Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

Note: This will cover the whole franchise up until this point, since I don’t find much to say about each entry on their own.

I didn’t know about this series until the ova mini-series came out and got me interested in the concept right away, as it seemed to be like a fantasy version of The Sixth Sense or something, with the protagonist being the only one able to see supernatural creatures. It didn’t turn out like that at all, but still, a young girl learning magic and finding out about all the supernatural stuff lurking in her world was catchy enough, the occasional tragic deaths, dark elements and great visuals and atmosphere added to the positives, even though at the end of the day it was just a media res demo of sorts.

Then the tv series started and part of that magic was lost to me. Not on the presentation though, as the visuals kept the gorgeous artwork, backgrounds and special effects, that make up for the usually static animation and simple character designs with repeated facial features, while the sound retained the immersive sound effects and atmospheric soundtrack, along with cool and atypical openings and endings, that were also accompanied by a fine voice acting.

The drawbacks were in the plot, as it starts in a very creepy way, with a young human girl being bought as a slave by a skeleton, undead, monster, thing who even has a hidden much more hideous form, thus giving off very bad vibes. Everything seemed to be fine when he intended to make her his apprentice, but as soon as he revealed that he intended her to become his wife, with every secondary character supporting them, everything became hella weird and creepy again.

Aside from that, the atmosphere from the mini-series, while still there, was now interrupted by the typical chibi comedy that you encounter on a shoujo series. It’s still better than most comical moments on a shounen series, mind you, but it still clashes a lot with the rest of the series, resulting in a very annoying mood whiplash.

The setting is somewhat interesting because it takes place in Europe, and because of the influence of European folklore that makes for somewhat captivating vibes and aesthetics, even though the series plays out in a typical fashion for a contemporary fantasy series. The occasional dark themes and violent moments that are presented in a tasteful way are a nice touch too.

Despite that, as much as the series tries to make it seem that there are stakes and the main characters are in danger, both are exceptional and whenever they encounter a threat, they come out fine, are cured by either a super powerful supernatural being that favors them or a risky procedure that comes out just fine, and they get allies and power ups every so often, or reveal to have a hidden super power that lets them face anything just fine.

As for characters, they are memorable more for their characteristics than their personality. A redhead suicidal young female mage that can see creepy supernatural creatures and gets power ups by being cursed, apprentice of a skeleton undead thing that turns into a…I don’t even know how to describe it. Other than that, Chise is mostly an excuse for the viewer to learn about this world, and Elias doesn’t know how to communicate well. Secondary one off characters are somewhat one note but at least have an explored dramatic and sad back story to flesh them out, even though they don’t appear again. Development and catharsis are otherwise nonexistent for the mains, and the secondary ones don’t get that because they disappear from the story soon after they appear.

Thus, I began watching the series thanks to the ova mini-series that presented it as a darker Ghibli movie, and what I got is the most off-putting non-pornographic version of Beauty and the Beast ever, that even though it is a shoujo series, plays out like a typical shounen action series, by giving the super special protagonist favors from super powerful creatures and big powers ups, even with former enemies becoming her allies. The presentation, the dramatic secondary stories and characters, and the occasional dark elements, make it a watchable time waster for me, but nowhere near as promising as it seemed to be.

Then, a later mini ova series came out some years later while the second season was already announced, but unlike the first one it wasn’t liked much. The studio changed, the artwork was a bit compromised and the special effects now included a bit more crude looking CGI. The story was another semi-dramatic story about a secondary one off character, but the uneventful finale and the slow pacing in the beginning and the rushed pacing in the end of it made it very passable and forgettable as a whole, so it’s understandable why it’s the lowest rated entry in the franchise. The sound department was on par with the previous level, so there weren’t complaints there.

Then the second season came out and it wasn’t nearly as popular nor liked as the first, why is that?

No recency bias, no longer a new show, second season of a series with already three entries, with thirty episodes amongst them.

Split cour, the majority doesn’t like that, especially when it comes to a sequel of a two season series.

Also, since the studio changed, the visuals aren’t as polished as they used to be, even though they were improved from the second ova mini-series. The second part in particular has a lot more crude CGI than the first, thus being the worst entry so far in that regard.

Audio wise, the special effects and the music kept being captivating, and that includes the opening and endings, so no complaints there, again. The voice acting for the newly introduced characters include both more veteran and young seiyuus, with everyone doing a good job, so that was actually improved as the franchise went on.

The plot changed slightly though, what used to be a learning process across the countryside with its creepy and captivating encounters with some supernatural horrors, was replaced with a Harry Potter-esque magic high school and arc, Chamber of Secrets for the first cour, with someone attacking others with a dark magic book, and Prisoner of Azkaban for the second, with everyone trapped in the school, in specific. Thankfully, the creepy creatures and vibes, the secondary characters with tragic backstories, the newly introduced conflicts among different families of wizards that reminded me of Fate/Zero and the Waver spin off and led the author to explore the closed, caged, oppressive world of wizardry, along with some slight level of development for Chise who opens to more people and learns to be not AS suicidal, while Elias slowly learns about humans and how to communicate with others, are there, it’s just that the sense of adventure and exploration was lost. The plot progression wasn’t lost however, even though some claim it did, the series was about Chise learning about this world, and it still is about that, only on a school instead of the countryside, ok? The only major difference is no death for a secondary character, but other than that the series remains the same, only on a more limited setting.

What’s unforgivable is how the series had the chance to fix the most off putting aspect of the relationship between the main characters, by revealing that Elias is confused about what his intentions for Chise actually entail, and both of them questioning said relationship, only for them to go “well, as long as we are together, it doesn’t matter if we’re husband and wife, master and slave, teacher and apprentice, father and daughter”, fuck that, it made things even worse.

The opening of the second cour made it look like it was going to be far more action oriented, and although there is a bit more than before, that was never the strongest aspect of the franchise. It also set off all of the alarms for a time travel sort of subplot to take place, but thankfully that wasn’t the case, it was just the characters going down the memory trip.

As a whole, this is a franchise you follow not for the plot, which isn’t very special and progresses very slowly, not for the action, which isn’t very spectacular nor particularly well animated, and doesn’t have much stakes because of how powerful the main characters are or become, and hopefully not for the dynamic of the main characters, which is off putting as hell. You watch it for the presentation and atmosphere, the setting and its creatures, the creepy vibes, and the secondary stories and characters. A mixed bag of a series, but in the end an ok time passer.

I had this ridiculously unnecessarily long title under my radar for a while before it aired because it seemed like it would be cute, but I was also worried because, as other manga and anime before it, it could go down a perverse route at any moment, thankfully it didn’t and remained as it began throughout all of its duration.

There’s nothing special about the show, it’s a typical lighthearted adventure in a typical fantasy setting with a typical class system that makes you think that the characters are in a videogame.

Ok, there is a political plot, and there are powerful demons hidden somewhere affecting the setting in one way or another, but the first is resolved quickly and conveniently, while the second is hardly given much importance, even though it’s hinted that the main girl herself might be another one of those creatures as well, something that the studio seemingly tried to hide by changing a little her original character design.

So, there kind of is a plot and some drama, but honestly, the series is at its weakest when it focuses on that, as things are resolved easily and conveniently, so no attempt at a serious plot is believable nor very enjoyable, the show is at its best when it focuses on what the stupid long title tells you, how the main girl, one of the strongest characters in the world, as protagonists end up being a lot of the times, is a daddy’s girl that cares about going back to her father more than anything else, like saving the world or some shit. That’s why coup d’états can be taken down easily, antagonists are defeated almost instantly, and if they are children, they are forgiven instantly for everything they did, and reformed right away.

There is some action but honestly that’s weak as hell as well, very short, most of it is kept out of screen and from what I understand heavily shortened and altered from the source material, resulting in some really badly planned, storyboarded and scripted scenes, and since the main characters are so strong, they hardly face any threat. It doesn’t help that for a 2023 anime, the visuals in it just plain suck, very simple character designs, generic even for the girls, very inconsistent quality for the artwork, affecting even the models which go off very often, beautiful backgrounds that are unfortunately also affected at times, very bad motions even during the simplest scenes, very simple and uninteresting directing, and the special effects are just the worst, they look at least two decades old.

The audio is good, decent sound effects and ok voice acting, generic but fitting background music, opening and ending that go well with the overall feeling of the show, nothing much to complain or explain in details here.

The characters are very one note, they fit within an archetype when they appear and they stay like that for the whole series, at best they get a bit of their backdrop stories revealed but that’s about it.

At the end of the day this is a series you watch to casually relax with it, for its lighthearted adventure and laid back feeling, of seeing a strong protagonist being a daddy’s girl, as well as many other girls that for some reason all are needing of some fatherly love, whether because they lost their families or because, well, that’s just how Bel is, always charming everyone with his strength, sword technique, good manners, very respectful and understanding way of speaking, and always helping people, reuniting families, and taking care of children or teenagers. There is some underlying message about how no one is truly naturally evil, and that nurture and how we are helped to control our emotions and redo our lives define how we come out to be, even for the demons, thus making the anime standing on a middle point between the victimized ones from Helck, and the pure evil ones from Sousou no Frieren, both airing in the same season. Thus, the message adds to the feel good type of show it is.

If that’s up your alley, despite some very crude visuals, you might have a little good casual time with it, however, if you go into it expecting something like a plot or serious theme exploration or strong characterization in it, you’ll be completely disappointed by it.

Despite probably being one of the least hyped anime in history, I really wanted to watch Bullbuster as soon as I read its premise, because it was about mecha, and because it sounded really retro, immediately making me smile. Unfortunately, besides the meme initial reaction it caused because of the combination of its name and studio, the one behind Deca-Dence, and the second reason why I wanted to watch this, its reception was almost completely negative since the very first episode based on its elements alone, which is sad because it proves that shows like Patlabor or Dai-Guard would be very negatively received today on concept alone.

Granted, Bullbuster has serious issues in its execution, but most of the criticisms towards it come from its elements alone, and not because of its handling of them.

Visually, Nut isn’t a very good studio, and Bullbuster is a very solid proof of that, it looks outdated and uninspired, from its artwork, character designs, five backgrounds being repeated throughout the whole series (water, forest, office, laboratory, restaurant), so-so motions, and crappy CGI monsters, giving it a very mediocre visual presentation as a whole.

The audio is the best part of the anime, even though neither the opening nor the ending nor the background music are remarkable in any way, they do their job just fine, as does the voice acting, which is nothing special either. The sound effects are of inconsistent quality, some are incredible and very immersive, while others are really weak, giving them an average to just good result as a whole.

The premise is about a small company that kills giant monsters with their giant robots on an island, while dealing with issues of funding, bureaucracy, relationships between co-workers, scientists that don’t want to help them or that don’t want to spend money on that, other companies suspecting them, the people that they fight for being disappointed in them, and there’s even some character drama as some of the main ones are directly involved with the starting point of the conflict and the monsters they fight against.

