Insofar as this show gets any attention at all, it's for anticipating Puella Magi Madoka Magica by seven years: a girl is given magic powers, but their source is not benevolent and its use takes a heavy toll from her. But while Madoka plunged straight into horror, Uta Kata builds up slowly with occasional bad incidents in what is mostly a Slice of Life show about teenagers, only going dark in the last few episodes. This could have worked, but really that is all I can say for it.
I must first say that with its transformation sequences, panty shots and three swimsuit episodes, the show is obviously aimed at an adult male audience (and the girls look much younger than in Sailor Moon). This was obnoxious, but I could take it.
More bothersome was lazy storyboarding. Everyone is either standing stiffly to attention, or posing sexily. Character designs go from alright, to bland, to kind of uncanny (like the Key/Visual Arts shows of the time). Backgrounds can be pretty, but they are hurt by early digital colouring, where everything looks washed-out.
Nor does the magic liven things up. The Djinn look suitably majestic and I like the touch of a different transformation each episode, but most of the summons last less than a minute while our heroine watches. There is no sense of wonder, excitement or even beauty, and it feels like the creators don't know the appeal of the genre.
Most of the show is just a slog. The cast are too subtle and quiet to be entertaining, but too flat to be interesting. There is hardly any comedy and moments of drama come out of nowhere. Later episodes are better as they build a sense of dread, but they are let down by muddled conflicts and themes. Is it about abuse of this magic power? How it alienates her from her friends? Do the Djinn represent vices and virtues? All these and more are brought up but none are followed through consistently; as a result, when our heroine is given a terrible choice in the finale it feels arbitrary. It has all the trappings of being dark and bleak, but ends in a cop-out, and a predictable one, since it clearly happened before yet its consequences are nowhere to be seen. The last point is what puzzles me most: I saw this show being treated as some sort of angst porn (which is doubtless part of the appeal of Madoka and Evangelion) yet in the end only one person died, and not even a recurring character. Sailor Moon had dark moments with more emotional torque.
I would recommend reading the manga instead: it is much shorter, more creatively drawn with livelier interactions, and the ending makes a little more sense. The show can't be dismissed as a cash-in, because dark magical girls was not yet a trend, and it shows some creative touches like the very fitting music. But it looks to me like the creative team took on a genre they barely understood, decided on a finale with no idea how to get there, and pushed in a lot of filler to make up for the gaps.
Anime Simply not good
Insofar as this show gets any attention at all, it's for anticipating Puella Magi Madoka Magica by seven years: a girl is given magic powers, but their source is not benevolent and its use takes a heavy toll from her. But while Madoka plunged straight into horror, Uta Kata builds up slowly with occasional bad incidents in what is mostly a Slice of Life show about teenagers, only going dark in the last few episodes. This could have worked, but really that is all I can say for it.
I must first say that with its transformation sequences, panty shots and three swimsuit episodes, the show is obviously aimed at an adult male audience (and the girls look much younger than in Sailor Moon). This was obnoxious, but I could take it.
More bothersome was lazy storyboarding. Everyone is either standing stiffly to attention, or posing sexily. Character designs go from alright, to bland, to kind of uncanny (like the Key/Visual Arts shows of the time). Backgrounds can be pretty, but they are hurt by early digital colouring, where everything looks washed-out.
Nor does the magic liven things up. The Djinn look suitably majestic and I like the touch of a different transformation each episode, but most of the summons last less than a minute while our heroine watches. There is no sense of wonder, excitement or even beauty, and it feels like the creators don't know the appeal of the genre.
Most of the show is just a slog. The cast are too subtle and quiet to be entertaining, but too flat to be interesting. There is hardly any comedy and moments of drama come out of nowhere. Later episodes are better as they build a sense of dread, but they are let down by muddled conflicts and themes. Is it about abuse of this magic power? How it alienates her from her friends? Do the Djinn represent vices and virtues? All these and more are brought up but none are followed through consistently; as a result, when our heroine is given a terrible choice in the finale it feels arbitrary. It has all the trappings of being dark and bleak, but ends in a cop-out, and a predictable one, since it clearly happened before yet its consequences are nowhere to be seen. The last point is what puzzles me most: I saw this show being treated as some sort of angst porn (which is doubtless part of the appeal of Madoka and Evangelion) yet in the end only one person died, and not even a recurring character. Sailor Moon had dark moments with more emotional torque.
I would recommend reading the manga instead: it is much shorter, more creatively drawn with livelier interactions, and the ending makes a little more sense. The show can't be dismissed as a cash-in, because dark magical girls was not yet a trend, and it shows some creative touches like the very fitting music. But it looks to me like the creative team took on a genre they barely understood, decided on a finale with no idea how to get there, and pushed in a lot of filler to make up for the gaps.