n a world where magic is commonplace, in a kingdom ruled by a sacred fire known as the Bokka, the time has come to select a human queen. Six candidates, all young women carrying items imbued with the Bokka's power, come to an underground altar-room so the Bokka can choose between them. But as the six women hover in the air above the Bokka, encased in globes of energy and waiting for a decision, invaders overthrow the kingdom and claim the Bokka for themselves. As the kingdom's guards try to hold the invaders back, the six candidates are carried high into the air, then scattered across the world.
The Bokka itself dims down to a tiny wisp of flame.
Hoping to restore the Bokka so it will not burn out when he tries to steal it, the invaders' leader, General Shikara, suggests that the Bokka's guardians must sacrifice their own flesh to restore the fire. He grabs their infant daughter and plunges her into the remaining flame. The fire roars up, renewed, but then parts to show the infant, upright and unhurt. As the Bokka's priests begin to chant, the fire wraps around the child, changes into blue light, and then carries her away, leaving nothing behind at all. In a fury, Shikara kills two of the priests, but when the Bokka is replaced by a roiling blackness called the "Fountain of Darkness," which resurrects the slain priests as skeletal, magic-wielding toadies, Shikara realizes he's found a power that could be even more useful than the Bokka itself.
Meanwhile, the infant, Himiko, appears in another world, where a very young boy named Kutani finds her enveloped in light in an ancient ruin. An archeologist investigating the ruin adopts Himiko, and she and Kutani grow up together. But as teenagers, they visit the site of her appearance, and are both carried back into her magical world. There, they're quickly separated, and forced to come to terms with their new surroundings. Fortunately, they're both imbued with the power of the Bokka, which gives them strange and unpredictable powers.
A huge cast traveling in small circles
Legend Of Himiko is reminiscent of a lot of mundane-kid-meets-magical-world series: Vision of Escaflowne, El Hazard, Fushigi Yugi, Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko (right down to the de rigueur floating sky-fortress), and so forth. But it still manages to conjure up some surprises. The fact that Himiko is originally from the world she's destined to save is an unusual twist, and the ever-growing supporting cast provides lots of opportunities for atypical relationships between colorful characters.
The Bokka-backed rebellion includes five of the queen candidates (the sixth joined Shikara during the three years that elapsed while Himiko grew up in her alternate mundane world), plus the old general in charge of the Bokka's protective troops. On the other side are Shikara and a cornucopia of prominent
lieutenants, from the animated dead to a quiet, noble man pining for his lost love, who unbeknownst to him is imprisoned in Shikara's quarters, nursing a horrific disfigurement. A variety of subplots featuring them all in turn brings a lot of flavor to what might otherwise be a fairly watered-down and
familiar recipe.
Unfortunately, those subplots also rob Himiko of much of its forward momentum. The storyline jumps around so much that there's no particular sense of urgency or progress, and even when it briefly sticks with a scenario, not much seems to happen. In particular, the time Kutani spends escaping from
the bad guys with Imari, a foul-mouthed swordswoman/queen candidate, seems to go in endless, pointless circles as they vie for dominance and loudly, repetitively proclaim their inability to understand each other or their situation.
Himiko's animation is routine and bland, though the opening credits are very pretty and the scene designs, while not exceptionally executed, are creative and ambitious. The story is often awkward, with its lurching pace and ludicrously flat exposition, but it's still got solid fantasy underpinnings and an uncommonly rich backstory. And a third of the way through the series, it's not too late to hope things tighten up as the many fascinating characters come together and try to deal with the many problems in their equally fascinating world.
Legend Of Himiko is actually based on a Japanese Playstation game, but it's hard to imagine what that game must have been like. So far, at least, the series has contained none of the simplistic, lame, video-gamey battles that make up other weak game-based monstrosities like Sin: The Movie.
— Tasha
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