All these elements enrich the plot despite its low stakes and scope, but are also what alienated a lot of the public that went into it for, I guess, a silly comedy based on its name and studio, and received a real mecha type of show that tries to combine all of these elements with different tones.

And that ends up being the main issue of Bullbuster, it doesn’t know how to handle such big mix of many very different elements and tones. There is action and some battle choreography put into it, but at the end of the day every fight is resolved in the exact same way and the so-so motions and the crappy CGI monsters with very uninspired designs for them don’t help one bit. There is some minimum level of mystery about what the monsters are and where they came from but it comes mainly from the people that can find out about it not wanting to do their job properly. There is an attempt of taking the plot seriously, but its progress is slow and its execution leaves a lot to be desired because most of the conflicts come from the characters acting like idiots instead of doing what they should, plus, the comedy prevents from taking seriously anything that happens in the show.

Said comedy is quite goofy and it could be enjoyable in its own, if the series didn’t want to take itself more seriously than it should, there is some character drama but it’s not the best nor the most original thing, it’s something that you can find in any monster movie or show, plus the plot is stopped for a good number of episodes because of it, and the comedy clashes with it, there are also classic naïve and idealistic ideals and ideas that belong more on a super robot than a real robot type of mecha show, here they come off as immature and the cause of problems instead of giving the anime the epic feeling it normally would. Also, despite all the serious issues that the company the characters work for face on a daily basis, each one gets a convenient and naïve solution almost right away, in the same episode or the next one. It’s true that every solution leads to another problem, but that in turn leads to another easy solution, thus any attempt at seriousness and realism is completely ruined.

The revelation, along with the plot twist, of the origin of the monsters is quite good and could have flipped the whole series up until that point, from every inconsistent thing in the writing, to the relationships between companies and even characters, but even that led to nothing special and easy resolutions, and even a finale that feels like sequel-bait.

It doesn’t help that the characters are quite awful. Leaving aside two women, one because she is the only one with a little bit of a backdrop and emotional conflict within the story, and the other one because she is the only one that tries to do things right, everybody else is rather stupid or useless in the plot, if not both things, remains a character archetype throughout the whole anime, acts stupidly and creates conflict in superficial ways because of that, and is overall just not a good person nor an enjoyable character to follow for a whole season.

At the end of the day Bullbuster had an enjoyable first episode in my opinion thanks to being and feeling like a retro real robot comedy in the likes of Patlabor, which was a short silly episodic comedy before it was made into a long episodic slice of life series, and before it was also alternatively turned into a serious crime mystery on separated entries, or Dai-Guard, which had many of the same elements as this anime or Patlabor, but remained mostly a comical take on the usual super robot mecha premise. After that first episode, most of the conflicts in this show came off as superficial because they are all the result of the characters being written like complete idiots and jerks, and any attempt at seriousness is ruined by the bad writing and the poorly timed mixed of action, drama and comedy. Its low rating and negative reception are perfectly understandable, but the reasons behind them are not, since it’s the execution that’s the problem, not the concept alone, as the titles I compared it with proved in the past.

I was initially interested in this anime because its premise made me think it would be a medieval fantasy alternative of Hoshi no Samidare but with a retro protagonist, but the recommendations and comparisons to it mentioned Berserk, which made me even more interested in it, but aside from a few characters dying, I found no similarity whatsoever between the two titles. More people said it’s similar to I’m Quitting Heroing, so I guess I’m gonna watch that at some point for the sake of comparison or something.

Another comparison that was made was with One Punch Man, and initially Helck does play out like a comical take, though not necessarily a straight parody, of the typical fantasy and fighting shounen tournament arc. The plot revolves around a strong human dude that sides with demons and is suspected to be an infiltrator, in the silliest way possible, at least in the beginning.

With one exception, every character acts stupidly, which combined with the superiority of the main character, allows the latter to go up his way in becoming the next demon lord quickly and easily.

If you are a fan of the early episodes and the two, later on three, main characters interacting in silly ways and getting to know each other while interchanging little catchphrases between them, you might get bored or disappointed with the following events, which are an invasion from forcefully mutated humans, while for plot reasons the main characters are either stranded on an island, or go into flashback mode for a quarter of the season.

If, like me, you prefer character exploration, and more or less serious stories, perhaps you might prefer that second half, as the backdrop and mysteries of the main and titular character are revealed and answered, along with the reasons for various characteristics of his, such as his smile, broken weapon, objective, dark power and stuff. Also, the dynamics between the two protagonists evolve as they open to one another and come to understand and trust each other.

While the two main characters are taken away from the plot, and while the series is not in flashback mode, you also get to see other characters doing things, and showing more of their serious side, which they didn’t during the early episodes because comedy equals everyone acting like idiots. One of them plans and strategize, others take down enemies, one infiltrates, and in general is cool to see characters waging war with some sort of strategy and tactic instead of just brawn, at least until the powerful main characters can get back and wipe out every enemy with ease.

The problem is that all of the above comes with the cost of sacrificing plot progression, as about a third or perhaps even half the series is spent on that, main characters introspecting while travelling, allowing the author to explore the setting, and supporting ones and antagonists fighting seemingly with no end.

Speaking about the fighting, since the main characters are so powerful, the enemies are remarkably weaker for plot reasons, and the visuals are rather low budget, this is not really a series that you watch for the action, which is usually short, simple, one sided, low on stakes, and well, not very good looking, as Helck is a series that despite coming out in 2023, looks like it aired back in 2008. The artwork and the coloring, even though they don’t have very noticeable quality drops, look simple, outdated and lacking detail, the character designs are very simple, the backgrounds are ok, the motions are ok in the beginning but become worse later on as the artwork becomes better for some reason, and the special effects look even older and more outdated than everything else.

The music is ok, generic but serviceable, the endings are two cute ballads, and I skipped each of the two openings every time because of how upbeat and unfitting they sounded to me. The sound effects and voice acting are ok as well, though I did not expect a second serious role from Tomokazu Sugita on a single season.

What I didn’t expect from Helck was it being another one of those “humans are the real monsters” type of stories were we are the real bad guys even though actual monsters or in this case demons live in the same world. Regarding this point, the anime does a good job at times, showing more races than just humans or demons, and having some good and bad ones amongst them, or show some completely bad ones being like that because of the setting, which does a good job in exploring the world the story takes place in and builds up more mysteries.

On the other hand there is a serious issue in its theme exploration, since even though several characters say that there are good and bad people everywhere, and humans wanting revenge on the demons for all the killings they did in the past, not a single bad demon is actually shown in the plot, while there are almost no good humans anywhere, while the ones that are shown go as far as killing their own kind for the sake of wiping out their enemies, with over the top, illogical and unbelievable actions, thus the message and theme come off as simple and one sided, as one side of the conflict is completely demonized while the other is completely victimized.

Similar things happen with the other theme of conflict between classes, as the nobles are complete assholes and the real main villains behind everything, while the lower class are all good people and poor victims of the rich.

There are no grays whatsoever in the themes, they are explored in a naïve, simpleminded, one sided and superficial way, so I guess they at least go well with the equally presented protagonist, but it would’ve been better for the show to remain a lighthearted comical adventure if its serious side would turn out like that.

As for the characters as a whole, they are fine, definitely stronger than the simple, kind of weak, and slow moving plot, they become more memorable and are more fleshed out through flashbacks, which show how interconnected most of them are, while others show more of their characteristics, capabilities and come to accept others in a way as the series goes on.

At the end of the day, I feel like you watch this for either the comedy, or the adventure, or the drama, definitely not the action, but not all the elements all together as one single whole, as it feels half-baked. The comedy gets replaced heavily by the drama, which doesn’t come in until half the series, and only after some really silly humor, so those who might prefer the second might not go through the early half to watch the latter. And the adventure is fine for showing the setting, it’s just that at the end of the day said setting it’s quite simple and generic, so it’s not like there is much nor very strong world building thanks to it anyways. The weakest aspect is for sure the plot, which is simple, illogical, slow moving, constantly stalled in one way or another, bad at exploring its themes, and remains incomplete.

If you don’t like any of the above, you might still enjoy the show for its characters, but you’d have to power through the first half of it for that. Or well, you might not like anything in it because of the half-baked way every element is combined with the rest, so you just wasted your time with a 24 episodes series.

Or maybe you are the definitely more rare type to enjoy the whole package. Good for you for enjoying this show as a whole, while everyone else gets bored or disappointed by it in some way or another thanks to one or another element in it.

Dai-Guard is essentially a series that comically combines the super robot type of mecha anime and the real robot type of mecha anime by handling elements of the former in the setting of the latter. It’s simultaneously a comical take on the classic formula and a tribute to some of the most iconic old school titles in the genre.

Visually you can tell the series is outdated, even by its time it isn’t very good. The artwork is kinda weak, the character designs are simple, the coloring has several issues to the point that one character has two different hair colours throughout the series, one seemingly done digitally while the other seems to be done by hand, why’s that? The special effects look cheap and old even for its time, and there is some crude CGI here and there as it was common back then. The motions are also not very good, but at least there is a lot of weight behind them, which is a nice touch, adds to the aesthetics, and fits within the setting and story presented. The backgrounds, especially the inside of the robots, are the best part of the show for the most part, except for the moments when CGI is used.

The audio department is very weak, easily the worst part of the whole series. The music? Generic, forgettable, simple, repetitive, just there most of the time, and that includes the opening, which at least fit the atmosphere of the action part of the show just fine. Both are meant to have that retro and classic feel that the show aims to mimic, and they succeed at that, but the results are still weak on their own. The ending is a cute song that fits the slice of life part of the anime with lyrics that both reflect those bits and are aimed directly to the audience. Not amazing in the least nor very memorable, but the best part of the soundtrack as far as I’m concerned. The voice acting is ok, every seiyuu did their work just fine, it’s just that the series and characters themselves didn’t allow any of them to shine in any particular way, as what was required of them was pretty standard and typical. Akiko Hiramatsu was the best out of the whole cast and showed her range once more, simply by playing the most emotional and explored character in the whole series. The sound effects are laughably weak even by 1999 standards, almost nothing has a fraction of the impact it should.

The plot is about a public relationships team from a security company using the giant robot titular of the show to fight against the token monsters of the series, classic monster of the week formula with a comical spin on it, not only because of the people piloting and repairing it, but also because of its approach itself to it. The mecha doesn’t really look cool, it wasn’t used for so long that it is rather obsolete and broken, it doesn’t have any cool super attacks, all of its said attacks are down to Earth and comical copies of iconic attacks from classic mecha titles, all of its upgrades are simple weapons, it constantly malfunctions, it has to be repaired or refueled in battle, the monsters it fights against have very simple and uninspired designs that range from a freaking giant baseball to a Mega-Man boss reject, minus the last two which came out of Evangelion or something, and in general the characters are reluctant to fight or care more about their daily lives and relationships, their salaries and vacations and the funding to do all the repairs the giant robot needs, than about the fights and the monsters themselves.

