Currently Airing Spotlight: Pandora Hearts

Today I’ll take a look at the currently airing anime “Pandora Hearts” (poster inset)

Oz Bezarius, heir to one of the royal duke houses, has just turned fifteen. Until his fifteenth birthday, his life was rich and carefree, brought down only by the constant absence of his father – so his Uncle is pretty much his father.

At his coming-of-age ceremony, however, everything changes. For no reason that he can discern, he’s cast into the prison known as the “Abyss” – It exists in a different dimension as the world, and as thus, time doesn’t truly exist in the Abyss. A person can find themselves in any random time period upon exiting the Abyss.

He is saved by a “chain” – (Beings from the Abyss. They must sign a “contract” with a human contractor in order to leave the Abyss. Chains involved in illegal contracts must repeatedly consume humans to gain power) – her name is Alice, the bloodstained black rabbit. Alice appears in the form of a little girl who befriends Oz so she can leave the Abyss.

The “Contract” however is a bit tricky- it’s an agreement between a chain and a contractor. The chain is bound within the contractor and can be called out at will. In return, the contractor provides passage for the chain out of the Abyss. Legal contracts that were made possible by Pandora have been granted the ability to never age to the Contractor. In illegal contracts, a clock-like seal appears on the contractor’s chest, over their heart. Each time the chain’s powers are drawn, the hand in the seal moves like on a clock. Once the hand makes one full rotation, both the contractor and the chain are dragged into the deepest level of the Abyss, never to return again…

The story there begins as Oz unravels the mystery behind Alice, the Abyss and the strange organization known as Pandora. The series features heavy references to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and can be considered both fantasy and mystery in genre themes.

The show has a fair bit of action with Alice and the chains battling each other, and the fight for Alice to regain her memories that have been scattered around the world – much like the memory fragments from Tsubasa Chronicles. But in the same respect, the story is pretty deep with unforeseen twists. At the moment, only 10 episodes are currently out.

This show is definitely worth a viewing. It’s kept my interest, and I wait for on my weekly airing schedule. I highly recommend this at 4/5.

Happy watching!

Shimus Darkraven, Resident Nerds and News writer.