Fumetsu no Anata e

Title:Fumetsu no Anata e
To Your Eternity
不滅のあなたへ
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Brains Base
An omnipotent narrator casts an orb of light to the Earth, watching as this entity copies the shape of a rock and then, many years later, mimics the moss on a rock. When a wolf dies beside the moss, it evolves, taking on the creature's shape and gaining movement for the first time. As the wolf, the orb observes the dead wolf's owner, a young man who lives alone on a frozen tundra, and accompanies him on his journey to reunite with the rest of his townspeople, who crossed the icy wasteland years before in search of a more bountiful country. The time the orb spends with the boy leaves a mark on the entity as it observes, mimics, and bonds with the boy and then the other creatures it eventually comes across—all while transcending death and living for time immemorial.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


20-episode TV anime that premiered on April 12, 2021.
Animated by Brains Base.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 7 8 7 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:4302#1552]
To Your Eternity is a supernatural adventure-drama focused on a mysterious entity creating an orb that he casts onto the Earth, having the ability to take on the form of anything inanimate or living it comes into contact with. The orb eventually takes on the form of a wolf that is the pet of a young boy seeking to be reunited with his fellow villagers. However, the boy dies after succumbing to a fever from his attempted journeying and the orb takes on the boy’s form. Traveling to different lands and interacting with other people, the being who becomes known as Fushi comes to experience the joys and pains of living as a human.

The main focus of To Your Eternity is Fushi’s growth as he comes to take on different forms and gains the physical forms of some of the human companions he encounters on his journey. The strongest element in the anime’s storytelling is the development of Fushi’s character throughout its 20-episode run. At first, Fushi behaves in an animalistic state due to his lack of understanding human behavior and is utterly clueless about basic things of living such as eating, drinking, or talking. But as his interactions with humans and other living beings continues throughout the series, Fushi becomes more human in his interactions with others shown through his actions and how he communicates with others. His more human understanding of things also leads him to question things about his abnormal nature, especially as more facts about his purpose become clear in later episodes of the series.

For the most part, other characters within To Your Eternity are also explored in the story arcs that the series dabbles into throughout Fushi’s journey. Two of the story arcs in the anime’s first half devote enough time to explore the developments of major characters that Fushi bonds with and the characters undergo some sort of growth with Fushi’s presence in their lives. The series also isn’t afraid to toss in tragic consequences for some of these characters that Fushi encounters, contributing to his character’s growth in experiencing the joys and pains of being human.

Unfortunately, To Your Eternity also comes with its fair share of setbacks. The anime can usually gets into emotional extremes with the reactions some characters have in some dramatic scenes, which make them lose some of their emotional impact. It does have some inconvenient timing at points with attempting to add in humorous scenes during some serious moments. In addition, the series ends inconclusively as its manga source material is still ongoing as of the time I make this review, though a second season of the anime is in the works and set to premiere late next year.

But perhaps the major issue I have with To Your Eternity is the Jananda Island arc. Limiting spoilers, the story arc is meant to be a more darker one compared to others at this point of the story as Fushi experiences first hand the more darker side of humanity. While having some effective moments of story development, a good amount of it is rather sloppy with the handling of supporting character developments within the story arc and Fushi seems to forgive and connect with the inhabitants of the island a bit too easily considering the manipulations and misery he is put through in the early episodes of the story arc.

In short, To Your Eternity is kind of a mixed bag for me. While having some hiccups, the anime’s earlier story arcs feature solid story and character development, especially with the gradual developments Fushi undergoes in becoming more humanlike and learning to utilize his abilities. But Jananda Island arc was a bit of a disappointment in the attempt it tries to make with having Fushi confront the darker elements of humanity which comes off looking rather sloppy in a good amount of its plot and character developments. I’d at least consider the series decent coming off the strength of its earlier story arcs and season finale. But I’m iffy if I’d want to continue delving into the series with its upcoming second season.

