Originally posted on Wordpress on 18 October 2021
Originally, I was going to review all the episodes in this show. I wrote a full review of the first episode (it is posted on my Pillowfort account) and it ended up much longer than I thought it would be. Since I'd planned on reviewing four episodes per blog post, that was going to be a problem. Then I realized I didn't want to do a full review of this series anyway, so one (brief) post it is.
This show...had potential. It was definitely interesting, and a lot of stuff happens, but I think that's where the problem lies. Too many things happened in too short a period of time. Sawa Yukimura, the protagonist, has a goal - a lifelong dream - of killing the guy who killed her family. That happens at the end of episode 4. This is a 12-episode show.
Joran takes place in an alternate history Japan in the 1930s. In the background, there's a group that's aiming to overthrow the government. That does happen by the end of the series, but again, it is a 12-episode show. Things aren't explored in the detail they definitely should have been. A longer season (24 or 26 episodes) would probably have fixed the pacing issues and allowed time for exploration of the characters & the world.
I will leave this post on a good thing: this show is quite pretty! I definitely like the art style, especially the sketchy style used with the changelings.