Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

Darwin Jihen was simultaneously the most interesting anime to follow from its season but also one of the silliest for me, which is why I was somewhat engaged with it at the beginning, but lost interest and got bored by it as it went on.

The premise is definitely weird but for the same reason interesting, as it could potentially elevate to topics regarding science, ethics and philosophy. Instead, it chooses to focus on sociopolitical aspects and perspectives, mainly vegans versus, well, non-vegans, but also people advocating for animal rights. It could perfectly work with those themes as well, and on paper the discussions provide some food for thought and are interesting to follow.

On execution, however, the theme exploration falls flat on its face because of how extreme and over the top it is. The anime pretends to be multi-layered and neutral by presenting different perspectives, and to its credit it does have some neutral people, vegans or not, but it mostly relies on crazy characters and monologues to present its points. The bullies at school playing the victim and blaming Charlie in front of everyone, that one kid that became a murderer, the antagonists who are either cold as robots or complete madmen, especially the main villain who seems more insane the more he talks. Besides Charlie’s foster parents who are normal vegans, and the congresswoman who wants to use him for the sake of animal rights, everyone else makes it hard to take the themes seriously with how crazy they talk, sound, and look.

Theme exploration aside, the writing can also be very questionable, mainly due to the either crazy or illogical reactions of the characters, or lack thereof, to everything that happens, and by that I don’t mean just the crazy facial expressions and yelling that I already mentioned. Charlie is a sentient non-human living organism, it’s crazy to think that there wouldn’t be laws regarding his existence, that he wouldn’t have any lawyers, that he wouldn’t have the mass media all over him, that his house would be left alone by the police after the attacks it suffered, that his parents would be so dumb to keep living in there. More instances can be seen in the backstory, such as kids being left completely alone and unattended by a pool, where a tragedy could happen, and in fact, it almost did.

Part of the premise is hard to accept in general because what do you mean terrorists for veganism and animal rights? Did something remotely similar ever happen and I’m just clueless about it? It feels like a bad attempt at criticizing progressive ideas and activism. And also, at some point the villain is searched internationally, how can he go around so freely and where does he get his resources from?

Without spoiling, the final twist was somewhat anticipated if one considers a certain information from the early episodes, but kind of makes no sense when you think about it. Why did the villain organization search so crazily for Charlie then? And the character himself seems so petty.

Want to talk about characterization? Everybody that is an antagonist or against Charlie is or seems to be out of their minds, and most people from the side of Charlie are passive to everything. The protagonist himself, although he is more proactive, sees everything from a logical standpoint to the point he seems to be unaffected by anything, and even when is affected by something, he remains almost expressionless in both his face and voice. He does show emotion sometimes but it’s mostly thanks to the directing and sound design than the character himself. In action scenes he is always at advantage, since he combines intellect and strength of both human and chimpanzees, and he even powers up near the end of the season.

Since there wouldn’t be a point in using Charlie for explanations and discussing perspectives, the series smartly introduces Lucy, a seemingly normal girl that enters his and his parents' lives, and is occasionally attacked by the villains. She is there to help, question everything, be in need of rescue so Charlie has an excuse to go into action and look badass, and eventually become the love interest. Oh yes, the anime starts to become that kind of story, and you may already know how I feel about interspecies relationships. The issue with this girl is, why the hell would the rest tell her everything, in the case of the support cast, or leave her be, in the case of the antagonists? To have someone in series to excuse the exposition, that’s why.

The only character that somewhat changes is a police officer that’s initially an antagonist and later becomes an ally, but even then he only changes perspectives, no personality.

Visually the anime is fine to good. The artwork and backgrounds are mostly solid, though sometimes they look plain. The lighting and shading are well done and the anime knows how to display scenes in darker sceneries and times of the day. The problem is that sometimes it uses questionable CGI for smokes and vehicles. The character designs are kind of unique, they combine a semi realistic look and kind of crazy expressions, with vibes that make them seem like they came out of Banana Fish. And also, well, in what other series will you see a human/chimpanzee hybrid? The actual animation is a bit whatever a lot of the time but fine in the action scenes, although those don’t really last long, as the protagonist is clearly stronger than everyone else. Also, shot out to Ilutv for appearing in here.

As for the audio, the sound effects are good, the voice acting is ok, even though the villains sound crazy and Charlie sounds monotonous, and the music is fine, it has that needed thrilling vibe, but it can get a bit repetitive and used in a bit of unfitting ways for the scenes that are playing. The opening and ending are strangely upbeat in a way that doesn't fit the anime. The former is a funky jpop song, and the latter is a slow, soft spoken almost to the point of being whispered pop song with some parts of rap in I don’t know what language in it. Although the anime has some, in my opinion, bad light moments, it’s mostly thriller or sociopolitical drama, what are these songs doing in it? Their lyrics are also romantic and that creeps me out, should have seen the romantic element coming I guess.

Like I said in the beginning, the anime is interesting in themes and ideas, but the execution and presentation of them leave a lot to be desired, and the characterization doesn’t help the series either. One to check out for its weird premise and ambitious topics or to see what madness is going to happen next, but not much else. There’s nothing quite like it, that’s for sure, but even then I would pick up other series about terrorism, and perhaps Parasyte for part of its themes instead.

Note: There are some minor spoilers in here

This anime fails in a kind of peculiar way. It’s less that it does things badly, and more like it doesn’t do what it sets itself up to do. In a way, it’s like K-on! promising to be about music, yet playing out like a cute girls doing cute things show where they mostly just casually have fun and eat cookies and drink tea. This series starts with the premise of a young witch trying to prevent her incoming death in a year, yet most of the show is not about that.

On an emotional and thematic level, this premise is used for the protagonist to go out and help people so she can gather those tears of joy she seeks to create that seed of life she needs to prevent her death. So she does good deeds for those around her and seemingly takes a proactive role in both not giving up and fighting for prolonging her life with a positive attitude, and learning the importance of emotions and value them for that they mean for the people that feels them, and not see them as a commodity and just a mean to live longer. This way she comes to realize how important every person is and how much she loves her town and its inhabitants. So if you just stick to those messages and feelings and the wholesome episodic stories, you might be pleased, have a good time, and consider this a good show.

However, if you look at it from a critical standpoint, the series is really messy, starting off with the premise being mostly abandoned throughout the show. There are several things happening in the setting, most of which with the protagonist taking some part in them, that go beyond what she needs to do. That makes the world feel expanded and not just centered around her on one hand, but also diminishes her goal, makes it seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and since both the anime and main character focus more on those other plot points, the supposed main one gets completely sidelined. The main girl collects two to four tears in the early episodes, gets around forty somewhere in the middle, and by the end of the season she has collected a lot of them off screen.

It’s not that it’s not understandable that some content would be skipped, there was no way that we would see the one thousand tears being collected, in the same way that not every fragment of the Shikon no Tama was collected on screen in InuYasha, that would probably require a huge amount of episodes that’s no longer the norm in the medium, and would likely get repetitive and boring fast. But over there that was still the main plot, while here it gets almost completely abandoned.

We see the protagonist stuck in the same city with the same people, and promising things to them for the future, thus adding an extra motivation to keep on living, yet mostly not collecting the tears, then when she occasionally goes to other places in the setting, she takes part of events that are completely unrelated to her goal. The finale sets her up for a mission around the world, thus promising to expand the setting even more in a possible sequel, yet that also means more stuff for her to do other than collecting those tears.

This is as easily fixable as simply not setting up a premise that you will otherwise not focus on, why not just simply have the protagonist help people and go on missions as part of her training as a witch? Ok that way there wouldn’t be a sense of urgency, but it’s not like there’s any real sense of urgency to begin with. The main character doesn’t take her goal very seriously, doesn’t seem that preoccupied for most of the episodes, and the tone in general is initially very light, with the characters joking a lot, and the protagonist quickly responding the most absurd and often perverted things, hitting on about a third of the female roster of the show. To make a comparison, Mahoutsukai no Yome also focus a lot on the stories of the side characters, thus exploring the setting and its magical creatures more, but that always is tied with the training of its main character, which is supposed to be the plot, while over here that’s not the case.

Ok so we established that the main plot is not the focus of the show, does the series make it up with quality side stories then? Well, if you just accept what happens and get emotional with them, then you’d be pleased. If on the other hand you think about how quickly the episodic stories and characters come on go and how sometimes we know nothing about them besides their specific drama for that one episode, and thus we end up not caring about them much, then it’s hard to call them quality material.

The writing and characterization in general is very questionable. For example, there’s this kuudere witch with a tragic past that hates magic, yet dominates spectacle magic that makes people happy, and goes from a complete stranger to one of the best friends of the protagonist and feeling sad for her incoming death, while also coming to appreciate magic for her newfound bound, in a single episode. Then the next episode the two girls encourage an interspecies relationship, something that I will always be against.

Then we get another one where the protagonist has collected a lot more tears out of screen after apparently finding out which targets and situations are more likely to produce more tears, and she is forbidden to use magic to learn the importance of each of them and basically not use people for her benefit I guess. I get the message and the supposed growth of the protagonist but she always seemed to care about each person she helps, so this change seems weird, and also understandable. She has to collect a thousand of those in a year or she will die, she’s gonna do whatever she can, and it’s not like she’s scamming people, she’s still helping them and doing good things, so I don’t really get the issue here.

Around the middle of the show is when the premise is practically abandoned to explore more of the setting, so there are episodes where the protagonist goes to some other places to meet another one of the Seven Sages, basically the seven greatest witches or mages in this world, all of which the main character is either their student, future assistant, friend or whatever, very fighting shounen like in a way.

Then the show gets more serious near its end, but the writing is still questionable. There’s an episode about a family cursed by a demon, so the protagonist wants to help even when her mistress/mother figure said not to get involved with, which of course the main character disobeys and ends up being saved by the same teacher at the last moment, who gets hurt in the way, very fighting shounen like in a way.

