Anime Info

Story Summary TV
By Jerrin

The TV version is basically a story of self discovery. Not only for the main character, but also those around him. Being based much more on the serious aspects of the origional manga story it gives an interesting twist to the story of Hameln. The main character Hamel, has been living in the village of Staccato for the past 10 years and he has no reccolection of his life before that time. One morning Hamel wakes up to find a horn on his head and has no idea where it came from. It's also the day of the annual festival held in the village and his energetic friend, Flute comes in to make sure he gets there this year. Hamel is a rather somber and meloncholy character and doesent mention any of his problems to her. Flute drags him out to prepare for the fesitval when a man, who seems to be injured, falls into their path. He seems to know who Flute is though they have never seen him before. They go to the fesitval that night and suddenly Flute comes to get Hamel because something is wrong with the man they found earlier. He ends up expolding into a plant-like demon that attacks them and Hamel Runs with Flute though the plant catches her. Hamel screams for Flute then suddenly as if posessed he begins to play Mozarts Requiem on his violin. The music has a magical property that defeats the plant and Hamel is left exhausted by the experience. Now with all of the strance occurances in the once peaceful village Hamel must go on a journey to take Flute to her rightful home and to discover the forgotten secrets of his past.
Click here for more detailed summaries of most episodes


The Music
Ok, here goes- first off the story is based heavily around music. Such as that ever character and place is named after a musical instrument or term of some sort (Flute, Clarinet, Oboe . . .). The music used played by some characters has a magical property, (such as when Hamel plays his violin he can control people with the music if he plays the marionette version.)


The Animation and it's still frames
Theres always someone who likes to complain about this . . . I personally don't mind it, I think it adds a rather cool and unusual effect to the show. But what i'm referring to is how throughout the animation there will be scenes when a frame is still while the dialogue still plays over it. It's kind of makes it feel like a storybook in a way. I've heard from numerous places that the reason for having still frames in the animation was a low budget, but there is also the opinion that is was an artistic decision (however, i've heard the low budget theory alot more ^^;)


Inconsistancy in Story in the TV
Once youv'e seen the whole series, or alot of it anyway your bound to notice that some parts of the story just don't fit or pan out from the beginning to the end. I've gotten information from alot of different sources that say this series was rather unpopular when it aired in Japan and for that reason was cut short. So story points mentioned in the beginning may have not made sence when the story was wrapped up quickly in the second half. Such as the scene in the very beginning with the "five hopes" queen Horn speaks of . . . it ends up not making any sence later because the story never headed in that direction and it was pretty much dropped after the beginning. I think that they had origionally planned on taking the story that way then couldn't do it anymore when it needed to be concluded fast.