After Sentimental Journey and Human Crossing, the only natural next step would be Seraphim Call. This one tells the story of eleven girls between ages 12 to 25. I expected it to be similar to Sentimental Journey, but surprisingly, the romance-element is no central theme in this anime, you can only see it in two or three cases. Each of these girls has her own unique story to tell, some of them have worries, some of them have a rather strange quirk, some try to fool themselves, and some are just telling about something that happened to them.
But can Seraphim Call call itself equal or perhaps even above Sentimental Journey and Human Crossing? Well, for one, it was definitely enjoyable, but it had its bad points. While Human Crossing was consistently good, Seraphim Call had a few cases which weren’t as good as the others. The first two episodes also were goofy, while the following episodes were serious. I had trouble getting used to that. The music also lacked a bit. Sentimental Journey featured a great soundtrack which just screamed “eighties”, and Human Crossing’s OST wasn’t bad either. But I just didn’t really notice the soundtrack for Seraphim Call. The only interesting thing to point out is that every episode has a different ED, but for some strange reason I caught myself with the highly addictive ED from Sentimental Journey stuck in my head after watching this. The way this anime ended was also a nice idea, bringing all eleven girls together, but there is only so much you can do in a single episode. The final bad point is that about 50% of the character-designs just don’t look right. The hair is way too unnatural, not to mention that nearly every colour of the rainbow is represented in our eleven girls.
Still, you have to hand it to Seraphim Call, in terms of creativity, it really managed to beat Sentimental Journey and Human Crossing easily. There are some episodes which showcase some brilliant ideas. One of the best ones is showed entirely through the eyes of a stuffed animal, ingeniously named “Margarine von Half-Calorie”. Another one showcases a girl, and nothing but this girl. We never get to see or even hear the people around her. Another brilliant piece was episode 7, which starts playing with time and paradoxes. Episode five and six are incredibly subtle. They nearly show the exact-same footage, just with a few scenes swapped, and some few subtle differences added. And episodes 1 and 8 are just plain weird.
Nearly every case also seems to have a deeper message behind it. The stories are told, and while it’s told, it’s trying to give the viewer some sort of idea or message, which works quite well. There’s also a good deal of symbolism used at times. I’m also glad to see that this anime actually succeeds where Human Crossing failed, in terms of episode endings. Human Crossing just had to end its stories on a good note, while Seraphim Call just tried to make the endings as natural as possible. Heck, one episode doesn’t even have a conclusion, while other episodes are only halfly-solved. Still, this prevents the endings from being rushed, forced or incomplete, and they work really well, in my opinion.
Overall, it may have bad points, but if you liked Sentimental Journey and Human Crossing, you’ll definitely like Seraphim Call. Also, if you liked Seraphim Call and Sentimental Journey, you’ll probably like Human Crossing as well, and of course if you liked Human Crossing and Seraphim Call, you’ll like Sentimental Journey as well. Ah well, they were some great series. Next up are some more “normal” series.
(Note, don’t pay too much attention to the rating. I’m currently trying to find a good rating-system, as I caught myself handing out way too many ratings between 80/100 and 90/100. This anime was just as good, if not better than Sentimental Journey.)
