This review will contain no spoilers unless later warned.
(Edit 6 reviews later: Give me some leeway since this is my first review. I've unprivated it so people can see my growth over time, but this one isn't great.)
# Emotional, yet frustrating. To Your Eternity is a flawed gem— a diamond in the rough— that is simultaneously masterful in its premise, while being mixed in its execution. It depicts the struggles of a being named Fushi, a being that experiences psychological and physiological stimulation to grow, or “evolve”. Sent to earth for mysterious reasons, we watch as Fushi obtains emotions and rational thought, developing from a blank orb to a kid searching for his place in life. I very much like this aspect of the story; I think the concept is beautiful. It’s a wonderful way of presenting character development in a more physical, present way— even if it throws a bit of subtlety out of the window. Plus, it’s just a fantastic way to convey the themes of death and memories being all we have.
Characters
The characters, at least to me, are what make this story great. How they affect and change Fushi, helping him to experience shocking and new things, is very well done. Sometimes, especially in the case of Gugu and Pioran, they experience a nice arc of their own. A sister growing to protect her siblings, a romantic coming of age, a child coming to terms with her parent’s actions, an old woman fulfilled in life— there’s really a lot to like in the characters, even if they only exist to springboard Fushi’s own development. My main, permeating issue with these are the tertiary cast, though. There’s a good few characters, particularly in the Janada Island Arc, that feel a bit underdeveloped which makes emotional beats feel a little hollow. Overall, pretty premier stuff, though— just don’t expect to have your mind blown. While good thematic depth is present, it’s still a fun Shounen at the end of the day.
(Spoilers for character death.)
Spoiler, click to view
SPOILER ALERT— I appreciated how each character’s deaths contributed to Fushi in different ways, and taught him different things. It didn’t really feel like typical cry-bait thanks to the care they put into each arc thematically meaning something different. The highlight for me has to be Pioran’s death, though. Somehow a fulfilled life is more tragic than an early death— and generally, I appreciated how it highlights that we all have to die eventually, and the best thing we can do is remember our loved ones.
As for the antagonist on this note, it’s pretty interesting. There are three total characters you could say take up the mantle of this for the series, but none of them feel quite apt. If you care about VERY minor spoilers, skip past this paragraph, because I will expand a bit upon the premise here. First of all, The Man In Black is definitely the least traditionally antagonistic. He’s fine enough as a character, though— he’ll just need more fleshing out as a character, given we get a second season. His best parts are definitely when his opposition to Fushi’s ideals are highlighted, and Fushi is forced to play directly into his hands— but this isn’t anything super phenomenal as of yet. Now, as for the Nokkers— I mean, they’re okay. I really like how they take Fushi’s memories, really accentuating the importance of how someone is reflected upon post-death. In the end they’re just a typical, mysterious alien force, however. They didn’t add much beyond their strategies to kill Fushi being cool, and adding intrigue into what Fushi’s purpose is. I really hope to see them being given some sort of leader with an actual personality, or something to ground them as the antagonistic force opposing Fushi. Nameless, individually uncharacteristic creatures don’t really work as antagonists unless it’s horror. As for our final antagonist, Hayase, I thought she was good but had major issues. Read the spoiler paragraph below to see why.
(Spoilers for Hayase’s arc.)
Spoiler, click to view
Lastly, Hayase is our final “antagonist” to look at. I actually will get into spoilers for her arc, so please skip past this paragraph if you plan on watching. Overall, she was pretty lackluster. I enjoyed her and Fushi’s cat and mouse dynamic in the earlier parts of the story, but as it developed she returned to be incredibly imposing— but this was almost immediately ruined. She began to make irrational and unexplained decisions, even when we began to comprehend her twisted mindset. She really didn’t have any reason to attribute sexual or loving feelings to Fushi, even if she was infatuated with his immortality. I’m simply not willing to believe such events could break her sanity down to such a suicidal level, though it did make for some cool scenes. I liked the final scene with her, and I hope to see it spiral into something greater later— but for now she’s VERY flawed.
Production
The production value of To Your Eternity is lackluster to say the least, I really hope to see this improved in the second season. The OST was alright, though amazingly un-noteworthy— but that’s not my main issue. The animation really took a dive the further the series went on, driving down the quality of life for the show. It may appear arbitrary, but it became increasingly frustrating to see an unfitting color palette and poorly drawn backgrounds in certain scenes. Worst of all, however, the direction became a detriment to the plot at times. For example, Hayase had a Nokker enter her arm to grow to the size of a balloon, bursting to leave almost no wound. Most of her skin was fine— and it doesn’t even make sense her skin could stretch so high in the first place. Also, one time they knocked out someone by sending an owl to attack them. Little details like this drastically affect the experience of the show, in my opinion, making the quality of the story get drowned by lack of care. This may be something the manga will fix, though.
To be fair, there were some scenes I thought looked REALLY good. It’s just unfair to pick a biased sample, when most of it falls into a below average adaptation. It’s certainly not insufferable, just don’t expect anything phenomenal.
Conclusion
Overall, I very much look forward to seeing more from this story; experiencing the beauty of Fushi’s arc bloom. I just hope they can really fix the nagging, persistent issues bogging the show down— from production to the useless characters. I would also like to see the thematic prevalence here compounded upon, and turned into something greater. Not that it was bad here— it was great— it’s just nothing truly special YET. Anyway, I really enjoyed this story, and I definitely recommend it to those of you interested. Thank all of you for reading, and enjoy the story!