Then in the next episode, the protagonist is conveniently accompanied by one of the Seven Sages as a tree goes wild due to accumulated magic. Somehow that spawns a spirit that only the main character sees, but it is hinted that is not a spirit, thus its identity is never resolved, and conveniently the main girl gets a huge sudden power up that elevates her power a lot from how little capable she was in the beginning, and resolves everything with an emotional spell that somehow never occurred to anyone before.

Then the next two episodes they explore that concept to help some girl, and I’ve gotta say that it’s quite corny and follows fighting shounen logic, on top of being unbelievable that no one ever tried what the protagonist does, that emotions empower spells. But oh well magic is no science and it’s not the first time it happened in magic centered settings and fiction. They combine formulas with sudden emotional magic outbursts and solve the problem.

Good thing that there are plenty of top mages around because then a huge wave comes threatening to wipe away the whole town, only thing they do nothing and it’s the protagonist with her emotion spell that saves the day.

And in the last episode the shows resolve the little mystery bait it builds around a gloomy looking witch and her connection with the protagonist, where they give them a Uchiha like backdrop and conflicted relationship in a hurry. Very interesting lore wise but the dynamic kind of makes no sense and the revelation is done in a hurry to move on to the finale of the season and the setup for what’s to come.

It’s not like everything in the writing is bad though. Despite seemingly being an episodic anime, many early presented plot points and stories are not forgotten. The emotion spell is based on something that happens in the first episode, the tree that goes crazy was already anticipated in the second, the final witch appears throughout the whole series, the climate problem from the third episode gets mentioned again in the middle of the series, and some more. And plenty of side characters reappear throughout the series as well, they don’t do anything but at least are not one off episodic people.

Also, to help the kid from the tenth episode, they use the emotions of the sage with the strongest connection to her, and not the ones from the protagonist, which wouldn’t make sense. Then the spell of the next episode only worked because of residual magic left in the town by a very powerful witch. The war lore from the final episode is very interesting in itself, expands the setting and adds a sort of sociopolitical aspect to the anime, too bad that it’s told in a hurry, like many things happen in the series.

The protagonist gets a backdrop, an excuse for her unique ability and design of those eyes of hers, and learns a few things along the way. I can’t really say she changes much though, and every other character progression besides hers feels rushed and unconvincing. Besides that, most characters remain one note, there’s not much to write about them.

The presentation is rather weak. There are instances of good artwork and pretty backgrounds, but most of the time the visuals are basic, simple, and sort of outdated. The few action scenes are short and not that well animated, the special effects look a decade old, no design besides the protagonist’s is very interesting, but at least there’s some variety here and there, the backgrounds are mostly plain looking. The voice acting and the sound effects are fine, the music is typical orchestral strings, not memorable but does its job. The opening is a cute upbeat jpop song sung by Maaya Sakamoto and the ending is a ballad so somber it makes me think it was done based on the premise alone and not the actual mood of the series, but it’s the best thing in the anime for me.

In conclusion, if you don’t mind series not using their premises and don’t care much about convenient writing, this is a rather passable episodic show with some pretended emotional moments and sweet messages, with some interesting expansions of the setting, lore and some character growth scattered here and there. Writing, plot progression, characterization and presentation are otherwise very weak, which combined with the rather short and not very interesting side stories, make me drop its potential passable score a little.

This is a slice of life series that seemingly combines a somewhat atypical premise with a theme or topic that I’m fond of, so it became instantly interesting for me to check out. The second one is childcare, as in, an adult character seeing their life changing because they start to take care of a child, in the likes of Aishiteruze Baby, Usagi Drop, Kotaro Lives Alone or something like that, or so I assumed, but since the kid in this series is a teenager and not a child, that dynamic is different than the one from those shows.

And although some aspects of the everyday life of Makio, the adult of the story, do change, you don’t feel like living with another person really changed her life all that much, which to be fair it was also the case in all the aforementioned series. I mean she and some other characters do mention how much of a responsibility and change for her it means to take her niece in, but the viewer never really feels it all that much.

The other aspect is grief, which I don’t remember being explored in anime all that much. There are shows about the afterlife, but most focus on, well, people living a second life after dying, rather than how the left behind are affected. There are also series where the topic is part of the themes but maybe for one or few episodes, and not the core element in it. Off the top of my head I can name Bimbou Shimai Monogatari and perhaps Tsuma Shougakusei ni Naru, which I haven't watched yet, as examples that feature the element to some extent, but not many more titles.

Regarding this, I have to recognize that the beginning of the anime is a bit weird, given the personality and lifestyle of Makio, as well as her previous relationship with her sister, you ask yourself why would she take her niece in. And Asa also seems very indifferent after losing her parents and being left alone, although that is dealt with eventually and gradually within the show.

Indeed, a good portion of the initial episodes is about Asa coming to terms with her loss, introspecting about her feelings regarding the tragedy, her previous life with her family, and finding the right words to express herself about both what happened and just her feelings in general.

And I said initial episodes because, although the theme is present, it’s not like it is explored that deeply or seriously, as the tone is for the most part that of a common slice of life, with some comedy mixed in. Eventually, the topic mutates into something else, as Asa questions her relationship with her family and even if they loved her at all, which transforms into her wanting to start to live her life her own way, find out what she wants for herself, despite what others might think about it.

One could even say that that ends up becoming the main theme of the show, as we also follow the other characters introspecting about their relationships and paths in life and how they got there, and how happy or not they are with that. We see Makio fighting with her sister, the latter being explored more than what was shown on her really bad initial impression and how she felt about not being able to achieve what she wanted in life, Makio’s ex thinking about his mental health and clashing with his father, he and the lawyer defying social machismo, Asa’s friend, Emily, accepting being a lesbian, and more stuff.

Which means that, with this theme, we get more character fleshing as we explore the feelings and backdrops of the characters, but I also have to point out how the plot develops more typically than it seemed at first, and the initial topic seems to have been lost somewhere down the line. The series stopped being about grief and became a coming of age and self discovery show, which is fine but far more typical, common and well not as interesting in my opinion.

As for characterization, even if the characters are fleshed out, there’s no strong development for anybody, which makes sense because most of the cast is adult and have normal lives, so it’s not like they are going to have a mind-blowing revelation or change that might impact them in any particular way. Asa is the one that gets most of the focus in that regard, and although you can see her slowly wanting things on her own and finding how to express herself; I wouldn’t say she changes much from beginning to end.

As for the conclusion, it clearly skipped some content and used a big time skip, while at the same time featured an in-story narration to deliver a meta message to the audience. A bit weird and doesn’t feel entirely complete, but it’s fine, and hey, it’s a slice of life series that actually ends, how about that?

Audiovisually the anime is very polished, the artwork was done with a lot of care, the character designs are simple but do stand out by not having typical looks, although they do have some classic noitamina feel to them. The backgrounds are pretty, the motions are ok though nothing special, and even though there are not that many special effects to speak of, the directing changing locations and times during conversations to convey different feelings and characters introspecting can make entire conversational scenes far more dynamic. There are also some visual metaphors at times to reflect what the characters are saying or thinking, like Asa’s desert, Makio’s wandering through passages of her novels, or Asa looking at a void, representing her heart and connection with her mother through a journal in her mind.

The music and sound effects are relaxed and fitting, the opening and ending are calmed jpop songs and kind of beautiful. The voice acting is mostly mature and normal, in a non-typically anime kind of way, so it was a nice touch, and it’s particularly impressive from Asa’s seiyuu in her debut role, being able to convey her different feelings, moods and singing parts just fine. Also there were some appreciated quiet moments. All in all the audio complements very well with the visuals in making what would normally be a typical slice of life story, into something that at times can have quite the atmosphere.

In all, if you’re looking for a slice of life story, Ikoku Nikki might provide a good, relaxed but also a bit of an emotional time. It has an interesting premise, although it changes into something more typical, a decent, kind of looked into cast, good visuals and directing, and although it’s mostly relaxed, it can also feature its fair share of emotional yet not exaggerated nor manipulative moments about forging your way in your life and coming to terms with losing someone in it. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing nor that rewatchable or anything, but I found it to be a well made slice of life show, and the only title I liked from its season.

Note: this contains some light spoilers

Based on the premise, this should be a slice of life workplace show about people making anime, as both a love letter to the medium and simultaneously giving insight about it, when in reality it is an isekai.

Ok that’s more the fault of the synopsis that you can find everywhere than the show itself, but yeah, an animator seemingly dies while working and gets transported to her favourite movie since childhood and main inspiration for pursuing her career. Over there she fights the monsters that serve as antagonists in the film alongside the heroes in a monster of the week structure, with her own transformation or in this case power up sequence, filled with a different anime reference each time.

So visually it’s a treat to see the different references to the likes of Nausicaa, Macross, Gundam, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Sailor Moon and more, and even more because they look like linearts/sketches, and yet they mix well with the rest of the visuals. Those look good as well, with polished artwork, backgrounds and special effects, even if the setting is a generic fantasy world. At least you can spot differences between the movie version and this in-story version, both in artwork and for some characters in their designs. The actual animation has its static moments but it’s otherwise also very polished most of the time. The 90s like power up sequence could have been shortened or omitted in some episodes though. I can’t really say that the character designs were very special either, as they are generic fantasy designs. I guess the protagonist looks a bit different than usual with her long hair and hoodie, but even she is very pretty behind her usual looks, so even she doesn’t stand out much. But overall, the visuals are very good.

As for the audio, the voice acting fits even though it’s nothing special and the sound effects are good. Can’t say I appreciated the music, which I found fitting but forgettable and repetitive in its use, and the opening and ending were just generic modern jrock of which I wasn’t fond of, but at least they fit the anime and their visuals were fine.

The plot follows a semi episodic structure and if you just want some action and anime references, you’ll be pleased. The tone is otherwise messy, as it is supposed to be the end of the world with only one city left out of the nine kingdoms that are part of the setting of the movie, and the enemies can attack at any moment, yet the mood is very light and comical for the most part.

