今、そこにいる僕

IMA, SOKO NI IRU BOKU

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
January 20, 2000
LENGTH
25 min

DESCRIPTION

Shu is a typical Japanese boy, but has an unbeatable, optimistic and determined attitude. However, when he sees a mysterious girl with strange eyes named Lala-Ru up on a smokestack, he is soon pulled into a strange desert world. Shu soon discovers the true terrors of war, which includes genocide, brutal torture, hunger, thirst, and child exploitation. Now Shu is trying to save Lala-Ru, as well as his hard earned, and often relunctant, new friends from the insane dictator, Hamdo. Whether Shu can possibly accomplish saving those he cares about while still holding up to his values remains to be seen.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Shuuzou Matsutani
Akemi Okamura
Sara Ringwalt
Azusa Nakao
Lala-Ru
Kaori Nazuka
Nabuca
Yuka Imai
Hamdo
Kouji Ishii
Boo
Hiroko Konishi
Sis
Rica Matsumoto
Abelia
Reiko Yasuhara
Soon
Ayaka Saitou
Tabool
Akio Suyama
Elamba
Hisoka Yamamoto
Kazam
Takashi Matsuyama
Oda
Tomoko Ishimura
Isha
Choo

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

REVIEWS

RuneAgeMage
50/100
Fairly good for an Isekai.
If you're looking for a some what dark take on the isekai genre or perhaps a decent fantasy anime, Ima soko ni iru boku won't show you a bad time. It's about 13 episodes long. Short enough to blast through on a dull evening. Despite being so short, the series does a great job of establishing its setting.
The series establishes a basic picture of the sociopolitical state of this strange world. On this desert planet, water is a scarce resources people fight over. The region is ruled by an incompetent despot. Women and girls are taken as sex slaves to bear the future generation of soldiers as waves after waves of young men and boys wade their way onto the battle field. Boys and men continue an endless cycle of warfare, raiding, pillaging, kidnapping and raping. All this in the hopes that the war will somehow come to an end. Perhaps they may return home if they live through this hell.
Shu as the protagonist, is a pacifistic young boy from the isle of Japan. He is accidentally transported to this bizarre setting and as such acts as an alternative perspective to this violent world. He is good natured, whole heartedly believing in the good within humanity and standing against the cruelty he witnesses. This is not a bad idea in theory but I believe he could have been executed better. Shu does not develop at all throughout the series. He constantly remains optimistic and childish to the point of annoyance. Despite being a child, having witnessed many horrific atrocities and having been victimized at the hands of the king's men, he never changes. He does not suffer any long term psychological effects, nor is he ever traumatised. At best we will see a few minutes where he's shook from witnessing death but then he goes on as if nothing happened. It does not help that the message of the story (the message he preaches) is the rather generic empty platitude of "Somehow things will work out. Life is beautiful".
The problem with these kinds of stories is the message is rather hollow and lacks nuance. Pacifism can only really work in a world where everyone is pacifistic. When you have an army bearing down on your village, pacifism is essentially welcoming death with open arms or running away until the military inevitably captures you. Pacisfism only really works out for Shu, as the main character, because of plot armour. He can disobey commands or interfere in military operations or impulsively lunge to save people, with little to no consequences. It likewise comes across as rather hollow when he tells people who have suffered far greater hardships, like Sara, than him to keep living because "life is beautiful". The character, Sis, later in the series, shares the same sentiments as him but is a bit more nuanced in her advice for Sara but when it comes to the series' conflict, she has no offers no alternative to the violent measures of the revolutionaries. In fact, her kindness eventually leads to the death of many many people.
The characters are generally pretty decent. It is pretty interesting seeing the effects the conflict has on the child soldiers. How some of them are conflicted by their actions, eventually giving in to their conscience whilst others come to agree with the army. Unfortunately, most of the soldiers are cartoonishly evil pedophiles (much like the king) and drones simply following orders. The king is by far the worst character in this series. If you've ever read a light novel, you know this character. The 1 dimensional psychotic rapist. It's rather odd that someone so incompetent and unstable has managed to stay in power. Especially, with how poorly he treats his subjects and soldiers. It's honestly amazing there isn't outright rebellion all over the kingdom or that he hasn't been silently assassinated. Rulers have been killed for far lesser crimes.