Not to say that the battles aren’t given the importance they deserve, despite the comical approach, the same outcomes and weapons used and the low level fights, every monster is different from the others despite having the same weakness, thus every fight requires a certain strategy and a certain field tactic, and it’s cool to watch Dai-Guard itself being affected by the different terrains on which the fights take place and having to adjust to them.

The plot structure follows the typical monster of the week formula, but several elements are added to it to add realism and flavor. Because of all the destruction and funding issues caused by the characters, they eventually have the military controlling what they do and even placing a tactical advisor for them, who of course has another mission behind that position, which eventually leads to the creation of another robot and the army becoming an antagonist of sorts on its own. There is also a member of the board of the company wanting to take over its presidential position and change the division of the main characters, themselves included, new pilots and a new tactical advisor trained by the army taking over the Dai-Guard at some point, political issues with another country and army, and of course evolving monsters, and the everyday things the characters have to deal with. All of that enriches an otherwise dried out formula, even with its own funny spin.

The pacing is good in the initial episodes, as you are shown the concept, premise, main characters, the personal drama of the main ones, the army and board members slowly taking over, new members that are troublesome, changes in the mecha that make things more difficult, the discovery of what the heterodyne (the monsters) are and their natural formation, and there is a bit of character development especially for Shirota the first military advisor, who learns how to talk with common people and do needed things on the fly in the battlefield, as well as for Akagi, the hot-headed, idealistic and impulsive main character who wants to be some kind of hero of justice because of the mecha anime he watched as a kid. The relationships between these two couldn’t be worse in the beginning, yet they are together so much time they come to find a common ground and noticing what the other has that they themselves lack, thus improving the cooperation during the battles against the heterodyne. The series also bothers to show how the common people are affected by the fights, albeit with a lighthearted approach, nothing really tragic in it. So, it does everything that Bullbuster, which finishes tomorrow, does, but better, and with a much better pacing (Dai-Guard does in, let’s say 4 or 5 out of 26 episodes, what Bullbuster does in 10 out of 12).

The middle episodes (let’s say 6 to 18) are the weakest, not so much of the everyday lives of the characters is shown, thus there is no character fleshing, and the fights are weak and silly, to the point of even contradicting the information that was initially provided and having the cast acting out of character at times. There are some good bits in it, like the second robot being made and the army and second advisor becoming a problem, as well as a good message (the public relations division help out people even when they don’t use the robot, giving a new meaning to the catchphrase of the teasers of the next episodes), but in general the plot points presented during this portion of the anime are somewhat poorly handled and not even last long enough.

The army and the board member take over, but everyone is incompetent or an asshole, which goes against the cooperation and common ground presented earlier with Akagi and Shirota, there is a heterodyne that contradicts the earlier information, even if it refreshes the formula for one episode, on which the characters act out of character, a second robot appears but disappears soon after for the damage it receives, when Dai-Guard has taken worse time and time again, there is a really unneeded recap episode (aired first week of the year 2000), the division is dissolved but reformed soon afterwards, and you star questioning yourself why aren’t more pilots being trained and how can it be that there is just one scientist in the whole show. Yes, those things are like that on classic mecha as well, but Dai-Guard was supposed to be a comical and down to Earth spin on it, things should be different in this series.

The final episodes (19 onwards) have some issues, such as the political conflict being resolved easily in just two episodes, a so-so emotional montage, some characters acting differently than they did during the rest of the show, and the directing of episode 20 being way too experimental to the point of being weird, but in general the last bunch, especially after episode 20, are the best portion of the anime, with more character immersion and even a bit of development (especially for Ibuki, the main girl of the show), heterodyne that actually feel like a threat and that you can take seriously, the second robot reappearing with a proper explanation, the feeling and message of cooperation between the civilians and the military for the sake of the country being recovered, a more serious approach to the destruction caused and how the common people is affected, actual evacuations being made, the best directing of the whole series during episodes 21 and 22, and one hell of a final showdown in the last three episodes.

Of course, at this point you ask yourself why they didn’t evacuate on earlier episodes during other attacks, and there definitely was need for some actual deaths at some point, while the ending is not conclusive because there is no actual end for the heterodyne (they are a force of nature), but for the type of lighthearted action show that Dai-Guard is, the final third of the anime is pretty well done.

As for characters, I already talked about Akagi and Shirota, Ibuki is the most and best explored one in the whole show, from her backstory and personal drama, her family wanting her to stop piloting because of it being dangerous, the different pressure she has to face for being a woman, how she slowly becomes a bit more like Akagi, and of course two episodes dedicated to her psyche, repressed memories and development near the end of the show. The third main character is Aoyama but he isn’t explored as much besides his personal drama and slowly taking his job more seriously. The interactions between these three and the side characters are otherwise strong, bouncing off each other during the humorous parts, which I wished more anime had and knew how to make. Development and catharsis are otherwise simple and a bit inconsistent, but fine for this type of show.

As a whole I found Dai-Guard to be both a cool comedy in the likes of Patlabor on its earlier episodes and a cool tribute to classic mecha thanks to its main character and the final third of the show, and a series that’s worth the watch at least once, but it could have been far better if the middle episodes were better handled or some of them skipped entirely.

Similar stuff

Patlabor-Real robot mecha and slice of life comedy franchise (except for the movies that turned into crime thrillers and are far more serious).

Martian Successor Nadesico and Gekiganger 3-Parody and tribute of old school super robot type of mecha titles.

Kenzen Robo Daimidaler-Lewd super robot mecha parody.

Gravion-Lewd and goofy super robot tribute mecha title.

Bullbuster-Very similar but inferior 2023 title.

I’ve seen many comparisons with the previous anime which I found a bit unfair so I thought why not write something about it? With my own take on said comparisons.

In terms of visuals, this remake follows the same idea as the new Bastard!! which was also made by LIDENFILMS. Compared to the previous adaptation, the overall artwork here is more consistent and doesn’t have the same quality drops, and of course the characters look closer to what you can find somewhere else this day, instead of the typical 90s look they had in the 1996 anime. The models are also more consistent, as another decision made with this series was to be more faithful to the source material, which means that this show has less comedy which in turn is not as exaggerated, and thus the characters don’t turn into chibis during the funny moments. Still, from what I’ve seen and read, even the manga has more comedy than this, so clearly there´s an idea of presenting an overall more serious story.
With that said, at some point even the artwork begins to suffer from quality drops and being more inconsistent and with the character models going off.

The coloring is also obviously different from how it was back then, and even the directing seems to focus more on showing the characters, with very little of the backgrounds and even less long shots. A good example of this is the scene where Kenshin closes the door of the dojo and goes towards Kaworu on the first episode. Which is also the reason why the backgrounds on this newer version are such a mixed bag, all the crowds besides the main characters talking and moving instead of just standing still is fine, but the buildings and environment look so…uninspired and unpolished, especially every time that grass and water are shown.

The special effects are overall ok in both versions but don’t really make sense in either of them, as sparks and beams come out when swords clash or just move during an attack. Well, I guess not much can be done when the action is limited to just people jumping and fighting with swords. Also, just like the older series used negative colors at points, the newer show seems to have its own version, as you can see when Kurogasa paralyzes people on the sixth episode. I don’t know, this stuff looked cool to me when I was a kid but come off as silly to me now.

As for the actual animation, the idea behind it is to present the stronger characters as being way faster than everyone else. The 90s anime did it with a few frames followed by speed lines, the newer goes for teleporting the likes of Kenshin or Kurogasa with some light beams here and there to represent the slashes of their swords while everyone else falls to the ground. Since this version is more faithful, Kenshin isn’t AS stronger as he was in the previous anime, and some of the more over the top moments have been changed, as you can notice with how he stuck a dude on the ceiling with his barely visible sword and not just his finger as he was shown doing it in 1996. Both versions have quite limited motions but the 90s version is slightly superior.

As a whole, as a kid from the 90s and someone who watched the original Rurouni Kenshin as one of his first anime at, like, 13, I am biased towards the aesthetics of the previous version. The coloring and models may be more inconsistent, and the chibi bits unnecessary and clashing in tone, but there was a certain charm and warmth in it that the newer anime simply lacks, making it a bit more soulless. With that said, the highlights of the show are still left to be adapted in this version, so visuals and directing might surprise us all once the big arcs are adapted.

What’s undeniably worse in the new version is the sound department. The original Rurouni Kenshin has one of the best and most iconic soundtrack in any fighting shounen anime, for some even in the medium as a whole. Personally I don’t rank it THAT high, but I consider it to be very very good. The remake has a serviceable music, nothing wrong with it, but it just can’t even begin to think of competing with the older one.

Something I was never fond of in the original were both of its openings. I know they are some of the most cherished of all time, but to me that has to do more with nostalgia than anything else. The music in both is…acceptable, and the visuals and songs flow together really really well, but I just can’t stand the voice of the singer, which I rank among the worst I have heard in the whole medium. And I still prefer them to whatever the new anime went for in its first intro song, which not only do I think it sucks and skip every time, it doesn’t even fit the series, though to be honest, I thought the same thing with the classic ones. The second one is much better in my opinion, even if it’s still just fine.

As I mentioned in my Ravages of Time and Oooku reviews, what pisses me off not only about the Kenshin remake but other series like Vinland Saga and Golden Kamuy is that they are historical series, yet don’t even try to mix some elements from their time periods and setting to their intros. Just look at the latest one from the third anime I mentioned, which is half rap and half English, for a series that happens during the Russian-Japanese war and a big part of it is showing the Ainu culture. But apparently none of that matters as long as the song hypes you up, even with series that are not supposed to hype you up.

To me, openings and endings are not important nor do they reflect the quality of an anime in the least, but since they exist, they shouldn’t just promote an artist or sell on the product to be considered great, they should also reflect what the shows are like. Otherwise you end with the Death Parade situation, one of the most dramatic anime of all time about dead people, where the intro has one of the most unfitting upbeat songs ever while the characters dance like idiots to one of the silliest sounding voices I have heard in my life. If they don’t, they are just like those misleading trailers for movies and stuff, and since those are criticized, I don’t see the reason why these shouldn’t be as well.

Something that I always preferred in the 90s anime where the ending songs, there were seven of them if I remember correctly, and although they didn’t fit the anime that well either, by themselves they were pretty good songs, and just like the openings, the directing in all of them was great. The new anime has a first outro so bad and unfitting I couldn’t even finish it the first time, and I proceeded to skip it every single time. The second isn’t as bad, but I still find it unfitting and nowhere near as good as the ones from the previous anime.