Thus your judgement of the initial episodes will depend on whether you find them funny or annoying. For me it was the latter, since besides the jokes about the plot being an isekai despite the protagonist not being a hikikomori, the rest seemed stupid to me. Especially that one episode where they found out about a traitor yet let them go, and changed their mind after suffering for what seemed like centuries…with a male idol. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? I’m sure some people found it amusing but I personally think it’s one of the most stupid and worst written episodes I have seen in a while.

And it’s not like the others are much better, since despite not playing out like a generic RPG-like isekai, the show still feels like a self insert power fantasy, with the protagonist having an awesome power conveniently related to what she does in the real world, that can defeat all monsters and thus change the plot of the movie, and later on make the male main character from her favourite movie fall in love with her. Heck, she was making people fall in love with her since she was a kid.

At some point in the middle to the end of the series the tone becomes darker as the enemies become stronger by mimicking the protagonist’s creations, and with the heroes being defeated, which leads the main character to learn about teamwork, while also pointing out that the original plot of the movie can’t be changed.

Basically, despite the protagonist seemingly changing the original plot for the better and happier, she ends up making everything take a worse turn in the longrun, in a seemingly dark and inevitable outcome, which is what I expected from HameFura but that one went on a completely different route. Anyways, I wouldn’t probably have issues with this change if it wasn’t so sudden, but it literally begins to happen out of nowhere after half a lighthearted episode. And the writing doesn’t make much sense, why are those void fanatics still out there? Weren’t they changed and saved thanks to that male idol?

Eventually, this would lead to an inevitable tragic ending, which would probably be not very popular among viewers, myself included. I mean I think Texhnolyze has one of the best finales in all anime, and that one is tragic as hell, but over there the characters are proactive and try to fight the obvious inevitable outcome. On the other hand, the characters in Zenshuu. are passively waiting for something to happen, before reacting to the change of events without being proactive on their own. Also, the idea of them not being able to change the outcome of the plot of the movie effectively makes them no more than passive plot devices, and I mean they are, but it is made worse in the context of this anime.

This next paragraph is a spoiler, skip it

But worry not, because the anime pulls out a troll by undoing the ending with no explanation whatsoever for a different one, the main protagonist inexplicably going back, despite seemingly dying at the beginning of the series, and finishing her second anime about first love out of screen, after finding it in the protagonist of her childhood movie, what a cringefest.

There are no more spoilers

What’s worse is that the romance doesn’t have any buildup, there’s no chemistry between these characters, the guy falls in love out of nowhere, the girl is put off at first but likes him back just because afterwards…or well, turns out to be in love since childhood, which is worse because he’s not real. And the rest of the characterization also leaves a lot to be desired, since we are seeing alternative versions of the characters the protagonist knew her whole life, yet they are completely bland with close to no fleshing, no backdrops, no interesting dynamics not even between them, and no development nor catharsis whatsoever. That is reserved only for the main character in small doses, and in a way that feels forced, unearned and cringe worthy.

So, the anime has good animation, cool anime references, on paper develops the protagonist even if a little, the fights become better when they require teamwork and strategy, and if you only care about action and find its comedy funny instead of infuriating, you’ll be pleased. It is otherwise another power fantasy isekai with very bad writing when you stop and think about it, despite not featuring elements that belong in a medieval RPG.

A laundry slice of life anime? Well, I don’t know who could possibly be interested in such a premise but it sure is original. Made by the Sankarea author? Well, the man shows some variety at least.

Anyways, yeah, a woman runs a laundry shop, and as usual when slice of life shows are centered around a very specific topic, they can be quite educational about it, since it was never explored much or at all in fiction.

Besides that, more customers keep appearing throughout the show, both old and new for the main character, and she shows great concern for their clothes or other items, as they are important for the people and contain some memories in them.

Or at least that should be the case but honestly, I can remember like two cases where that was actually the case, while the rest of the episodes and segments do show the main character taking care of clothes, bags, dolls or whatever, but without any special personal story behind them.

But anyways, it’s a iyashikei/healing type of slice of life show you watch to see the protagonist do her mundane job but in a cute, light and relaxing way, and interact with her customers outside her shop in an equal manner, to release that pent up stress throughout the day, and there’s nothing extremely bad in it that would go against that feeling and intention.

It also helps that it is audiovisually pleasing with solid artwork and pretty backgrounds, as well as equally mostly pretty characters, outside of some old ones. I can’t say much for the visuals regarding the actual animation or special effects, but there are even decent visual distinctions between day and nighttime, rare to see in anime nowadays. The sound department is also fine, soothing sound effects and music, cute relaxing opening and ending songs, the voice acting can be a bit high pitched and tryhard cutesy for the intended feel of the show, but it’s tolerable.

With that said, even among slice of life shows, this one is quite shallow, as there is almost no character with some kind of personality that stands out or some kind of backdrop or personal drama to make them or their stories behind their clothes more memorable. I can’t say I will remember this anime in a week or so because of that.

I mean the series hints at some drama around the protagonist, but it is only mentioned a few times and never explored. Other slice of life shows have characters with practically no story behind them as well, but they are honest about that from the get go and don’t add an unnecessary element that won’t be looked into later on in any way. That’s not the case with Wash it All Away, which added an amnesiac protagonist to its writing for no reason. Just play it straight.

The other issue is the romantic tension in the show, which is just about some highschool boy slowly developing a crush on the main character. It never goes beyond that and some mild boob shots that are so tame that I don’t even count them as ecchi or fanservice, but why even include those problematic elements in the first place? Just remain pure and wholesome like it was intended to be.

I would also complain about the main character being such a clutz to the point of not knowing what social media is big 2026, and I don’t mean that for the year the anime came out, I mean that in-story the anime takes place even in our future. It feels like a bit of a forced way to make her seem cute and innocent.

The anime is based on a finished manga but I don’t know if this adaptation covered the whole of it or left some stuff to be adapted, but I don’t really see this one getting another season.

So anyways, if you don’t let those rather minor issues bother you, the series does its job as yet another relaxing show you watch to kill some time and calm down once a week just fine, before you move on to the next thing next season.

In my mind, Astro Boy is to manga and anime what Mario is to videogames or The Citizen Kane is to movies, you kinda have to go through them if you are fan of their mediums, because of the impact they had in them. And since watching any of its anime is a no-no for me, I decided to go and read the manga, which is after all the original version.

It’s not an easy thing to do though, as you won’t find two sites with the same information about it, there’s a different number of chapters and volumes everywhere you look at. So this review is based on the Dark Horse Comics version, which compiles everything in 98 chapters and supposedly misses other two chapters (which you can still find online and are very short).

Since it’s an official English release, it means that the most names were localized, which wasn’t that big of a deal, I was reading the manga from left to right, which was weird, but most important of all, the order of the chapters is not chronological, but instead some weird selection supposedly arranged by Tezuka himself. Let me tell you that this way the narrative is one big mess, concepts and moments are repeated, references to events are made without the original happening yet at times, characters are introduced for the first time way after you have already seen them for a lot of chapters, and so on.

But honestly even if the manga was in order, it would still be just episodic stories of varying yet overall not so great quality amongst them, as it is usually the case with episodic or anthological series.

This is fairly obvious and well known but what can’t be denied is how creative and influential the scenarios are, you can find a later concept or character in almost every chapter. On the earliest volumes alone, things reminded me of Megaman, One Piece, Magic Kaito, Speed Racer, Mazinger Z and so on.

Still, I consider worth mentioning that even the simplest concepts can sometimes elevate to global, interplanetary or space wars in scope and scale, but the resolutions always leave a lot to be desired and the tone is never that serious, Tezuka even breaks the fourth wall at times and sometimes even features himself in the manga, it is a manga for very young readers after all.


Which is a shame because if the stories were more serious and different, we would have a pretty good collection of sci-fi ideas in here. Some that I want to bother to mention are Greatest Robot on Earth (but only because it inspired Pluto), Ghost Manufacturing Machine, which satirizes nazism, Hitler and the Valkyrie operation, the Once Upon a Time continuity, where Astro goes back in time, with varying results in quality, Subterranean Tank, that is mostly missing Astro.

Finally, the Blue Knight, where a robot rebels against humans because of the way they treat them, and the human response was to basically put the robots through a holocaust, so they end up creating a robot nation, and the villain of the story even manages to convince Astro himself. Probably the best chapter in the whole manga, worthy of getting its own Pluto-like spin off, but its ending and continuation leave a lot to be desired.

After the magazine where the manga was published closed down, it moved to another one, and the stories became shorter and even more childish, resulting in the last volumes of the manga being considerably worse and with barely any time to explore its ideas and concepts.

Other issues in quality are the exposition, which is quite bad, as characters tend to mention and overexplain even the most obvious things, and even in not the most appropriate ways, such as villains exposing their plans or backstories in the middle of nowhere.

And the characters are closer to simple caricatures, and they’re not that consistent either, as they should know and trust Astro the whole time, but sometimes the conflict escalates because they do not pay attention to him or act sillier than normal just because.

As for the visual quality, there is a lot of needless exposition as I said, and the actual drawings and panelling show varying quality, partly because Tezuka improved throughout the years, partly because many different assistants worked on the manga, and later on went on to become important authors themselves, and well, partly because the Dark Horse order is a mess.

As a whole, you can find a lot of innovation and a starting point for plenty of anime, manga and even Japanese videogames in here, creativity regarding sci-fi scenarios, an often big scale in conflict, and a noticeable improvement in visual quality throughout the manga, but the narrative, exposition, execution, characterization and what passes as a conclusion, if there’s even any to begin with, leave a lot to be desired, thus coming off as a title more important to read for historical reasons than anything else, but otherwise not really worth going through.

*Descargado para PC el 30 de noviembre de 2025, empezado el 12 de diciembre de ese año, y terminado el 11 de enero de 2026.

