ubailey - 2013-12-27 20:19:36

I stumbled across Leiji Matsumoto's Ozma quite by accident; intrigued by the art style and story, I decided to watch it. The fact that Ozma is only six episodes also attracted me- it's six episodes, what's the worst that could happen? Unfortunately, that was the worst to happen.

To start with, Ozma is a postapocalyptic series in which mankind lives in barren desert, and ships rather like submarines sail the sands, diving and surfacing. Ozma has a rather interesting sense of world building- it's very light on backstory, and there's a lot left to the imagination. I'd like to talk more about it, but I fear I'd spoil the ending (Ozma, in my opinion, is something you should walk into knowing as little as possible), so instead, I'll talk more about the protagonist. The main character of Ozma wasn't particularly memorable. He was bright and cheerful, but otherwise uninteresting. His primary motivation was a little reminiscent of Captain Ahab in that he sought to destroy Ozma, the titular sand whale that took the life of his older brother.

One day, he rescues a mysterious woman from the clutches of a militant faction, and she thus turns his world upside down.

While I don't think that Ozma did a whole lot to make most of it's characters memorable, I do feel that it did a few things very right with it's characters. For starters, Matsumoto did a fantastic job at not turning his female characters into the bland clichés so common in other shonen series. For instance, the Captain who leads the protagonists little faction of roving... Sand pirates? I'm not quite sure what their occupation was, but their Captain was both female and a well-written character with flaws, quirks and strong dialogue. She, in my opinion, was more interesting than the main character.

The opening theme was catchy and fitting, though I can't really speak for the ending theme- it was neither good nor bad. The same can be said for the rest of Ozma's soundtrack- neither memorable nor a negative.

As for the animation in Ozma, it's some of the most unique I've seen as of late. Ozma, at first glance, looks rather old- the art style is one I'd associate with an anime series from the 1980s. That being said, it has all the polish of a modern series- I suppose it could rightly be compared to Insterstella 5555 in the visual department.

Overall, I enjoyed the story- it seemed to take some cues from Ghibli's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (a favorite of mine), but unfortunately, Ozma ends far too soon. Just as the world begins to unveil itself, it seems that the series is over. A little montage of pictures at the end reveals, to a degree, what happened- but it's really not enough closure. There's a really cool world and neat characters, but you won't see nearly enough of them. I recommend Ozma, but only if you don't mind having your heart broken.

lucious.marquardt - 2013-06-26 02:20:00

Ozuma is an anime that starts with potential, unfortunately it suffers from a crippling flaw; it's just too short.The first thing you'll notice is the very old looking character designs, this is because it is based on the unpublished script by Leiji Matsumoto from the 1980's. Some might be put off by them, especially if you have only watched anime post 2000, but I think it provides a good example of how anime has changed visually over the years, and would hope that people would not avoid the series because of the old art. The animation was of a good quality throughout the run, and the CGI which was used often was mostly done well, although there were one or two instances where it looked slightly awkward.The soundtrack for Ozuma did it's job satisfactorily though it didn't stand out very much due to it being forgettable. The ED, "Utagoe" by Minami Kizuki is a pleasant track with some soft piano, however it is the OP "Neverland" by F.T. Island that will attract your attention. There is both a Japanese and an English version of the opening, the version you will hear will depend on the source of the episodes you watch. Both versions are decent tracks, though I much preferred the English opening.The setting was initially very interesting, the earth has turned to desert due to increased radiation, and the cloned people called the "ideal children" rule over society. I thought this all had a lot of intrigue, and hoped that we would get interesting revelations as the show progressed.Unfortunately nothing much came of the setting, and this is where it starts to go downhill, most of Ozuma's problems (including this one) stem from the aforementioned length. This is only 6 episodes long, but there was enough content to constitute over twice that. As an unavoidable consequence, this was very rushed. There isn't much time to build up to revelations, develop characters, or even have a satisfactory plot.The plot seems very simple at first, with Sam (our protagonist) saving Maya from her pursuers, followed by a battle that mimics submarine warfare. In reality the plot should have been much more complicated, with politics and important biological themes, namely "species which do not evolve will not survive", however, despite the potential for a complex and interesting story, it is mostly glossed over due to the time constraints, which is a massive shame. The mystery about Ozuma (the sand whale) was interesting, but the way in which we found out it's true "identity" was underwhelming, and a plot twist concerning Gido was fairly obvious.Due to the fact the characters were conceived in the 1980's, they have the common personality quirks from that time, and are likable, though most of them are only in the background, since there isn't any time to cover them. The main characters suffered from a lack of characterization, and with the pace of the show, there was no time for proper character development or any change in the relationships between the characters. The way Sam and Maya interact with each other stays the same throughout, which was disappointing. The only main character that stood out was Bainas, as she was an intelligent commander who was entertaining to watch, and progressed the most as a character, which was still too little.Ozuma is enjoyable most of the way through, the battles that take place beneath the surface of the sand are well executed and make use of clever tactics, and because they are like submarine battles, you can actually understand what's going on to the full extent. However by the end, where the pacing of the show is the most rushed, I found everything so underwhelming that I wasn't so much unable to enjoy it, but I just stopped caring about what was happening.To conclude, there was far too much content for the time available, which resulted in an anime which was disappointing, and left you with a feeling of indifference, which is a pity considering how much potential it had and how likable it was at the beginning.

