Fantastic Children 1

Opening: 「Voyage」 by Inori
Ending: 「水のまどろみ」 by ORIGA

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A man rambles on while looking over some documents... something's happened.. someone's coming back.. what's their goal?... they're going to appear again..

Holland, 1853: A boy wakes up in the middle of the night and there's this ghost-like figure in his room that scares him... the next day he receives a postcard with a drawing of a ship on it. On the way back from school he runs into a group of children clad in black capes that have some business with him.. why didn't he come when they sent the postcard? He doesn't want to have any of it and wants to stay behind and when his mother comes he goes...

Sweden, 1901: That same group of children in black capes is here (48 years later?), getting some information, it seems. But someone's watching them...

Clairmont Sanatorium & Hospital, The Southeastern Islands: The children in black capes come here.. a woman there has just died. It seems like they knew her or something since they cry upon finding out. There are some paintings in the room that get their attention as well. One of the girls goes to the door and seems to lose her memory somehow.. Then suddenly, 2 men barge in along with the kid that was watching those children in Sweden. He wants their help, but they won't cooperate. He then says that they're demon.. The kids try to escape, but that girl is caught and left behind..

111 years later, The Southeastern Islands, a boy, Toma is training. When he goes to take his boat home, he notices another boat there. There's a girl laying down in the hands of a stone statue there, but she won't talk at all. So he leaves to go to his mom, who's making some money fortune-telling (surprised they'll give her money with that kinda getup). In the town, a kid that's being chased by a couple of men runs by Toma so he follows and gives the kid some help that he doesn't exactly want.. they eventually do get caught.. When Toma and his mom arrive home, Toma goes off to that island again to see is that girl is still there.. she's not. He sees her exit a house there and get on a boat. She apparently ran away from a facility and was found, so now she's being taken back..

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And that's it for this time. We're just getting what looks to be a pretty epic story started. I really got the feeling of the Ghibli movies, especially Castle in the Sky, with Fantastic Children. The character design is similar, the art is similar, and the setup for the story seems similar as well. Not a surprise since the art director worked on Ghibli movies like Castle in the Sky and others... I could almost bet you that that girl has some kinda strange powers :) The ending was interesting.. it shows some paintings with ships.. then names and dates, like "Christina, 1721-1759".. what could that mean? And who the heck are those children in the black capes?

I'm interested in finding out what happens so I'll be watching again :)