A Japanese boy named Shu tries to save a strange girl, Lala Ru, from kidnappers and is transported to an alternate Earth on the brink of being swallowed by the sun. There he meets an American girl from his time, Sara, who was mistakenly captured because of her resemblance to Lala Ru. Shu becomes and unwilling member of the crazy and cowardly King Hamdo's army, and Sara is forced to have sex with the adult soldiers so that she can become pregnant and bear mores soldiers or slaves. Lala Ru, who can create water–a rarity in that time–using her pendant, is both a savior and a victim in a world where factions are willing to fight and die for her abilities, and at the same time keep her locked up. You're thinking not another end of the world anime, well you would be wrong. Now and Then, Here and There is probably the best end of the world anime I've seen. Even better than other great end of the world anime i.e. RahXephon, and Saikano. Heck it's one of the best anime I've seen.<br/><br/>Before I go on let me say this, this anime in my opinion isn't for anyone under 16 years old. There is a great deal of violence, rape, torture, and language. If you are older than 16 than this anime is a must.<br/><br/>The story is like nothing you've seen and will keep you engrossed all the way through. The story follows Shuzo Matsutani who on the way home from Kendo practice sees a girl on top of a factory smokestack. He tries to talk to her, then time stops everywhere and giant robots appear to capture the girl Lala Ru. They have come from 10 billion years in the future to take her back to their time. Shu tries to help but gets taken to the future with them.<br/><br/>The future Shu comes to is a bleak place. There is a on going war brought on by the country Hellywood bent on controlling the world. The earth is mainly desert and everyone fights for water. Shu grows up quickly and is determined to help Lala Ru and defeat Hellywood.<br/><br/>The story telling is amazing. I haven't watch anime with a story like this since. The story is intense, compelling, and has many parallels with today. The characters bring life to the tragic story that manages to bring hope at the end. The animation is nothing like other anime that seems glossed over it rough and light yet dark the adds to the story. The music is simply great.<br/><br/>Overall this is one of the best anime series ever. I highly doubt you've seen anything like this and highly recommend everyone who is over 16 watch this anime. Some time back, I read an editorial about how the Japanese government was trying to `cleanse' their past by editing certain facts out of textbooks about the Japanese occupation of Korea (among other things), which included the capture of young Korean women and girls, who were then forced to be prostitutes for the soldiers. The writer condemned Japan for this, saying that if nobody remembers, the crimes will occur again and again.<br/><br/>It is works like the series `Ima, soko ni iru boku' (`Now and Then, Here and There'), the comic `Kaze no Tani no Naushika' (`Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind'), and the movies `Jin Roh,' `Grave of the Fireflies,' and `Seven Samurai' that convince me that, if nothing else, the Japanese literary world won't let the nation forget, and proves that many Japanese have in fact learned from their past.<br/><br/>NAT HAT, unlike such anime as `Urotsuki Doji,' is disturbing without being shocking or intentionally repulsive, which actually makes it even more unsettling (it doesn't allow the comfort of saying the villains are demons, either). In fact, I can't think of very many anime that were as powerful as this (basically, the ones above, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Perfect Blue).<br/><br/>I went into this series with absolutely no knowledge about it, except that it was supposed to be the best thing since Serial Experiment Lain. I didn't even realize that it was done by AIC until the credit popped up. In some ways, NAT HAT is like another AIC series, El Hazard: a `modern' Japanese boy (read: pacifistic) is transported to an alternate Earth (one close to being consumed by the sun) when he tries to rescue a girl from robot-riding kidnappers. Honestly, at that point I was beginning to regret the purchase of the series, since I was wanting something serious, and almost the entire first episode showed how much of a klutz our hero, Shu, is.<br/><br/>After he arrives in Helliwood (a sometimes-floating city reminiscent of Bespin-there's even a bit of a parody of Luke's battle with Darth Vader, which ends about the same way), forget about Shu's bumbling-ness and the robots. There still there, but they play such a minor roll in the rest of the 300 minutes that I'm almost tempted to call the first episode a waste of time (it's not, however, as by the end, everything including Shu's klutziness are twisted into the character-driven drama).<br/><br/>I don't want to spoil anything else about this series, but I must say that the 16+ warning on the back of the box is there for a reason. The world portrayed is one where young boys are captured and forcibly drafted into a Hitler's Youth-kind of army and young enemy girls (one is an American girl from Shu's time) are subjected to sexual slavery and are forced to give birth to children who will grow into future soldiers or prostitutes for the cause of a mad, cowardly dictator who bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler with a bowl cut. Though there is no nudity to speak of, beyond seeing one girl in a slip and panties, the show is unflinching, especially in its portrayal of violence. These themes are both a reference to Japan's past and (inferred by the title) a reference to the fact that these things have and can happen anywhere, anytime, Now and Then, Here and There.<br/><br/>The animation appears to be done digitally (which is to say, it was drawn by hand, digitized, and then `painted' on a computer, which makes the colors a little flat), and the character designs take some getting used to (they are totally different than the artwork shown on the package, and even the characters who are supposed to be in high school seem to be around eleven or twelve), but it looks amazing, and only rarely does it ever seem cheap or rushed, which is pretty impressive considering this was supposedly made for Japanese television. While not as visually creative as Neon Genesis Evangelion or as beautiful-looking as AIC's Tenchi OAV's, NAT HAT is truly a must-see anime for adults.
I watched the trailer as soon as I saw the title and it is really great! Now I asked my brother to download it for me so we can watch it together on the weekend. Since we are both busy with our jobs we only have one weekend every month so we really make sure to spend it wisely. Last month we played unter uns Spiel which we got from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gacha-club/okieddcgchgailcipclhcdecefhocjml it was really fun you should also do it too
Vygdoug replied
355 weeks ago