ecrona - 2013-03-29 18:06:28

Today's review will be on Ozuma. Ozuma has 6 episodes and aired in the spring of 2012 Why are you reviewing it if it aired last year you are probably asking? Well, I wanted to keep this short and sweet for my first review, and Ozuma provides me with just the right opportunity to do so. 

The show itself was animated by the animation studio Gonzo, and was directed by Ryosuke Takahashi and Takahiro Ikezoe. ( Ryosuke Takahashi has directed other shows such as Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Armored Trooper Votoms, and a bunch of other titles which mainly came out in the 80s making him an old and experienced director which is shown clearly in this series. Takahiro Ikezoe on the other hand, has, up until now, has really been a "grunt" in the Japanese Animation industry, with this project being his real breakthrough series as a director). 

Ozuma is quite the find in todays industry, mainly because the anime has an original feel to it because it breaks away from the mould by showing a little imagination. Everything from the setting, the plot to the characters has a new and original feel, these aspects combined with the unique story really makes the anime shine in my opinion.

Setting

Before I can even talk about the story, I will have to explain the settings of the Anime. The setting is set some time in the earth's distant future, where the ozone layer has been completely eradicated, leaving the earth defenceless to the radiation from the sun. Earth's environment has been effected directly from this, which has lead to both infertility in the soil, but as well as the many array of earths creatures, the infertile environment has lead to a break down in the food chain, ultimately leading towards the extinction of the human race, what also doesn't really help the situation, is the lack of procreation due to the infertility in animals. I really like the setting, as it is something that hasn't really been explored before, as much as it bothers me, unfortunately a post apocalyptic future is rarely hinted in anime, yet in the west, post apocalyptic films, games and even books are rather common. It is nice to see Gonzo taking a risk with a rather foreign setting and plot, than just setting the story in a god damn high school. 

Story

Now that we have established the setting of the anime, I can swiftly move onto the story. The story follows the travels of Sam Coyne, a scout who works on a trading vessel called Bardanos. This is all fine and well until one scouting mission where he comes across a woman being chased by the army. This is where the story changes and in turn, so does Sam's life as he takes it upon himself to rescue the enigmatic woman and return her back to the Bardanos. This is the main concept and I don't want to explain any more of the story, as there are a lot of twists and turns and character development crammed into each episode (as there is only 6 episodes), I'd hate to spoil it for you. 

I was happy with the over all story, however it seemed to make little sense though, there are aspects of the show which are not really explained well, such as the sand submarines, the army, to the setting. It really wasn't explained too well, which did lead me to confusion. The story felt rushed, as they tried to cram a lot of information which would normally last 2 episodes, into half an episode, which, once again is to be expected as they had only 6 episodes to work with. I feel that the anime would of benefited greatly, if it were to have more episodes, to explain the story more clearly, to other aspects of the show including character development, instead of ramming so much information down the viewers neck each episode causing them to choke on confusion and eventually lose track of what on earth is going on. A great example of this, is when the Bardanos all of a sudden decides that flying is too mainstream, and that digging through sand would be a better choice.

Characters

It is said that characters drive the story forwards, which is absolutely correct, since most stories follow the three step flow theory and no, I'm not going to explain that, so go use the magical website called google. (the exception to this, being certain shows, that follow the slice of life and moé route, i.e. Lucky star) Ozuma is no exception, the characters are what predominantly drive the story forwards and it is their motives, and their dreams which push the story in the right direction. A lot is depending on these characters to intrigue the viewer into even giving a damn about the story. 