Aunque más que nada positivas, de Xenogears escuché cosas mixtas por años. Que es uno de los mejores RPGs de la historia, lo mismo de su generación, que tiene una de las mejores historias de los videojuegos, sino la mejor, que es inspirada por Evangelion (razón por la que lo jugué), que envejeció mal y que decae en la segunda mitad para terminar de forma decepcionante. Todas estas cosas me parecieron medianamente ciertas, pero también algo exageradas.

APARTADO VISUAL

Para empezar por lo aparentemente más fácil, esperaba que Xenogears se viera peor de lo que me terminé encontrando, y más después de un comentario que me hizo un amigo. Es un juego de la primera Playstation y salió en la época de transición en videojuegos del 2D al 3D y de los sprites a los polígonos, hecho notable en esta entrega que continuó optando por la primera opción para los personajes y el mundo, y la segunda para aspectos mecánicos, enemigos, mechas, y algunas cinemáticas. Además hay escenas animadas en estilo anime.

Los sprites son distinguibles, claros y expresivos para los personajes importantes, incluso es posible ver en un espejo al equipo conformado en cierta parte del videojuego, y sus animaciones son cuidadas. Lo mismo no aplica realmente para los personajes menores, obviamente, ya que estos son reutilizados y aplicados a lo largo y ancho del elenco, incluso si el sprite no refleja el modelo hablante del personaje. Pero en definitiva prefiero este apartado visual a los polígonos que se acostumbraban a usar por aquellos tiempos.

Los modelos 3D son naturalmente algo más toscos y envejecieron un poco peor, pero al considerar su tiempo, uso narrativo (es decir lo que significan los gears y monstruos dentro de su mundo) y jugabilístico, tiene sentido y suma esta distinción visual entre sus diversos elementos, y el resultado final no está mal. En el segundo disco hay momentos de cinemáticas especiales realizadas en CGI, que se ven notablemente mejor que su contraparte jugable, y que de hecho me sorprendieron por su calidad, y más para su época y envejecimiento en el tiempo.

No sé si fueron responsables de éstas, ya que hay varios estudios acreditados en la animación del juego, pero uno es Gonzo (Kaleido Star, Welcome to the NHK, primeros anime de Hellsing y Full Metal Panic!, entre muchos otros), que a principios de los 2000 produjeron muchos títulos animados con calidad visual cuestionable y mal envejecida, y más para el CGI, así que si se hicieron cargo de este apartado, el resultado sería una grata sorpresa, casi al nivel que mostraron en Sentou Yousei Yukikaze.

Las cinemáticas animadas, repartidas de forma distanciada entre sí a lo largo del juego, son lo esperable para la época, y fueron un espacio estético medianamente nostálgico y reconfortante para alguien como yo. Diseños cuidados (mejores que como se reflejan en la portada je), cuerpos estirados pero adultos (no como se verían hoy en día), buena animación, colorido oscuro que ya no sería posible replicar mediante animación digital, todo lo que suma a los momentos de ambientación pesada de la entrega.

Éstas están acreditadas principalmente al estudio Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell y Haikyuu son sus títulos más famosos) y sorpresivamente Deen, responsables de algunos desastres visuales y/o narrativos como la primera adaptación animada de Fate/Stay Night, Higurashi, Umineko, las recordadas (para mal) temporadas finales de Nanatsu no Taizai, Log Horizon 2 y 3, The Reflection, y mucho más. Para ser justos, el estudio cuenta con productos competentes como las primeras entregas de KonoSuba, parte de Samurai X, e increíblemente las OVAS precuela de la serie, que son su mejor título en todo sentido, y algunos títulos sorprendentemente maduros para ellos, como Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu y Oooku. Lo que quiero decir es que son una moneda al aire, y esta vez cayó del lado correcto.

Otro estudio acreditado es Bee Train, responsable de muchos anime melancólicos de principios de los 2000, entre ellos .hack//sign, y vaya si se nota en los diseños y ambientación.

En fin, lo visual me sorprendió para bien, y la colaboración de estudios de animación me ofreció un resultado grato que hoy por hoy no sería posible de lograr, así que creo que este apartado merece entre 7 y 8 puntos.

SONIDO

Esto va a ser lo más breve posible. Hay poca actuación de voz, limitada más que nada a sonidos de lucha realizados por los personajes en combate, pero está bien, y mejor en las cinemáticas animadas, al menos en el japonés original. No sé si es cosa de la versión que jugué yo, pero hubo momentos donde podía escuchar las voces en inglés, puntualmente al finalizar los minijuegos de cartas, no sé qué pasó ahí.

Los efectos de sonido son trabajados, diversos para los distintos momentos, elementos y enemigos mecánicos, así como otros orgánicos, y distintos tipos de armas. Si bien han envejecido, se ve que el equipo responsable estaba orgulloso de ellos, ya que hay un personaje del juego que te deja escucharlos.

La música ya la había escuchado hace años, ya que este es el aspecto que indiscutiblemente es considerado el mejor del juego, incluso entre aquellos que no son sus fans. En su momento me pareció la mejor banda sonora de videojuegos que había escuchado en mi vida, hoy por hoy, después de haber jugado el juego y de haber escuchado mucho más del medio y otros más, ya no creo que esté a ese nivel. Pero vamos, decir que la banda sonora no me parece de diez puntos sino de nueve, tampoco representa una gran pérdida. Hay una mezcla interesante entre temas futuristas y rurales, orquestas e instrumentos de cuerda acústicos, influencias no sé si de shamisens o cítaras, capaz más lo último, y sonidos tanto occidentales como orientales. El tema de Solaris es definitivamente un cachetazo a la ambientación, pero supongo que encaja en el sentido narrativo de vida tranquila e ignorante que querían reflejar en esa ciudad/país...justo antes de sufrir su más grande tragedia en 500 años.

Y ya, no tengo más que comentar del audio, es el apartado más sólido con diferencia, merecedor de unos nueve puntos.

HISTORIA Y PERSONAJES

Y acá viene con diferencia lo más difícil de comentar del videojuego, sobre todo para alguien como yo que no le presta tanta atención dentro del medio. En un principio, sí, la historia de Xenogears es la mejor de los videojuegos. Es el meme de "primera misión en un JRPG matar un animal salvaje, última misión matar a Dios", y está dentro de todo bien construida.

Un pequeño pueblo se ve víctima de un cruce entre dos ejércitos en guerra, de ahí viene Fei, el protagonista, que se ve obligado a dejar lo poco que queda de su hogar, y distintas circunstancias lo llevan a encontrarse a los y las que serán el resto de personajes importantes que conformarán el grupo jugable y los distintos antagonistas. Así se topa primero con Bart, un pirata del desierto que lidera un submarino que se maneja primero sobre la arena y después el océano, a quien ayudará a salvar su ciudad Nisan y recuperar su país Av, uno de los que se encuentran en guerra, y de quien se volverá un gran amigo con el tiempo.

Luego de unos enfrentamientos, el protagonista se verá encarcelado por la nación enemiga Kislev en una ciudad prisión y obligado a ser un luchador. Ahí conoce a RICARDO BANDERAS, alias Rico, un mutante quien se volverá otro amigo y miembro más del grupo.

Otra vez, después de perder otro combate, el protagonista deberá ser ayudado por un cura pistolero llamado Billy Lee Blanche (Black en inglés), quien se enterará que la iglesia a la que sirve crea a las mutaciones que se dedica a matar, como parte de experimentos para crear cuerpos adecuados para una transmutación metafísica que derivaría en huéspedes para el tal dios, y los primeros humanos en la Tierra. También se une al grupo, y es muy interesante que durante esta parte no se utiliza al protagonista en ningún momento.

En algún punto de la historia, el grupo protagonista llegará a una ciudad/país/fortaleza flotante, Shebat, que está en guerra con la principal nación antagonista Solaris desde hace 500 años, y desde ahí se unirá al grupo María y evolucionarán los mechas.

En una misión para hacerse con un arma en particular, el grupo se encontrará con Emeralda, un ente creado artificialmente con nanomáquinas, como no podía ser de otra manera en un juego de ciencia ficción japonés, que se unirá al grupo y que expandirá la historia al aportar hechos ocurridos algo así como 4000 años antes.

Y una vez conformado el grupo, el segundo disco estará dedicado a la guerra abierta contra la nación antagonista Solaris y los enemigos principales que quieren unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo para así revivir a Dios.

No mencioné a los dos personajes más importantes después de Fei, Shitan Uzuki y Elly, porque hablar de ellos implica adentrarse en Solaris y terrenos de grandes spoilers. El primero es un misterioso mentor y ayudante, y la segunda una enemiga luego aliada y mucho más para el personaje principal.

Es decir, países en guerra, gente inocente involucrada, iglesias manipuladoras que experimentan en personas, transmutaciones, nanomáquinas, distintas reencarnaciones a lo largo del tiempo, aspectos metafísicos sobre unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo unido a Dios, que a su vez viene del espacio exterior, es en muy resumidas cuentas la historia de Xenogears.

La escala es tremenda, es como si se combinara Neon Genesis Evangelion, Fullmetal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam, Final Fantasy (se sabe que el juego fue inicialmente propuesto como una entrega más de esa saga), y más, todo dentro de un solo paquete, que a su vez mantiene su propia identidad y originalidad.

Y he de decir que en general está bien construida, ya desde las primeras horas de juego se ven cinemáticas intermedias o personajes secundarios y menores que adelantan los elementos religiosos y metafísicos más allá de los bélicos y de ciencia ficción, que tendrán más peso más adelante. Por años hubo que leer y escuchar a fans de One Piece decir que Eiichiro Oda es un maestro a la hora de anticipar aspectos de su historia por siluetas, nombres o personajes que tienen relevancia recién cientos de capítulos después, pero esta sí es una historia que efectivamente se presenta gradualmente, y que se expande sin olvidar ni dejar de lado lo introducido anteriormente, sin sacarlo de la nada, y que hace crecer al elenco pero que a su vez lo mantiene presente y relevante desde el inicio y desde que es introducido. Además, tiene un mundo también diverso pero mejor hilado y construido, además de explorado a través de la jugabilidad.

