Innocent Venus #anime review

Wow, where to even start? For a 12 episode anime, this was pretty solid. I admit I was expecting it to match up to Jyu-Oh-Sei, and on that it fell short, but this amazing anime stands tall in the land of anime so short most people forget.

Innocent Venus is the the story of Sana, a strange, pink haired little girl who is watched over by Jin and Jo, two ex-members of a mysterious and deadly military group known as Phantom. They're tailed by an annoying little shrimp named Gora, who is in what appears to be a Santa suit. This fashion statement isn't explained, but considering this is your typical almost-post-apocalyptical world we can cut the kid a little bit of slack.

Sana has an attachment to Jin, a charismatic white haired man with a tragic past and a strange obsession. Jo is a bit more of a mystery throughout most of the anime, not having as much as a backstory as Jin, so we can assume he was a member of Levinas, the lower class in this world.

Though the first couple of episodes are just spent running away from Phantom, much of the 12 episodes of this anime are spent trying to find out why the military has such interest in Sana. Towards the last two episodes, we see Sana growing through this ordeal, standing up for her right to know her own origin instead of running away. This mystery isn't quite as suspenseful as it could have been, and leaves me wanting for a bit more depth, though there is one character in this series that was always entertaining.

That character that was always worth watching? Drake, the leader of Phantom. Though we know he's the main antagonist, we're not quite sure what his end goals are, or how we wishes to accomplish these. After Jin's betrayal (come on, after like the 3rd episode you know that's coming) we see him occasionally interact with Jin, each time revealing a bit more of his plans, and we see what almost appear to be the trappings of a madman, but alas, the rather anti-climactic ending sees his end in less than 15 minutes.

Is it worth watching? Only because it's 12 episodes long and you could finish it in a week or two fairly easily. The plot feels as if it is executed with a bit of originality, which is rare in an anime like this, though it would probably lag if it were as long as the Gundams or Bleachs of the anime world. Go watch: http://www.animeseason.com/innocent-venus/