DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA AdventureFumetsu no Anata e
ANIME AdventureFumetsu no Anata e Season 2

REVIEWS

• 

  Magenta

  60/100
  Simultaneously one of the most heartbreaking anime I have ever seen and also one of the most sluggish and baffling.

  This review contains mild spoilers for To Your Eternity

  ---

  I think that I speak for a lot of people when I say that the day that the first episode of To Your Eternity released, the emotions that it managed to draw out in most of us was very unexpected. In the realm of repetitive seasonals that show the sheer uncreativity of the anime industry on full display, To Your Eternity managed to stand out from the rest by telling a very resonant story in just the span of 25 minutes. It is an extremely rare sight to see something with such a limited timespan make a sizable portion of its viewerbase break down into tears. The only other episode off the top of my head that I can think of that I can compare it to is Violet Evergarden Episode 10. Out of nearly any anime that I have seen, To Your Eternity was one that easily made one of the best first impressions. It is very easy to see why it gained so much attention by just the first episode. However since then, To Your Eternity hasn’t really captured the same amount of attention as it did in its premiere. It isn’t like it was no longer popular after the first episode, but it never managed to spark the same type of emotionally driven passion in the anime community as it originally had. To Your Eternity after its first episode never really captures the remarkable impression that it originally left. There are still moments of the series that capture the quality of that first episode, however those moments of brilliance stand alongside ones of pure mediocrity and ones that are completely baffling. To Your Eternity is inconsistent to an astronomical extent, and it is honestly a remarkable feat that it even manages to encompass so many different realms of quality.

  

  The first episode is definitely a smart way to start the series. It isn’t exactly dishonest about what the strengths of the series are, but it manages to frame itself in such a way that it makes its biggest weaknesses basically invisible. The first episode manages to be so strong, because the biggest strength of the series is its ability to create extremely sympathetic characters. It is a strength that the creator of To Your Eternity, Yoshitoki Ooima, has demonstrated fully well in her most prolific work, A Silent Voice. Ooima’s character writing makes the protagonists of her stories feel extremely likable and relatable to the audience in their introductions, which she eventually uses to create extremely heart wrenching emotional payoffs. The first episode of To Your Eternity is possibly the most distilled version of her version of a character arc, since it manages to fit in the initial characterization for the unnamed boy and the final emotional payoff in a singular episode without feeling at all rushed. With how tight the first episode’s narrative is, it sets high expectations. Maybe even a bit too high.

  Now, when I say this, I am not saying that the arcs that succeed the first episode don’t have good character arcs in them. As a matter of fact, I’d say that the arc that comes after the first episode, the March Arc, has just as meaningful of a story as the one told in the first episode. The thing that drags the arcs down compared to the first episode is that every single story arc (which includes the first episode) has about the same amount of material that they want to say. Despite this, each arc gets progressively longer as the series progresses. This means that the watertight narrative that helped the first episode thrive gets generally lost as the series goes on. At the end of the day, To Your Eternity tells simplistic stories with simplistic characters, which is fine, but the length of each arc fails to compliment this. It isn’t really helped that each story arc typically only really contains one character arc in it along with the greater arc of Fushi, compared to the multiple arcs contained in a story like A Silent Voice. The series increasingly has to stretch itself more and more thinly as it progresses, eventually making each arc feel more sluggish, eventually culminating in the absolutely godawful pacing of the Jananda Island Arc. While the increasingly sluggish pacing of the story arcs isn’t inherently the most awful thing at first, the ways that the series tries to relieve that pacing with padding spawns a whole new cavalcade of problems that way down that later parts of the series even further down into mediocrity.