Otra cosa que quiero destacar es que si bien hay aspectos de la historia que son presentados a través de exposición, sea en descubrimientos, lecturas o relatos, eventualmente, salvo el nacimiento de los primeros humanos en la Tierra, casi todo lo demás es mostrado. La guerra de 500 años atrás, el pasado de Lacán, Kim, Grahf, Kahrn, Emeralda, Sophia, Karellen, Id, Sigurd, Ramsus, Uzuki, etc. Creo que solo faltó explorar más a Jessie. Pero el punto es que sí, Xenogears es una obra que cuenta mucho, pero también, a la larga, muestra.

Digo, hasta los puntos de guardado que se encuentran a lo largo del juego tienen una razón narrativa dentro de la historia.

Como dije, todo personaje importante, y algunos no tanto, así como los antagonistas, tienen un trasfondo que explica sus motivaciones, acciones, forma de ser y relaciones.

Fei Fong Wong, es una de las “cabras” (G.O.A.T) inspiradas por Shinji Ikari de Evangelion (siendo Elijah Ballard de Eden: It´s an Endless World otra). Un joven amnésico que inicialmente se ve involucrado en una guerra en la que aparentemente no tiene nada que ver, y por lo que inicialmente no quiere subirse a su mecha, como el protagonista que lo inspiró o Amuro Ray de Gundam. Lo vemos rechazar toda forma de lucha y violencia al principio, a pesar de ser un artista marcial, y ser más bien cerrado sobre sí mismo y pesimista, además de negar su responsabilidad en la tragedia de la que formó parte. Luego se descubre su pasado trágico y traumático y su trastorno de personalidad disociativo como mecanismo de defensa mental (también anticipados), sus múltiples pasados en reencarnaciones pasadas, y su desarrollo consistente en formar lazos con el resto del elenco y en asumir su papel de luchador para proteger al resto, salvar al mundo y sacrificarse por otros.

Es algo que toma principalmente de sus interacciones con Elehayym Van Houten (alias Elly), la deuteragonista del juego. Inicialmente enemiga pero aliada temporal, luego ausente en las primeras horas de la obra, hasta recuperar su rol antagonista y después unirse al grupo principal. También un personaje con suma introspección, que proyecta sus culpas hacia los demás pero que a la vez es consciente de eso, con también un pasado traumático explorado, y alguien con dudas sobre su nación y cuerpo militar. Es manipulada mentalmente algunas veces a lo largo de la historia, sea por drogas, un poder de hipnosis mental, o un ente sobrenatural metafísico. También tiene una situación familiar medio telenovelesca pero posible y bien tratada. Además tiene un lado dulce y casi maternal que es acrecentado a través de reencarnaciones pasadas, cada una con su pasado propio. Buscaba un lugar de contención en Fei y es quien más le inculca aceptar la responsabilidad de luchar y el afán de sacrificarse por alguien más. Es un spoiler pero sí, desarrolla un romance con el protagonista, y es un aspecto construido de una manera realmente destacable.

Shitan Uzuki, el doctor/mecánico/ingeniero/investigador/artista marcial del grupo. Un personaje del que no veo suficiente reconocimiento en la red. Está bien, es cierto que en buena parte de la historia es misterioso y es el típico personaje de exposición del juego, pero también es un tipo carismático, a través del cual se anticipan múltiples aspectos de la historia y la caracterización de Fei, y alguien con un gran pasado y rol de doble agente que termina siendo el tritagonista de la obra (si es que no lo era desde el principio) y uno de los más grandes aliados dentro del mundo de Xenogears.

Bart, de nombre mucho más largo pero también spoilero, un joven, impulsivo y grosero pirata del desierto, comandante de un submarino de arena que luego se maneja en el océano, y que por razones de la historia después se convierte en una nave que vuela y se controla más o menos con controles de avión. Comienza como un rebelde que ataca casi a diestra y siniestra en el desierto pero principalmente a unidades de Kislev y Solaris, y tiene una buena razón para dudar en un principio de Elly. Eventualmente acepta el rol de líder que le toca y es responsable de la tregua entre dos países en guerra y una de las primeras evoluciones de los gears (no lo dije antes pero así se llaman los mecha del juego).

Billy, un devoto cura cazador de lo que creía eran monstruos ex humanos de espíritus débiles y malditos, que resultaron ser víctimas de experimentos de transmutación de la iglesia, por lo que su mundo se vino temporalmente abajo. También sufrió abandono en cierta forma, y eso lo llevó a crear su propio orfanato, y si bien no se explora tanto, luego de su descubrimiento tiene sentido que se una permanentemente al grupo principal para expiar su responsabilidad al combatir al mal del cual alguna vez formó parte.

RICARDO BANDERAS, alias Rico, inicialmente un rival y luego un aliado, un luchador prisionero mutante que busca matar al rey de Kislev por prácticamente esclavizar a los suyos, y es todo lo que se puede decir sin spoilear.

Karellen, en cierta forma el antagonista principal de Xenogears y el equivalente a Gendo Ikari en esta obra, aunque algo mejor trabajado. Todo lo concerniente a este personaje en un spoiler, pero básicamente, como parte de la guerra hace 500 años fue que inició su investigación de la nanotecnología y su plan para unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo unido a Dios. Lo que lo distingue de su contraparte en Evangelion es haber logrado su objetivo, pero a la vez aceptar el error de su camino, y alcanzar una catarsis a la vez que haber entendido a los protagonistas y aceptar las diferencias de perspectivas. Además, como un típico villano del tipo “mente maestra”, realmente cumple muy bien su rol.

Hay más personajes de los que mentar cosas, pero para no extenderme todavía más, quiero decir que Ramsus empeoró un poco para mí con su descenso a la locura, pero se me hizo razonable al explorar su pasado, y Grahf, un personaje que al principio me parecía poco más que una herramienta argumental unidimensional, mejoró mucho para mí una vez que se mostró su trasfondo, y una prueba de la manera en que Fei se podría haber desviado del camino.

Pero incluso otros personajes que parecían ser solo títeres, alivios cómicos o unidimensionales, tuvieron sus momentos para destacar o mantener a raya a otros que parecían tenerlos bajo su control, o tuvieron sus trasfondos explorados, y salvo algunos muy secundarios que son desechados de la historia en el momento justo, no hubo ninguno que me pareciera de plano malo.

Ya después de haberle tirado muchas flores a la historia de Xenogears, tengo que reconocer que lo mismo no puede hacerse con su argumento en sí, o más precisamente con su escritura.

Para empezar, para una obra bélica como esta, definitivamente hubiera sumado alguna muerte importante y permanente. Está bien, reconozco que el elenco principal tiene una razón narrativa y videojugabilística para mantenerse completo hasta el final, y que muchos personajes secundarios menores mueren, así como otros pierden seres queridos, pero en serio que al juego le cuesta matar incluso personajes secundarios de los que ni se explica la manera en que sobrevivieron (el capitán). Además hay otros que sin explicación tienen un rol disminuido y desaparecen sin explicación de la historia (Jessie). Y me pregunto, ¿tan imposible hubiera sido matar a algún principal? Final Fantasy VII lo hizo tan solo un año antes.

Otra cosa es que al juego le gusta emplear elementos de guiones flojos como las salvadas o poderes de último momento. Shitan que aparece de la nada para salvar a Fei en el bosque, Maison que salva a Bart de la nada en Av, todo lo concerniente al dios de los los Chu-chu podría haber sido reducido y ella sacada de la historia y no habría afectado en nada.

Hay momentos cómicos para aliviar algo el tono, de los que no soy especialmente fan en prácticamente ninguna obra, pero todo lo relacionado a Big Joe y que él maneje la tienda más importante de todo el juego, en una zona opcional y secundaria, no lo voy a entender nunca, ¿chiste de los desarrolladores tal vez?

Otros puntos flojos son la trama de María que tuvo algunos momentos muy melodramáticos, todo lo concerniente a Grahf/Kahrn/Lacán/Wiseman, que se resolvió más de manera emocional que lógica, la desaparición de la historia de Jessie, un foco menor al necesario en Billy y Rico al final, sobre todo al considerar sus roles narrativos para con distintos aspectos de la historia y los temas.

Otra cosa que nunca voy a entender es el por qué de hacer misiones secundarias opcionales relacionadas con la historia principal, personajes como Kim o Emeralda no hubieran significado ni de cerca lo que terminaron siendo de no ser por esa parte de la historia que podés saltarte.

Y es algo muy dicho que Xenogears empeora en su segundo disco, y sí es cierto que la narrativa sufre un poco en la segunda mitad, ya que aparentemente el equipo se estaba quedando sin tiempo y recursos (algo curioso considerando ciertas partes de este segundo disco), y optó por inspirarse de más en Evangelion, y mostrar imágenes estáticas de Fei, Elly y en menor medida Shitan contando buena parte de los hechos ocurridos en este tramo de la historia. Aspectos importantes del argumento y secciones del juego que deberían haber sido jugables son dejadas como imágenes estáticas con un breve relato escrito, algo que fue medianamente aburrido de atravesar y un poco decepcionante de presenciar.

El final fue satisfactorio, tanto los protagonistas como los antagonistas lograron sus objetivos y obtuvieron una catarsis, y fue una muestra de que se puede hacer un final alternativo al de End of Evangelion, sin que se vuelva en la cagada que deshace todo como el del manga o las películas Rebuild. Mi única queja es que se tendría que haber trabajado más a Rico, y se necesitó de al menos una cinemática más que mostrara el verdadero regreso de los personajes, una especie de epílogo que muestre a Billy de vuelta en el orfanato, Rico en Kislev, María en Shebat, y así.

En mi opinión la historia cierra entre un 7 y un 8 pero los personajes me convencieron lo suficiente para darles un 10.

JUGABILIDAD

Este es un apartado complicado para tratar porque mientras que el resto los tengo medianamente trabajados a través de distintos medios, éste es uno que estoy pensando y tratando por primera vez (vaya primer juego para elegir reseñar), y en definitiva el más importante en este medio.