The sound effects are…serviceable on both versions. The 90s one had good ones for its time that are outdated by now at times and surprisingly good at others. The most iconic fighting scenes and techniques haven’t been covered yet, so maybe this will change once that happens, but so far the adaptation from this year has presented some very stock sound effects. Again, not bad, but very generic and forgettable, and inconsistent in how impactful they are in different episodes. As a whole, this aspect is the one where both series are more on par with the other than anything else.

As for the voice acting, I can’t help but think that no version is really good, and ultimately, deciding which is the best one comes down to personal preference. The 90s anime had a curious cast, where a big portion of the most important characters were voiced by people that either weren’t voice actors, or barely have had experience in the field at that moment. Yet at the same time, others were performed by people that were already veterans, or would become veterans just some years later. The end result ends up being a mixed bag by itself. The thing is, the newer one was well selected and the voices fit the characters well and their performances are good, it’s just that it has a huge legacy to face. As so-so as the original voice acting was, those people voiced the characters so many times across so many different products, they inevitably got better at it, and practically became the characters themselves for long time fans.

To speak a little about the most noticeable changes, Kaoru sounds sweeter and younger now than she did back then, not just simply because Rie Takahashi sounds like that, at least when she uses her cute tone, but also because in the 90s anime, Kaoru was a lot more violent, a trait that many female leads had around that time for comical effect, that as a far as I remember from the little I read of the manga, she wasn’t like that in the source material, thus making her newer self to be more faithful to the original. In the end, both are good and fitting for the different takes on the character.

I don’t know who voices Sanosuke now but he sounds like Yuuichi Nakamura to me, his voice sounds good and fitting to me, and frankly I prefer this voice actor to Yuji Ueda, who I never liked much. With that said, the new voice lost the raspiness of the original, again, it’s not bad, but this way the character lost a little of the aggressiveness and the idea of a “badass sounding guy” from back then.

The biggest, most notorious and most divisive change was of course Kenshin, who now is voiced by a man and not by a woman. The thing is, the casting choice back then wasn’t just because, there was an in-story and directing reason for it. As he is supposed to be based around a supposed real samurai that was rumored to be a woman or a boy for how young he looked and sounded. Also, because that voice was simply funnier during the comical moments, which were drastically changed or removed in this anime. Since the new adaptation goes for a more serious approach and tone, the male voice fits better with the new take on the character, just like Kaoru. This way, the change from the normal Kenshin to the angry Kenshin or the Hitoriki Battousai may not be as impactful and noticeable as it was before, but eh, you gain some, and lose some.

Tomokazu Sugita as Kurogasa. He is a good actor that always gives his best on every performance, but I just can’t take him completely seriously for some reason. He did very well with his character, who was remade to look and sound younger than he was in the previous version, but he is simply not in the same league as Akio Ohtsuka for me.

Satoshi Hino as Saitou. I expected Ken Narita to take over what was once a role of the late Hirotaka Suzuoki and nailing the performance once more as his perfect replacement, but whenever this actor, Hino, uses his serious voice he isn’t bad, here he did a great job.

As a whole, the sound department is overall better in the original anime, but the voice acting is on par on both versions because of the different takes on the characters and tone on each one, and if for some reason you must choose one over the other, it ends up coming down purely to personal preference.

As for the writing, the plot revolves around a samurai from the Bakumatsu era reflecting on all the killings he did for achieving peace, and defending innocent common people in the Meiji era, as he is constantly challenged and faced by his past in one way or another. The show as a whole follows a very standard classic fighting shounen formula, in the first episodes Kenshin finds what comes to be the main group of characters, while he goes around saving folks from the corrupt authorities like Zorro, basically. Then a short arc establishes said group for good as well as his main rivals during the series, and then two (or three) big arcs follow, and then the series ends.

This essentially means that at the beginning, the anime is rather slow moving, even more so if you only watch this version and are used to the pacing of newer action shounen. Still, in terms of writing and pacing, things that I consider are most important, the new anime beats the original as far as I’m concerned. This season decided to adapt a short prequel manga which wasn’t all that good, even if it served to explained a major aspect of the main character, before stopping at the beginning of a big arc, one of the most highly acclaimed in the whole medium, so its quality is affected because of that compared to the previous adaptation, but in its favor it removed all the filler present in that version.

Not to say that fillers are bad by themselves, sometimes they can add more build up for a better pay off (Dragon Ball), rearrange events for the better (Hokuto no Ken), or show more fights that are completely skipped in the source material (Yu Yu Hakusho), but in the case of 90s Rurouni Kenshin, they were mostly used to stretch the duration with minor fights in between against clearly outclassed enemies, and then finishing the series with 32 episodes of original material that, before the so called big three, were considered to range from average to the worst filler arcs in all anime, before ending incomplete, with a sequel that was half recap and half rushed storylines, with a divisive original ending, which I personally found good and fitting. As good as the Kyoto arc may be, it can’t make up for so much inferior content.

Even when taking differences from both anime aside, I still don’t consider the writing in any of them to be that good. Sure, the characters talk about the new and the old eras, there are clashing ideological and political views, which in turn serve to flesh out the cast and what not, but the dialogues themselves are quite simple and come down to preachy monologues, as you would expect from a politician during a speech, basically. Plus, on a series where Kenshin is faced and challenged about his ideas and past actions, and what they led to, it’s a bit of a flaw when he is clearly right all the time since, besides Hajime Saito and Aoshi Shinomori, every other guy he fights is presented as a psycho, while he is the only one that makes a real point, and has grown and matured over time.
The exposition is awkward in both versions, since information and backdrops for the characters are presented in quite random ways and moments.

Speaking of characters, since the anime is all about fleshing out Kenshin, he is hands down among the best protagonists in all fighting shounen and the medium in general, while everyone else fills their role just fine. Kaoru is an ok love interest, and despite her naivety, she brings him the peace he so much longed for, and serves as the representation of his ideal new era. Yahiko is an ok student of both, he begins as weak and very rude but grows consistently in later arcs, and Sanosuke goes from a brute that fights against everyone just because, to the biggest bro that ever broed as the series goes on, way before Roronoa Zoro. His backdrop story was changed a little in the original anime, but both are good on their own.

Since the new adaptation took away all the filler of the previous one, that also means that the main cast no longer interacts with some recurring minor characters from the 90s anime, they added nothing on their own to be honest, but served to flavor the main ones during the relaxing moments and give the previous version that certain charm and warmth that the newer series lacks for the sake of plot progression, gain some, lose some.
Aoshi and Saito like I said are the only decent rivals Kenshin has in the early episodes and arcs. The former for his code of honor, the latter for being the strongest not psycho opposition to the protagonist in both strength and ideals.

As for what’s in for the future, the highly acclaimed Kyoto arc will present a whole new decent set of antagonists with strong backdrop stories and even different dynamics amongst them, while keeping all the themes from the series. If the remake adapts that arc with the same seriousness as this season, it will increase its overall quality by a lot. With that said, said arc will still have typical fighting shounen issues, such as characters fighting one against one while calling out their attacks and fighting styles as they already did so far, in unrealistic fights, especially for an historical series and setting, but at least all of that will lead to an epic and bittersweet finale.

When comparing the value of both series, the new one is clearly at a disadvantage, as the 90s anime was one of the most famous and beloved from its era, with some of the most praised arcs and soundtracks in the medium that made it super memorable, and it didn’t have much competition out there, while the newer one, while I’d bet it was big in Japan, didn’t have nearly the same impact in the west, partly because of nostalgic bias in favor of the previous version, but also because of all the competition it has right now, as well as many refusing to watch a series made by a pedophile author.

As for what is the version that I personally enjoyed the most, it’s the prequel ovas followed by the live action movies, but limiting it to these two, I have to go with the newer one by a little. As much as I prefer the aesthetics and the 90s feel of the previous anime, keeping the core story without all that inferior filler made it a more pleasing experience altogether for me.

In the end, I give the edge to the original anime only by a little thanks to its aesthetics and legacy, and only compared with this particular season. If the following ones do a job as decent as this one, or even better improve it with more polished dressing, I will rate those ones higher, and place the remake altogether as better as the older series.

Remake 6/10 for now
Original 6.5/10

March 22nd 2025 UPDATE

Well the second season is here and I’m sure that what most people would want to know about it is if the visuals improved from the previous part, and the answer is…a little bit, but ever so slightly it’s not even that noticeable. The artwork, storyboard, character figures are all practically the same. The actual animation and the special effects are a bit better, particularly during fight scenes, and partially thanks to not try to mimic 90s special effects as regularly as the previous entry did. The backgrounds improved a little as well. The downside is the directing, which is still rather uninspired and doesn’t add much, particularly to the action. Some of the key moments like Kenshin training with Hiko Seijuro were done justice, but others, like his fight with Cho, could have been better. In all, the visuals improved a little compared to the first season, but are still below the ones from the 90s.

Even the audio aspect improved a little thanks to the sound effects not sounding like stock material, they are louder, more impactful and plain better than the ones used before, for sure. Unfortunately everything else feels about the same, the music is still just ok and doesn’t add anything to the scenes to make them memorable. There are two new openings and they both suck, like Kenshin’s openings always did, and two new endings, which although they are typical romantic jpop stuff, they reflect the perspectives of the girls from the series fine, and are not bad on their own, definitely an improvement over the ones from the previous season. The voice acting is still fine, but like I said a year ago, the tendency to have the characters sounding younger (and hotter) to match the younger looking designs from this remake keeps being the same. The cast did an appropriate job, and is full of recognizable names in it, of whom you can usually expect good results of, but it is definitely not as iconic nor as crazy sounding as the one from thirty years ago.

Since the major arc of the show started, the writing definitely improved by having less mini arcs against minor opponents, and having a long ongoing arc full of important events instead. There is kind of a lot of character immersion, flashbacks of Kenshin’s previous life from bonus manga chapters that are better than the ones from the first season, clashing ideological and political views discussed with some more details, and the protagonist actually struggling against his opponents for a change. Add to that the main cast trying to find out about the schemes of the main villain, who keeps stuff secret even from most of his strongest underlings, and the whole of Kyoto at stake for a sense of pressure.

With all that said, the anime is still a rather typical fighting shounen, so minor villains are changed after just a speech from the protagonist, major ones keep going after the main character one on one as they have some quite unrealistic fights; there is lots of downtime and training, and comical moments thanks to the newly introduced support cast. At the very least the training doesn’t last for long, and it’s a nice change of pace of main characters becoming far stronger practically out of nowhere or out of screen, as the genre tends to do these days. The downtime serves to show the thoughts and feelings of the characters, and the comedy, as silly as it is, is not overdone nor thrown in during dramatic or serious scenes. The major issue is of course the lack of a proper ending, but that is preferable over rushing through the whole content just to get to the major events, that was done before in this franchise and nobody liked it. Filler was added to make a specific plot point last longer than it did time ago, but resolution aside, I didn’t find it to be bad.

