I think it's obvious why I am not going into specifics about Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. I don't want to reveal spoilers. But it does mean that the posts I'm making about it as I'm watching are very vague. Them's the breaks.

I just finished watching episode 19. The pace never flags; it may be the most exciting episode yet.

Not every episode is exciting; not every episode concentrates on action. But every episode has been interesting. If this series fulfills the promise, and continues like this to the very end, I'm going to give it four stars.

It isn't perfect. If someone was mean-spirited, they could complain about the fact that the future doesn't look all that amazing. You'd think things would change more by the year 2070. And a mean-spirited reviewer would complain that these middle-school kids seem more mature in nearly every way than we really expect from kids that age.

Myself, I've stopped thinking of them as being in middle school and transposed everything to high school; it simply works better that way. And instead of thinking of it as 2070 I think of it as being an alternate 2010.

Anyway, those things are minor. There are so many things that are just right in this series, and by far the most important is that the characters are so vivid and well conceived. Sometimes a series will have one or two memorable characters. This one has a lot more than that.

And they aren't memorable for being eccentric or absurd. Moriguchi, Harumi, Nayuta, Hajime -- these characters I believe. They're real people to me. Jiltosh puts on a lot, so I'm not clear on what he really is like; he's gregarious to a fault but may be an evil scheming genius. Weinul is surprisingly accessible, for having four eyes. I'm getting "Android 16" vibes from him. He's going to matter before this is all over; I'm sure of it.

Futaba, Hajime's bratty kid sister, is another character that transcends stereotype and has become three-dimensional for me.

But even the supporting characters are strong ones. Listening to the kid with the buck teeth banter with the teacher in the class is a pleasure; the teacher isn't on a high horse, and gives as good as he gets. It's obvious that he likes his kids, and they like him.

Am I being set up for a fall? Will the ending be disappointing? Anything is possible, but since Chris Beveridge gave the final DVD an A+ rating I'm not too worried. Anyway, I'm seeing just too damned much competence in the story telling in this series for me to believe they're going to clutch in the end.

UPDATE, end of episode 20: They keep doing this to me. Every time I begin to sense where the series is going, they change direction again.

I love this.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in at 11:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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