La manera de jugar en sí de Xenogears no es la más innovadora, es un juego de rol con su grupo de hasta tres personajes controlables de un total de siete u ocho que manejás al final del juego (nueve si contás a Chu-chu, yo no), y el combate es por turnos como en casi todo título del género limitado por la tecnología de su tiempo. Lo que sí suma es acción en tiempo real, con barras que cargan el orden de ataque de los personajes jugables y los enemigos, y un combate por combos que parece sacado de un juego de lucha. Es una opción arriesgada pero es posible pasar turnos con ataques simples para cargar más poder de ataque para realizar un combo extenso en turnos posteriores, y así hacer más daño de golpe. Las distintas técnicas de a pie (es decir, sin los gears), se desbloquean de una manera un tanto curiosa, por nivel, sí, pero para sumar los 100 puntos necesarios para desbloquearlas es preciso usar sus comandos de antemano.

Lo que quiere decir esto básicamente es que si una técnica es triángulo, cuadrado, equis, vas a tener que desbloquearla haciendo esa secuencia de comandos de antemano, hasta llenar la barra de puntos en 100 y desbloquear esa habilidad, pero ¿cómo sabrías eso sin una guía que te lo diga? Además este punto se vuelve extraño a partir de cierto punto con las técnicas finales de los personajes, ya que se estancan en unos noventa y tantos a pesar de que seguís introduciendo los comandos. ¿Qué hacer ahí? Básicamente hacer que el personaje use las teclas o botones de ese comando, a través de turnos separados, o también se puede hacer con los distintos personajes del grupo, otra cosa que descubrí solo por ver videos a modo de guía, y que no podría haber descubierto por mi cuenta.

En cuanto a los combates en sí, se presenta una diversidad de estilos debido a la variedad de personajes. Así Fei y Shitan con técnicas de artes marciales cuerpo a cuerpo (el segundo más tarde utiliza una espada), Bart tiene un látigo, Emeralda también ataca cuerpo a cuerpo pero además es fuerte en magias, lo mismo, y más todavía, respecto a Elly, María usa su gear incluso en sus ataques normales, por lo que si no mal recuerdo usa EP (mana) en todo momento, pero me puedo equivocar, Rico emplea movimientos de lucha libre, aunque eso no supone un cambio a nivel jugabilidad, y finalmente Billy es el de dinámica más única, ya que todos sus ataques son disparos y por lo tanto consumen munición que se debe comprar, y algunas de sus técnicas tienen perspectivas únicas, como en primera persona, por lo que es algo tedioso de tener que lidiar con el coste, pero genial visualmente.

Por otro lado están los combates en los gears, que si bien emplean las artes marciales, las armas de Billy o las magias, son mucho más limitadas en movimientos y animaciones, y más para las técnicas de Rico, que son completamente reemplazadas por ataques de disparos y bombas. En definitiva, la otra alternativa es notablemente más divertida y preferida.

Hay momentos en los que por cuestiones narrativas la jugabilidad es algo modificada, y así tenés combates 1v1 usando a Fei, o combates con gears en los que la jugabilidad es completamente diferente, y es una bocanada de aire fresco que hace a esas secciones memorables y divertidas.

Más allá de eso, y como cabría esperar de un digno RPG, Xenogears también cuenta con secciones de acción/aventuras y exploración, por lo que es posible por ejemplo controlar a Bart nadando en una cloaca, o después infiltrándose en un palacio, para lo cual se puede optar por un estilo de juego tipo sigilo. También habrá momentos laberínticos o de mini rompecabezas, pero no sin sus reintentos gratuitos y mapas para ayudar, aunque yo usé videos como guías porque son muy malo para esas cosas y me desesperan. Algunas de esas partes ofrecen pistas claras, otras ninguna y no son que se diga intuitivas, así que en cuanto a que tan claras son, es una moneda al aire. Pero al menos hay variedad de jugabilidad gracias a estas secciones. Oh, también hay momentos cerca del final que hay que esquivar rayos láseres en caída libre, muy divertido.

Si bien también hay que trasladarse por el mapa por tierra primero, agua después, y luego aire, en estas partes hay más que nada movimiento, y típicos combates de gears. Lo que sí hay son secciones de plataformeo, y aunque están bien y son una propuesta interesante, a veces los saltos pueden ser muy justos, y la cámara rotativa manual puede dificultar un poco el manejo y llevar a equivocaciones y unas pequeñas trabas de carga, algo esperable de la época pero que merece mención.

En definitiva el gran problema que tiene la jugabilidad del juego para mí es el mismo de todo RPG viejo, la necesidad de subir nivel por grindeo/farmeo, estancarse en lugares, dar vueltas como tonto, esperar a que aparezcan enemigos, pelearles, matarlos, sacarles oro o ítems para vender por más oro, y comprar objetos caros para potenciar los gears o personajes. Es extenso, tedioso, repetitivo, aburrido, cansador, alarga artificialmente el videojuego y hasta crea una disonancia narrativa, sí, tengo que ir urgentemente a este punto de la historia, pero primero voy a estar horas o días farmeando para comprar potenciadores, BRB. Detesto el grindeo, celebro que el medio haya evolucionado a un punto en que ya no sea necesario para subir de nivel, mejorar personajes y equipos y ganar los juegos, y empeorar experiencias en el proceso.

Al menos puedo decir que los distintos enemigos tienen distintas mecánicas que ofrecen algo de estrategia y variedad a los combates. Algunos son más resistentes a los ataques físicos, otros a mágicos, los hay que tienen poca vida pero resisten las grandes técnicas cuerpo a cuerpo, otros se curan con tus magias o ataques así que hay que vencerlos con objetos, otros roban vida o EP (mana), otros te matan de una pero después se vuelven débiles, etc.

Esto es más destacable para los jefes, no hay dos iguales y si bien la mayoría se pueden vencer de forma convencional, otros están resguardados por guardianes, otros son más fuertes o se autodestruyen causando gran daño al ser vencidos, otros se curan por momentos o contraatacan con mucha más fuerza según tu daño, así que hay que medir bien los tiempos y maneras en los que atacarlos, otros roban y dañan por combustible de los gears, etc. Y toda secuencia de jefes difíciles y molestos, o extensa por muchas peleas encadenadas, es luego recompensada con una regeneración de estadísticas o peleas sencillas luego de secuencias tan despiadadas.

Me faltó mencionar que hay una posible misión secundaria en algún desierto, pero es solo para obtener unos objetos en una cascada de arena y tras vencer a un dragón potenciado en esta sección del mapa, ninguno de los cuales usé, así que salvo por la experiencia y algo de oro, esta sidequest me pareció innecesaria, algo confusa que no habría resuelto sin una guía, y una pérdida de tiempo. En mi opinión la jugabilidad se encuentra en un punto intermedio entre siete y ocho puntos.

VALOR

Este es un aspecto que suelo medir al combinar la fama, memorabilidad y propensidad a ser revisitado de una obra. En este caso, Xenogears es un título conocido, y mucho en el mundo del gaming, pero no tanto como sus posteriores entregas, y no es mundialmente famoso como los Final Fantasy por ejemplo. Es extremadamente memorable, y si bien sus distintos jefes, algunos de los cuales pueden saltarse, el hecho de tener posibles misiones secundarias, variadas configuraciones de equipos tanto en personajes como objetos, creo que estas cosas se presentan en niveles más chicos que en otros títulos (los cientos de pokémones por entrega terminan siendo coleccionables, por ejemplo), que saber la historia una vez terminada, y tener que pasar por ese molesto grindeo, limitan la rejugabilidad del título, así que este apartado lo califico con unos siete puntos.

DISFRUTE PERSONAL

Este es el apartado menos importante para medir la calificación final de un título para mí, pero al menos en esta primera reseña lo quería incluir. Básicamente si bien hubo partes que disfruté y me parecieron épicas, sobre todo cuando ganaba un nuevo personaje o me encontraba con una nueva forma de jugabilidad, y la historia me atrapó, las secciones en las que necesité una guía y las entre 15 y 20 horas que tuve que meter de grindeo, junto a la sensación final que tuve que si bien fue un poco de emoción, fue más de alivio, me hace dejar este apartado en un punto medio, con unos cinco puntos.

CONCLUSIÓN

No soy un versado en los RPG, es un género que elijo evitar porque no me gusta por su extensión, texto, ritmo, repetitividad y necesidad de grindeo, al menos en los títulos viejos, por lo que no sé si este es el mejor de la historia como escuché decir algunas veces (no creo, como todo, las cosas evolucionan), pero sí puedo decir que aunque a mí personalmente no me terminó de gustar, lo considero un buen juego.

Es fácil para un videojuego sacarme una calificación alta, y cuando considero este mundo enorme y cuidado y el detalle puesto en casi cada apartado de esta obra, y la apreciación que me dio por todo su trabajo final, (algo que no supe demostrar más joven con por ejemplo, y aunque no tengan nada que ver entre sí, los primeros God of War), me parece que al final el título merece estar en algún lugar de la lista de cientos de los mejores juegos que jugué, pero no entre los primeros puestos.

Tiene sus fallos tanto narrativos como mecánicos, y más en la segunda parte, pero no me parece que sean ni tan chicos como para ser ignorados como lo hacen sus más ávidos fans, ni tan grandes como para restarle méritos, tal como lo hacen sus detractores, y que son más que nada resultados de las limitaciones técnicas de la época que otra cosa. Quisiera que este juego llegara a tener un remake, aunque seguramente perdería parte del encanto estético tan característico de su época, y una adaptación anime, cosa que ya no es posible y que sería peor que la que tuvo Xenosaga. Al final del día, al menos por ahora, cuando pienso en este título, me viene “un gran juego” a la cabeza, por lo que lo califico con un

I very recently got to finish the YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga after two years and I’m glad for that, for it is always good to consume another version of NieR: Automata, or well, a part of it. This is based on the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play from 2014, so it actually predates the videogame in question, and it ran from 2020 to 2024, so it even predates the episodes of the anime that showed the same events. I gotta say it is actually the best version of it that I have consumed until now, partly thanks to its duration.

