The Third - the Girl with the Blue Eye

Information of Anime

Honoka makes a living by being a jack of all trades for hire from giant insects that roam in the deserts outside of towns. One night while travelling with Bogie, an artificial intelligent tank, she rescues a young man named Iks who was wandering alone in the desert.  Iks is a man unknown to this world, but he seems to hold something that interests some of high organizations.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

During the show, there is some narration going on navigates the viewers into the show.  Most of the time, we see Honoka having interesting in Iks on who he is.  We find out later in the show that he's an alien from another planet that came to this current one to observe it.  Also, we discover that Honoka is a Third, a superior race that have a third eye on their forehead which has unique powers.  We also learn about Honoka's past through the show & how she became jack of all trades.  Along the way, her character warms up the people she meets by giving them hope & filling in what they are missing.  Her character is the key to the show's ending when she & Ikus meet the Observer that has been watching this planet who would later leave as he felt the planet's destruction is no longer a concern.

My Personal Review

The Third is a a sci-fi anime you don't see much.  It has an unique storytelling model by having a narrator explaining the show to you.  An interesting thing about the show is that it's not something a lot of people will like; even if you are a sci-fi or mecha fan.  It's too unique & hard to explain what kind of show it is.

Animation

The character designs are pretty plain in terms of appearance & clothing.  For fashion, it's quite plain & no eye-candy.  As for the character designs, they seem to look the same.  All the girls have round faces with big eyes, while the guys have long faces with pointy chins & small sharp eyes.  Not much distinction really.  A small or tiny 1 would have been nice.

The mecha are done in 3D CGs.  They aren't done too well though.  It looks pretty fake as it has too much "shine" to them.   They don't blend in with the backgrounds very well.

As for the backgrounds, they are plainly done.  Not too much details in them.  The only one that was nice was the desert nights.  Although it was plain, the colours gave it a nice effect.

The colours were on the colourful side with some flat & dullness mixed in-between.  They are actually quite blurry for some reason.  I'm not really sure why.  You notice it why the show shows close up on the characters such as their faces.

The animation movement is quite smooth here.  Although Honoka is considered quick in her sword skills, the show doesn't really show it.  It's more of a "normal" pace where you can see the sword swings.  It's not lightening fast as most anime shows would do.  In fact, it's pretty much all natural & realistic.  Aside from the super high jumps that is.

Sound       

The sound effects are mostly on the realistic side.  It's pretty clear & doesn't have too much fuzzes.  Most of the distortion occurs when the loud sounds are up-close really.

The seiyuus here are ok.  They are above average I would say.  They seem to fit with their personalities ok & there isn't any of those extreme cases where characters would make funny sounds due to extreme situations.  They are mainly mellow & soft really.  The narrator's voice isn't too bad as he seems to be reading his lines properly as it isn't read straight from a book without emotions.

The music doesn't do much for the show.  They don't add a lot of punch.  The style is folk based with some songs being upbeat.  They are actually forgettable very easily.

Story

The story is actually straightforward thanks to the narrator.  The narrator most of the time gives you the "answers" of what Honoka is thinking & what she plans to do next.  They are pretty much dead giveaways.  This presents as a problem as it doesn't give room for the viewers to think or guess on the storyline.  In other words, there is only 1 right answer pretty much with very little room for discussion.  Even though the narrator tells you the story, I don't know what the story is about so far.  This is probably because I'm watching it as it's still in its early stages & developing.  Also, I feel the show is quite dry.  The current storyline doesn't seem to draw me in much.  But, there isn't much of a storyline as the final arc has Honoka fighting against The Third as Ikus goes to the forbidden area to meet someone there.

Speaking of developing, the character development seems to be good.  But all of it is focus on Honoka at the moment, which isn't a bad thing since she is the main character.  Again, we learn about her development thanks to the narrator.  Her character is really the driving point of the show's storyline.  Overall, the ending to the show is quite open for many more stories.  Although it somewhat wraps up the show nicely, it feels very incomplete.

Overall Conclusion

The Third is something that may not excite a lot of viewers.  The story seems dry & doesn't leave much room for you to think as the narrator guides you too much.  The place is also slow & can bore viewers in the first couple of episodes & lead them to giving up.  However, I think this show does have some potential as it is unique from a lot of anime shows today.

The Third gets a seven out of ten.  The story is dry & slow.  Plus, the narrator gives away the answers is a problem.  However, that can be an advantage really to viewers that are confused by the story's plot elements.  Although it's 24 episodes long, the show is opened up for many possibilities to make it go further.  But the ending is pretty weak.

Last updated on January 16, 2008