Help me, Oji Tanaka. You're my only hope.
Okay, so I'm a little conflicted. I liked the journey that Black Heaven gave. It was interesting and fun, and really made Oji a completely realistic character. His world (despite the whole "battling space aliens to save the universe" thing) was a very believable one, a world where college-aged Oji was intensely passionate about music, something he has virtually given up fifteen years later. And when he rediscovers his love for playing guitar, it consumes his life.
But at the same time, I kinda hated the ending. I have this thing about infidelity and while I don't think this show crossed that line (despite the kiss), I do think it cuddled up to it. (Oh, and don't get me started about the epilogue. WTF?!) It also made Oji's choice a ridiculous farce. Stay with the beautiful woman who understands your groove and encourages your dreams (even if for the wrong reasons), or stay with your wife: the woman who throws out your guitars, yells at you for dressing up in your old rock outfits, and leaves you vaguely unsatisfied after sex. Yeah, that's a tough one.
The show also didn't do any favors by not delving into the alien conflict and showing why and who Oji was fighting. The only thing we know about the enemy is that they cloned a person. Seriously, that's it. And since we don't know why Layla's aliens were fighting, the whole thing (despite the ridiculousness of fighting with music) comes off as forced instead of funny.
The show also needed more songs, but I suppose they didn't have the money for that. Oh, and the ED was beyond awful.
So to sum up my feelings: I'm not sure if I'd recommend The Legend of Black Heaven. If you like music-based anime, this might be for you. If not, I think you should just watch the OP on YouTube and skip the series.
I'm running out of the discs I had planned to review (i.e. the DVDs that were in a traveling case), so I'm curious to know if anyone has a preference about what they would like me to watch.
Insert POLL!
Poll Complete Anime Collections In My Backlog