The story ends how you would expect any children's story to end. The war ends and everyone comes together in peace and harmony. Unfortunately, it wraps up far too neatly. Water is returned, the villagers accept all the soldiers without any punishment or hatred and the boy returns home. I suppose it makes sense given the theme of the story but it has to overwrite the personalities and histories of the characters in order to achieve this. Thus it is a very cheesy ending.
I would say this story would be suited for teenagers. It's dark enough to make them feel mature whilst the message is obvious and simple enough for their somewhat childish minds. If you're looking for a mature story, I would suggest looking else where.
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siddhant26
76/100
It was good, but it missed an opportunity to be better.
I was surfing through Myanimelist, when I found this anime. The poster art of this anime looked , very dynamic and adventurous, thus I was interested to watch it. If I were to summarize my opinion in regards to this anime, It'll be that, It's fairly thought-provoking and enjoyable, but don't expect a lot from this show.

There will be SPOILERS from this point, so if you haven't, watch the show first, then come here.
With that being said, let's get on with the review.

CHARACTERS- The characters in this show range from well written nuanced characters to shallow one-dimensional tropey ones. Shu our primary protagonist, is an overly optimistic naïve shounen protagonist, who during the entire length of the narrative had a sizeable amount of plot armour and a highly unrealistic ability to take mental and physical trauma, spit it out of the damn window and be fearless, which simply doesn't suit the show. Throughout the entire series, shu is shot in multiple places, goes through torture and all kinds of adversities, yet due to his plot armour, he is able to walk and run properly, with no harm and is mentally stable and literally shows zero signs of a breakdown. Now I know his entire purpose is to serve a foil to all the other characters and be righteous and all that, and well he does that role quite well, but for the most part, his character simply isn't believable and disengaging. Kinda feels out of place. The same can be said about Hamdo. Hamdo the despotic dictator, who simply lacks any personality and all he is, is crazy. That's it. He is literally a lost cause and can be easily defeated, yet no one retaliates against him? The question here is why are people following him in the first place? When he has done nothing to have such following? He is just the 'I'm evil because I am' type of antagonist. It literally makes zero sense to me when such a weak, vulnerable and highly abusive dictator is not overthrown, when so many people resent him.. especially Abellia who showed some subtle moments of characterization, but her tolerating the abusive behaviour of Hamdo, when she could literally tear him apart was ridiculous.
Lala-Ru too doesn't really seem to make any sense, cuz she is just a mere plot device. The moment the show ended I was wondering why didn't Lala-Ru destroy the ship earlier on? It could've all ended before it even started. Also, I can't seem to comprehend why Shu likes her so much when all they did was like talk for 20 fricking seconds.

However, in this huge pile of a mess of characters, we have characters like Sara, Boo, Nabuca, who were really well written for a 13 episode show and were constantly conflicted with themselves and had great development with some sense of realism.

PLOT- The plot in itself is pretty gripping. That's a reason why I don't dislike the anime despite it's flaws. The anime does everything for you to be invested in it, and just keep watching the show, to see its conclusion. However, as I said earlier, the show feels contrived at so many points and uses far too many plot devices in the second half of the show. The first half to me, was great, however, after episode 8, everything felt rushed and contrived and a lot of unrealistic things kept happening. It was as though everything was happening to send a morally educate the viewer. Like why is everyone dying except for shu, when shot? Why are characters betraying each other out of nowhere? Why isn't Lala-Ru using her powers to destroy everything? There are just so many questions and seemingly crazy things happening in the second half of the show.