  

  As I said before, the March Arc’s story is one that is just as strong as the one told in the first episode. Compared to the first episode, it is only weighed down by the lack of multiple character arcs being told and the slower pacing. However, the arc is brief enough for it not to really be a problem in the grand scheme of things. It is the Gugu Arc where these problems start to really become noticeable. While Gugu’s story on paper should be a grand slam, it is also when the problems of the length of the arcs starts to work massively against the series. Out of all of the arcs, the Gugu arc definitely shines the most in the initial characterization phase of developing itself. Gugu is a very well developed character in the time that he has, and that is thanks to great dialogue scenes that flesh out his relations with the world around him. However, the emotional payoff ends up getting botched due to previously built up problems over the course of the arc and the fact that it felt more coincidence driven than emotionally driven. The series kept stopping itself with speed bumps of varying degrees that make the arc feel more dragged out than it really has to, this arc introduces a physical manifestation of the problems that this series has, the Nokkers. In a story that should be driven by its characters, the Nokkers being a literal emotionless husk used as a plot device to either add a fight that just pads for time or as a way to cheaply progress the plot completely spits in the face of ethos of the character driven story that the first episode built the series on. However, the Gugu arc only really provides a small glimpse into what the seeds of To Your Eternity’s problems would truly grow into compared to how much it affected the Jananda Island Arc.

  

  The Jananda Island Arc is an anomaly compared to the rest of the show it is attached to. The arc’s very existence confuses me in a series like this. By the Gugu Arc, I would assume that the strengths of the series have already been very well established. It should’ve been well established even way before To Your Eternity even started to serialize based on what A Silent Voice accomplished. However, the Jananda Island Arc is at a lot of times the antithesis to what makes Ooima’s writing work so well. The main cast of the arc is expanded to the point that none of the people that we are supposed to care about in the arc get enough time to get fleshed out so that we care about them. It feels like, for the most part, the main characters of the Jananda Island Arc aren’t as complex as any other main character of other arcs. This leads the emotional payoff to completely fall flat, since I really don’t care about what are effectively cardboard cutouts with notes written on them that could potentially be seen as character traits. The only mild exception to this is Tonari, who out of any non-Fushi character gets the most development, however she can’t get a proper emotional resolution due to being drowned out by all the white noise masquerading as actual substance. Hayase is brought back from the March Arc, but instead of her just representing an oppressive system that is difficult to escape from, she is turned into one of the most baffling one-dimensional villains that I have ever seen. There are honestly so many problems with the Jananda Island Arc, that naming all of them would make the review so long that it would seem like I was rambling. For all the small and big problems with the arc, the one throughline for all of the problems is that there is an absolutely callice disregard for how to actually develop characters satisfyingly and for what the strengths of the series actually are. What truly puzzles me about this arc in particular is that I can’t think of a reasonable reason as to why the series would end up with such a stand out section of it. It isn’t like this series needs to experiment to succeed since the general formula it set up for itself was so versatile. I really don’t know how the series that produced the absolute slog of these 7 episodes also made the incredible beginning of it.

  

  To Your Eternity holds a weird place for me. On the one hand, I didn’t enjoy it for most of the episodes, because in terms of episode count, the bad parts of the Gugu Arc and the Jananda Island Arc do outnumber most of the good stuff in this series. However, it isn’t like other series where the bad parts ruin what the good parts build up because of the semi-segmented nature of each story arc. While the first episode, the March arc, and the good parts of the Gugu Arc take up less than the episodes that I consider to be bad, I honestly got way too much out of those episodes to say that the bad parts outweigh those episodes in the end. I can’t definitively say if I enjoyed To Your Eternity on the whole or not. It isn’t like it is perfectly mediocre, its quality varies massively, and that is really something that can’t be fully encompassed with just a simple score. To Your Eternity occupies many places along a spectrum of quality simultaneously. It both makes fantastic and boring characters. It can both make anybody cry and people completely emotionless. It can both be perfectly paced and be as slow as a snail. Maybe I have a bit too much hope for what comes after this considering the general quality trendline of this series being downwards. However, I do find it easier for something like this to take a fresh start, since new characters for Fushi to interact with are introduced every arc. I wouldn’t say that the future of this series is bright, but just that I am hopeful for what is to come. But with what we have, To Your Eternity remains to be an absurd combination of different features, managing to be one both one of the best anime of the year and one of the worst as well.

