Rating: 30 pts
Highest Points: Art, Music
Lowest Points: Overall, Story

Review

Story: This OAV series was apparently based on a novel series, and so upon first viewing I was overwhelmed by the large cast and the lack of detailed explanation about what was going on and who these characters were. In other words, this was probably aimed at fans who would already have a good idea of the story. This is a fantasy story about a battle between the Supernaturals, who prey on humans, and Those of the Sky, who prey on the Supernaturals and protect humanity. 900 years ago there was a battle between these two factions that was ended when the leaders of each side gave their lives to seal them. However, in the present day those two leaders, Karao of Those of the Sky and Kunaki of the Supernaturals, have been reincarnated, and the seal has been broken, so the battle has resumed. I found this story quite confusing to follow because things such as how the magic (which seems to be based on the strength of one’s aura) works or who was on which side were not clearly defined until the end, if

There are a lot of characters appearing in a short period of time in this story. It centres around Sakiya Ryousuke, a high school student who is not aware that he is the reincarnation of Kunaki, although he knows that he has unusual abilities. A very gentle boy, Sakiya hates these powers that mean he must see horrible things all the time; his distress increases when strangers start alternately attacking him and trying to convince him to join them. The Supernaturals want their leader back, and Those of the Sky want him on their side because of his amazing powers. Some otaku might find Sakiya a little weak (i.e. if you thought Shinji was a whiner you will think the same of Sakiya) but I quite liked his determinedly gentle personality. His good friend Ai (who obviously loves Sakiya deeply) was also a likeable character, gutsy and loyal. I particularly liked the mishievious Ryo, one of Those of the Sky, because of his charming personality. There were some characters I would have liked to have seen develop

Music: Long before I had seen it, I had heard of High School Aurabuster through downloading some of the soundtrack songs. The background music, opening and ending themes are all quite good. There is a driving beat to most of the bgm, following the often intense action, while the opening and endings are melancholy and slow with a mild techno feel. Although occasionally the bgm bordered on too dramatic, for the most part it did a good job of backing up the action. And it stayed in the background, where it belonged, affecting my feelings without hitting me in the face with what it was trying to do.

Art: I found the character designs really interesting and unique. I was startled to see that the character designer for this OAV series was Kouga Yun, the mangaka of Earthian, Genji and Gestalt; the characters do not resemble her normal style but they have really interesting eyes and hair. Generally speaking the animation was of good quality, smooth and consistent. There are a lot of fights with heavy use of magic in this OAV and I found the magic was quite well done. I really enjoy seeing magic in animation because it can look so cool, and this anime is a good place to see magic done well.

Overall: Overall I did enjoy this anime, although I was occasionally frustrated by confusion over who was fighting for what, who belonged to which side, and other such important information. This OAV really felt like it was compressing a great deal of information into too small a space. On the other hand, the magic battles were a great deal of fun to watch, and the characters all looked quite cool. I felt sympathy towards Sakiya and by the end I wanted to know what was going to happen to these characters in the future. There were characters I was sure I would come to like more if there were more story in which to watch them. I am assuming this was originally a shoujo series because it focuses on attractive male characters and there are occasional hints of shounen-ai (although these should not be enough to offend all but the touchiest of otaku). I would also like to have seen more because there are several top seiyuu voicing roles here. Yuuki Hiro gives a passionate performance as Sakiya, [review truncated]