kind of…. Ends. The last few episodes provide a small sense of emotional closure, but don’t in any way explain any of the mysteries (except for a few obvious ones which I figured out three episodes in). It’s left open for a possible second season, but I haven’t heard any word on whether there’s going to be one or not.

Overall, the show is good, but nothing special. Watch it if you have the time, but it isn’t anything I’d go out of my way to see.

On the other hand, is the soundtrack. The music in this show is simply amazing. I’d link every song on the soundtrack which I like, but that would take a bit too much space; it’s one of the best anime soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time. There have been two OSTs released for the show (which covers pretty much all the music from the show; it’s not a very long show….). Most of the music in OSTs is obviously meant to be background music, rather than standalone songs, but it’s some bloody good background music. The style is mostly orchestral, although there is some variance. Also expect liberal use of faux Latin choruses.

So, in short: Pandora Hearts. Decent anime, great OST. The series was recently licensed for North America, so we’ll be getting a dub of it soon. Possibly something to look out for if you're interested.