  ---

  Thank you for reading to the end of the review if you did. I really appreciate the willingness some of you have to get to the end of a review that probably disputes your own opinion. If you have any criticisms with how this review was made, you are free to message me to critique what I had to say.

  Also, please don’t like or dislike the review without reading it.

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• 

  AnimeDweeb

  70/100
  Memories Are Eternal.

  One pays dearly for being immortal: one must die many times during his life.

  -[]() Friedrich Nietzsche

  #In the beginning, it was an Orb.

  It is a shapeshifting immortal tasked with observing human life and suffering. What follows is a sprawling journey which takes the Orb across various villages and terrain, as it bears witness to various inhabitants' struggles. Fumetsu no Anata e sticks close to its wanderer's perspective, inviting us to peer into the lives of the individuals our Orb encounters. This collection of short stories provides a brief snapshot of the human experience — how circumstances of the past and hopes for the future meet in the middle and shape us in the present. And as with all things human, these stories all conclude with the same mortal end that awaits every one of us. But death begets life, for both the living and the dead. Even when our time comes, the memories we leave behind will carry on, long after we're gone. Let's have a chat about life, let's have a chat about Fumetsu no Anata e. This review contains mild spoilers, feel free to skip ahead to my spoiler-free Tl;DR if you'd like.

  ---

  #*Fumetsu* is far from a fairy tale, but rather an emotional tragedy.

  This is the show's mission statement, delivered through a first episode that took the anime community by storm.

  (Spoilers for Ep 1:)

  In the harsh winter tundra, the Orb masquerades as a dead wolf and stumbles upon its boy owner. Alone in the snow and separated from family, the Boy With No Name has only his canine companion and a dream held onto for 5 years. Throughout the episode we see the optimistic boy attempt to realise that dream of returning home, only for setbacks and despair to come crashing down. The tale ends with his hopes dashed, and his body given into the relentless winter. The Orb, as it did with the wolf before him, takes on the image of the dead boy and crosses the freezing landscape in his place.

  Fumetsu 's devastating prologue was a precursor of what was to come. Sadness is all but a foregone conclusion for the series. But if that's the case, what exactly is the point to it all?

  #Media outlets frequently compared *Fumetsu* to *[Koe no Katachi](https://anilist.co/anime/20954/Koe-no-Katachi/)* (KnK) when it began airing, but I wasn't entirely convinced.

  Both KNK and Fumetsu share the same author and are really sad dramas at first glance, but their approaches to writing could not be further apart during the latter's early chapters. KnK used its gut-wrenching low points to demonstrate how precious life is in the face of personal adversity. The film's use of sensitive subject matter ultimately coalesces into an uplifting tale of forgiveness and resilience. Whereas KnK cherishes both the good and bad of human existence, Fumetsu instead appears to trivialize what it means to be alive. Our protagonist, Fushi, enters Earth in an animal-like state and initially sees the world in terms of stimuli, like warmth or physical pain. This Fushi is a creature who isn't conditioned to process emotions like we do, so it's hard to blame him for not crying along with us when the human companion in Episode 1 succumbs to the cold. There was a dissonance between how I wanted to feel about this story and how Fumetsu interpreted these same events. This rift grew larger with the end of its first major arc, twisting the knife with another tragedy and an ambiguous cliffhanger. The plotline was abruptly cut off at a crucial moment with an anticlimax so un-cathartic that it came across as a deliberate choice. Even Fushi finds himself in a brief moment of grief at the arc's end, which signaled that it was not the protagonist who was indifferent to the intimate stories being told, but rather the show itself. The fallout of this storyline wasn't for us to see, because Fushi never stuck around. This is a really confusing decision to make for a show that allows these powerful, small-scale tragedies to take center-stage. Fumetsu initially seemed like a simple anthology series loosely connected by Fushi and his bizarre abilities. However, it also harshly implies a bigger picture behind the scenes. Uncovering the hidden intentions of Fumetsu 's design does indeed reveal a purpose greater than any one of these short stories. The series isn't here to merely portray death, but rather to take these deaths and question the meaning of life.

