On the surface Black Heaven is a story about a middle aged guy who uses his talent for rock music and youthful soul to power up a secret weapon aliens use to protect the outer space. Deeper it’s a tale about dreams and passion, about the things we lose when we enter adulthood. While target demography of this show might be somewhat older than you’d expect from an anime, it’s a great show no matter what age group you belong to. Sure, it’s rough around the edges and you need not to be a genius to point out it’s flaws; nonetheless, the pure passion Black Heaven exhibits is worthy to be experienced whether you like rock music or not.

To live in a dream, to shine in the dream… that is the dream of all dreams. Defeated by the dream I chose to bury myself in mundane reality. Believing that there is a small happiness hidden somewhere inside… Fellows, you shall not ask my name. I have since lost a name to call myself… I am just a transparent existence.

Having its original concept created by Hayashi Hiroki (El Hazard) and directed by Kikuchi Yasuhito (Macross Frontier, Saint Seiya) Legend of Black Heaven is a brilliant anime about passion and dreams. It shows that old age is no excuse to abandon your soul. On surface it follows the life of Kachou Ouji, once a rock star, now a middle-aged salary man, and his sad attempts to protect his dreamy soul from the mundane, boring society. It seems all is lost when his wife throws away his old guitar and the boss adds even more mundane routine to his work schedule. However, once Ouji finally decides to cast everything his soul yearns for away, he meets a mysterious, sexy woman who suddenly tells him that his rock music is necessary to save the space… While it’s hard to determine the target audience of this show, I believe people in their late thirties would not only appreciate Black Heaven the most, but also might get inspired by it. Quite a rare feat in anime world indeed.

While the plot of this show might not make 100% sense all the time and it certainly has many parts which lack polish, it still has enough originality and sheer passion to make it stand above many other anime I have watched. What makes Black Heaven even better is its brilliant characters, while from the first glance the protagonist seems to be anything but cool, you soon, not only notice a great depth in his personality, but lean to respect him. Since he is already in his late thirties, rather than developing new personality traits, he simply remembers what it means to be young, to have dreams and passion. Must say that out of many anime I have seen Black Heaven has one of the best main leads for a short medium (13 episodes) show.

Animation: 3

Despite having been made in the previous century the animation by AIC (Ah! My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo!) is beautiful. While it lacks all the special effects and computer graphics from recent shows, it actually beats most of them with nice, hand-drawn backgrounds and attractive character designs. Everything is quite well detailed and you really have to try hard to notice anything to ruin your visual feast. Motion fluidity might be the only part you could gnaw at if you wanted, but why would you when there is barely any action in the show?

Sound: 3

This show possesses one of the best opening songs I have ever had pleasure to hear. I could listen to Cautionary Warning by John Sykes all day and never get tired of it. Not to mention the cool blurry, rocky drawings which accompany it. If I had to point a finger I would say it’s quite similar to what the popular Finnish group Lordi produces. Though if you are not into rock music you might not appreciate it. Ending song has more of a comedic appeal and I didn’t really find it that funny. Wish they had an ending song similar to the opening one, really.

Though at first I was skeptical and disappointed by the fact that this show possesses but one rock music piece for its big moments despite being an anime about music, I soon noticed the charm in the different versions of that single piece. The best thing about it is that you can actually feel power emanating from it, the better it is played, the more overwhelming it appears, in turn making “Ultimate Weapon” shoot stronger. You can easily evaluate the strength of attack from the sound itself. Oh yeah, and there is a new, original and awesome piece played in the very end of the show, so you can keep your expectations up. Background music by Korenaga Koichi (Love Hina) is good, but not really that special.

Voice-acting is yet another good part of this show, if not for quality, then for novelty. Ishii Kouji (Fullmetal Alchemist as Bald, Now and Then, Here and There as Hamd) who usually gets to voice a “middle-aged” villain/side character, voices main character Ouji in this show and does it very well. Layla’s seiyuu Yamada Miho is also pretty good despite having no other roles from main cast under her record. It is likely you wont find your favorite voices in this anime, but it will definitely feel fresh.

Story: 3

Though there is a war going on in the outer space and the music of our main character helps his alien friends defeat their enemies you never really learn, nor you are supposed to care about that war itself. Why are they fighting? Who are the enemies? Who are these humanoids aliens our main character is helping? None of these questions are answered, but neither of them are actually relevant to the plot. Black Heaven is an anime about one man’s love for music and that war, ultimate weapons and those aliens only serve as a metaphorical way to express his passion.

It’s short, it’s moderately paced, it offers a satisfying conclusion. A show certainly worth watching. While Black Heaven doesn’t possess the qualities of a masterpiece, a tale about reviving dreams of the elapsed youth is damn fun to watch and is plenty memorable.

Characters: 4

Brilliant main character and good supporting cast. While three alien girls who are in the show for comedic relief (some jokes are pretty good actually) can get annoying, serious characters, like Layla, or the wive of protagonist add much of the needed character development. Protagonist’s old band-mates, while not characterized in detail, work perfectly in team to express the mood of the Black Heaven’s band. And, of course, the protagonist is a really likable guy who is easy to relate to.

Conclusion: If you want to see something original, like rock or are interested in all that dreams, passion, friendship and so on stuff - by no means give this show a shot. It’s really good. This show is actually so different from other anime I have seen I have trouble naming anything similar to it, I might add something here in time, but so far, there is nothing like it in my list.