Leviathan

I actually feel bad for not giving a better rating for this series because it is technically flawless and it is clearly visible that the entire staff poured their heart and soul into it. The animation is great, the voice actors - in the English dubbing at least - are well-casted and the action scenes are great.

Basically, my concern about this series that it shouldn't have been an anime.

This pairing simply doesn't work. Keith Thompson's extremely atmospheric and unique illustrations replaced by some generic anime scenery just takes away something from the book trilogy's essence. You listen to the Scottish Deryn Sharp singing 'Anime Opening Song #536' in Japanese puts me out of the vibe.

I am really sorry for having to say all this, because the idea of spreading the popularity of Scott Westerfeld incredibly original and clever book series with an adaptation sounds good on paper... just not in this genre.

They reimagined the world war I with bio-engineered animals and some walkers, at-at style, plus other kinds of technology.

From the worldbuilding to the characters to the story itself, I really enjoyed the show.

I could get through even though the CGI is, at times, not so smooth; and I'm definitely not a fan of CGI, up to the point to skip a show if it has any, but everything else was so well created and tailored that it didn't bother me, much.

In any case, if you're a fan of sci-fi or alternative realities, give this a chance because I promise you it will deliver, if only due to the amount of imagination involved in its creation.

The animation was insane, so was the voice acting, character development, and storyline! I like how such a historic moment is captured in some steam punk world, and The storyline is full of suspense. Alek goes from being this wimpy prince to a hero, which is a huge character development. Not to mention "Dylan", and her pretending to be a boy. It could sometimes get hilarious. I really hope there's a season 2!

I won't go in too deep, because the show it really short (You can binge watch it in a day), and it was great, so I'd encourage you to watch it.

But to summarize: The Setting was fantastic. The show got me hooked with the first (30 minute) episode.

The Visuals are great. Only the best "animes" had better visuals like Arcane, or To be Hero X.

The base story wasn't super crazy, but how the executed it made it great. Just for an example: I won't consider this a spoiler since it's revealed in the first 5 minutes: One of the main characters (Dylan) is a girl, and she only poses as a boy only to be able to enlist in the UK air force. Just this simple setting makes the story much more interesting and exciting, as you hope she won't get discovered.

I'd be really happy if this show got a 2nd season or more. It was worth every minute.

I've seen some people saying romance killed the show. Don't let that discourage you, that "romance" was basically only in the last episode, and for about ~6-7 minutes.

It's a tragedy Netflix didn't advertise this properly. Seriously no one is watching it. Why spend the money to make something this good? This is the second time they messed up a Scott Westerfeld book series. Anybody who has read his books loves living in the universe's he creates!

I can only comment that I've read all 3 books. They could have made the series longer but I'm astounded at how much detail was involved. Every aspect from the first page of the book seemed to jump on to my TV screen. They didn't miss a beat. I felt like I was watching the books I read. That's extremely rare for an adaptation.

It's not perfect. There are changes to the story I won't comment on. But the dynamic between Alek and Dyren was spot on. And that was a major plot point.

The art and animation was spectacular and went to the core of imagination for anybody who read the books. It was perfect!

People keep calling this steampunk. It's not. It's actually more dieselpunk. Yes there is a difference.

If you haven't read the books it might be slow or strange in some way. But it's extremely close to recreating the source material so I recommend watching it.

My next wish is a live action of "The Risen Empire" Make that happen Westerfeld!😋