Norn 9 Anime Review
Norn 9 Anime Review
P.S. I only watched for eye-candy. Nothing else. It met my eye-candy standards.
There are so many limits to what one can do when creating an anime based off a game derived from romantic route-selections catered to the player's personal subjective interest in the design of a particular male character. An anime, has the evident choice of matching a girl to a single guy; and in the case of Norn 9 the anime made 2/3 pairing blatantly obvious. Although you have no idea why the hell either pairings were attracted to one another in the first place, other than some indistinct need for an anime with "hotties" to be paired with the limited selection of female protagonists available; or maybe a romantic relationship is just bound to happen when 11 hormonal youths (11 males, 3 females) are stuck on board a flying ship with only each other as company. Heh. What else is there to do.
What I found a screaming obvious flaw in the anime is the lack of a distinct plot laid out for viewers from the pilot episode. What we instead get to experience, is a vague story-telling narrative involving a seemingly natural acceptance of youths to board a magical flying ship. There is neither a fight or rebellion or a question to why the hell are all of them supposed to board the ship and remain there for who knows how long. We only learn the history to behind why they are all there in the last 4 episodes (episode 8-12) of the anime. Which by that time, you become just desperate to see the pairings run-off happily with one another and retain little to no care about the whole "World" system they live in.
We will talk about the "World" system later since I find the concept of it interesting but altogether lousily executed in the construction of this anime.
Evaluation of the female protagonists:
The anime begins with Koharu-chan (the cute, gentle, innocent, naive and polite pink-haired) protagonist narrating something along the lines of, "I was told that when I turn 17 "they" would come in Spring and I must board the flying ship." We have no idea in hell who told her this, where she is, or why we should give a damn about why she should board the ship. We don't even see her face until after the opening theme. Where in which we witness her as a clumsy teenage girl who is saved by a bright-haired and confident handsome youth (Kakeru).
Instead of boring you readers with a deeper analysis of the characters, I can summarize their personalities as:
Evaluation of the Anime pairings:
P.S. Senri Ichinose is also on board the ship but may only be remembered for the laziness of his character who prefers to remain cooped up in his room like a hikikomori.
The "World"
This is the one unique part of the whole plot line that is left underdeveloped and stale amidst the focus of the anime towards the superficial romantic relationships between all the characters. The "World" is a cybernetic system developed to overcome the supposedly "trivial" and deadly outcome of war and violence that arises from human conflict. In order to create a perfect harmonious reality for humanity, the chosen individuals who are gifted with supernatural abilities are allowed to choose the "RESTART" of humanity. Hence, ending all conflicts of the world.
Unfortunately, the cyborg that is able to process this "RESTART" cannot do so forever. It is made in the form of a young white-haired female teenager who wears a similarly dainty white dress. She does not speak and is in love with her creator, who has been reborn into a genetically identitical reincarnation. To remain close to her reincarnated love, who happens to be a primary schooler, she kidnaps and keeps him in stasis until the anime storyline is reached; whereby, the World who is reaching her 'final days' chooses to reawaken him to spend her last moments with him - as utterly ridiculous this is when she could have awoken him before she reached such a state or deterioration. Love makes us do ridiculous things I suppose. Even if it's love been a human and cyborg.
Summary Review of the animation Norn 9:
P.S. I only watched for eye-candy. Nothing else. It met my eye-candy standards.
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| The male protanogists of Norn 9 - make your selections, female users! |
What I found a screaming obvious flaw in the anime is the lack of a distinct plot laid out for viewers from the pilot episode. What we instead get to experience, is a vague story-telling narrative involving a seemingly natural acceptance of youths to board a magical flying ship. There is neither a fight or rebellion or a question to why the hell are all of them supposed to board the ship and remain there for who knows how long. We only learn the history to behind why they are all there in the last 4 episodes (episode 8-12) of the anime. Which by that time, you become just desperate to see the pairings run-off happily with one another and retain little to no care about the whole "World" system they live in.
We will talk about the "World" system later since I find the concept of it interesting but altogether lousily executed in the construction of this anime.