I don’t have a lot to say as far as characterization goes, but Kenshin keeps being great and looked into, Kaoru keeps going after him, Sanosuke comes across against an enemy and learns a technique from him on his quest to become stronger and help Kenshin and everyone else, Aoshi keeps spiraling down, and Saito appears as someone to figure out Shishio’s schemes and challenge Kenshin’s pacifist ideas.

For newly introduced characters, minor side characters appear to remind Kenshin of his wish of a peaceful era, Hiko Seijuro hits him with the idea that trying to achieve that dream and refusing to kill a dangerous and strong enemy like Shishio aren’t compatible, just like Saito. Misao appears as just a funny fangirl but gets a growth after learning a hurtful truth and realizing she has to become a leader (or so it seems). Shishio Makoto is strong, deranged, scheming, imposing and manipulative, even to his own men, so he is great as a villain. From his henchmen, the only ones that get fleshed out a little are Cho, appearing as just an evil asshole but with a sense of loyalty, and Hoji, willing to do the dirty work needed, sacrifice himself, or even defy Shishio himself, all for the cause.

So the season as a whole was a slight improvement over the first one, but it still quite can’t reach the levels of the previous adaptation. Nevertheless, all things considered, it leaves me somewhat hopeful to see it getting better on the next one, as it will be the most important part of the series with most of the key moments.

6/10 for the second season 

This is a series with an interesting premise and concept, numerous revelations, growing stakes up to shake two worlds collapsing into each other, ideas about the next step for humans or something, an anti-escapism message, and characters that do change throughout it. It should’ve been a good and quite praised series, and yet it’s not, why’s that?

Inconsistent aesthetics

The first and most superficial reason, yet true to these days, is that visually is not great. For a show about people playing a videogame, the game itself doesn’t look very engaging, the avatars look plain and some are not very different from the real people using them, the setting in the game is both typical and unexplored, the artwork, backgrounds and special effects in it look outdated for a 2023 anime. The real world looks more polished than the VRMMORPG that the characters play, despite being limited to a house, a hospital, and buildings, the artwork in the real world and the backgrounds in it look more detailed and updated than the virtual world, even the real character designs are more interesting to look at than their in-game avatars, how is that possible? I swear, in this trapped in a videogame sub-genre, only .hack//Sign did the designs properly, and that’s the oldest and one of the worse looking of them all!

Uneven atmosphere

For a series that tries hard to be a psychological thriller and at times even horror, it sure likes to mix the oldest, most simple, most generic, childish even, type of comedy, and a lighthearted adventure type of feeling during the game, and that clashes a lot with the pretense of a serious show about serious topics. Plus, just like the visuals, the in-game soundtrack and sound effects go completely unnoticed and aren’t impactful enough. Again, the real world just sound better, especially when reality begins to collapse near the end of the series. Voice acting is not very impressive on either side, but works just fine for what the series needed and was going for.

Interesting concept and themes but bad writing and characterization

Now on to some real issues regarding the writing itself. Superficially, Good Night World should’ve worked just fine, especially for our current times. It’s about game addicts, a very relevant topic today, that play a videogame using virtual reality, so the technology is up to date, if not advanced and a tentative look into a possible future, and the main ones are all a family, so it also tackles into the internal issues of a dysfunctional family, it has an ever present and catchy element of an advanced AI developing itself to the point of becoming semi sentient, and threatening to take over the world, and a villain that thinks that that’s what’s needed in order for humans to take a needed next step in evolution for both the species and the world itself and that kind of stuff, eventually the two worlds and realities start to converge and collapse into each other and a lot of people die either mentally or both mentally and eventually physically, as it usually goes with this type of premises, so the scenario is both familiar and on theory exciting, as the stakes are seemingly incredibly high, one of the main characters is directly responsible for everything that happens, and having someone that tries to fix past mistakes it’s always catchy and relatable, and everyone is messed up in one way or another, which well-handled can potentially lead to powerful character development and arcs. The problem lies in the writing itself and its poor handling of everything.

Overreactions

First of all, if you thought that people on previous videogame anime took their games seriously to the point of making you cringe, think again after you watch this because this anime takes it to a whole new level. Over here there is the inceptive of money alright, and a big prize at that, but only a few characters are really interested in that, others just want to escape reality within the game, and get extremely offended when someone say that ”it’s just a game” and take it on a personal level. Regardless of their motivations for playing the game, everyone acts like psychos, which is all well as far as showing how extreme some real people from our real world can take it, and as long as the payoff is good, but over here you never feel that that’s the case, as most characters stay the same without changing in the least, while the only few that develop do it in a way that feels like character rewrite instead of organic development.

Weak characterization

The main characters themselves are very messed up, a shut-in nini that only cares about his unreal family and that only knows how to say shit and fuck, his brother, who is completely different in-game than he is in reality, a chronically online mother, away from the family, or so it seems, and a neglected father who is honestly a complete piece of shit and only makes matters worse. In short, they are all awful and you don’t really want to follow them, at least not without knowing if they change and grow to be better by the end of it.

And as it turns out, none of them do, or at least not in a way that feels plausible. The older brother is the one with the most focus in the whole series, and the one you feel will be the hardest to develop, yet he takes most big revelations straight and changes completely by the end of the series, although in sudden ways. For such a character, he sure can adapt and grow as a person rather fast, and that is not very believable, especially for someone that never tried to fix his “shitty reality”.

The younger brother is completely different in reality than he is in the game, and although that’s fine and a good representation of what can happen in real life as well, once you get to know his real self you notice how he lies to others and himself, and that he seemingly is aware of everything that’s happening. Just like his older brother, he doesn’t even try to do something to fix the situation, making him a big hypocrite with an unbelievable change with no buildup throughout the series.

The father is plain awful, just how much can you mistreat your wife and kids, act completely different in-game, be responsible for numerous deaths, create something terrible without taking proper care of it, and that leads to a big catastrophe, and still be forgiven and redeemed because of “reasons” and “character development”? Well, this character sure can’t, as he is consistently awful throughout the whole show, until he does the most unbelievable 180 at the end of the anime and gets the most undeserved happy catharsis I’ve seen in an anime in my whole life, man, and I thought Domain of Murder was bad at that.

And the mother is completely wasted in the anime, she is never looked into, she reappears in the real world of the series out of nowhere in her presentation scene, she reconnects with her sons just fine making it seem that the problem wasn’t that big nor very difficult to solve in the first place, the anime hints at her being possibly cheated on, adding to making her a miserable character, she knows the way younger girl that’s interested in her husband, with the connection between them never being cleared, and does absolutely nothing of importance throughout the series, nether in-game or outside of it, she is just there, not even playing the role of emotional or moral support of the family that ties it together in the end, that’s something that the men, forced by the writing, do by themselves, so she is relegated to a character that does not do even that.

And that’s only for the main ones, if you want to talk about the secondary characters, one is a psycho obsessed with money, others like to distress by being assholes in-game but remain completely unexplored otherwise, the main antagonist wants to erase and rebuild the whole world while being a literal kid that is not fleshed out nearly as much as needed so where the hell does he come from with that, others take their in-game role very seriously and are perfectly fine with dying for his cause without being fleshed out in the least, and there is even one that gets a lot of focus for a few episodes, that acts like a spoiled and bratty child, doing what she wants only out of a superficial and childish “love” for a person that she doesn’t really know about and that only used to be edgy along with her, and for what? To have all of her backdrop story to be revealed out of nowhere as a completely fabricated lie before literally being erased from the story, talk about a complete waste of time and pacing and also, bro, what the hell am I watching?

Ridiculous revelations

That one particular character that turned out to be an AI is just the prime example of the numerous instances where the series wants to catch the viewer by surprise with a big revelation, or a newly introduced element and topic, a big plot twist that changes the series completely, or a cliffhanger that makes the audience impatient to watch the next episode. It was done so much to the point of having no downside to take everything in or connect with the characters, or let them be explored and developed in a way that feels organic, and above all, it was done in a way that nothing seemed anticipated in any way and everything felt like an asspull. The best way I could come up with to describe the show, is if .hack/Sign was written by JJ Abrams, a guy known for stuffing his products with numerous plot twists and plot points just to surprise the viewer without ever caring about consistency nor logic. And apparently I’m the only one who thought that a series with broken people trying to connect with others through a videogame, something that they couldn’t do in the real world with their real families, an advanced AI going crazy and affecting the real world and people, and a dead girl resurrected in a way, in the form of an AI, and being hidden in a game as one of its main objectives and reasons for its existence, with a girl falling in love with the protagonist and trying to reconnect him with reality, and anti-escapism messages, is similar to that anime, guess that shows how much it was forgotten.

Inconsistent stakes

As it’s usually the case with badly written fiction, side characters receive the worst outcomes for the sake of making it seem like there are stakes, while the main ones go practically unharmed. Secondary assholes? They get trapped in an eternal limbo of mental torture until they fucking die, but the main ones? They can find a solution that has practically no way of working, and yet it works only for them. Other unlucky side characters die when the two worlds start to collapse into each other and onto themselves? The main ones go completely unharmed with no problem, even the ones that are considered unimportant for the making of a new, better world or whatever.

Asspulls and cheesy writing

And why is that? Well, aside from being the main characters, it’s because they get to keep the super powers they have in-game in the real world, or develop even better and more broken new ones in a hurry without much explanation other than the very short and not very clear sequences that are supposed to excuse what’s happening on screen, even though the show does spend a good chunk of time in exposition about less relevant stuff that goes nowhere, during previous episodes. In case they don’t, they’ll find an improbable solution just fine, based on the power of love or some corny shit like that, don’t worry about that.

Immature presentation

And of course, all of that comes accompanied with an edgy presentation. Messed up characters, everyone swearing, yelling at the top of their lungs, gory imagery, no subtlety whatsoever. For a series that wanted to explore serious themes and topics, it comes off as a pretentious edgy shocking show for teenagers instead.

Conflicting ending and messages

The finale is the typical happy one that seemed to have fixed everything with a reset of sorts, which is lazy in itself, but even then the anti-escapism messages are not well delivered, as the characters change completely in ways that don’t feel organic, and if the very last scene means what it suggests, then they didn’t really actually manage to escape, so what was even the point of the whole thing? It affects the main message because of that, you can’t have a proper message if the character arcs which are the base for it aren’t well handled, and the ending goes against and contradicts said message.

