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Now and Then, Here and There Review

Now and Then, Here and There is a science fiction isekai anime series that premiered in 1999. It consists of thirteen episodes. It’s an uneven, but very well made show.

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“Because ten billion years’ time is so fragile, so ephemeral…

It arouses such a bittersweet, almost heartbreaking fondness“

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It is about a young boy who, in an attempt to save an unknown girl, is transported to another world which may be the Earth in the far future. The world is desolate and militarized, survival is a daily struggle for displaced refugees, and water is a scarce commodity. This story has its isekai trappings (the protagonist being sent to another world) and it has science fiction elements as well (the world is very steampunk in influences), but it is above all else a post-apocalyptic narrative where the future is very bleak and hopeless.

This is one of those shows that start off so strong, but progressively become less interesting, and then eventually end in a fine fashion. The finale was epic, emotional and quite memorable. The first episode is also incredible and my favorite of the bunch. This is where we meet the two most important characters. Their one-sided conversation on top of this smokestack made for instantly recognizable imagery and this episode just had a magic to its atmosphere and setting that subsequent ones couldn’t quite capture.

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My main issue with the middle part is that it failed to fully develop its characters and especially its world. This is a very dark story that deals with some highly mature themes – child torture and rape are particularly difficult subjects explored here. So, even though it is about kids, it’s not a children’s show whatsoever. But in this trapping the issue arose in that it just felt quite unlikely and unrealistic that there would be such a world where children would be abused so badly with no consequences whatsoever. The character motivations and world building never quite fully formed here.

Lala-Ru is a very intriguing presence and I liked her quite a bit, but she was underdeveloped eventually as are most other characters. Shu is your standard boy protagonist, Abelia is a very confident henchman character, and Hamdo is naturally the standout as this over-the-top, but still very memorable and fun villain. These characters were fine, but the show focused so heavily on a slow pace and lots of dialogue that it needed to develop them even more.

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Now and Then, Here and There has beautiful animation that captures its steampunk world deftly. The characters are familiarly designed, but the world is so unique and interesting that it was a shame that it wasn’t explored at more depth. The score, sound and editing are all excellent and the spare action scenes that we got were all terrific. The show has numerous plot contrivances and underexplained plot points, but its dialogue is fantastic and its maturity and realism admirable.