1 I have to disagree about the music.  The OP and ED were just horrible. 

Take your prior statements about what the OP should be like, and compare to this show.  The music is gently nostalgic, hearkening back to a simpler, slower world.

Is Shingu about nostalgia?  Arguably, yes.  From an artistic standpoint, it is pretty obvious that the writer/director was creating a retro-future that reflected his nostalgia for his childhood years; the 1970's.  Unfortunately, while it was right for what he felt and wanted to portray, it was utterly wrong from the standpoint of marketing the show.

The otaku demographic isn't in to nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia.  You can capture their attention with good writing, fanservice, vivid characters, action, "wow" factor, and probably several other items I can't think of right now.  I am pretty sure nostalgia isn't on the list, however.  Nor is a niche style of music that was never all that popular to start with, having unsurprisingly (and mercifully) faded into obscurity.  (Every time I heard it was like fingernails on a blackboard.  I kept having flashbacks to Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera.  Bad times.  Very bad times.)

This was a story driven by characters and mystery, and the OP's visuals and music should have reflected that. A j-pop song would have been wrong also, but still a better choice; insipid and ordinary, rather than actively, painfully bad.

As for the length of the show, I felt that there were parts that could have been explored more, but they didn't need to be.  It was as long as it needed to be; if that report is accurate (and I have my doubts), then cutting it to 26 episodes was the right choice.

2 Ubu, you can disagree all you want, music was great. OP could stand a little reduction in Muryou's screen time. Also, screw otaku demographic.

3 This information corresponds with my own experience.

When TRSI began marketing Shingu, somebody on the anime forum that I frequent asked about it, and nobody had heard of it (and these are hardcore fans covering the entire spectrum of the types of stories that anime presents).  When the original title was retrieved, the strongest reaction I heard was, "Oh, yeah, that.  Mediocre."

Sometime later, I picked up the series on one of TRSI's sales and loved it immediately.  I brought it to the weekly anime viewing group that I attend, and they enjoyed it immensely.

All of us are over 30, and several are over 40.

I'm becoming convinced that if you're not over a certain age, you're just a lot less likely to enjoy Shingu.  And yeah, we always skipped over the OP and ED.

4 I really do think along with pflorian that people over 30 will most likely enjoy Shingu. I think it is the mix of the non technology vs technology feel of the show as shown in the paper sumos bit. Electronic video games and such only started in the 1970s but most games were still your classic board games and such. Sort of like being in the advance guard of the technology front without really being immersed in it as in the newer generation. TVs without remotes, record players and so on.

5

Ubu, I'm not talking about the OP and ED, I'm talking about the background music in the show. There's one scene in particular where the music is absolutely brilliant. Without going into too many details, it's where Futaba is sobbing while talking to Muryou. The music is a dirge, it's the kind of Dixieland music they used to play while carrying a coffin to a cemetery -- and it's really outstanding.

My point about the length is that taking a show which had originally been plotted to 39 eps and after going part way suddenly being told to cut it to 26, well, that's going to leave scars, I would think. And I sure don't see any.

6 Ok, now if you're talking about the score, as opposed to the OP and ED, then  yes, the music was at least "good," and probably better than that--I'm not enough of a musician (try none at all) to grade it better than that..  Unfortunately, it's the latter pair that come to mind when the words "music" and "Shingu" are placed in proximity to each other.

And I am also skeptical that the series was cut from 39; it feels too "right" to have been a change.

Note also that our expectations and focus as we watched the series for the first time might have been different from the original Japanese audience, due to the title change.  Their focus might have been on Muryou, whereas ours was on Shingu.  And the mystery; it's subtitled "Secret of the Stellar Wars" after all.  If you're thinking of Muryou as the hero (not the focus, but hero) of the story, you're probably going to be disappointed by a seemingly lame resolution of his mystery.  Which it wasn't; it was perfect.

As for the otaku demographic, I can't say "screw it," because we wouldn't get any anime without it. Anyway, my point had less to do with their taste than with the "my ears are bleeding" OP that probably drove them away in, well, droves.. 

7 I haven't watched Shingu yet, but apparently Escaflowne was another show cut from 39 episodes to 26, and I never would have guessed.

It would depend on when in the production cycle the cuts were made; obviously the earlier the better.