Silent Mobius
[Score: 94% = Buy+, one of my Top 3 Anime series and my favourite Supernatural Conflict anime; episode reviews. Other recommended Supernatural Conflict animes: Kannazuki no Miko]
- Drama: High (you want angst? You get it right here!)
- Comedy: Low (mostly depressing but occasional funny moments)
- Action: Med (police versus alien monsters, gunplay, intelligent swords)
- SciFi: High (science and magic combined, supernatural beings, parallel worlds)
- Ecchi: None/Low (basically a group of nice young women)
Tokyo, after some world-wide catastrophe; acid rain falling from the sky; monsters lurking around and attacking people; the "good guys" (eh - ladies, in that case) organizing a specialized counter force with extremely high skills; the background story evolving slowly during the story with many flashbacks and is hidden even from the main characters for a long time ... sounds like Evangelion, doesn't it? It may get quite close at times, so if you hate NGE, be careful with this one. But then ...
While the "front story" does use some high-tech weaponry, and more magic (like intelligent swords), and awful monsters, and some mystic ideas, the underneath topics seem more accessible to me than in NGE: This is a story about loyalty and friendship, and facing problems (instead of EVAding them ;-), and being close together (as friends and even as lovers - this isn't a kids' anime, although no nudity scenes occur at all, and violence is presented visually in a 'graceful' way), which can be problematic at times, given this type of background. These characters will have to endure hard times, and they won't be able to stand that alone.
While the story is depressing and angsty at times, hope is not lost - which is a main topic as well, just like in "Lord of the Rings". Episodes 1 and 2 introduce Katsumi and present some hints about the storyline background; episodes 3-5 and 8-9 show how Katsumi becomes an AMP member; episodes 6, 7, 10 and 11 provide the background stories of the other AMP members. Then the stage is set - from episode 12 on the main show begins (and my episode reviews end, because of that).
This is my number one anime absolutely, so don't expect me to be fair in some details (Katsumi will do things on occasion that you aren't given an explanation for ... she just seems to remember anyhow. And don't try to make sense from the 'scientific' explanations ...). You see, I don't give it a set of 10s, although this is second to no other for me ... its value for me lies in the characters, their fates and their relations, the story is great, I didn't find any filler episode, and the musical score is truely awesome (The Forbidden Pensee, Golden Unicorn, The Creation, The Hope, The Perplexity, ...). Even the main opponent is more than just "your usual bad guy" - there are scenes I almost cried for him as well.
If you like Evangelion, then give this one a try - it will give you a story with less open questions and more plausible (nonetheless interesting) characters, yet focus on similar issues. But then, there is a reason why I selected "Romance" from the keyword list, which I certainly wouldn't do for NGE ... and this is something that makes Silent Möbius the unique anime to me that it is. This one is like "the best of both worlds" (watch the show and you'll understand the pun ;-). And if you're into epics like Lodoss Wars or Escaflowne, then you may find something of value here as well.
One problem is that episode 26 doesn't end the story line like the manga did. It took me some time to search the web for some English transcription of the Japanese mangas, which do contain some equivalent of "episode 27" that answers much more questions than those different NGE endings do, for example (see "episode 27" link above, but beware of spoilers!)
But even without that, episode 26 is a some kind of valid ending, just like episode 24 would be for Love Hina - it would work fine even if nothing followed.
Two prequel movies, Silent Mobius The Movie 1 (from 1991) and Silent Mobius The Movie 2 (from 1992) exist besides this 26 episodes TV series from 1998; both are somehow rewriting the first three episodes and fill up certain aspects of the story line (what did really happen to Katsumi's mother?), but they don't match this series at all.
Mangas and anime are more closely related here than in any other anime series I've seen to date. So all you might find in the manga after having seen the anime series is the aforementioned story's ending.
Last updated Friday, June 06 2008. Created Sunday, June 08 2003.
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