THEMES- Here's why the critics seem to love this show. The show in its first half is really good at creating an atmosphere, and simply building upon its themes. The show has a lot to say on morality, desperation, power, war, duty and a lot more. In its first half, the show is painted as a hopeless dystopian world . However, this show contradicted its own themes in the Zari Bars Arc. In that Arc, pacifism is preached by a character named sis, who doesn't want to attack hellywood. However, that is only one side of the coin. All we ever get is "killing and war is bad".... the show doesn't really portray the dual nature of war, and sticks to its one core principle and then contradicts it in the very end . Because according to the anime pacifism is the way to go, but in the end, this sense of pacifism and kindness preached by sis and Shu, brings nothing but death and hardship to the people in this world and Sis fails to provide an alternative to this. Which is a huge thematic dissonance and doesn't really support the case of pacifism this anime is trying to make. While these episodes do make you think, if you break them down, they aren't really that deep and all they are doing is slapping an overly simplified; black and white - message on the faces of viewers rather portraying a nuanced and realistic picture on the nature of war.

Final VERDICT- The show isn't a complete waste of time, because even if it is very contrived at times, it's nonetheless entertaining (if you are willing to suspend your disbelief), and does provide some for thought as well. So I will say watch it.

Thus my final score is 76/100
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WAIA
90/100
Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku, Greatness
Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku - To Live

SPOILER WARNING

Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku or Now and then, Here and there is an anime from 1999 always seen as one of the acclaimed 90s isekai's who heightened in popularity out of its cult status. A story about a boy who gets transported 10 billion years into the future. Often with isekai we walk into a wall due to the overabundance of it. Predictable, tiresome, and mass-produced copy-paste isekai's fly off the charts season by season and year by year.

Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku might be up there as one of the most visually beautiful anime as well as one of the most immersive. As the masterful sound direction by Tanaka Kazuya (mushishi sound director) pulled me into its barren yet unforgiving world with a technical edge. We also have Taku Iwasaki on the team for music whom you might know for the Muv Luv soundtrack. Rurouni Kenshin trust and betrayel soundtrack, Gurren Lagann soundtrack or the Katanagatari soundtrack I'd say this is probably one of his best soundtracks I'v heard from him. A real sense of instrumental depth and he's able to express the emotions one would connect with dystopia quickly. Some of the bleeps and bloops even are reminding of Klaus Schulze to me on his Cyborg album. This anime was also stacked with incredible storyboarders and a great art director. The compositions and the shadow play in this show are absolutely incredible and are able to represent a great deal of visual clarity and immsersion. Quite the beautifull anim,

What does it want to tell us? What is the thing that Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku wants to tell us? It shows the cursed humanity throughout its other world construct. Through this viewing and this barren world basked in the red sun it wants to show us some of the tremors of the terrible things humans are capable of, not only those it use its circumstances and setting to its advantage to portray this story but it also uses its cast of children to do this. The show's main protagonist Shuuzou is a happy-go-lucky fellow who has his heart out towards the world, from the first scenes of his introduction this becomes very clear. The fond way he talks about the things around him and the area he lives in shows how much love and appreciation he has for the world he lives in. These first scenes with him establish him quite perfectly. These scenes would characterize and be the holding bar for his actions to come throughout the series, his emotionality and his ideals already show themselves quite early. This would craft his reasoning to go after Lalah Ru as well. His golden heart and honest self couldn't let something like this go. He couldn't let the living go. And this was something that held itself strong throughout the series. That individual nature in the dreadful world is the driving force to saving Lalah Ru but also the people he meets in this new world.

That doesn't mean Shuu is clear from critique in his journeys throughout this wasteland. Nabuca would be the first to critique him for his heroism their ideas and feelings often clash due to their different upbringings and circumstances. His meetings and clashings with Shuu do change Nabuca throughout the show very visibly. You can see this through the interactions he has with Tabool and how they shift throughout the runtime of the show itself. A big turning point in Nabuca's life would be where he lets Shuu escape from the base with Lalah ru as well as when Boo gets shot. and also where he shoots the zari bar invaders, but my favourite moment from Nabuca is when they have to invade a small town for new recruits and he realizes how evil his actions are, especially when he remembers he himself to was kidnapped one day and taken away from the village. I love his big character moments. They're great. (Beautiful moments). These big clashes and moments in Nabuca's life would change him. And the climax to his character is probably one of my favorite moments in the whole series. "Go back from where you came from, this is not where you belong.. " is a line that stuck to me and still makes me stare at a wall with a empty feeling in my heart. Perhaps this moment and line is not just a send off from Nabuca but a reflection of his circumstances and a full realization of the world around him. He realizes the world and sees how somebody as individualistic and different as shuu should not stay here. Nabuca understands the world, himself, Shuu, before he finally passes off in a dream that could last 10 billion years. The lingering shine in his eyes disappears.

