Yo dawg yo, I heard you liked flashbacks…

——

So, I’m not sure what’s up with the people on this island, but it sure takes a lot to get them interested in doing something… or to do anything at all. Giant explosion wipes out pirates, no one cares at all. Mysterious girl washes up on shore, don’t question her about why or how that happened. Magical jewel floats and glows, we’ll look into it in a few days if we feel up to it. Object glowing in the ocean, nope not interested in the least.

Much of this episode is in flashbacks, either from the last episode, or in one case, from events before the first episode. The only “action” that takes place is the getting and then subsequent losing of the box in the ocean. What was in the box? Oh, you know, more boxes… One of which was maybe a power source for KOS-MOS robot chick that Hank spends all his time staring at. When did he ever have the time to build that engine that is now sitting at the bottom of the ocean? Also, now that it’s down there, does this “law” apply to it too? Don’t let anything fall into the ocean that you can’t eat, otherwise the castle guards will come take it from you. Question: Why didn’t they break open the box and take stuff out of it instead of ruining a nice boat?

We finally get to see more of Xiao Mei, and learn about her character. It only took three episodes for that to happen though, and she was the only one moving this episode along at all. Without her, nothing would have happened for the fourth time in a row. I’m really disliking all this focus on Rick and the three sisters, they are all pretty damn boring. Rick almost managed to break out of this boring cycle when he picked a sword up, but that lasted all of a few seconds. As for the sisters, they still, to me, seem like clones. I really think we only need one of them, three is over kill. It seems as though any other character shows up, we only get enough time to learn a little about them before they are pushed aside for the walking and talking cardboard cut outs. 

The quality in terms of character and character animation, seems to be maintaining rather low levels. It’s obvious that this anime is on a very tight budget, especially if the show is in fact limited to twelve episodes. I haven’t seen or heard anything that officially confirms or denies this number, yet. If it proves true, then I question this anime even being made. I’ve not really seen or heard much about the game, so I’m not sure why there was an anime based on it. There are many other more popular games in the Shining series that would have made better choices, especially with the quality being so lackluster. I’m really not seeing what the draw would be, outside of Tony’s art, which this only bares slight resemblance to.

I’m honestly ready to give up on caring about this anime, or anything that happens in it if something amazing doesn’t happen next episode. Due to this damn box and that robot-chick, I thought maybe we’d be getting somewhere with the plot. I think Shining Hearts may very well beat out Seinfeld as it’s a show about something in which nothing happens. At least Seinfeld did what was expected of it.

GO Rating: 2/5