May 25, 2016.

That show...
By Radiax10

*sighs in a good way like as in a satisfactory way, yeah*
U know how sometimes you decide and tell yourself: "I really have to watch that show." but then u never get around to doing so even if its just cuz u're lazy?
Well that happens to me a lot and i often regret it (on good shows) as soon as i am on like the 3rd episode and then i think to myself: "Why are u stupid enough not to watch that???".
Well that just happened during the past 3 days; days which i happily sadly spent watching the anime:
"Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku" or "Now and Then, Here and There".
This is one of such anime that have a very good idea of what they are and what they stand for; And, what it stands for, and how it stands for IT, is brilliant.

This is an anime that came out in 1999 and finished in 2K, about a boy (of name Syu or Shu, well it's not really about the boy as much as it is about the premisse but we'll get to that) that is just living his normal life and as he is returning home he notices a girl sitting on... a large industrial chimney? watching the sunset. So he goes and climbes on another one and starts talking to her (her name is LaLa-Ru) she really doesn't answer back anything useful other than her name of course this moment is interrupted as soldiers from another dimension (or time they dont really explain that part even though it practically doesnt matter), and take LaLa away while also trasnporting Shu along.
They arrive on this space ship type thing that looks like a screw and the story starts and our MC tries to save the chimney girl from the hands of the bad guys that want to use her power (she has a special pendant that has an infinite amount of water inside it), to rejuvenate the control of the evil and crazy king: Hamdo.
Turns out this world has an insanely high scarcity of water and there has been a war happening over the past years about said water and the kings power, which turned our king insane.
Due to the low supply of water there is also a low supply of actual soldiers, which means the king has to go and kidnap women (to procriate) and children (for training) from villages and then burning the houses down.
With the basic premise out of the way the story then unfolds as our MC accidentaly loses LaLa-Ru's pendant and gets tortured in order to tell its location, after they realise he doesnt know the location he just joins in as one of the cast of the many child soldiers in this series.
When in captivity he met a prisioner girl named Sara whom had been confused with LaLa in an earlier situation and therefore taken from Earth into this alternate dimension, her character gets put through some really bad things and i believe becomes the most fleshed-out character in this series as she gets the most development.

This show is not afraid to be impressionable and to make u think even in the more subtle ways, it doesnt resort to visual shock factor as there are events in which a child gets taken into a room with a soldier and presumably raped, even though nothing is shown. It's these scenes where a lot of bad stuff happen that the show is able to truly expand upon the message which it is trying to transmit: a MASSIVE and FANTASTIC anti-war appeal.
Every bad thing that happens in this show from, rape, murder, torture, dementia and conversion of the impressionable masses to commit outrageously awful things, happens solely because of the war. It just shows you what most people watch on TV but never notice. How many times have u watched the news and seen: "War in iran, paquistan or any other country", "Child traffic" mass bombings and destruction. This anime just shows you in depth what happens in these war-torn countries and how horryfing it actually is to the people there; u really start to understand and sympathize with those people, even though that doenst really do much for them.

Overall this is show is probably one of the most mature and thought provoking non-psychological anime out there as it has a fantastic theme that is develops almost flawlessly, it is the best war anime i've watched and i consider it to be a must-watch not only to fans of the genre but to the average non anime-fan Joe as well since it transmits a message that i have failed to see in western media so far.

Conclusion:
"Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku": watch it, it's an eye-opener exeprience that u are clearly going to enjoy.

Anyway that was it for me for today, hope u like the post? (how are these called anyway? and how do you end them?).
Blah...