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Rating: 
Summary: Arjuna An Enviromentalist Anime
Review: Arjuna is just one of those animes you really have to love unless you really hate enviromentalists and love pollution. <---lol I hope not too many people like pollution but anyways on to the review. Arjuna at 1st glance you can obviously tell its beautifully animated and the cg is great. What you don't get to see though is the excellent music done by none other than Yokko Kanno which for the anime beginners out there is the same person responsible for Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Wolf's Rain (of course Arjuna!). Which also means the music is excellent it fits perfectly I found no flaws with the music at all. The storyline on the other hand is very complex and not for children who don't understand the complexities of everyday people who don't even notice everything they are doing to harm the Earth. This storyline is not for kids because there are some graphic images (whether you agree with me or not) of children starving to death, animals dieing, and other things I don't want to get into because it may ruin the story line. The other side to Arjuna though is the love story between Juna and Tokio her boyfriend. Its a very beautiful love story but with every love story there are challenges that they must go through that only strengthen the couple! So I recommend this to everyone 16+ who cares about the enviroment and anyone who loves a good drama!
Rating:
Summary: "The Road Was Further Than I Thought"
Review: Disaster strikes Japan - the Petrochemical Decomposing Bacteria (PDB) accidentally released by Juna and Tokio combines with the Raaja and proceeds to dissolve one of the underpinnings of modern civilization - plastics and similar products. The result is a complete loss of the country's support systems. Juna is stranded in New York City while her friends Tokio and Sayuri struggle for survival with no food, surrounded by the pollution released in the crisis. Facing opposition from those who would prefer to see Japan quarantined and its people abandoned Jun rebels, and uses her powers to return to her home in full battle array. About to forcibly cleanse Japan, Juna finds herself facing an unexpected opponent. In the midst of her heroic effort she must confront a spiritual crisis that will change her forever. Throughout this series there has been a tension between Shoji Kawamori's educational intentions and the flow of the story line. While the moments of ecological explanation are well done, they are a bit too pedantic for this watcher, perhaps because I have heard these lessons before. But the lessons are important, and the story line weaves these pieces together and provides a spiritual context as well. In these last two episodes, everything comes together and a compelling message is delivered perfectly. This is a series that is perfect for its intended audience, those aged 13 and up. It depicts the typical problems of teenagers growing up in a flawed world with candor and honesty. It presumes that the watcher is comfortable with the minimal content present, which is completely innocuous when compared to what occurs in a typical TV advertisement. Arjuna's message, to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all life is one that truly needs to be taught - repeatedly. This is a good family series that can provide the material for some excellent discussions. And I believe that most of us adults will benefit as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful disaster indeed
Review: Earth Maiden Arjuna or Arjuna as it is simply known stateside is a tale of ecological disaster and universal harmony. The names attached to the project alone make this a high profile project. Yokko Kanno (RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop) on music duties and Shoji Kawamori (creator of Escaflowne)directs however the overall project is so poorly executed that you can't help but feel the ecological message is at best preachy.
The basic plot surrounds a young girl who is near death after an accident but is given a second chance at life if she agrees to become the Avatar of Time. She agrees and goes on to fight ecological creatures until all of Japan is ultimately an ecological disaster and the fate of the world hinges on her decisions.
The animation is stunning and the music top-notch but the show just seemed to be a Japanese take on American kids show Captain planet. I was particularly annoyed by a scene in which toxins in the food served at "American burger" nearly poison and kill the two main characters. It just seemed rather narrow minded and stereotypical to have the restaraunt serving polluted food as a thinly disguised McDonalds.
Overall, Arjuna was pretty animation but the story was so annoying that the message of conserving and preservation was lost in high handed dialogue and Anime magic girl cliches. With all the talented people on board for this program its a shame that this 13 episode series really falls flat.
Rating: 
Summary: Great concept, horrible art... but perfect end
Review: Hey! just finished watching this awesome anime (without sound for the latter half, unfortunately, since the library was closing and my headsets taken from me)... First of all I would like to express how much I appreciate the anime for not flowering up any of the important (and difficult-to-understand) issues, and for the extensive research into them. The no-till agriculture is actually at the very forefront of natural farming revolution (and it's true that it can produce yields that exceed that of chemical farming--- Just read Masabano Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution), and I am glad Arjuna covered that.
The animation is appalling, or perhaps it's just that I don't like the blending of 2D and 3D effects.
As for the storyline, the first three episodes were sheer agony. I didn't like Arjuna's magical abilities and the huge robot thing(they never did anything constructive) and she sure was dense as hell; but believe me the ending is the best ending of any amime or movie I've ever watched. It made all those crappy art and stupid fight scenes in the first 90% of the anime totally worth it (turns out that those fight scenes are stupid for a reason, and arjuna has been making a mistake the whole time). I thought the ending was complicated, but in fact it's so simple it's beautiful, and it made the whole storyline make sense. Perhaps I've known the truth all along, I just didn't realize because I tried to deny it.
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Summary: Anime That Looks LIke a Moving Picture
Review: Shoji Kawamori gets very personal in one of his most unique series yet. This anime legend created classics like "The Vision of Escaflowne" and "Macross", and teams up with Yoko Kanno again to create "Earth Maiden: Arjuna", a pioneer film to strike your senses at all levels. Taking place in the present day Tokyo, we watch an urban girl, Juna, as she wakes up to her surroundings and how much she is needed to act to protect the wellbeing of the planet she's taken for granted. When Juna realizes what it is she must do, she's endowed with the strength of the Earth to combat spiritual, snake-like destroyers born from human waste called the Raaja, but before she can even think of purifying the world she must first purify herself. Part environmentalist exposee, part romance, part coming-of-age story, Earth Maiden: Arjuna will dazzle your eyes, ears, mind, and spirit.
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