Perhaps when talking about bitter yet hopeful a character like Sara comes to mind. Sara is quite a tragic character. From the things we get shows about her we come to understand that Sara is a mistreated human girl who is used for the creation of even more children. She is probably one of many mistreated woman on the military base who gets used for such things due to the ending world. Her emotional state is expressed exceptionally well. Not by dialogue dropping and monologging all of the emotions she has onto the viewer but rather through strikingly well portrayed body language and facial expressions. A scene of hers I really enjoy is the base escape. Where she kills the officer trying to have intercourse with her escapes the base. (escape wasn't hard due to the low amount of soldiers this makes sense.) and then when she finally gets outside she pulls off the army clothes cuts her long hair off and cries and runs. This scene was also one of my favourites.I'v always had a thing with the hair cutting symbolism and how it here symbolizes leaving her old past behind and bringing an end to that Sara. As the old part of herself dies off she may freely live as a newborn. The haircutting action has a lot of weight and even more so in the moment she finds out she is pregnant from one of the men who used her. and breaks out in tears and it makes her want to murder the child. This makes sense given that this is still a part of her old life. A life she had tried to cut away from and tried to disconnect from. Rather then just killing the child now "soiled" by its existance she would rather kill herself this action is intercepted by shuu who's words stop her from comitting the action. The dialogue she has with Sis is also incredible.

"I ask you not to hold it against the baby. No child comes into this world wanting to be rejected by its mother."

I thought the escalations of the Zari-Bars was also very well handled. The way the pressure built up in the citizens and were out to use somebody to lash their anger at would be Sis. The leader of this group who would take up the torch to fight against hamdo would do anything to get his will and way and in the same time mirror hamdo. He got more violent and obsessed for his goals and could not see what he was reaping. Through this foolish behavior, everything escalates to the point where Lalah ru has to give herself in and is taken away. "Because of one outsider, the whole village is in danger" the group mistrust tumbles this village all the way down.

Lalah Ruh is a very tragic character. Lalah has the powers to control water flow as well as holds a necklace with a huge source of water. Due to the nature this she is often seen as a product for the means of others rather then a human being. I thought this was incredibly saddening yet o so reflective of the state of humans in that world. Rather then care about the girl itself they can only care about the thing they can get out of her. Its very materialistic. Lalah ru due to the way she is treated loses all hope in humanity for a big duration of her life. I assume she sees no hope for humanity to go on. I feel though that her interactions with shuu and sis are slowly but surely restoring her faith in this. Her end and the end of the show are very bittersweet. While Lalah Ru regains hope for humanity and a sense of kinship for shuu she will never be able to finalize or see to the end. As the last of her water is now gone which we learn is also interconnected to her life force. As she returns the water to the earth she never sees the world through realization which is incredibly depressing. Perhaps that is why the line "Can we watch another sunset together someday" hits very hard as such a day will never come again. and sadly enough her efforts won't be resourceful at the end of it all given the state of the sun. A bittersweet end to the series. Sarah accepts her child into her life, Abelia is freed from the shackles of warcrime, Hamdo's death was probably all that was left for him and Shuu returns home.

As shuu returns the red unbloated sun looks back at him. and the 3 broken pillars are a bitter sight.

With its expressive character designs, beautiful background art, and stunning OST and sound design and immersive storyboarding Now and then here and there is able to pull an incredibly short, compact and hard-hitting journey with very tight writing about the lives in this dystopian world and its commentary about humanity as well as war. I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts.
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