Rushed pacing

Perhaps, the result of every issue besides the presentation is the rushed pacing itself, which tried to cram a 52 chapter manga in a single season tv anime series. Pluto managed to do that but only by adapting everything into hour long episodes, at the expense of accessibility and enjoyability, while Good Night World clearly tried to do the exact opposite thing. Based on one review I read, it seems that even the source material has this issue of having a short yet very overcomplicated and overstuffed plot with poor handling, but it’s still clear that the anime tried to do a speedrun of the whole thing and threw as many revelations and plot twists per episode as it could in order to come off as exciting, engaging and addictive, and just like it happened to The God of Highschool some years ago, it backfired horribly because you can only do it so much before even most of the casual viewers are unhappy with your product.

Conclusion

As a whole, I found it to be an ambitious and semi memorable show with many interesting ideas and good intentions within a rather complex and layered plot, but poor decisions in its handling, pacing and progression, ending, tone and presentation, that ended up ruining the whole thing. Interesting to give it a try for its themes and topics, but a not worth watching complete mess as a whole. I’d suggest watching .hack//Sign instead, if you are a veteran viewer that can stomach very talky and slow moving plots.

Ever since the trapped in videogame type of isekai sub-genre became a fad, you could read some people saying that this one show, the first of them all by a long margin, is actually the best, and since those comments come from people who hate that genre, I always wanted to check it out. I was initially planning to review the franchise as a whole once I finished it, but who knows if that will even happen.

Obviously, this anime is quite outdated when it comes to visuals, for a 2002 anime the artwork is solid and the backgrounds are great, while everything else is just fine, the character designs were once iconic, but now come off as simple and kind of generic, plus the character models can be inconsistent at times. Since the series is dialogue-heavy, the characters remain mostly standing or sitting while talking, which means the actual animation is mostly static, even though there are a few fights in it, which in turn are decently animated for the time but the motions are still nothing very impressive. Coming from that era, most of the special effects are quite good, but there is also prominent CGI that by now is crude and weak looking, not so much as there was in other shows from that time, thankfully, but it’s still there and affects the overall.

The sound department was and is still praised, the sound effects were very good for its time, although a bit outdated by now, the voice acting a bit atypical and very mature for its type of series, with Mitsuki Saiga being the best possible choice for the protagonist, and the soundtrack is easily among the best and most atmospheric in the whole medium, especially the opening. The composer is the well-known Yuki Kajiura, who would go on to make very similar soundtracks in later works, mixing a little bit of different influences depending on the aesthetics of each title. The problem here is the directing, which is weird at times, using the themes in ways and moments that feel misplaced, which is why I have to take a point from the overall sound department.

The plot has to do with people playing a VRMMORPG, but one of them, the protagonist, can’t logout, so it becomes a problem because of the effects that that can have on her body, and for everyone else, who considers her a cheater that’s breaking the game and is responsible for certain things that are happening in it.

The series is not an action adventure like every other that would follow it in its genre, it’s a mix of slice of life, as it shows the role playing of everyone and what and how they do in the game, as well as real life issues of each one becoming important regarding character dynamics, and mystery, as the objective is to find the true identity of the main character, aspects of the videogame they play, and by extension the setting itself, from its very core and beginning, as well as finding a McGuffin that can lead to that, and also, well, prevent the world from that game to crash, of course, that was obviously needed to happen.

The anime shows how some of the characters take the game more seriously than others, some just want to have a good time, some just want to chill out, and others take their in-game roles very seriously, more than they should, which is actually a bit of a weak point from the anime. Well, at least every perspective is explained through the exploration of the characters both in game and also outside of it, though to a much lesser extent, with the exception of the main character, of course.

Some, mainly the protagonist, are there for escapism purposes, others to build bonds that they lost in real life, or to do something for someone else, and it’s interesting to see how everyone is confronted about what they want to do in-game and their way to achieve that, with obviously the anti-escapism of the main character being the main theme, character arc, and message in the show.

And that’s its main difference with the other series in its sub-genre, which would ditch every attempt at a serious exploration of a meaningful message nor care for characterization, and mutate into power fantasies where bland overpowered otaku and/or gamer protagonists with no personality whatsoever defeat one dimensional villains and get all the girls in the world.

.hack//Sign is not like that in the least, Tsukasa is initially distant and aggressive towards others, a loner, cynical even, and although that makes up for a good character arc as she warms up to others and face her reality, it’s true that you don’t want to follow a main character like that all that much. Well, at least her reactions are justified when you take in count that a lot of players attack her out of the blue with no explanation nor much solid justification. That is a nice detail not only because it shows that she is not very liked by others, but also because it establishes her character better than just having her being an antisocial just because and to fit with the emo fashion of the era. I said that but that aspect of her personality is also explored through her in real life persona and drama, which is quite heavy and serious and treated tastefully, and obviously won’t be covered here.

She is also not powerful in the least, if I remember correctly she is a middle level spell caster in the game, and although with very high potential, it also means that could be beat by anyone in a 1v1 in the game, if not for the broken items she acquires at some point, which actually turn on herself after a point for plot reasons.

Another good aspect of the show is showing how the existence of Tsukasa is seen by the rest of the players, as a some sort of threat for the stability of the game and world they interact in and with, leading some to go for aggression, while others try to communicate, reason, understand and bond with her, to get to the bottom of the mysteries of the show together. Eventually this is resolved and abandoned because of the stakes that the show goes for near the end, when everyone unites to face the biggest threat and matter at hand. That is something that I also found to be a positive, compared with other anime from the genre that have high stakes from the beginning, but also characters that don’t care much about them, or give more importance to whatever the protagonists do in ways that don’t feel plausible in the least, and that make them look like idiots.

Another thing I never liked on later titles is how similar the avatars of the players were to their real life designs, .hack//Sign not only has them looking completely different in game, some even change their gender, something that also happens in our real world and life.

Now for the negatives for which I don’t rate .hack//Sign higher despite my praises.

First, although the protagonist is eventually fleshed out and developed and gets a catharsis, as I said she wasn’t very likeable in the beginning, it’s understandable for the reasons I mentioned, but not many would have the patience to follow a main character so apathetic that also has amnesia, thus being both unlikeable and mysterious in a bad way, since she doesn’t remember who she is, and thus can’t be fleshed out until late in the series.

Then, as well done as it is, this is still a series where people take playing a videogame more seriously than they should, they are not even professional gamers, why do they care so much? It’s kinda cringy to watch.

Then, as much as the series tries to introduce high stakes near the end, at the end of the day, it’s still just the world within a videogame, besides the protagonist, everyone can just logout and unlike later anime, death is irrelevant for everybody besides the protagonist here, so the stakes are not as high as the show tries to make it seem like they are.

Speaking of which, Tsukasa goes through several life threatening situations, which in theory should raise the stakes since she can’t logout, and thus starts feeling the effects of the game on her own body, but something happens to either save her in the last moment, or even after apparently being badly hurt, the only thing that get affected are her memories and stuff, which she regains at the end anyways.

Also, it doesn’t make much sense for the antagonist to let her roam free throughout the series while she needed her, that’s what ends up being her downfall in the end.

Then there is the end of the series, which at the last moment throws a cliffhanger hinting at more stuff to come, which you’ll never get to see unless you read other manga, or light novels, or play the videogame series, or listen to drama cds. The series is just a middle point, and its ending the entrance, to a much much bigger and longer franchise, which tarnish what was otherwise a very solid ending up until that point.

Two ovas were released afterwards, and they are not worth watching in the least. One is mostly and unrelated and irrelevant side story of a character that doesn’t appear in the main series, until it shows a bit of the past of a main character, which not only comes out very late, but it also contradicts part of what was shown about her in the series, while the other is just fanservice for longtime fans of the franchise, since it reunites the cast of the anime with ones from the games, some of which have very similar character designs and thus ruins the uniqueness of the ones from the original, because it takes place after the all the plot points from the initial games are over, thus, if you are an anime only, like myself, you won’t even have an idea who all those people are and where did they come from, and even then, that ova can barely count as an outcome, as it is just a festival for the characters to celebrate, while not bringing closure to the anime in the least.

Its legacy was apparently quite tarnished, since the genre moved on to something completely different than it, and later entries wouldn’t follow its ending, and would mutate to a more comical and lewd approach, thus departing from what gave it its uniqueness in the first place.

Personally, I enjoyed .hack//Sign a bit, for basically being the opposite of what I came to hate about modern anime in later years, but it’s still understandable why it’s not liked very much. It’s visually outdated, it takes a while for the protagonist to become likeable, there aren’t many nor very high stakes, the series is incomplete, and people usually want to watch videogame anime for their takes on the core mechanics and the adventures in the world the makers come out with in their series, not a very static and dialogue heavy anti-escapism series about the introspection of antisocial people or straight up losers. And even I had a bit of a tough time to appreciate the anime, despite loving some heavy dialogue series and movies, because those are usually about existential or psychological topics, while this one is about people taking seriously playing a videogame. It’s worth watching for its themes, messages, character immersion and atmosphere, but the plot is certainly not very engaging and slower than it needs to, and the ending is somewhat lacking, so it’s more of an acquired taste type of show for veteran viewers, the exact opposite of what you’d expect from its premise, and what its genre would become.

After twenty years, it’s finally here, the long awaited adaptation of the beloved manga Pluto, itself a reversion of an arc of Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy, and although it rearranged the order of some events, it did a great job in translating the original to the screen.

In terms of visuals, as you have come to expect from something done by Naoki Urasawa, there is a consistent artwork, realistic character designs, beautiful and accurate renditions of real locations around the world, and great paneling and special effects. The anime does a good job in capturing the aesthetics of the manga but not in the same level of quality, the artwork is indeed very good, the backgrounds are indeed beautiful, and the updated designs for the robots are far better than the originals from seventy years ago, but as it happens with everything from the author, the human characters have very similar faces, reading the manga and watching this anime feels like you are consuming Monster all over again. Plus the anime has very static animation, with very few very well animated and very well directed scenes, and although the special effects, lighting and shading are very well done and do a good job in imitating retro coloring and aesthetics, the CGI present in the series is not as good as everything else, coming off as quite jarring and clashing with the rest of the visual elements.

In terms of audio, Pluto has sound effects that range from the incredible to some that are good, but are also done to be similar to retro sound effects, and thus they are weaker than the others. The music does its job just fin but it’s nothing amazing nor nothing that stands out that much, the main theme, which is also used as the ending song before the switch in protagonists, feels like it belongs in a spy flick, and I don’t know why they went with that, when Gesicht is a detective, not a spy. The voice acting is simply one of the best in years, very well casted, with most people being very experienced or straight up a veteran in the medium, fitting, mature, and atypical even, as the seiyuus don’t portray their characters as they usually do.

