I once watched the anime series Terra e . . ., but didn't even bother writing about it. It's either trash, kitsch, or maybe just plain garbage. Yet it has a high rating on anidb.net; you should only trust lemmings every other time.
I'd rather talk about Guardian Of Sacred Spirit, which I just finished watching.
It's awesome.
First of all, for once the main heroine is not some ideal of refined beauty, and deviates from it, if only slightly, for the worse.
Here she is, her name is Balsa.
Sure, fanservice dictates she has to be cute, but in some frames the artist stubbornly stuck to their guns and showed her as not quite so perfect, to reinforce her image as a stubborn and somewhat hardened warrior.
Secondly, the anime is serious in the sense that the characters don't act like teenagers tripping on mushrooms. On the contrary, the main heroine (and she's a virtuoso spear-wielding bodyguard) is responsible and smart. Some variety, for a change. Moreover, the entire plot is strictly justified and precise, there is what you call narrative logic and a progression of events. Overall, it's all similar to Twelve Kingdoms, but the mythology there was more complex, though it also had more clichés and leaps of logic. Here everything is chill, and emotions are shown not by characters screaming "I'm fucked, it's Hitler", but indirectly, through their actions and thoughts. And I've liked this much better for a long time now than the usual anime tradition of trashing the plot and logic for the sake of the protagonists' navel-gazing.
Thirdly, it's pretty clear that they used 3D extensively, but it doesn't seem to have done any harm. In places, quite the opposite — the visuals look a bit like bullet time in games (aka max payne) and create a feeling that in English is called creepy. The spear fights are also badass — there are no stupid superheroes who ruin the feeling of power with the over-the-top and cardboard nature of their battles. Everything is gritty here — you take a hit, you roll around on the damp earth and bleed out.
Interestingly, both anime are based on fantasy: hence the normal plot and logic. Most anime is based on manga (comics), which is why it's usually kind of dumb and fragmented, because people read manga in bits and pieces — on the subway or at work. And that's how the deep essence of things is determined purely by utilitarian technical limitations, as is so often the case.
Here is another picture for you, and I'm off to bed.
