This Ugly Yet Beautiful World ~Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai~ (2004) is a Japanese science fiction anime. It contains 12 episodes.
Takeru and Roy are typical high school students who work part-time as delivery boys for their uncle. One night, the two investigate a mysterious light in the woods only to find a young girl emerging from the tree of light. until he saves Hikari, an alien girl with no memory of her past. Takeru and Ryou are attacked by an alien, which is defeated when Takeru transforms into a powerful beast himself. The girl, whom the boys name "Hikari" (light), is taken in by Takeru when she confesses to having no memory of who she is. Meanwhile, Ryou discovers another mysterious girl int he woods, whom he names as "Akari". After they vow to take care of the girls, their lives turned upside down when monsters and catastrophes invade their town.
I remembered watching this anime during my sophomore year in college (2004). It reminded me of another classic anime, Blue Seed. After re-discovering it on Amazon.com, I decided to re-watch it again for memory sake. Back then, I had to download anime via BitTorrent. It's amazing how much technology has changed. Everything is now available to watch streaming online. No need to download your favorite episodes (unless it's very rare). I am not sure what captivated me to watch this show. It was both intriguing yet sad knowing that the girls had to leave earth. It ended so quickly that it didn't provide audience enough time to process what was happening. The only memorable aspect of this show are the opening and ending songs. This is a good show to watch on a rainy day, but is easy to forget since the girls' (Hikari and ) character development was weak. It's hard to take seriously the apocalyptic plot device (aliens from space whose main purpose is to destroy earth). Overall, the symbolism behind the show reveals that while earth is imperfect, it has qualities that makes it human and thus "beautiful."
Opening Song:Metamorphose - Yoko Takahashi
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