When it comes to its plot, Pluto retains some of the naivety and narrative weaknesses that you could expect from the original work and era that inspired it, since to its core it’s a story about one single robot killing off seven others who all have such advanced capabilities they basically have super powers, and they patiently wait for their enemy to arrive and kill each one of them one by one, instead of forming a group and face the threat all together to survive, plus the antagonists at some point feel like butt hurts who redirect their hatred to the wrong people, exactly because they know that they can’t do much against those that they really want to kill out of revenge.

As you can see, the overall plot structure of Pluto wouldn’t allow it to be a very good series, at best it would be a decent semi episodic action show but not much else. What Urasawa did to enrich the whole thing was turn it into a typical story of his, and fill it with the themes and messages you can expect from him.

Thus, what was initially just a campy straightforward action series, becomes a murder mystery where you see the protagonist gathering clues and using his own resources, connections and logic to tie things together and find the culprit, not finding it out of nowhere or through some supernatural stuff. Plus this is not a baity type of mystery show, questions keep piling up but answers are given shortly afterwards, without delaying the plot and keeping the viewer in the dark, it’s the type of mystery that follows the procedures of the protagonists to find the answers, not one of those that present seemingly unrelated clues for the viewer to reach the conclusion on their own, I thought I had to clarify that, if you go into this series expecting something like that, you will be disappointed.

With that said, I have to say that at some point Gesicht does comes into some clues and people related to the main culprit out of luck and convenience, he still does his proper job of tying everything together alright, but that doesn’t change the fact that the writing did get lazy at some point for him to be able to do that.

Pluto is also a war drama, as every major character has taken part of a brutal war, and are haunted by all the killings they did at some point in the past during their lives. For those that have consumed Fullmetal Alchemist, it has some similarities to the Ishvala arc in some places, for those that know their history, they will easily notice the real life war and invasion which the one from here is based on.

And it’s also an existential drama thanks to some of the robots being so advanced that they blend in within humans and many of the latter can’t tell the differences. Despite that being the case, the manga and anime do a proper job in showing what robots can’t do that humans can, even though it gives the androids emotions and stuff, they can’t cry, they can’t feel the exact same things as a common human being, they can’t express themselves in the same way, and most of the stuff they do on a daily basis comes from imitating humans so they can feel as part of the same society and blend within it. And unlike NieR:Automata ver1.1a from this same year, it makes more sense here on this setting for machines to have the concept of being a superior being as basically the same as being equals to humans, since that species is the most present and dominant all around the world and around them all the time, whereas in the other series, they are nowhere to be found or seen. Likewise, since the human characters are the creators of said androids, it makes sense of them to make them to their resemblance and think of them as advanced the more similar they are to them, despite the illogical actions that can come from that, which is exactly what Tenma warns everyone else about.

Pluto also bothers to show different perspectives around these androids, as they are legally allowed to marry, adopt sons and daughters, live together, and even retain the memory chips of their deceased relatives, despite that, some people accept them just fine, others discriminate them for not being humans, whether explicitly telling them what their differences are, or in the form of others that just see them as advanced weaponized machines for the governments to use, and there are even some racist alt-right organizations that want to kill them or not allow them to have the same rights as them, does that ring a bell with real life organizations and real life communities?

There are also some very few robots that do try to rebel against humanity, they don’t see them as a superior or equal being and try to take over or kill them, which is a good detail, so the theme of racism doesn’t come off as one sided and emotionally manipulative.

Other good elements in the plot come from Gesicht himself, who comes to a full circle arc where he goes through the same experiences of other robots or people he interacts with throughout the story, whether living the same fate as the first robot couple he comes across, or learning about his past and realizing that he was capable of, and did, the same thing as the criminal he frequently visits, or even coming to an understanding with an Adolf guy who hates his guts and wants to dispose of him. A good detail is that, like Parasyte which I recently reviewed, over here an antagonist is betrayed by the organization they are part of and becomes their target, with the difference here being that it ends with no choice but an attempt of mutual understanding and a kind of alliance with their biggest enemy in order to survive, neat stuff that enriches the plot and character dynamics.

Something that it’s not very noticeable in the anime because of its hour long episodes that are tough to sit through, is the very good pacing, as no moment is wasted and everything progress the plot, themes, and characterization at every moment. I would have preferred a normal duration 24 episode series, but it’s true that not every episode could end with the cliffhangers they clearly wanted them to, and Urasawa’s works are for the most part closer to HBO live action series than other manga or anime, so this format fits its tone, atmosphere and western appeal just fine nonetheless.

Another good detail within the writing is something that’s easy to miss the first time, but as I was watching the anime after I read the manga, I noticed it right away. I’m talking about the foreshadowing of future events and revelations, some like the ones around Gesicht, a random old man talking about a God playing a big part in the last volume and episode, and the big main one being foreshadowed at least three times, first with the detector, second when Tenma says that the perfect and most advanced machine can develop feelings, emotions and conscience to the point of even being able to lie to itself, and third on the scene where Uran reads Pinocchio, which also serves as a meta reference of how the original Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy was inspired by that story in the first place.

As for the characters, every major robot has a whole episode dedicated to each one of them to show their daily lives and the people they live with, their background stories during the times of war, their interactions amongst themselves, and of course their tragic deaths, except for the one that obviously can’t die, and does indeed get resurrected at some point in the story. Development and catharsis are otherwise reserved only for a few of them, mainly the main two protagonists and one of the main antagonists, titular character of the whole thing, and even then it’s not very believable, as it comes off as sudden and more like character rewrite than a proper change.

As for the antagonist, besides the main one, there is Adolf who gets a good character arc that feels way more organic, and the actual main villain of the whole story, who although to his core is just a simple butt hurt who wants to destroy the world and everyone in it alongside it, he is so cunning, manipulative and provocative, as he isn’t afraid to confront his targets to their faces and lie to them, he is quite enjoyable to watch or read.

As for the human characters and other robot relatives, they are good but they just lack enough screentime and presence to shine as equally, with the exception of Tenma, who although mostly the same as his original version, he is given more dimensions to his personality, feeling closer to a redeemed Gendo Ikari in this version, both in the way he reconnects with Atom and what he does for him, and for his later revealed responsibility in the whole conflict, thus easily being the best human character in the whole show.

As a whole, the characters are overall very good but could have been a bit better if the antagonists weren’t as simplistic and the secondary cast, besides Tenma, could’ve had more screentime and a more important role.

Despite all my praises, Pluto is certainly not a masterpiece in my opinion, as there are weaknesses in its writing, besides the ones I already mentioned, such as how lucky Gesicht is at times, and how the main characters are passively waiting for the antagonists to act.

Near the end I was noticing that Gesicht was firing his cannon that requires authorization all the time, yet I also thought that maybe he was given such permission before that, and that’s how he was able to do that.

What I can’t excuse, however, is how underwhelming and rushed the ending feels compared with everything else, Tenma, the one that was most against improving machines, ends up being responsible for the whole thing and yet doesn’t try that much to fix his mistake, what was up until that point explained mostly through reason, logic and science, ends up being mixed with mysticism and emotions, which although kind of anticipated in a way, it still doesn’t feel that it fits much within the setting and story, the anti-robots organization plot point loses its focus and most likely gets resolved out of screen, several characters have a sudden change of heart in the end, leading to a solution that feels like the power of emotions and friendship solved everything, and also, everything regarding the teddy bear feels unpolished and unfinished, where did it came from?, what was it doing exactly?, what ended up happening with it? It felt ambiguous and unfinished. Perhaps it was a major villain in the original manga and anime, and the information and resolution of this character are present over there, but Pluto needed to have its own version of that so it doesn’t feel like it ends up having loose ends.

The main message is kind of naïve but also sweet and properly built throughout the whole series, so it fits the plot, it’s just that is delivered straight to the viewer’s face, when the rest of the show was having better exposition up until that point.

Despite its minuses, Pluto is overall a great sci-fi, political and existential war drama and murder mystery in my opinion, all packed in a tightly paced show that’s worth consuming despite its lack of hype, hour long episodes, very serious tone and mostly static animation, with a better established setting and a complete story, thus overall better than its direct competition this year in the form of NieR:Automata Ver1.1a, even though I enjoyed that one far more. And for all the reasons mentioned, I consider it to be the best anime of 2023 I watched, and the best one that came out in years.

Almost but not exactly the same

I’ve recently watched and read Kiseijuu/Parasyte, a very interesting case of a work that was very faithfully adapted and yet with a very relevant difference that isn’t brought up as much as it should, so I thought about writing about both versions.

Interesting premise

The premise is about monsters taking over humans from within and mimicking them to feast on them, hence the name. Since the origin of the parasites is not clear, it can be seen as a combination of Devilman, the first one in its kind in the manga and anime mediums, with The Thing and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. What you get is a premise that’s interesting but not very original, even more so for the anime, which came out during the post Walking Dead and Shingeki no Kyojin fad.

Strong plot and themes

What sets this work apart from similar ones is the layers it adds to its premise, making it a far more complex and layered plot than you would expect from it, since it doesn’t stop at just humanity being devoured by monsters until they can fight against them, it also tackles into some sociological and even kind of philosophical questions regarding humans, the way we function as a society, and even our place on the Earth and even the whole universe, and if you’ve read some of my reviews before, you know by now how much of a sucker I am of such themes.

The theme exploration comes mainly from three character arcs, one from Shinichi, the protagonist, who managed to not get completely possessed by the parasite that attacked him, and just like Akira Fudo, he goes from a kind, quiet and nerdy guy to a cold and strong badass, with the difference being that the change is more gradual, believable and explored here, as there is a good focus on how his close ones perceive him, mainly his mother and love interest, as he becomes both inexplicably stronger and colder, resulting on some of the best scenes in this work, and he slowly regains his emotional side as a human being later on after all the tragedy that continuously take place around him.

Then you have Migi, said parasite, who although as colder and calculating as others of its kind at first, everything he learns, his interactions with Shinichi and his fights for survival against other parasites, and even consuming the same food as his host and eventually friend, end up making it completely different from them, as it becomes more sensitive, and also by developing both strengths and weaknesses in its abilities that most other monsters present throughout the show don’t have.

The third one comes from the best antagonist in the whole series, Ryouko Tamiya, also known as Reiko Tamura, who from the very beginning is far more concerned than the rest of her kind to learn more about her species both on a physiological and even existential level, as she is the only one that really wants to learn where they came from and what would be their role on the Earth, she is also the one that tries to learn about humans, understand them, communicate with them, even live through some of the same experiences as them, and she ends up even developing emotions along the way, even gaining the enmity of other parasites in the process.