  #As people find themselves free from this mortal coil, one life is only just being born.

  After being awoken from his dormant state as the Orb, Fushi the Immortal gradually grows to understand the world and his place within it. His powers allow him to conjure up objects he encounters on his journey, and even shape-shift as other life forms. This is due to a phenomenon called "stimulation," which equates to memories. This includes pain, elation and death; the latter of which is the strongest stimuli. Memories of the dead cling onto Fushi, allowing him to borrow their appearances and physical attributes. Answers for why this strange creature wanders Earth lie with the being that brought Fushi here. The Beholder is a mysterious entity who is waging war with the Nokkers. Their cold husks feign life and match their intentions: to unite the world by stealing what makes us alive. Fans of the Evangelion franchise may see similarities between the Nokkers' plan and SEELE's Instrumentality; both ploys involve the eradication of our old world, in exchange for a new one free from suffering. Only Fushi stands between Earth and a threat to all life as we know it. Through all these aforementioned plot mechanics, Fumetsu posits that memories are what constitutes life. We know that the Nokkers' quest for world domination involves some form of memory loss, because they've robbed Fushi of his memories during their encounters, thereby preventing him from transforming into past bodies. Were they to carry out that plan, all living things would revert to the inert state Fushi was in at the beginning of the series. All past memories and present stimulation would disappear. Anti-memory, Anti-life — Game Over. But the Beholder disagrees with this ideology and seeks to preserve our memories, even if they inevitably result in pain. Fumetsu 's philosophy closely follows the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, who believed that suffering goes hand-in-hand with life and growth. Suffering is what allows Fushi to gain additional weapons for his recurring battles with the Nokkers. Now, that's not to say that suffering is all there is to life. Valuable lessons and cherished experiences can also facilitate growth and development, but they can only be appreciated in a realm where suffering persists. Fushi and the Beholder are fighting for the human right to suffer and become better than we were yesterday. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and Fushi is eternal. Life may end up in suffering or even death, but there will always be someone remaining to pick up the pieces. Fushi literally carries the memories of the fallen with him, mirroring how we mourn the loss of loved ones and live in their place. Fumetsu isn't just a story about how everyone suffers. Rather, it's about how Fushi suffers, so that we can continue to.

  #In short, Fushi is a goddamn superhero for all of mankind.

  Thanks to its weighty use of secondary characters and philosophical ideas, Fumetsu manages to create a refreshing spin on a tried-and-tested shounen story structure. The way Fumetsu is written bears many similarities to shounen elements and tropes, yet is presented in a way which feels distinct and natural, while addressing common pitfalls associated with such storytelling. Fushi can be briefly described as your typical OP anime protagonist, yet is portrayed rather convincingly throughout the show. His characterization does shine light on what would happen if a deity crashes down to Earth, and patiently builds the being up from humble beginnings. The most important positive is that his character development is astounding, as the initially immature Fushi takes grand strides and comes to terms with his purpose in the world. Watching him blossom throughout the series is a really satisfying experience and the beating heart of Fumetsu. Fushi's coming-of-age is made more gripping by his godly powers and emerging humanity. His encounters with both the living and the dead shape his beliefs, which puts Fushi at odds with his creator. The Beholder favors inhuman solutions to an inhuman Nokker problem, whereas Fushi values human life in a way that the Beholder cannot. The two at odds over various moral arguments feature some of my favorite interactions across the series. Speaking of conflict, Fumetsu 's fight scenes pack a hefty punch in the writing department. Fushi's many battles are smartly handled for a character who cannot die. His arsenal of abilities is constantly kept in check due to thoughtful power scaling, and his moral values motivate him to arrive at creative solutions to his problems. Tense sequences range from 1-on-1 combat to epic confrontations of tremendous scale, set to Ryou Kawasaki's impeccable OST. Fumetsu makes a commendable effort in shifting from an intimate anthology format to a serialized epic of world-ending proportions. That being said, at times the series feels awkwardly trapped in the midst of this transition.

