Title: Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars, Gakuen Senki Muryou
So the Synopsis:
The day after an apparent alien invasion of Tokyo is repelled by a mysterious being, middle schooler Murata Hajime discovers that his small town holds a strange secret when he witnesses transfer student Subaru Muryou fight another student using psychic powers. Since Hajime himself is relatively new to his town, he has been unaware that the leading families have been protecting the earth from alien invasion for centuries by using the ability of "Shingu," and that the current members of the middle school student council are also the chosen guardians of this generation. He also begins to discover that many of the town's residents are in fact intergalactic diplomats. Hajime is drawn futher into this open secret as his friendship with Muryou and the "chosen" teenagers -- especially tomboy Moriyama Nayuta -- deepens and as he begins to discover that he has a role to play in Earth's future. (Taken from
ANN)
So this is yet another underrated sci-fi series. Somehow this series caught my interest as people said that it is more towards the slice of life sci-fi type rather than the action sci-fi type which makes this series unique. After some lurking, I found out that the director for this show, Tatsuo Sato also did Martian Successor Nadesico and Stellvia of the Universe which is another nice slice of life sci-fi series.
Let's get to the Story: The main story is about a group of student council which have some kind of special power to protect the village and the Earth as well. To make it more slice of life, they made the main character Murata Hajime, as plain as possible but somehow everyone is interested in him and he gets the job done. And the Earth is somewhat "protected" or should I say watched by Galactic Federation agents to protect the power of Shingu from aliens which are not associated with Galactic Federation. Oh, and there's also Subaru Muryou which is very powerful but is quite mysterious.
The plot and story development is quite slow since this is more to slice of life type but as a sucker for slice of life series, I was actually quite enjoyed by this. Imagine the first scene you watched is some huge alien appears in the sky and suddenly some huge hero appears to fight the alien and yet the people just act like nothing happened. At first I was like "wait. what?" until I learned about the people of Tenmo village. It seems that the people of Tenmo village has some kind of special powers that came from Shingu. So when there are aliens invading their village, it's the aliens' asses that are going to be kicked! Yeah this is one of the few series potraying that human is stronger than the alien since the first episode though the human are still lack in technological advancement compared to the aliens. Oh another thing is that those guys from Galactic Federation always opt to negotiation first before fighting the invading aliens. So most of it ended quite peacefully.
Basically all the episodes are quite slow, relaxing and not really suspense since you can quite guess about the outcome of the event.It focuses more on the school events like the athletic festival and the development between the characters rather than flashy fights by the alien invaders. So this is what makes it unique compared to the other sci-fi anime.
What about the Art: The art is quite simple and realistic. There are no overly cute drawn characters, no flashy animations or beam spam. This is just a modest early 2000 art style. Quite classic if you ask me. The art really fits the slice of life feeling.
How's the Sound: Overall the backgroud sound is good. It has a good feeling to it and is quite catchy sometime fits the slice of life genre. Though I don't really like the OP song, kinda too melancholic for me. The ED song is just an instrumental piece, kinda have a happy feelings to it.
Who are the Characters: First of all, I thought the main character is Subaru Muryou but no, the actual main character is Murata Hajime, the plain and normal guy that somehow attracts a lot of weird bunch. Almost all of the characters revolved around him although he was outsider at first and the fact that there was really nothing special about him lol. Subaru Muryou is the awesome, almost god-like character that helps the protector of Shingu when they really needed help. The student council or the successor of the power of the Shingu are like the typical character from any school anime. There's the tsundere, cheerful, active, and calm characters needed to fight the aliens lol. Most of them doesn't really stand out much even though they have powers. And there are also undercover alien agent from the Galactic Federation who works as a teacher and that Aloha guy who seems like a free loader. For me, that Aloha guy is the most interesting character in the show. Though I could say that all of the Tenmo people are quite awesome seems they're like don't care when there are aliens invading and they can take care of themselves lol. Kudos to them.
Thereby the Conclusion: Overall I think this show is quite decent as it is a lot different from your typical sci-fi flick. So if you're a sci-fi fan who wants something different or just a slice of life sucker who wants a more than just a slice of life show, you can try watch this show. Though the slowness and take it easy feelings might be the avoiding factor to those who seeks actions and adventure, but I think this is what make it unique compared to the other anime.
Extras:
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