The title "Spirit of Wonder" fits this anime so well. Clocking in at a mere 42 minutes in length, Spirit of Wonder won't make you question your life or provide any sort of analysis of the human psyche, but it'll make you do something that many anime can only dream of doing: it can make you imagine. Imagine a world where time and space can be altered, and that it all takes place in early 19th century England. Also, forget anything that you know about the geography of the Earth. The Prince of Wales Island may be real place on our planet, but it sure isn't anywhere near where Spirit of Wonder takes place!

As soon as I started watching this OVA episode, I fell in love with the characters. Miss China is energetic and has a great personality, Breckenridge is your standard mad scientist that lives out of a restaurant, and Jim is a man with some pretty big dreams. For instance, he has a dream of giving Miss China a very special ring for her birthday (hence the subtitle "Miss China's Ring"), but you'd never expect what kind of ring. Not in a million years! There was no time when I could really say that I knew what was going to happen next because nothing was predictable at all.

Unfortunately, the OVA just sort of ends without any closure of any kind. Relationships between the characters continue to be ambiguous, and no detail is given to character backgrounds at all. I would have liked to have learned more about Miss China, like how she came to Prince Wales Island or why she runs the Tenkai restaurant. Of course, it's a marvel that so much story was even contained in such a small amount of time. Although it's over pretty quickly, Spirit of Wonder didn't feel rushed at all. The pace was very well controlled throughout, and it never went too quickly or too slowly at all.

There's one more little problem I had with Spirit of Wonder: the technical aspects. The music and sound effects were really subpar, and the artwork was even worse. Many of the character designs looked ugly, and environments looked bland and dull. I particularly didn't like the characters' faces. Sometimes, their faces actually looked pretty good but other times they looked downright ugly. However, if you can get past all that, then you'll find Spirit of Wonder to be a good watch - just don't forget to bring your imagination along!