What a twist!
The final few gaps in the plot have been filled in. So, where do we begin? The night future Rinne sent Setsuna back to the past things didn’t go as planed. In fact, she didn’t send him anywhere. There was never a time machine to begin with. The machine future Rinne was building could only freeze one’s time. Believing she had failed, Rinne also froze herself in time. Unfortunately, she woke up earlier than Setsuna, and had lost her memories. Now, here’s the catch. She woke up on the island of Urashima as we know it, but as we also know time travel isn’t possible. How could this be? Well, turns out the world this story is taking place in is stuck in a loop. Civilization is continuously rising and falling, though things are nearly the same each time. This continuous loop has allowed Setsuna to repeat history until he could save his daughter. After an untold number of tries he has done the impossible. He has found the loop where he can live out a happy life with his wife and daughter.
Rinne has been successfully saved, yay! Setsuna also got a near perfect happy ending. However, there’s still one big problem the anime doesn’t cover. How do they plan to save the world? I can’t imagine this loop is being done naturally. One can only assume this loop is doomed to continue until the sun burns out. Other than that, Island was quite the ride. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy a single episode. Learning what was to come each week always kept me coming back for more. Moreover, the art work for Island was surprisingly solid from start to finish. Feel never failed to capture the allure of Rinne and the girls. Additionally, when we had the 2 episodes of the post apocalyptic future everything almost felt new again. The scenery during that part was spot on. One can’t go wrong watching Island for its beauty.
Before we get down to the media, one should know that Island was mainly made to attract people to the visual novel. The whole Island series began as a big announcement a few years ago. I remember being immediately interested after seeing the first visuals for Rinne. Going into the actual anime, I knew nothing of its story. The beautiful leading heroine took me in, and what I got was something quite unexpected. Island may be confusing at times, but it tells a complete story. A story of a father attempting to save his daughter no matter how many times it took. If you really think about it, Island tells quite the dark tale. An untold amount of deaths had to occur before we reached this happy loop. Regardless, since Island is a complete journey it holds a special place among anime. When it comes down to it, I can give this one a solid 8/10. The story can be shaky at times, though Setsuna found a way in the end. Anyhow, ready for the ceremony? Enjoy the wedding!
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I somehow agree with your ratings for an 8/10. The story development was great, but too bad they wasn’t able to save the future with the time machine but only time will tell about that. Even with an explanation at the end, there are still many unexplained loopholes in the story. XD I still prefer the story of Steins Gate when it comes to the story of time travelling. Drifters would be an interesting story too.
The whole time travel bit of Island is done different from the norm. Now, that doesn’t make it bad, but the anime struggled to explain it well. I suspect that the VN explains it more thoroughly, though. Either way, Setsuna got his main objective completed, and there’s more out there for the viewers if they seek out the source material.