Oh god, yes. It's one of the, perhaps even the, most moving and tragic animes to have ever been produced. Things such as CLANNAD, Kanon, and other overly melodramatic series failed to even get me to shed one tear, but this, oh this left me unable to speak after watching. It's that powerful.
While it was great, it was far too maternal. There is a point at which the men go out and die to buy the women and children time to get away from the marauding barbarians. But as I'm supposed to agree with Sis (I guess), the anime presents doing this as foolish (and all the men who are fighting are doing so mostly for revenge—there's a brief glimmer of the protector in Elamb, but it's quickly subsumed by the revenge motive he spends 9/10ths of his initial speech building up), and suggests everyone stay at home and everything will just work out.
Leftists are pretty sinister, really.
No, it suggests that the men who are fighting for revenge are simply making things worse, because they're adopting the same tactics and ruthlessness as King Hamdo. Because they are so consumed by hate, the men who fight for revenge become no better than the ones who they oppose.
The ones who fight for their loved ones, on the other hand, are presented as pursuing a noble, if friutless effort of fighting back against the evil regime.
I found the ending was painfully weak (aside from Hamdo getting both barrels of karma right in the face). Shu was naive, and the fact he remained just as naive after all that just seems stupid. The fact that Sara randomly chose to completely forget about her parents and stay on the fast dying earth because some overly-sentimental old woman was a pro-lifer was a complete and utter Wall Banger.
To be honest I was rooting for Tabool; evil little bastard as he was, he had a kind of charm. Being the only character who didnt act pants-on-head retarded probably helps.
Excellent review. Pretty well-written and nails quite a few of the things I liked about the series. As for The Malignancy's comment...
That "overly-sentimental old woman" was not a pro-lifer. That's a common misinterpretation. She actually discusses the possibility of Sara aborting the child without any negative connotations. Her words to her in the end actually meant that Sara herself, should she choose to have the baby, should not punish it as by abuse. Sara chose to stay because she realized that she'd come to care for those in that small village and could possibly help them in some way.
Also, not sure where you got the idea that Shu remained naive in the end. Did he stay optimistic? Possibly. He did see some examples of selfless good as with that "overly-sentimental old woman"'s efforts to try and stop the senseless revenge-cycle, Sara's wish to stay and help the others, and Lala-Ru's decision to give her life to grant the people some relief. Even though all three may have gone through Hell themselves, they did give Shu some hope. And yet, he didn't seem "naive" in the end at all - he actually seemed rather somber and most interpret the breaking of his stick on the back of Hamdo to be his idealism breaking.
What? Did you expect him to be Maddened Into Misanthropy? Nonsense. That would erase the meaning of the series altogether - that, despite all the pain in the world, it's no reason to simply lose faith in humanity and stop being kind to others. That just makes things worse.
But, well, if Shu wasn't cynical enough in the end for you, that's understandable. Considering what he saw, I was a little surprised he wasn't more broken by it too, so I get what you mean.
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Now or never...
A highly intense and emotional series; perhaps the majority of tropers and viewers already know the traumas that occur within, but my thoughts on the whole thing must come out.
NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE lingers with you. The images and events are ingrained into the mind; each character is vividly alive, making what happens to them all the more horrific, and, oh, it is ever so horrific...
Aesthetically, the show is beautiful, perhaps resembling one of those 80s ovas you may have once seen on an old VHS cassette. Only, instead of fantasy and escape, it is a microscope on the horrors of death, war, abuse, trauma, and other unspeakable terrors that sting, if only because it is true.
It is also marvelously written. Here is a show that now only succeeds in creating a beautiful atmosphere, but in making believable people. Shu, despite what you might think, is one of the most interesting protagonists ever, decoy or not. Everyone else also fits the bill, from the insane King Hamdo, to the innocent but clearly scarred Soon. Each personage is carefully imagined. Therefore, the tragedies and random things that befall them are all the more harsh and unfair. But that's the way it is.
What makes the show ultimately uplifting is the utter unrealistic quality Shu brings. He is so out of place, so out of his depth, and yet so optimistic, that we are reminded of the reason for such feelings. He stops being silly and beings to symbolize the best in all of us. I personally believe that he is the hope spot for all the others, which makes their fates even more tragic. Unfortunately, he is a miracle in of himself. And besides, these things already happen in OUR times. "All the good people of this world are dead" indeed.
I suppose there isn't much more to say except to see this series. Truly, a work of art, and highly memorable. Like I said before, it lingers, now and then, here and there...