[Editor's note: This review spoils the ending completely. Not through details, but through judgment. ;p]
Years earlier, a horrendous earthquake struck Tokyo and thousands died. Boomers, highly advanced robots, rebuilt Tokyo. In the year 2040, Tokyo is run by these boomers, which are the eternal servants of humans. However, they are hated and disgusted by most of mankind, so even though they are dealt with daily, they are mistreated. Although they seem to be unaffected, sometimes they go completely insane, destroying everything and everyone around them. Although the AD police have been trained to deal with it, instead, the "Knight Sabers" come - women (three altogether) wearing special metal suits, who destroy the boomer and get out of there. Who are he members of the Knight Sabers? Yamazaki Linna is a country girl who has moved to Tokyo, and a huge fan of this group; when she finds out the identity of one of the members, she wants to be one too... but the Knight Sabers are built on a sinister plot.
Altogether, this isn't making any favorite lists of mine. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant, either, and the show is altogether weird in a sort of unpleasant way. For one thing, the end of the show could have made the beginning brilliant, but it didn't. Instead, it was just a mediocre ending to what was a relatively boring show. [Editor's note: Ow! ;p]
Despite all the action, the characters were not the type that you could ever empathize with, or some of the time, even like. The characterization was horrible - their plan was to concentrate on Sylia and Priss, with Linna and Nene on the side, but instead it just ended up looking like they messed up. Sylia was not given enough screen time, despite the fact that most of the entire problem revolved around her; Linna started off the show, but sort of dropped out of it, and Priss was probably the best done. Nene seemed to be comic relief most of the time, but was a funny, reliable character that I didn't mind at all.
Priss was, in my opinion, supposed to be the main character, but the creators were so subtle about it that it was more confusing than anything. At the end of the show, we only know one more thing about her than before - the reason why she doesn't like the AD police. Since this isn't actually a plot-important fact (it only shows a little about her character), it was most annoying to not know anything else. Sylia, whom this show revolved around, had a lot of flashbacks, but many of them weren't very clear or detailed at all, only amounting to the confusion. Also, several plotlines were simply left hanging at the end - including the whole ending, which I thought was horrible. It had a good conclusion for the ending, but what about the characters' lives? Aside from that, I also thought that the morale in the ending was pathetic.
The plot had so many possibilities, and it could have been wonderful. It had all the scope for sci-fi and fantasy that you could want, but it blew it. This show is about machines versus humans; however, that doesn't mean the plot has to read like something automated. It was unfeeling, chilly, cold, more than unrealistic (not counting the sci-fi; I mean the characters in the plot) and slightly dumb.
It was, except the end of Magic Knights Rayearth, the worst ending to a show I have seen in a long time. Open plotlines, bad characterization, boring plot (which could have been great) - I could go on for some time. Yet despite all its faults, that is not everything.
This is not to say that the whole show stinks; I believe it was worth watching. However, I didn't realize that all of these plotlines were going to just die, and I was also expecting more characterization. Overall, the plot wasn't emotionally touching, but there were some sweet moments. Some. [EN: @.o]
