Review of The World is Still Beautiful

Here she is and in style too. I'm into these fantasy style romances ala Kilala Princess and Snow White with the Red Hair. It's definitely one of those feel-good anime, hence the title. We see the good, the bad and what she rallies people to change. Specifically this King Livius who sent her family a marriage proposal, making her next in line. Now I won't spoil too much but I'll say that he's not too fond of the world and she is about to show him how it's beautiful. She? *bonk* Her name is Princess Nike *swoosh* and quite literally too, she has air powers. (thoughit's pronounced "Neek-ae") But anyway that idea in itself is pretty beautiful if you ask me because it unlocks his past as well as her own. She's the princess of rain, right? Rain isn't always looked at as a good thing, especially if you're the sun king but she shows that rain is beautiful on its own and I respect that.

With that, the characters personalities are pretty charming, I have to give them at least an 8 on that front. They're pretty funny as well.

The music is pretty good too, except Nike teases that she'll finally make it rain when she gets a feel for what Livi thinks is beautiful and actually shows him all those wonders. She claims that she can't do it without meeting those requirements which sounds like a cool premise but then she does it anyway (through singing btw). And I mean, nearly every episode and for little reason most of the time. It just takes away the effect after a little while, despite initially being a pretty decent song. And the thing is, it probably would've been fine if they just didn't hype it up that way.

Ok, now the elephant. Let's start with the ED. It features Livi sleeping but his shoulder is bare. The actual scene its from isn't sensual at all. They make jokes here and there as most anime do but the ED makes it look kind of off-putting. It's just a shoulder but still an odd choice. With that said, Livi is 11 and Nike is 16, that's an obviously questionable five year gap. Now I understand royalty works differently and they get betrothed around 11 anyway. They kind of get married in their own way but Livi does mention her "waiting for him" so I assume there's more to it and these kids aren't just dillydallying.

I do wonder though because Livi has wronged some people and they wish to get back at him but does she just bulldoze her way through those people or help Livi right those wrongs and find peace? Both but at the same time, neither. It works how I would expect a serial manga would. It does have Nike easing his heart as well as potential people with conflicting interests but it's more for the people that are suddenly introduced and only then the problem arises versus having years long beef between rulers and whatnot be squashed, it just doesn't seem as satisfying as the latter. That's not to say that the story isn't connected, just done differently than I had hoped, it's there but not as organized, there's no one big and clear arc for the series.

So, let me say something clear. This anime has a different beginning and ending from the manga and adapts 19 chapters. The manga is 150 chapters...and this anime is from 2014 and I doubt that it's going to get a season 2 so I would just check out the manga if you're interested, maybe even listen to some of the music or watch it as a companion because I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't complete, like some of the stuff was rushed. What I watched was decent though and is why I'm only giving it a 6.5 overall.