It is short, with less than twenty chapters, yet that is still better than the limited runtime of the stage play, only episodes 6 of the first season and 5 of the second dedicated to it like in the anime, or just the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation logs without even some cutscenes like in the videogame.

Just like in the animated series, Anemone is replaced with Lily for some reason, but without the latter’s role from the anime, her character arc and thus justification for that change remains incomplete, not that you would mind it though if you didn’t play the videogame.

Anyways, this is going to be rather short as I’m not going over the whole details of this world, something that I already did while reviewing the anime, androids fights for humanity against robots, in a far dystopian future, and this story is about an android squad storming a robot server, at first.

The reality turns out to be that what seemed to be a reconnaissance mission of a simple base, is actually a suicide mission about taking down a major enemy headquarter that’s about to deal a huge strike on humanity. Essentially, a way to portray that soldiers are sometimes (if not often) lied by their superiors on what their missions are really about, and that they’re seen as disposable forces and sacrificial pawns of sorts, further reflected on the mission being an experiment, to see the androids’ durability and behaviour during it, so they can improve on later models, and the robots even let them get far to satisfy their curiosity in turn. All of which was fairly known if you consumed its chronological sequel, the main game, or really another version of the same events.

And as you can expect from something of this franchise, the stakes are high and characters are going to face far larger and stronger armies of enemies, thus they ARE going to die, in rather tragic ways.

What makes this version better than the other ones besides its length, is focusing a lot more on its cast, both the android squadron sent from space, and the one inhabiting Earth. Every girl has either backdrops, introspection, interesting dynamics among the others, or maybe all at once. Even some, I guess, prototype Operators, with actual names in here, doubt the commands and are replaced because of it. There are even some flashback scenes showing interactions between Number 2 and the YoRHa commander, so the former’s feelings of being betrayed and actions on the other media are bigger, if they had any continuation.

Which is the main issue of this manga, the fact that it’s clearly only a small part of a bigger story, leaving stuff of its setting without much exploration and even less of a conclusion.

Also, although the characters are explored, they have different interactions with the others, their insecurities and abilities are shown, and each one has at least runtime dedicated to them, it is not uncommon for they to die shortly after being fleshed out, thus remaining underdeveloped and without a catharsis, kinda expected from such a tragic plot. They don’t even get their flowers-based names like in the anime, though maybe that’s an anime only thing, so I’d let it slide.

The only character that feels that gets proper development and a slight sense of catharsis would be the main one, and even those feel rather rushed or incomplete because, again, this is just a part of a much bigger story. Also she gets a sudden power increase near the end of the manga as if it was a fighting shounen. Even the narrative ends with a cliffhanger after a crucial point in the mission, followed just by one or two pages of the protagonist in the far future.

The manga was drawn by the same artist of stuff like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, a battle school romcom, and Zombieland Saga, an idol comedy, not the kind of author I would expect to draw a tragic sci-fi war drama, but the artist did fine. Maybe not as raw as I would prefer the art style or brutal as I would prefer the action to be, but still well drawn, good backgrounds too, and the effects can be very interesting, darkening the whole looks at times, and the machinery for the machine life forms and the fights can be very detailed when it needs to be. The action scenes have good sequences and composition, though not that impressive, especially when it comes to movement. The girls look pretty, as you would expect from this Megumu Soramichi, given his other works, but not that different one from another, and you don’t really notice their android details in their joints or other stuff that much, probably excused by being early models, I guess.

So as a whole, this is a fast paced, good looking, well drawn, and overall polished sci-fi war drama with a somewhat interesting topic, high stakes, permanent deaths, and multiple perspectives and characters that are looked into, so I’d say it’s a very good manga as a whole, even if it misses the extra steps on characterization and a strong narrative closure.

Este es un producto argentino por lo que amerita una reseña en su idioma natal.

Al fin, después de tantos proyectos truncados a medio camino, hay una serie basada en El Eternauta, la mítica historieta de ciencia ficción argentina,y digo basada en porque como adaptación presenta muchos cambios y una actualización moderna con respecto al original, con sus pros y sus contras.

Si bien el material original al final del día es decente, hay que considerar que lo es principalmente para su época, y que tiene cosas que han envejecido de manera desfavorable, siendo la principal de ellas la exposición. La misma no solo cuenta a lujo de detalle todo lo que los personajes piensan a través de diálogos o pensamientos, sin dejar nada a la interpretación del lector y a la fuerza del dibujo, sino que incluía mucha narración metida de por medio, y recapitulaciones debido a que su publicación inicial era en forma de historietas de diario en vez del libro que hoy es tan conocido.

Otro aspecto que no envejeció muy bien es lo meta que es que su propio autor fuera un personaje presente en la historia que al final de la misma decide publicarla a modo de advertencia al público, en una forma de sugerir su posición política respecto a quiénes son los invasores, si se tiene en cuenta el contexto de publicación de la historieta, algo aún más evidente cuando salió la segunda parte, la cual se rumorea que ni siquiera llegó a ser terminada por el mismo Oesterheld.

Pero bueno, dejando a un lado mi opinión sobre el original, he de decir que esta serie es una especie de salto en producción para una ficción de mi país, combinando prostéticos, efectos prácticos, filmación en locaciones reales al aire libre durante la relativamente reciente pandemia, y mucho CGI tanto para los fondos como para los efectos especiales, que se ven bien, pero nada del otro mundo, menos en los tiempos que corren. También hubo polémica por el uso de inteligencia artificial para la serie, cosa que no detecté así que no sé si fue usada durante la filmación o para algún factor externo como la promoción o algo por el estilo.

En cuanto a la ambientación, los efectos de sonido están buenos, nada maravillosos ni súper inmersivos pero cumplen y más que bien. Quisiera decir lo mismo del resto de factores que suelo agrupar en esta categoría pero, aunque decente, la actuación en la serie sigue los estándares más monótonos casi teatrales e influenciados en su momento por el realismo italiano de una producción argentina, por lo que es su apartado más flojo, sobre todo para un público acostumbrado a consumir productos internacionales.

La música, al igual que las tantísimas referencias visuales en los fondos, está impregnada de un colorido local que a los argentinos nos deleita y cuya inclusión en nuestras producciones nos caracteriza, pero me pregunto hasta qué grado pueden interpelar y convencer a extranjeros. Es decir, algunas canciones de la banda sonora encajan líricamente con lo que sucede en escena, pero no tanto musicalmente, y otras claramente están insertadas más por una cuestión identitaria que narrativa. Hasta esto se perdió en cierto sentido en algún momento, ya que en el último episodio usaron una canción en inglés (Let It Snow de Sinatra) para complementar la “nieve” del escenario…cuando ese elemento ya casi no tenía peso en la trama. Aún así voy a acotar que el uso de la música en esta serie es mejor que en Arcane.

En cuanto a la narrativa, la serie claramente fue pensada para incluir algunos aspectos sociales históricos y/o actuales de Argentina a la par que la trama, gente en reclamo por el suministro de luz, venezolanos que trabajan como reparto para locales principalmente de comida, discusiones de consorcio por cuestiones edilicias, quiero creer que en parte debido al éxito del Encargado, cierto nivel de bullying y bromas escolares aunque sin llegar ni de cerca al nivel de obras internacionales a la hora de mostrar el tema, población china en Argentina, muy presente desde hace mucho, parejas separadas, familiares con relaciones no muy buenas, etc.

Una diferencia clave de la serie respecto a la obra original es darle una razón personal más fuerte al protagonista, Juan Salvo, para involucrarse en el conflicto. En la historieta lo hacía básicamente porque es el personaje principal, en la serie para buscar a sus seres queridos que están allá afuera en riesgo de entrar en contacto con la “nieve” tóxica. Su hija es adolescente en esta versión porque todos los personajes fueron considerablemente avejentados, lo cual tiene sentido porque francamente casi nadie de la edad que los personajes tenían en el cómic tendría hoy en día el nivel de experiencia de vida, educación, pragmaticidad y el afán de coleccionar antigüedades como los que el elenco necesita para hacer avanzar la trama.

Otro cambio importante es ahondar más en los personajes secundarios, mostrar lo que Favalli y el grupo hacen y viven en la casa y el barrio a la par de las salidas de Salvo, divisiones en el grupo, reagrupaciones, desarrollo de distintos tipos de relaciones entre algunos de los personajes, un rol importante para Favalli hacia el final de la temporada, un papel para Elena y Ana, las esposas de los dos tipos más importantes de la historia, algo de lo que carecían completamente en la versión original, y una creciente relevancia para Lucas y Omar, entre otras cosas.

Con eso dicho, no quiere vender al reparto más de lo que amerita, ya que salvo por dos personajes, destacan más como herramientas argumentales que por sus presencias, personalidades, trasfondos o desarrollos, los cuales son más bien básicos, insinuados, repentinos sin mucho enfoque, o directamente inexistentes, debido también en parte a la falta de un cierre para la historia y serie.

Otras cosas que le destaco a la tira en comparación con la original es ahondar más en la sensación de paranoia y desesperación inicial de la población. Eso ya se mostraba en cierto punto en la historieta, pero con mayor frialdad y crudeza, al mostrar a alguien volviéndose loco dentro de un grupo y siendo asesinado por el mismo para evitar mayores riesgos para el resto. En esta versión el protagonista se cruza con casi un edificio entero que quiere robarle primero y matarlo después, y un vagón de tren repleto de gente desesperada por el hambre y la sed y a la que luego vemos como cadáveres. A eso hay que sumarle todas las demás personas y animales a las que vemos morir o muertas por la “nieve” tóxica, y lo aterradoras que resultan la efectividad e inmediatez de su efecto.