Sam is our main protagonist, I mentioned him briefly before when discussing the plot of the story, he is charismatic, adventurous and is determined to achieve his dream of capturing a sand whale. His dream of capturing a sand whale is greatly influenced by the fact that his older brother went missing while searching for the sand whale. However, this character was as interesting as a bar of soap, and is the weakest character in my opinion, at times he'd only be doing something because his brother said some great words. It was a shame to see this unravel, as it almost felt that Sam had no say in what he was doing, and was merely a puppet, merely pushing the story forwards.

Onto the next character, Maya. Maya is the mysterious woman who our trusty Sam rescued before hand, after being taken in by the bardanos, she, at first is rather quiet and shy I guess you could say (or maybe she is hiding something?), however she slowly opens up to the rest of the characters and moves the story on nicely. She like Sam is really undeveloped in my opinion, at times she is unusually quiet, which seriously effects the plot and had me frustrated at times, however she is really important to the overall story, and it's a shame to admit it a real let down to the story.

The rest of the characters are by far more interesting than the main characters, and most of them are hardly in the show, at times i'd be more interested in Captain Bainas (The captain of the bardanos), rather than what the directors wanted me to be concerned about, I've mentioned this before about how the show could of benefited greatly from more episodes, and I also mentioned about an extra 6 episodes would help. However I would also like to consider the addition of another 44 episodes. 44? are you mad? No, no I am not, introducing the show Eureka Seven, a 50 episode long anime, with a similar scenario, of a group of characters effectively living on a "ship" fighting off the military. In those 50 episodes they managed to develop the characters so they were likeable, as well as expand on the other "side" characters. I'm not expecting much, or maybe I am expecting too much? But it really does annoy me how bad the main characters were compared to the hardly mentioned "side" characters.

Animation

An animation has to look visually inviting for it to succeed, and with that in mind, on to the production of the show. The Animation of the show is very stylised, and breaks away from the typical shit we see now a days, usually Kyoto Ani spawns and countless CLAMP shows. (P.S. Fuck Clamp). I will admit that I was impressed by the style of the animation, from the character designs to the settings. However, there are 2 key flaws with the animation of this show which really drags it down in my opinion.

The first flaw would be the flow of the animation, or should I say lack of flow in the animation. The animation seemed choppy and I just couldn't get it out of my head. Most people I've spoken to have said that It looks fine, but maybe I've been spoiled by Redline and every single Bones show ever. (that was an obviously exaggerated). It is watchable, it runs over the magic 12 frames per second that magically creates an illusion of movement in a series of still images (P.S. that is not the frame per second rate of the show, just how many frames your eyes process per second) so all in all, the animation was average.

Music

I was fairly pleased with the soundtrack that Ozuma presented. It matched the setting and feel of the show perfectly. You could tell that it was good when you don't notice it too much since it helps emerge you into the show. The soundtrack of the show covered a wide range of music, from up beat music to angelic choir music, the soundtrack almost covered everything. The opening for this show was absolutely fantastic and very unique. Unique? you ask? Well there are two versions of the opening, one version in Japanese and one version in English, take that and add some pretty awesome J-Rock and you've got yourself a tune. The ending on the other hand was on the complete other end of the spectrum. The show's ending was calm and melancholic, compared to the upbeat opening. I thoroughly enjoyed both the opening and the ending, however that statement is subjective and I'm pretty sure not all of you will like them just as much as I do.

Enjoyment

I absolutely loved watching , the unique story, the fast pace and the short amount of episodes really made it fun to watch. I originally watched the show weekly and found it pointless, yet when I re-watched it (to make this review) I found it much more enjoyable since I marathoned it. The show itself is easy to marathon due to the short amount of episodes and I'm sure that the storyline will captivate you, as much as it captivated me. 

Final verdict

Ozuma is a break from the mould and really helps to prove that Moe is not needed to sell. However due to an average budget and short amount of episodes, the show falls short on several occasions. I would highly recommend you go watch Ozuma since it's really easy to watch and I'm sure you won't regret it.

Ozuma gains a 6 out of 10 for being creative and unique, however lack of episodes and budget really let the show down.