この醜くも美しい世界 (This Ugly Yet Beautiful World)

High school student Takemoto Takeru lives with his relatives and works part time for them as a motorbike courier. During one of his deliveries with his friend Ninomiya Ryou, they saw a mysterious light flying in the sky and passing through them before splitting into halves and crash into the nearby forest. When he found a naked girl coming out from the light, a strange monster suddenly showed up and attacked the two... while Takeru finds himself able to transform into a powerful being, he decides to protect the mysterious girl, after naming her "Hikari", at all cost. Together, Takaru hopes to show Hikari everything about his world.

Unknown to Takeru, Hikari is not as innocent as her appearance suggests, for Hikari comes to Earth with only one purpose...

この醜くも美しい世界 was produced in 2004 as a 12-episodes TV series, also for celebrating GAINAX's 20th anniversary.

Links:
Official Site
Official Site @ GAINAX

Now if you are a fan of GAINAX when it comes to Mahoromatic and other "cute girls" shows, then you will not be disappointed. If you are looking for solid and strong story in this, then you are going to be deeply disappointed. While one cannot expect anything for a series so short to pack everything from fanservice to a good story (you cannot have both), the start of the story is slightly torturing to watch.

Then again, it is not a bad sci-fi love story. However, weak story wreck the show, not even the cheesy shots (yes plenty of nudity guys), parodies and fanservices can save the day. I kind of force myself to finish it towards the end, the only saving grace is that the last 2 episodes is the best in the series...

Even though it may not be a great series (except for boys...), I found the OP is very good, good enough to be in my CD list. The OP song is "metamorphose" by 高橋 洋子. The EP, "夏色のカケラ" by 石田 燿子, is not bad either.

Dino's Rating: 5
Will Girls Like It: No Way