Algo en lo que la serie se enfoca mucho y a lo que da mucha importancia es el tema de la cooperación, el trabajo y supervivencia colectivos, y la idea de que nadie se salva solo y se debe trabajar en sociedad, retratado en el grupo principal, otro que sobrevive a la par en una iglesia y con cierta delegación de tareas, un tercero que se organiza como un ejército, más tarde en el trabajo en conjunto de la población junto a los militares frente a los enemigos extraterrestres, incluso los alocados y violentos del edificio, planifican y actúan, justamente, en conjunto.

Otro tema importante aunque con un espacio de tiempo en pantalla menor es el sentimiento nacionalista y patriota, reflejado en la asosiación entre pueblo y ejército para recuperar conecciones y comunicaciones y enfrentar al enemigo invasor.

Y finalmente, como el mismo campo electromagnético terrestre es afectado en la serie, y por lo tanto también lo es todo lo electrónico y digital, hay una recuperación de la importancia de lo analógico y de antaño, identificados en algunas líneas de guión, siendo la más conocida y recordada, “lo viejo funciona, Juan”. Además, mediante el rol de Favalli en la tira, se rescata la importancia de la educación en profesiones como ingeniería o mecánica.

Estos temas presentes en la serie son de alguna forma el equivalente moderno a la expresión sociopolítica del original, aunque dirigidos hacia otro lado y actualizados para los tiempos que corren. En tiempos de crisis de representación, política, social y económica del país, y de individualismo, de entrega del país y territorios nacionales, y demérito de las ciencias y la educación terciaria y universitaria públicas, y de uso desmedido y dependencia de electrodomésticos y demás artículos y herramientas digitales, las temáticas abordadas en la serie son más que destacables.

Una última cosa positiva a destacar de esta versión es que Juan Salvo sea un veterano de Malvinas, una acertada actualización al personaje original y acorde al presente de la serie, una pizca adicional de identidad local para el producto, y una dimensión simbólica adicional a la nieve de la serie, la cual le da a las visiones del protagonista el componente adicional de ser un conductor de estrés postraumático, además de funcionar como herramienta argumental ligada a las memorias del personaje principal y sus viajes en el tiempo, elemento que la serie retiene de la obra original.

Ahora bien, con todas las cosas lindas que dije de El Eternauta, también hay que decir que hay bastantes momentos de vida cotidiana que están solo para relajar el argumento, la historia, el tono, el tiempo, el ritmo, los personajes. Por lo demás no aportan mucho o directamente nada y no es como que el elenco sea más explorado o desarrollado a través de ellos. También he de decir que la comedia presente en la serie es bastante mala y juvenil, e incluso es referenciada en una escena que se supone sea dramática y trágica. Y ya que hago referencia a esa escena, hay cosas que son extrañas y no son del todo explicadas, como la repentina locura de Lucas en ese momento, aunque tampoco me parece mal dejar cosas a interpretación del público, justamente algo que realmente no hacía la historieta. Y bueno, obviamente la historia todavía no está terminada, y me preocupa el uso de viajes en el tiempo como herramienta argumental a futuro, eso casi siempre es un problema porque o vuelve a la resolución de los eventos conveniente, o prácticamente obliga a los personajes a ser necesariamente reactivos frente al argumento, pocas veces proactivos.

Por ahora, El Eternauta mezcla decentemente una esencia argentina con una premisa y temas importantes, interesantes y universales, y es un progreso en cuanto a una producción salida de Argentina, así como una mejora en caracterización respecto a la obra original. Con eso dicho, la ambientación y el ritmo presentan problemas, hay comedia y escenas que no suman nada, los personajes son más herramientas argumentales que otra cosa, y la historia todavía no está terminada. Considero que merece un 6/10 por ahora, con esperanzas de que mejore en su segunda temporada.

Note: This will cover both seasons

I barely remember coming across this series by accident by looking through some list, and what a pleasant surprise it was from its premise alone. Workers from a certain company get their brains surgically separated while at work, supposedly to let them work at ease and without the stress from outside, yeah, as if that doesn’t sound like a bad idea from the get go. Well, as we will find out later, the actual people that registered from outside in the first place have several reasons to work there, loneliness, depression after losing their partner, looking for someone, lack of better options or for propagandistic purposes, to promote the process as a good thing.

Although the script is good, what really surprised me was the directing, and even more so Ben Stiller being one of the directors. Although the setting is limited to the office and a house, the characters look like normal people in suits, and the CGI used in the series is not that good, the show manages to look good thanks to a polished production and well made backgrounds, alongside constant use of dynamic camera movements, cameras on rails to follow the characters yet not looking blurry at any moment, sometimes mirror angles, lots of closeups to highlight key details that either show off the good acting or make stand out elements that will be relevant to the plot at some point, fastly interchanged quick cuts to switch from the two people sharing the same body and their perspectives, to the point that the series appeared to be fantasy during the first episode, and so on. Even the weird goo-like CGI is excused when it is revealed to be the remnant memory of black paintings done by the character who was seemingly having hallucinations caused by stress and fatigue.

Since Severance is a mystery show, it needs to have a suspenseful soundtrack, and it sure does, sometimes the music can be quite haunting on top of stressful, and the sound effects are pretty immersive. The acting is one of the best things in the series, both for the creepy looking characters with their fake smiles or their dead looks in their eyes, and the cast that technically plays two different characters depending if they are inside or outside the company, managing two different personalities and sometimes even looks very well, with the highlights being the scenes when one of them changes to the other.

As you would expect from the premise, we see characters wanting to leave, desiring to find out about their lives outside, feeling confined in their workplace and without an actual life, as they clearly are, people from outside pointing out the dehumanizing aspect of the process, and even someone who could leave trying to connect with the main character to explain something to him, and suffering the constant switch ups in his head, both on a mental and a physical level, and even people falling in love with different people outside and inside the building, and the expected consequences when finding out than someone they like inside might already be married outside.

At the same time, the series is clearly a bit of a dark satire of corporativism and office work. People are isolated from everything outside, they barely know about other departments in the same building and what they do, even less so about what they are working for at the end of it all, and they are filled with small self help rewards and places and have to do some cringy team activities for more affinity and building a healthy workplace or something, while in this setting they also get some would they be true or not facts about their outside versions to calm them and make them feel that they are doing fine, I guess.

We also see the antagonists logically watching over the protagonists, prohibiting them from leaving the office, retrieving chips from brains of people that were going through a reintegration process to basically unify their brains once again. But I also have to point out how they let important people without constant watch and harm themselves, and how weird it is for them to let them be nearby people that know their outside selves, why would you risk your whole system like that? Eventually we get an explanation and repercussions, but you would think there would be countermeasures beforehand or quickly implemented after the fact, and also the chip retrieving scenes can be a bit weird, as definitely are the other departments that are found throughout the season, and what the heck was that ritual room and scene even about?

As the second season begins, we see the antagonists reforming the office, logically separating the team but uniting it once again for the sake of completing the project at large, new work conditions and places for the sake of preventing the finale of the first season to happen again, with even stop motion videos, also proving how powerful and untouchable the company really is, and the new floor boss supposedly checking on the mental wellbeing on the workers, while simultaneously dividing them from the inside.

Unlike the first season, we get more shots and scenes and events and story on the outside, exploring the time between the two seasons, the team besides the protagonist getting fired and trying to redo their outside lives before coming back in, and even suffering discrimination for going through the severance process while trying to find new jobs. Also now the team is divided for good after a certain event, and the new floor boss is reprimanded for letting things escalate to that level, which is more logical than how things were happening in the first season.

For the psychological side, we see the protagonist suffering from the same confusing episodes of memories switching as the character from the first season did, and even the same physical consequences, which raises the tension after we have seen what happened to the other guy.

There’s also an almost whole flashback episode to explain the situation of one of the main couples and how they got to the chronological beginning of the story, recontextualizing the plot, their motives and their interactions up until that point, exploring new themes, and a much needed look into what the company intends to do with this process, even if that ended up raising more questions as well. We also finally get to know the origins and the beginning of the severance and how the company has been affecting entire towns for who knows how much time with almost even religious arguments and followers.

There’s even a bit of an existential aspect in the season, as both sides of the protagonist confront themselves near the end and the inside points out that the outside basically asks for him to give up on the little everything he has in his life, even he himself as a whole, for the sake of the person who created him and only decided to reach him in times of need, and isn’t he right about all that? Easily one of the best moments of the series.

The atmosphere is as good as it was in the first season, if not better, and the production went up a notch with more general shots, more variety in settings and backgrounds, more dynamic movements with even more action scenes, and no more weird looking CGI. Unfortunately the directing wasn’t as varied and interesting as it was in the first season, and the pacing is quite slow in the beginning, and quite fast near the end, making some events feel convenient and hurried as a result, thus this entry is not as entertaining and well written as the one before it.

And I have to point out the weak points in the story. Why is the cabin not being monitored at all? Why is the company letting such a valuable woman go her way with such ease with all the potential risk she means for them? Why even have outside activities at all, with, again, all the potential risk that that means for the workers and even a very important person for the company amongst them? Why is the security in this company so bad that it is basically composed of just one guy? Would the plan of the protagonists even work against such a huge and powerful company?

And there are things that just feel weird for the sake of being weird, the whole backstory about the creator of the company, the whole goat department, their outfits, some lines of dialogues feeling cryptic or weirdly written just for the sake of sounding mysterious, the whole thing that are doing with the Cold Harbor file and all, like why? Because corporations are weird and evil?

And I have to say that a good portion of the focus on this season is dedicated to slice of life and romantic moments that are not as interesting as the psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects of the premise and concept.

I hope the third season gives an actual closure to the characters, resolves the loose ends about what this corporation even does and how it does it, they actually take actual measures about all the mess at the end of the second season, I hope for the series to stop having weird for the sake of being weird moments and scenes, and show the consequences once it is known outside what happened on the inside.

Basically I want the series to end on the next entry, because otherwise the show would overextend its welcome, drag itself unnecessarily just for the heck of it, and eventually decline in quality as a result. I rate the first season with an 8/10 and the second with a 7, thus a 7.5 for the whole thing for now.