Oh my god, Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna or in english Earth Girl Arjuna is great. I cannot stress this enough... if you liked Princess Mononoke for its strong anti-killing message, then you´ll probably get obsessed with this. It is just so well rounded, so in depth, that you´ll literally be taken by it in the first episode.

Ok, the animation is coming up first, and it is AMAZING. It has extremely detailed animation, bordering on the same quality as Tsuiouhen. The characters are uniquely detailed, and although they rely equally as much on personality, the visual representation holds up easily. I only had one real qualm with the method of animation, and that was the CG. Sure, it worked well in many areas, but turning 2D animated people into 3D really takes away a lot of detail, and since theres one or two scenes that I can remember, its not too frequent. Either way, it really was a sharp contrast against everything else that was done animation wise. The Raaja, for example, were excellent rendered, and "Arjuna" was amazingly drawn, and very original.

The characters were incredibly, incredibly deep... words can´t begin to access the character development and interaction. Juna is presented to us as an average teenage school-girl, but once she is killed, her life (obviously) takes sharp turn. At first, she´s unsure of what her new powers mean, she is always seeing glimpses of "things". The things leading up to her realization of life are simply amazing, since they are so well done. Tokio, her "boyfriend", is also craftily woven into Juna´s character. They depend on each other, but Tokio just goes through great lengths to protect her. All the while, Juna is fighting an internal battle with what she feels about Tokio, while at the same time coping with her own powers. The supporting characters were also just as good, and made sure that Juna´s powers didn´t just "halt" everything else that was going on in her life.

The ploit was what really built the series up. The premise is this: a girl must save the Earth from destruction from its own people. But she can´t just kill the representations of the contaminates, the Rajaa; she must purify them. The plot leads us through several of the "Rajaa", whether it be mathematics, or life itself. However, I thought that they focused too much on each one, and the jumps seemed to be rather random at times. This is the only downfall in the ploit that I can possibly imagine, and its hardly something to worry about, especially in light of the greatness of the series.

The music was high quality, and this is, perhaps, a vast understatement. Yoko Kanno just continues to impress me, and if you haven´t heard any of her music up until now, this will certainly convince you of her musical genius as well. She chose mainly orchestral music, and it suits the series perfectly. Since it focuses around nature a lot, you can guess there are a lot of emotional scenes involving it, and the music rises and falls with the happenings on screen. There is one scene, in fact, where she is standing in a rice paddy and she closes her eyes, and tries to "communicate" with the earth, and the music is simply fulfilling. It literally made me swell up, its that convincing. Again, the Japanese voice acting was definitely on par with the rest of the series.

All I can say is, this is a great, great, series... a classic if you will. If you have the money, I urge you, URGE you, to go out and buy the first DVD (which is in the U.S. right now). It gets a 10 from me, and no less... its just so good. It kind sucks, though, that I can´t say anyt of the good parts without giving away important factors of the anime. So go out and get it!