After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This story centers around Melos, a young, strong yet good natured man from Messina who arrives to Syracuse to buy a ceremonial sword for his sister's wedding, he is tricked into buying a real sword inside of a blacksmith's shop, and from then on he meets an extremely talented sculptor known as Selianae who helped him recover his belongings from a group of thief children, Selianae invites Melos into his home where he keeps many unfinished sculptures, Melos is taken by the beautiful works in progress but Selianae considers them as rubbish, he had lost his drive to sculpt three years ago after his father's death, and spent his days drinking from then on. Wanting to see more of Selianae's works, Melos later on sneaks into the royal palace where they have some of the sculptor's master pieces, but he's caught with the sword he had bought by a couple of guards, Melos is then taken before the king Dionysius II, whom assumes that Melos had trespassed to take the king's life, so he sentences Melos to death by means of crucifixion, Melos then begs to the king to be given the chance to return to his sister to deliver the sword he had bought to attend her wedding, and Dionysius II agreed to give him three days with the condition to execute someone else in his place if he does not return, it is then when Selianae steps in, and entrusts his life to Melos so that he may fulfill the promise to go to his sister, and then return to his death sentence in less than three days.I will not spoil the rest of the movie so that you may watch it on your own and find out how the story ends. I cannot begin to understand how this movie is pretty much unknown outside of Japan, the key elements in this movie are friendship and trust, would you ever consider to lay down your very own life to stay true to a promise made to someone that trusts his life to you? would you turn back when faced with adversity to fulfill said promise? I consider Hashire Melos! to be a true master piece based on the Greek mythology of Damon and Pythias, and adapted into this animated movie by Mazaaki Osumi, the artwork and animation are truly superb, the music is great, and the theme song used for the credits couldn't fit any better into the storyline. My only gripe with this movie, and this is from a personal, moral standpoint, is that in a few scenes there's a bit of animal abuse, in one scene a lamb's throat is slit in a market place, a group of men force two roosters to fight each other for the sake of gambling, and Dionysius II casts a live insect into a flame merely for self-amusement.All in all, this is a movie that even non anime enthusiasts may be able to enjoy, the ending brought tears of joy to my eyes as it had such a beautiful display of trust, loyalty and friendship, and I truly wish that more people knew about this movie as it deserves it... maybe one of these days.