Review of This Ugly Yet Beautiful World (2004)
An entity takes the shape of two girls in response to the wishes of two boys. As the girls realize their purpose, it becomes a close thing whether the world will be spared or not. That is irrelevant. The show is cute and stupid filler, with a few giant creature battles thrown in and naked breasts at every opportunity.
TV animation series. Risqué action drama. Utter schlock. Ironically produced to mark the 20th anniversary of Gainax. Directed by Saeki Shouji. Some of the cute stuff is nice, some of the comedy works, and Mari contributes with a little of the engaging bitter sweetness of good romantic anime. It is also interesting to note that Jennifer is a hideous hybrid of Ritsuko and Shikijo, and that the facts on preceding great extinctions narrated at the very beginning are actually correct. Overall however, this is vacuous and vulgar. It’s too straight-faced to be charming, unlike Mahoromatic (2001), and it doesn’t really do anything special to distinguish itself. Too many tits, stereotypes and truisms, and unexplained, instantly accepted miracles, without humour.
References here: Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden (2001), He Is My Master (2005).
moving picture Gainax Japanese production animation fiction series