  #A common recurrence when watching *Fumetsu* would be the trend of diminishing returns.

  Despite my praise of the anime up till this point, I feel that none of the 3 arcs were able to top that incredible first episode. The succinct emotional gravitas of the pilot episode eclipses Fumetsu 's more ambitious ideas with devastating efficacy. And the general consensus surrounding Fumetsu seems to agree, with plenty of viewers claiming that the show went on a downward trend ever since. What the major arcs lack is a sense of novelty, which is what helped the wolf owner's death really hit home. Fumetsu spends plenty of time foreshadowing forthcoming tragedies, with all the subtlety of a battering ram driven into a glass door. It's good to be obvious when building up to sad moments, but audiences will catch on with what's happening. And each time the cycle of heartbreak is repeated across a 20-episode run, the effects tend to diminish over time. Fumetsu 's predictability means viewers can pin-point a death hours before it occurs, which could also diminish investment in the narrative. Now, I wouldn't call Fumetsu a repetitive tearjerker on-par with the likes of the recent 86: Eighty Six, which retreaded and recycled the same sad story beats over-and-over during its otherwise-excellent first cour. Unlike 86, Fumetsu does make efforts to change course and establish a new story structure. However, I don't think such attempts have been a complete success within this anime's season. Even though the script tries to diversify its success outside of that fantastic series premiere, people still tend to associate Fumetsu as that one sad show where the boy and his dog dies. It also doesn't help that the very writing approach that brought the series such universal acclaim had to gradually be left by the wayside in order to put the spotlight on Fushi. The final arc on Jananda is the culmination of these issues and arguably the most messy stretch of the season. The worldbuilding in this strange setting is confusing with its many contradictions, and the ensemble cast that inhabits it lack the time and space to leave a meaningful impact on the viewer. If you're looking to watch Fumetsu for the aspects likened to an emotional rollercoaster, the diminishing returns of each subsequent gutpunch is something to take note of. Another issue present throughout the series' run is the cheesy melodrama. Fumetsu 's reliance on big emotional outbursts and corny comedy does distract from rare glimpses of nuance and reflection. It's quite the far cry from the grace and subtlety Naoko Yamada injected into the gorgeous frames of KnK. Since we're comparing the overall series direction of this author's works, we may as well measure how well this adaptation visually compares to the KyoAni smash hit. Brain's Base efforts here are mostly competent, albeit a bit of a let-down with key frames. Fumetsu looks fine by today's standards, but I can't see it aging all too well several years down the road. A series this epic in scale would have greatly benefitted from a larger budget, further immersing viewers into Fushi's arduous journey. Thankfully, the experience has been largely compelling as is.

  ---

  #**Tl;Dr**:

  Fumetsu no Anata e is devastating by design. It's a story of an immortal, and the heart-wrenching deaths that occur around him. Tragedy and sobering sadness is par for the course, but our pain is not in vain. Fumetsu adopts a Nietzschean philosophy and shows us how our past experiences strengthen us for our future. Alongside the death comes the fascinating growth of our undying protagonist, who's a frontrunner for one of the most interesting MCs of 2021. Fumetsu isn't all sadness, taking ample time to explore several individuals with different backgrounds and dreams. Uplifting moments of daily life are balanced with battle sequences, as Fushi fights for our right to remain human. The series sadly remains lurking in the shadow of a fantastic first episode, and is subject to predictable story beats. But despite its shortcomings, Fumetsu still provides a thought-provoking experience about what it means to be alive.