Last updated Wednesday, December 22 2021. Created Wednesday, December 22 2021.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:4302#628]
(12 episodes watched):

A highly original show--in fact, so original that I have a hard time thinking of things to say about it. God (or whoever) creates 'an orb that captures the reflections of many things and changes in response'. He decides to 'cast the orb unto the earth and observe it'. What he's looking for is 'stimulation'. Episode one is set in an eskimo-like culture but episode two will apparently be taking place in a much more green setting. The orb doesn't take on human form until the end of the opening episode and therefore hasn't said a word. Maybe it never will; perhaps the various stories will be about the people it encounters rather than the orb itself. Perhaps this show will be about the trials and tribulations that humans of all sorts of cultures must face. What was clear was that I must watch it.

Episode two didn't seem quite as moving, however. I was annoyed by the portrayal of the central character, March, a girl chosen for human sacrifice, in a superdeformed manner in contrast to everyone else. It seemed to trivialize her and make it harder to take the drama seriously. The orb seems to be largely an observer while the real stories are acted out by humans (though it does get involved now and then). As of yet it doesn't even know how to speak and acts as little more than an animal with a human body. Episode three was pretty neat, however; the thought occurred to me that primitive people witnessing freaky stuff like these did is how new religions could easily get started. Episode one had led me to believe that we would basically get a new story with a new central character in each episode, but it looks like March will be around for a good while--maybe she will die and the orb will replicate her.

I think the thing I like best about this show is that the plot makes sense yet I have no idea where it is going. It is unpredictable in a good way. What do the leaders of Yanome hope to do with Wolf-Boy, March, and her sister (you would sort of think they would show more respect to a seemingly God-like entity)? Is Oniguma really dead? Most shows give you few surprises about how their plots work out, but this one is completely original rather than following some tired framework. On the other hand, episode five was rather confusing. All sorts of crazy things happen and I struggled to piece them together--a high speed chase (at least as fast as horses can go), the Yanome people want to 'capture' Fushi (the orb guy), they discover that carting the body of Oniguma back to their capital city wasn't such a good idea, etc. It felt disjointed, as if the makers of this anime had come to the end of an unfinished story and had had to slap together a conclusion of their own. What should have been a moving event was undermined by the lack of order.

A new arc takes off in episode six--or maybe we take a break between arcs. Fushi now accompanies Shioran, the old woman that was met in Yanome. She had seemed like a minor character, so I hadn't paid much attention to her, but now she's important--or at least she serves as a link between the two arcs. We also meet some being who claims to be the creator of the orb, and some other tree-like being tries to kill Fushi. It's implied that the fate of Earth itself may be at stake. This was all a bit much to handle, and I was left somewhat bewildered afterwards. I was distinctly unsure whether this twist had been a good idea or not. A new character, Gugu, is introduced in episode seven. He's a boy who wears a strange mask because his face got smashed up in an accident (we are not shown the extent of his injury). I wondered why a good deal of attention was apparently being shifted to Gugu and away from Fushi, especially after the mind-blowing revelations of episode six. Maybe he is supposed to replace March as a disadvantaged child who we can sympathize with, but the plotline seemed to have become garbled and confusing to me. I was tempted to drop this show from my viewing roster, and stopped watching for a month or two, but then but decided to carry on after all--in part because there didn't seem to be many outstanding new anime in the summer season. The focus is on the romance between Gugu and Rean, a rich girl he secretly loves and was injured while trying to protect. An ugly pauper like Gugu seems to have no chance becoming her boyfriend; it sort of reminds me of Phantom of the Opera. One problem with the conclusion of the first season (and the Gugu arc) was that I almost burst out laughing at the big fight between Gugu, Fushi and a giant bear-like stone monster(?), and it was not supposed to be funny. Gugu's ability to act as a sort of human flamethrower is hard to believe. Much like the earlier fate of March, it was hard to get emotional about what happens to Gugu; the fact that the show itself didn't seem to be taking things all that seriously made it difficult to do so myself.

This was a show which looked very good in its first episode, but succeeding ones never managed to match it. It had seemed as if the theme would be a moving exploration of just what it means to be human, but in fact it transformed into a battle against some sort of weird monster. I think that's why the first appearance of the tree-like creature seemed like such a let-down--because it felt like a signal that this show had abandoned the last pretense that it would be anything like episode one was.

Last updated Monday, September 20 2021. Created Monday, April 19 2021.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site https://anime-fumetsunoanatae.com/

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org