I love anime. I can sit down for hours and hours simply watching, whether it’s the latest release or something from my past. Most recently, I watched Shangri-La, published by FUNimation Entertainment. Shangri-La is a 24 episode series that sees global warming finally reach its breaking point. The setting is the 21st century, where there is now a carbon emission trade market in order to control the effects of global warming (which doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea for how things stand now). An earthquake has destroyed a large chunk of Japan, resulting in it later being transformed by the world into a massive jungle to help regulate carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. We start our adventure with Kuniko Jojo, a young girl recently released from a female detention center.

Kuniko Jojo returns to her home city of Duomo, and is being groomed to become the leader of Metal Age. Metal Age is a resistance organization that opposes the policies on environmentalism in the world. It always seems that any government in the world will have people against it. Of course, in any situation, most governments might consider it a threat depending on how far the resistance goes. Other characters in the series include Momoko, Miiko, and Takehiko, who you’ll larn about and grow to like throughout the series. The government in this series is known as Atlas and they’ve built a giant structure for all to live in…or so it seems. Atlas has promised that everyone at one point will live in the structure, but it has taken years and many people are still waiting.

The anime as a whole is good and very entertaining but in the long run didn’t provide the spark to pull me in. Each episode felt as if it was focusing on the economics of the world, until later in the series. You do learn some and see a little action but I want lots of action, ass kicking, and animation that will pull me in. Not something that drags on and then starts to get good with some ass kicking and story twisting plots. Some episodes later in the series did provide what I enjoy in an anime title but the series will seem slow for quite some time after it starts.

I did really enjoy the art, however. The animators made sure to provide as much detail as they could, whether it was simply exploring the lands, what was going on within the city, or the action in the series. In pretty much any anime title you know it takes time to create each part and that’s why when it comes to the animation I give thanks to providing very clean and detailed work. When it comes to the acting within the series, it was done very well.  From the start of the series the emotions given by each character were spot on. Tone of voice accurately reflected the visible emotions of the characters throughout the series. You not only see how the characters feel, but you hear it and feel it, too. I’ve seen some titles in the past fail at providing emotional voice acting, so that’s another aspect I give thanks to.

Overall, I’d say it’s a good series as a whole. Is it worth a purchase at this time? I’d say wait for the price to drop slightly and check it out. If you’re a fan of FUNimation titles in general I’d say purchase away to add this to your collection.

Shangri-La was provided by FUNimation Entertainment for Review purposes. For more information on the company or this anime title, please visit www.funimation.com.