This review has been sitting in my list of blogs for a couple years now. I realized that my Soul Eater. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and Romeo x Juliet entries were massive, so here's a nice short review for you.
+Anima was a fun little series I picked up because my local library owned it. The series revolves around a group of children who all are "anima", people with animal powers. Their situation is much like that of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Cooro, the main character, is a crow anima, and pretty straight-forward happy-go-lucky-doesn't-care-what-happens-to-him-values-friendship-above-all-else character. See also, Vash the Stampede, Yoh Asakura... and more I can't think of at the moment. He helps everyone he can, and winds up traveling with three other Anima. These children--and one quiet teenager--travel, learning the truth about what anima are, how they came to be, and what the various governments of the world plan to do with them.
+Anima doesn't win any points for plot originality, but that's okay. It's your typical there's-a-main-character-who-gathers-others-to-him that is typical of the character type. Husky, Nana, and Senri all have interesting stories, though no one's is incredibly surprising. The world is well-developed, and is the best part of the series. The social structure with the anima, the different regions, and the different anima themselves are all well done. The characterizations are tried-and-true tactics, so even though they're all characters we've seen before, they are developed well enough. It gets the point across, even if it would be more interesting to have more original back stories to read about.
That being said, the setting isn't even that great. The military and governments are confusing, as are their goals, and the scientists. The ending isn't really hinted at past "nasty scientists doing experiments on children!" The individual story arcs were pretty cool, but the overall plot wasn't that clear, nor did it conclude the series. The last chapter of the series was about Cooro. His story was very interesting, and explained the character very well, but it was revealed too late. The story could have benefited from more goverment-military-world plot line, and moving Cooro's backstory to the 8th or 9th volume instead of the last.
Overall, fun, well-illustrated series. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't plan on buying it or even rereading it any time soon.
Rating: C+
+ Anima powers, illustrations and character designs, the setting, some good characterizations
- Stereotypical characters make for boring back stories, confusing and not satisfying "main" plot, too long to get Cooro's back story when he's the main character
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