Ahh... there's nothing quite like starting my day off with a muffin, a bowl of cereal, and a big paradox. Well, I suppose I could have done without the latter, but it's too late now! Yes, Himiko-den (or Legend of Himiko as it's known in the United States) contains what one might call a "paradox," or a line of reasoning that, in the end, completely contradicts everything before it. In anime layman's terms, that's a story that is a complete logical impossibility, but more on that later.

There is but one, simple reason why I decided to watch Himiko-den: it's opening animation. It's intro is easily the series' best feature, which is rather unfortunate because it's probably the series' only good feature to boot. What follows the intro is what counts in an anime, though, and in Himiko-den there are no surprises. Those of you that have seen Fushigi Yuugi will instantly recognize exactly what's going on in Himiko-den; just imagine, if you will, the Suzaku Seven replaced with women wearing low-cut dresses and all story elements involving Yui completely removed and you have Himiko-den in a nutshell. For those of you that haven't watched Fushigi Yuugi, here's a basic description of the events in Himiko-den: boy and girl are thrown into strange new world; boy and girl are separated; boy and girl reunite and discover they alone have the power to save Yamatai.

Both the best and worst aspect of the story, though, is that the story is extremely easy to get into. Right from the get-go, it is pretty much impossible to get lost in the story. Though this may mean that people new to anime will have something easy to watch before tackling a monster like Serial Experiments: Lain, it will obviously leave people used to more thought-provoking storylines wanting a lot more. On the plus side, and I can't say this about many anime series out there, the story flows incredibly smoothly. Its pace never changes in any way (even the ending is the same), and the episodes shift from one to another as seamlessly as possible.

Unfortunately, the story isn't the only thing that requires no thought whatsoever. I am sad to say that the characters have about as much depth as a kiddie pool. They receive no development over the course of the story whatsoever (even Kutani and Himiko's relationship status doesn't change at all), and any attempts at doing so fail miserably. For example, in the second to last episode, the most mind-bogglingly stupid plot twist is introduced regarding Seika's past, and then forgotten about forty-five seconds later. Not only that, but the more of the series I watched, the more opportunities for excellent character development I was able to spot. For example, in the first episode, Kutani saves Imari from falling down a cliff, at which point she blushes. She continues to blush at various points of the story when around Kutani and... nothing beyond that ever happens. Another thing that really bothered me was the enormous plot hole surrounding the characters Chosa and Shiho -- not to mention every single other character in the series.

The awful artwork and animation don't help cover up the story's blemishes either. With animation quality as low as what's featured here, it's really difficult for me to believe that this series was created in 1999. Not only that, but the background music is absolutely horrid in a generic, grating kind of way that's somewhat difficult to describe. I'll just say that it was more pleasing to listen to silence than to listen to another musical piece (other than the pleasant opening theme, of course).

Though I would certainly recommend this series to people that can hardly think when watching anime(i.e. people just getting off of watching Dragonball Z), people accustomed to using their brains will have a hard time stomaching the ending, which is so impossible and illogical it made me squirm. Those of you that have watched D.N.Angel may be familiar with the episode regarding Daisuke's little hijinks in time travel, but that was just one episode -- imagine the entire story based on a paradox similar to that. Unfortunately, the ending also fails to close up the numerous plot holes and loose ends left over, which consequently left me with a disappointed look on my face. Then again, there was absolutely no momentum leading up to the finale (the pace NEVER changes in the series), so I wasn't really all that excited about the ending in the first place.

So, in conclusion, Himiko-den is a fairly interesting anime series that is good for beginners, but is easliy outdone by the likes of Outlaw Star in that particular category. For the thinkers out there, avoid everything but the opening theme (Pure Snow by Yuko Sasaki) like the plague. I cannot stress that enough. One last thing: don't be fooled by people saying the episodes in Himiko-den are only 23 minutes long. Each episode seemed to last for at least an hour or two!