An ordinary boy named Shu is accidentally dragged into the future, where he discovers the horrible condition of the world to come. An insane tyrant is trying to take over the world, and using any means necessary to do it. His armed forces consist of kidnapped children, forced to become soldiers for the tyrant's mad cause.

Now and Then, Here and There is an amazing series. It has an exceptional plot, outstanding character development, and excellent themes. All I could say when it was over was "Wow."

I've heard this anime described more than once as very depressing. It's not a happy anime, that's for sure. It is very deep, very emotional, exceptionally powerful, and covers a wide range of heavy issues. It has its lighter

moments; there are sections that will make you laugh. But more than likely it will make you cry, and it will definitely make you think long and hard about the issues that it addresses.

All the characters are absolutely fabulous. This is some of the best character development I have ever seen in an anime. I must mention one thing though: if you're going to watch this anime, try and stick with the Japanese version. It's not that I have anything against English dubbed anime; both subtitled and dubbed versions can have their good and bad points. But in this case, the characters and their personalities are so very important that if the voices don't fit the character, it has a devastating affect on

the characters and their development. The characters' personalities are depicted much more realistically in Japanese.

The art itself is nothing special, and it even seems a little flat sometimes. Overall, it's a very simple style of animation, but the plot and the character development more than make up for what it lacks visually. The lack of detail is rarely distracting, though, and if anything, the simplicity of the art helps you focus more on the characters and what they go through.

The series isn't that long, and it's definitely worth taking the time to watch it. Sometimes you need more numbers than 1-10 to rate an anime, and this is one of those times. Go see it, this one's off the scale! ^_^

10/10