Evaluation of the female protagonists:
The anime begins with Koharu-chan (the cute, gentle, innocent, naive and polite pink-haired) protagonist narrating something along the lines of, "I was told that when I turn 17 "they" would come in Spring and I must board the flying ship." We have no idea in hell who told her this, where she is, or why we should give a damn about why she should board the ship. We don't even see her face until after the opening theme. Where in which we witness her as a clumsy teenage girl who is saved by a bright-haired and confident handsome youth (Kakeru).
Instead of boring you readers with a deeper analysis of the characters, I can summarize their personalities as:
- Mikoto Kuga (black) - The eldest who oversees the treatment of the younger girls on board the ships. She suffers from Stockholm syndrome and eventually marries her captor. She is capable of creating protective barriers of any size.
- Koharu (pink) - Naive, innocent and excessively polite. The damsel in distress who packs a destructive inner power with ability to create powerful blasts of fire.
- Nanami Shiranui (white) - The masochistic youngest with low self-esteem.
Evaluation of the Anime pairings:
- Mikoto Kuga (18) - Natsuhiko Azuma (22) - she has a complicated love triangle with 3 guys
What he doesn't expect is that all these silly youths on the island have actually no idea why they are on the island on the first place; other than to live a content and peaceful life gardening. No seriously. The only thing the anime shows them doing on the ship is gardening.
In the end, she chooses to support Natsuhiko despite her abrasive statements that she wasn't (displaying her tsundere side). In the playstation game, she eventually marries this violent kidnapper. If this were not an anime, I would have to insist that Mikoto suffers from a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. I guess she got sick of the overly attached and desperate guys on board the ship. *cough*
- Koharu (17) - Kakeru Yuiga (18) - true love
- Nanami Shiranui (16) - Akito Shukuri (18) - love-hate relationship
What we get in the anime is no background story.
We merely glimpses of how their relationship sort of was an a 5 minute scene in Episode 11 where Akito tells Ichinose that he is his elder brother. They look nothing alike so that was a shocker for a non-playstation player. Hell. I did not even know Shiranui was a ninja until I read the Wikia. I simply thought she was an introvert with major self-esteem issues from pining over a verbally abusive boyfriend (Akito) that she stalked from a distance on a daily basis.
P.S. Senri Ichinose is also on board the ship but may only be remembered for the laziness of his character who prefers to remain cooped up in his room like a hikikomori.
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| The guys who get the girls (Anime) - there are different endings in the playstation game since it depends on the players selections of routes. |
This is the one unique part of the whole plot line that is left underdeveloped and stale amidst the focus of the anime towards the superficial romantic relationships between all the characters. The "World" is a cybernetic system developed to overcome the supposedly "trivial" and deadly outcome of war and violence that arises from human conflict. In order to create a perfect harmonious reality for humanity, the chosen individuals who are gifted with supernatural abilities are allowed to choose the "RESTART" of humanity. Hence, ending all conflicts of the world.
Unfortunately, the cyborg that is able to process this "RESTART" cannot do so forever. It is made in the form of a young white-haired female teenager who wears a similarly dainty white dress. She does not speak and is in love with her creator, who has been reborn into a genetically identitical reincarnation. To remain close to her reincarnated love, who happens to be a primary schooler, she kidnaps and keeps him in stasis until the anime storyline is reached; whereby, the World who is reaching her 'final days' chooses to reawaken him to spend her last moments with him - as utterly ridiculous this is when she could have awoken him before she reached such a state or deterioration. Love makes us do ridiculous things I suppose. Even if it's love been a human and cyborg.
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| An intelligent primary school boy who is discovered to be the reincarnation of the whole "Reset" system implanted into a beautiful cyborg. Both are lovers. One is the creator, the other is the creation but they still long for one another. OKAY. I really don't see how this was supposed to work out in any reality but sure. I'll go with it since the little boy is cute. |
Summary Review of the animation Norn 9:
- An otome playstation game turned anime just for eye-candy.
- Gorgeous art-style.
- Nice standard application of glowing cubes surrounding characters when powers are activated.
- There are no personality changes in any of the characters. Other than an attempt to do so with Akito with regards to his strained-complicated-historical relationship with Shiranui and Kakeru with his background relating to his ear cuff (which is revealed to be merely a sentimental barrier and limitation of the characters. Unfortunately not the mind controlling device we all wished for it to be).
- Shallow character development (if any at all).
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