I have been postponing the inevitable end of Pandora Hearts for several days now, and I finally got what the uproar over the ending is, including the comparison to Claymore.
Oz Bezarius, heir to one of the four great duke houses, is cast into the prison in a different dimension known as the “Abyss” during his coming-of-age ceremony, his sin being his very existence. He then escapes by forming a contract with the strongest chain in the Abyss, B-Rabbit (also known as Alice). With Alice and Raven, Oz tries to unravel the mystery behind the Abyss, the organisation “Pandora”, and how everything is linked to Alice’s memories and an incident that happened 100 years ago.
The strength of Pandora Hearts lies in its dark storytelling, with a very good combination of comedy, action and suspense. The plot twists do not confuse the audience; instead, it makes the series even more intriguing and complex, the way the past and the present are connected. Comedy-wise, heck, this must have been the only series I know of so far, in which instead of a beach ep, they have a drunk ep where the characters’ inner narcissist and dominatrix are revealed.
With a solid soundtrack composed by Kajiura Yuki, there are no complains about the music for this series. The opening song “Parallel Hearts” by FictionJunction and ending song “maze” by savage genius are beautiful. Some of my favourite tracks from the OST include “Contractor”, “Melody”, “Parting Song”, “Turn” and “Will”.
The animation for Pandora Hearts is unfortunately not as good as it could have been. Pandora Hearts is not broadcasted in HD, and the lines are blurry and not so clear at times. Then again, it might just be the version I’m watching. Hopefully, the DVD quality is higher, and the images sharper. Nonetheless, the action scenes are still awesome.
The seiyuuz, gosh, I love the seiyuuz. I initially though that Oz is voiced by Paku Romi, and I had such a shock knowing that it is Minagawa Junko, who is now one of my favourite seiyuuz. Kawasumi Ayako is amazing as Alice as well. Then again, we all know she’s a great seiyuu ever since Nodame Cantabile.
The biggest flaw of Pandora Hearts is the premature end. With the series set to end in 25 episodes, the producers decided to come up with their own ending to the anime (think Claymore, Kuroshitsuji). Apparently the line of thought goes like this: “Hey! Let’s ignore all the unanswered questions, create a final boss out of nowhere, and have the main character defeat him in one hit. Happy ending!”
Apart from the last 2 episodes, Pandora Hearts is an amazing watch not to be missed.
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