Anime Review: Earthian

Review EarthianWritten by Warpshadowrating fair

Human beings are being watched by angels from planet Eden. These angels watch the Earthians (their term for human beings) and to decide if they are good or evil. The story revolves around a certain pair of these angels, Chihaya who records the positive actions of the Earthians and Kagetsuya who reports on the negative behaviors. The two clash often since Chihaya will often try to help people while Kagetsuya says that angels should only observe Earthians and not interfere with their affairs. Things are complicated further by the fact that Chihaya has black wings, a fact which troubles him immensely.

Earthian is a four episode long Oav based on a much longer manga series. This causes one of the largest faults in the Oav being that it has an episodic format yet has important points in the plot missing (the opening of episode 3 being the most obvious). I could forgive that if continuity was the only problem with Earthian but sadly that is not the case.

This show suffers from a cast that behaves very irrationally in order to fit the plot rather than in a believable manner. Chihaya is the prime example of this behavior as he is often the main actor in the story and yet manages to do nothing other than whine and rely on Kagetsuya to save him. The two of course are in a homosexual relationship which may be the high point of the show, if that happen’s to be the viewer’s bad. His complex about his wings is something that is entirely of his own invention giving him more self pity than being a method for the viewer to empathize with him which his complex would have been if it was written better. The other characters don’t fair much better falling in to the rolls defined by angst and stupidity. I understand that bishonen tend to have their share of angst but Earthian takes it to a level that hurts the story.

Earthian was created in the late eighties and early nineties and the animation quality reflects this very well. The DVD comes with very few extras making Earthian something not worth watching for those outside of the circle of fans of the manga and yaoi.