Review of The World is Still Beautiful

If the process of having an identity disorder could be physically condensed into an anime this would be that anime. Never have a seen a story that knows less what it wants to be. Characters veer wildly between being good guys and bad guys, not in a realistic grey area way, but in a "flipping between extremely cartoonish poles" way. Characters will be attempted rapists one episode then become a silly comic relief guy later. Characters will be painted as evil and trying to control Nike and then turn around and be extremely genuinely written like "we were just worried about her." The biggest flip isconstant; Livius will be a love interest hopeful that Nike is falling for but then will radically flip to being a little evil tyrant who is abusing her.

All because it cannot decide if it wants to be a silly funny anime or a dark serious anime. It honestly should have just picked one and stuck with it so the tone wouldn't be wildly flipping around all the time. I think it does the dark and serious sections better, actually, and would have preferred if it struck to being a dark tale about an evil tyrant Livius and his unwilling betrothed bride Nike. None of the half baked and clumsy attempts to be a romcom.

It is well animated and nice to look at. The production value for this is easily the best part of it but that means very little in the grand scheme of things. It's basically the thing saving it from being a 1 and netting it at least a 2.