Anime Recommendation: Moonrise

I thought I’d very quickly write down my thoughts on Moonrise.

I recommend it.

Good science fiction is hard to come by these days, and when I say good science fiction, I’m probably talking about science fiction that evokes within me a feeling of nostalgia—

Of when I first started reading science fiction as a young girl, and I felt like the whole universe, and universe beyond this universe, was open to me to explore through the written and creative works. I loved this particular flavour and style of how stories were told: the heroes were bold and bright—sometimes they could be roughened scallywags or suave and smooth, or utterly no one from whatever-planet-no-where, but they shone with such vibrancy I can still remember them. The heroines were noble and brave, often cast into terrifying situations, and yet no matter the odds, they never gave up.

Moonrise has that classic nostalgic feel.

Its heroes feel heroic and brave, they struggle and fall and get back up. The heroines are just wonderfully crafted – I cannot tell you how happy I am when heroines are complicated and flawed behind their femininity.

The setting – which is mostly on the Moon, is gorgeously developed. It is beautiful art, and just...so worth watching just for the imagery alone if you're a science fiction nerd like me. And the whole concept behind how they fight and move around in low gravity is so awesome, I loved it, and this idea of a global AI – all very cool. I’ve read a lot of books about AI ruling Earth, that’s not new, but I always love to see how far that concept can be taken.

And - yeah - considering the writer also wrote Psycho-Pass (which is a mind-blowing anime, and one I highly recommend) I am not surprised that we ended up with another total banger about AI and it's manipulation.

Now –

This anime is eighteen episodes long. (Which, apparently, in this day and age, is long.)

I have been hearing chatter about how the story is long and convoluted and - hm - no, not really - it was, for someone who reads science fiction, not that convoluted at all.

But the way it was told did loose me, and I think that was the problem. If you weren't paying attention, and if you missed something - even a line of dialogue, ahhh, whoops.

And at a few points the story lost me and I got super confused. I actually thought I’d missed an episode, and I went back, and I searched – and then I realised, oh, nope, it’s just a flash-forward sort of situation. It was super weird, but, I understood why they'd done it that way afterwards.

Heres’ the deal – you have to watch ALL EIGHTEEN EPSIDOES, and don’t skip anything, to understand the WHOLE STORY.

Some people online are saying this is annoying, and it’s bad writing, and it’s boring.

Hm. In my personal opinion – that’s kind of the point of a story, right? You need to watch/read the whole thing to understand it. Like, you can’t just watch episode one, then skip to episode eighteen and presume you’ll understand the story.

No. You won’t. Not this anime.

I still don’t understand a few things, but considering the words ‘terraforming’ was uttered in like, two lines of dialogue, I think I get what they were going for.

Anyway –

My point is, if you’re a fan of science fiction, this was a good story. Was it the best thing ever – no – but it was worth my time watching, and that’s very rare for me. It kept my interest for all eighteen episodes, and I really liked the ending (which is rare as well.)

So, if you’ve got the time to spare, go and have a watch of Moonrise.