Mar 29 2010 12:08 AM I'm assuming everyone has dropped this show. Either way, the show was mediocre at best. It definitely started out slow and continued this snail pace quite often throughout the series. Although the series definitely could have fit into a 26 episode series, 39 episodes gave this series enough time for some solid character development and time to develop a satisfactory plot. Although part of the ending of stopping element dematerialization was a rather cheesy and cliche, that alone was not all that of a surprise since this is a kids show we are talking about and random stuff happens. Regardless, the show had many upsides too. There were very solid moments of plot and twists throughout various points of the series that really made me eager to watch the next episode at times. Overall, Element Hunters had a nice story set up but had the show not been targeted towards children, the show may have been a bit more interesting and with an even more satisfying conclusion. That said, the conclusion wasn't bad, but it definitely could have been better.
Animation wise, if you were expecting something special, you've got the wrong show. The animation and art are done by the same people who did the Beyblade series. As a result, the style is very subpar compared to modern standards, and not to mention that improvement in the company itself is very minimal. Series wise, this may be the best they've had to date, but they've got a long way to go if they want to achieve something or become more well known both domestically and internationally.
Sound....full of ups and downs. Some of the background music was garbage, some were good, and the rest were a mix and match of OP theme which is pretty solid. The ED theme is absolutely horrible and kinda obvious what the motive is given the original intent of the show. I was hoping at least at some point though that they would change the very retarded theme. It never happened unfortunately. The OP on the other hand is decent as expected by Chiaki Ishikawa. Although nowhere near the level of "Uninstall" from Bokurano or "Prototype" from Gundam 00 Second Season, "First Pain" provides a similar feel that was pleasing to listen to throughout the entire series and it was nice to see the production re-use variations of this theme as background music. Aside from Yuutaro Honjou (Ren) and Ako Mayama (Aimee), the rest of the cast is pretty well known. Moreover, Honjou and Mayama were not bad either, especially considering that Honjou is only 13 and having voiced a few characters now.
Enjoyment? Like I said this series was a like a roller coaster at times. There were okay episodes, really good episodes, and then episodes that I just wanted to force shut down my computer. The rewatch value is extremely low for this show, but that shouldn't come as a surprise given the purpose of the show, though that idea must have withered away by the latter half of the series given what happened.
Overall, I didn't really look forward to Element Hunters when I started watching, especially since 90% of the characters were absolutely retarded beyond reason (minus Chiara of course, which is why I originally watched the series). Whether or not it was a good idea to stay depends on preference. Like I said before, this series had a very interesting concept and the execution was satisfactory. Had the series been targeted at a different audience age, I'm sure it might have done better. The series definitely significantly improved as it progressed and those kinds of factors are usually a big plus for me.
6/10 