Simoun [Anime Review]

Simoun was a very different anime from a lot of what I've watched before. I've never watched a yuri series before. I have know for a long time about yuri and yaoi, but have never before seen a series dedicated to either genre. That was until I watched Simoun.

The series title, Simoun, is actually the name of the holy aircraft the main characters fly.

You know what I see? I see a Firespray 31.

More on that later.

As usual I'll give a brief bit of plot and then pick a subject and expound. This week is a subject that is close to my heart - world building.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Rainbow of hair colors.

Every series has a few flaws that keep it from being great. This series is no exception. However it does a good job avoiding at least one anime pit fall. For one thing the multitude of characters are all very distinct with very different personalities. That's a good thing for a series that starts you out with over a dozen primary protagonists.

But first the plot.

A sibyllea watches Simoun take off.

Simoun is set on another world in another time, on the planet of Daikūriku (大空陸). Two nations, the Argentum and the Plumbum (yes, the silver and lead nations),  are at war with a third nation, the Simulacrum, a theocracy. Argentum and Plumbum are polluted industrial nations trying to steal the secrets to holy technology from the Simulacrum. The Simulacrum is where our protagonists hail from. They are pilots (simoun sibyllae) of the holy craft, Simoun, and priestess at the same time. Twelve sibyllea are organized into a chor (a choir) and pilot six of these Simoun, two to a craft.

The technology the Argentum and Plumbum are trying to steal is called the helix motor, the power source of all Simulacrum ships and trains and who knows what else. 

The story will follow the exploits and failures, the highs and lows, the joy and sorrow of Chor Tempest. It begins with a massive loss, losing several pilots, and the rebuilding process. To rebuild the Chor, new pilots are brought in some from other Chors that have been lost, and some new. Among these new pilots we meet our main heroine, Aer. 

That's all the plot I'm gonna give.

The helix motor and Simoun grounded.

This happens a lot. A whole lot. Lots of kissing. Smoochies.

Now I want to talk about world building. World building is an art. It takes time and effort to craft and create internally consistent worlds that are completely different (or at least largely different) from the one we know. Every great fantasy series does this, and many of the great science fiction series do it too. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, The Stormlight Archive, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Escaflowne... all of these series have complex worlds built along their own rules. None of these really have a strong connection to our world (save Escaflowne, but I'm allowing it in this list for the complexity and detail of the other world). Even Naruto technically makes the cut, although it's world is pretty sparse on details outside the Hidden Villages, which is why I don't really consider it a worthwhile example of world building.

Simoun is a very good example of world building.

Here is why. On the planet of Daikūriku, all people are born female. There are no males at birth. They live their lives up until the end of adolescence as females. Then upon achieving adulthood, roughly age seventeen, they make a pilgrimage to a holy site called the 'Spring.' Upon traversing the spring they either pick their permanent adult sex, or the 'spring' will pick one for them. Then they will either stay as female or become a male. There is a great deal tied into this across the series, as the sibyllea cannot have chosen a gender and are therefore allowed to age beyond seventeen before picking a permanent gender. The series is littered with details and hints of bigger and grander aspects to the world, evolved religions, ancient craft, the 'Spring' and its guide. One of the more interesting things to observe in the series is that not a single male voice actor was involved... even when a girl chooses male as her permanent sex the voice remains female.

There is more I could expound on about the world of Daikūriku, but I don't want to spoil the plot.

That is an odd choice of three characters...