The World is Still Beautiful

The World is Still Beautiful (それでも世界は美しい) is a 12 episode fantasy romance series based on the manga of the same name by Shiina Dai.  The series originally aired in Japan during the Spring of 2014.

    Nike is a princess from the remote and closed Rain Country.  She was selected from her sisters to be wed to the worlds’ most powerful ruler, the king of the Sun Country.  Wanting to get a feel for the country she is about to call home, she sneaks into a port city from her boat and immediately discovers the world outside of her small kingdom is dangerous and filled with treachery.  After a series of events that test her naivety she ends up at the palace of the Sun King.  There she meets the strongest monarch in the world, Livius…who is also just a child.  The young king took power after his fathers’ death and a power vacuum.  Using range, mistrust and his keen intellect he forcefully took control of his throne and quickly subjugated any dissent inside and outside of his kingdom.  Having no need for love, Livius saw the marriage to a princess of the Rain Country to benefit him by providing him with that countries secret weapon…controlling the weather.  Nike at first is angered by the boy kings attitude and refuses to deal with him but she quickly discovers that there is something else in the kind’s personality that she wants to see.  She changes her mind and decides that she wants to bring out the boys true personality and soon finds herself feeling for him.  Their marriage isn’t assured though; regardless of their feelings for each other in order for them to be officially recognized they have to overcome many external and internal obstacles.  In the end can they develop love and overcome their challenges?

    I am not a fan of fantasy anime.  Which is odd given my childhood spent playing Dungeons & Dragons and reading fantasy novels.  For some reason I just don’t enjoy the way Japan treats the genre most of the time.  Especially in the case of Slayers, yet right away something about this series struck a chord with me and I ended up enjoying it.  This is a through and through a romance.  There’s a little bit of action, a good deal of comedy, some easy going ecchi material (mostly in the dialog) and a whole ton of character development.  The animation is straight out of something from the late 90’s, which works well for this series.  Everything about this series reminds me of older anime and it was welcomed.  The characters are likable and through the course of the story, well developed.  In ways it’s too bad the series was short.  There is much more that could have been done with world building, but instead that is all the background for the story about Nike and Livius coming to terms with who they are and discovering the real personality of each other.  There is nothing new and ground breaking; it’s all familiar territory, which is what makes this series comfortable and enjoyable.  It’s not the best out there, but it was good and worth the time.  The only thing I really have a problem with is ALL THE DAMN SINGING!!  Nike uses song to control her powers…it might not have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact she does the song thing in almost EVERY single episode.  Too make matters worse, it’s the same song each time (except for the final episode) and it’s an incredibly horrible adult contemporary J-Pop tune at that!!!  If the show would have been weak I would have dropped it on the singing alone.  But it was still good and ended on an enjoyable note.  What would be cool would to see a feature length movie.  This is one time where a movie that ends up being an extended length episode in the middle of a story would be perfect!

    On a side note...this series does deal with an adult being married to a kid who's like 12 years old.   Referencing my rant a bit ago, I don't have a problem with this for this reason; this series wasn't designed and does not deal in any way with sexual gratification regarding pedophilia.

    The series was simulcast in North America on Crunchyroll.  No word on any sort of disc release.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it never saw that.  It’s probably not a series that is on many peoples’ radar.  It was good though, so check it out!  The manga is not available in North America and I doubt that will change.