  The life we love is worth cherishing because of the hurt of the past. Hold tight to your memories, and carry on. 7/10~

  ---

  Well, here we are at the end! To all those who stuck around from start-to-finish, thanks for the memories. Now if you'll excuse me, Imma be listening to PINK BLOOD on-loop until S2 airs (Fall 2022!) If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates, so definitely take a peek if you'd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves. Peace~

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• 

  Anto10

  80/100
  A great journey about how to find humanity through immortality

  #THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS As the title says, To Your Eternity is a great journey about how to find humanity and real emotions despite the fact of being immortal and so inhuman. #__The first episode__ One of the best first episode I’ve ever seen, complete and excellent in all aspects: a well written story, characters you can emphatize very easily, heart-breaking moments and a good soundtrack. What hits me the most was how much I was fond of these characters even though we barely know them for like 10 minutes and this shows how much this first episode was good. #__Story__ The story rounds around Fushi, an immortal orb created to be observe and to preserve the Earth who can take the form of anything that has given him stimulations. After taking the form of the unnamed boy, Fushi starts his journey to fulfill the boy’s dream to meet new people and make new experiences. Going on he will also have to deal with the Nokkers(name given by Fushi’s creator, The Beholder), unknown creatures created to go against Fushi and that can steal the forms he gathered. I really like the concept and I think it’s very unique, a creature with basically no knowledge of the Earth and who doesn’t even know how to speak needs to learn how to behave and live like a real person, founding his humanity through the people he meets. Story can be divided into three major arcs: Spirit Bear arc, Takunaha arc and Jananda Island arc. I loved the first two arcs and I emphatize so much with the characters of March, a young but already strong girl who’s the “mother” figure of Fushi and Gugu, who is like an adoptive brother to him and whose death and backstory made me cry like a baby, but I can’t say the same about the last arc, as I couldn’t care less of Tonari and the other kids, but this is something I’m going to talk about later. However I think this arc is fondamental to Fushi’s development as this is the first time he lives in a toxic and unhealthy environment with people who already lost their humanity and where paradoxically he’s the most human of all. #__Characters__ #Fushi Fushi’s development as a real person is the main focus of the show and is something enjoyable to see: you can really see how much he has grown from Episode 1, from a nobody to a real person who can think for itself, understand and making himself understood and that can feels emotions. #March We didn’t get to see her for long time but I connected with her on an incredible emotional level, she’s the first person Fushi meets during his journey and she can be considered his adoptive mother, as she educate him and teach him many things. #Gugu A really strong character, undoubtedly the best one of the series along with Fushi, his story made me cry and the relationship with Fushi is beautiful. You will never get forgotten Gugu, LONG LIVE THE MONSTERS! #Tonari and the other kids Essentially they’re not bad characters, Tonari and Upa are the ones who stands out the most while the others don’t get enough screentime or aren’t explored at all, the problem is I couldn’t give a damn about their faith as the show fails to create an emotional connection like the one with Gugu or March, and when three of them died I felt nothing unlike the previous deaths where I was broken. #Hayase The main antagonist and the one that puts Fushi in trouble the most during the show after she develops a crazy obsession towards him. She’s made to be hated so she does a good job and in the end she get what she deserved. #__Animation and Music__ Even if it wasn’t something that catches the eye I liked the animation and the art of the first 12/13 episodes, it wasn’t the best but surely not something to complain about, but just like the story it falls apart after. Same can’t be said about the music and the soundtrack in general, always on point and never disappointing. #__Negative aspects__ After giving so many compliments I have to talk about the aspects I haven’t liked: despite loving the premise and even the execution, I think To Your Eternity is a bit too ripetitive with the scheme: Fushi meets new people, start to care about them and grow an emotional relationship only to then see them die. Personally it doesn’t bother me, as the duality and the relationship between immortality and mortality is one of the theme of the series, but I can understand people who got annoyed by this. Plus, the last arc doesn’t keep up with the first episode and the first two arcs, neither in terms of story nor emotional level, without talking about the animation and the quality level that dropped hard in the last episodes. #__Overall Thoughts__ I personally enjoyed the show, I loved the development of Fushi and his journey, however I think that To Your Eternity had the potential to be even better, the first half is a solid 90-95/100 and episodes 1 and 12 are really something else but it goes down with the second half who’s not bad but that can get a 70/100 at best, so I give a 80/100 to the general series!
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