Besides these three, it’s interesting to see the different perspectives among the parasites, as Migi wants to survive, Ryouko/Reiko yearns for learning, others try to blend in, and some others are just there to feast on humans, some for the sake of survival, and others like hungry beasts. This is one of the main elements within the plot and questions throughout the story, the role of humans on Earth, who called the parasites monsters for eating them, even though we, as a species, do the same with other animals on our planet. Just think about it, most of us eat other animals just to survive and stuff, yet most of us want them to have a delicious taste in the process, so eating them ends up losing its purpose of survival which we so much use as an argument when questioned about it by vegans. So, weirdly, the theme suits the anime better than the manga for the time it came out, when these sort of discussions and questions were becoming more prominent and relevant. Oh, and there also parasites that hunt humans just to test their strength to both themselves and others, just like some dickheads in our species hunt animals for the same reasons and for the sake of sport and entertainment.

The sociological aspect is present in the different ways the two species interact with their kind, as Shinichi is mortified by all the human deaths and want to warn others, but can’t because if he does Migi will dispose of anyone who knows about it to ensure its survival, and different authorities work together to find ways to identify and eventually fight against the parasites, and even the protagonist himself is reminded several times by several people what it means to be human, and how to face problems instead of running from them in order to keep on living, while also helping or receiving the help or advise of others in the process.

At some point, Ryouko/Reiko hires a detective to spy on Shinichi to both learn more about him and keep him on check, and yet that man, as well as another human/parasite hybrid end up cooperating with the protagonist instead, because, humans are capable of mutual understanding.

On the other hand, the parasites only stick together for the sake of survival, as soon as they can either eat, or kill, or take over another one, most of them will, that’s the reason why plenty of them turn on Ryouko/Reiko, because her actions are deemed as dangerous since everyone can be exposed to the rest of the world with the most minor mistake.

But it’s not like the manga and anime says that everyone in a species is the same, just like there are a few exceptions within the parasites, there are people who are not qualified as humans within this franchise, present in the form of a serial killer who is presented as a far worse monster than any non-human creature that appears in the story. Whether or not this is a correct take and idea from the author is an interesting discussion, but not one to have here on this review. The way this character is written doesn’t leave much room to talk about mental health and stuff anyways, his whole characterization is being a sadistic psycho for the sake of it without any character exploration whatsoever, he is just an over the top villain written on the early 90s after all.

Good pacing

The pacing is very good on both versions, as no fight or element or mini arc overstays its welcome and each one lasts just the right amount of length it needs to. If I had to choose between one of them, I’d say the manga is slightly better, as one can read at their own pace, but I also have to say that the anime knows how to end its episodes better than the lame attempts of the original version at finishing every chapter with a cliffhanger, even the ones that don’t have as much content as others.

Weak writing

Despite all the good things I wrote so far about it, Parasyte is sadly a series that works better for its themes and scope than level of writing, as there are plenty of illogical or poorly explained things, if even, in it, that end up playing against it and lowering the overall quality of the whole thing, such as:

Unnecessary and silly romantic elements

They even play out in the form of a telenovela, thanks mainly to the character of Kana, who for some reason is nowhere near as hated as much as Murano, the main love interest of the manga and anime, and I don’t understand why. Yes, it’s true, lots of lines from Murano are asking Shinichi if he is really him over and over again, to the point of becoming repetitive and even kind of annoying, but nowhere near as much as the main love interests of Naruto or Bleach, mind you. But even at her worst, that girl isn’t nowhere near as bad of a character as Kana, who appears as a sadistic girl that enjoys seeing others being beaten up, for no reason in the anime, and just because she likes strong men in the manga.

If that wasn’t enough, her reasons for falling in love with Shinichi are completely selfish and superficial, her dreams of her being rescued by him like he was her white knight are cringy as shit, and even worse in the anime thanks to the slower pacing of the scenes, voice acting and music. She also acts as a bitch whenever she is near Murano, and if all of that wasn’t enough, she ends up having a tragic end purely because she was dumb as shit and ignored every warning that was given to her. I’ve seen plenty of female characters being crapped on for years for far less and yet not this girl, why? It doesn’t count if the manga is retro or what? What did this girl add to the story? She, or rather, what happens to her, reminds Shinichi what it means to be human alright, but so did plenty of other characters, mainly other women, such as Murano or Shinichi’s mother, and they did a far better job at it.

At the end of the day I can’t help but feel like the preference of Kana over Murano comes from her adoring the protagonist, while the latter was constantly questioning and breaking up with him as they become more distant, which makes perfect sense given her lack of knowledge about the whole situation.

Harem bits

Nowhere near as bad as series within that genre of course, but you can tell the original work was written in the late 80s and early 90s when several girls end up liking or falling in love with Shinichi either only because of his manliness of just because he is the protagonist, something that not only is unnecessary, but also far more outdated in the anime for the time it came out.

Silly comical moments

Despite the serious pretense of the themes and plot, there are some silly moments that are meant to be funny that clash with the tone that such a story should have, and it’s even worse for those that aren’t even supposed to come off as funny, yet they do either because of the weak writing and or presentation, or because of another weak element, which is:

Weak and stupid secondary characters

Besides the main three and to a lesser extent Shinichi’s mom, nobody else is nearly as well written, and this isn’t just about Murano or Kana, or even other characters like the parasites, a lot of scenes comes off as unintentionally funny because of the stupidity of the common people from the manga and anime, such as chasing after a woman running with her head open or following a guy that single handedly killed a whole group of yakuza, crushing their heads, when the deal with the monsters was already known throughout the whole country or even world.

Unexplained things

For all the questioning that both Shinichi and Ryouko/Reiko did to themselves about the origin of the parasites, it is never answered, they have a thematic reason to be in the story that’s explored throughout the whole plot alright, but if the author didn’t intend to provide an answer for their origin, then why even bring it out in the first place? Hideaki Anno gets crapped on for not explaining where the Angels came from in Evangelion, when the series never even cared about that, but for some reason is not a problem here, it seems, even though it’s the main mystery of the whole story.

Also, that Kana girl has an ability similar to that of the parasites of detecting others with the same mental waves or something like that, and it’s never explained why or how she got them in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, the author only gave them to her for the sake of writing one of the worst love triangles of all time, with one of the most avoidable and pathetic tragic ends ever, with dozens of cringe overload included, both during, and after the event.

The serial killer also has a similar ability, but just like Kana, it is never explained why and how he has such ability, and the attempt of an explanation, which comes from him, as the result of all his sadistic killings, is so bad, it would be better if there never was one instead.

Plot armor

Despite all the deaths in the story, it somehow messes up by saving or resurrecting the protagonists more times than it would be acceptable. I can take the first time thanks to the excuse given and the consequences, shortcomings in capabilities, and character development for the two mains that come from it, but near the end of the series one of them comes back from the death or disappearing not one but two times at the most convenient moments.

Weak and rushed ending

Speaking of which, during the last arc, Shinichi fights against a much stronger enemy that he has no hope of beating, and yet he does in the most convenient, lucky and ass-pulled way possible, that thankfully was properly criticized when the anime aired, something that does not happen frequently with hyped series, especially at the moment they are airing because of recency bias.

What’s never brought up, however, is how unnecessary the follow up is, it’s supposed to be a relaxed epilogue especially for the protagonist after all the tragedy and angst he went through throughout the story, but here we are with an out of nowhere weak attempt of scientific and existential monologue from Migi (more so in the anime), a minor villain reappearing even after his role was over, everything in the last episode and chapter happening only because of the stupidity of Shinichi, and like I said, plot armor for the sake of a happy ending. Oh, and don’t forget how the humans and parasites end up learning to coexist despite nothing in the series leading to that.

Similar levels in visuals

In terms of production, both versions are very close to each other, the manga has an inconsistent artwork that’s at times very good and detailed, and others very simple and lacking, with generic character designs for its time, and with simply drawn backgrounds with not much variety. The special effects, however, are very good. The anime could’ve been much better in in this aspect, since the artwork doesn’t have the same drops in quality and is far more consistent, the backgrounds are better, the special effects are overall better, and the character designs got updated for the time it came out, Unfortunately the motions aren’t very good at any moment, and it’s also far worse during the action scenes, where characters stand still all the time, with just some speed lines representing the tentacles of the parasites moving at superhuman speeds. Not only that, but the bad CGI brings everything down. Good artwork? Yes, except for the CGI crowds. Decent character designs? Only if you don’t see those CGI crowds. Well done backgrounds? For the places, sure, but not with those CGI crowds. Not very good motions? It’s worse for those CGI crowds. Good special effects? Only until you see those CGI crowds, see what I mean? It’s funny because a lot worse came out since then, but still, it was quite an issue back then.

Horrible atmosphere

This is an issue that’s present only in the anime thanks to its audio department, the voice acting is fine, acceptable, but everything else is not. The opening was quite hyped back then and I never understood why, the lyrics are good, they reflect the themes of the series quite well, something rare for anime in general, I have to say, but the music it’s a combination of dubstep and screamo that made me want to rip off my ears, thankfully those times are over. I would say something about the ending if I even remembered it, but I do not. The background music has some good tracks in it, mostly the ones that attempt to be horror, but most of it is more unlistenable dubstep that doesn’t fit the series nor the limited animation. And finally there are the sound effects, which are good for the metallic clashes and stuff, but laughably low budget and effort for everything else.

Differences among both versions

To start with what the anime did better, there are some irrelevant girls that are friends of Murano in the manga, that the anime replaced with some girls that have a bit of a short lived importance at some point, thus introducing them earlier than the arc they appear in.

Something similar happens with the serial killer, who although is shown quickly in a random and out of place scene, that is still slightly better than he appearing in the last arc and becoming so important just because out of nowhere.

It also made the parasites in the original form much smaller, which although not as horrifying as I guess the original was going for, it makes more sense for them to enter a human body that way.

It also removed the stupid scene of Migi turning into a penis, and it toned down some unnecessarily violent scenes and the sex scene present in the manga, which although not explicit, it was done better in the anime but removing some details and giving it a more romantic and sentimental tone, closer to what was happening at the time of the series in terms of theme exploration.

Now for what it did worse, outside of the CGI crowds and most of the sound, the cringy scenes are even more painful in it, if I remember correctly it never explains how the police, military and scientists found out about all those parasites, something that the manga does, and the worst thing in it was the superficial update it gave to the setting by giving the characters cellphones fitting for the year it came out, something that Banana Fish would also do later. Not taking in count that, if the story takes place in 2014 instead of 1989 or some year in the early 90s, the level of technology that both the characters and the whole world have, should have a drastic change in the way that a lot of events play out, the characters could and should be in contact more frequently and quickly, to even be able to avoid several misunderstandings and tragic scenes, and also, the parasites couldn’t be hidden in the way they do, and the whole population would never react the way they do with them around. It’s the only thing I’m willing to give to a series that I despise in absolutely everything it does such as Crybaby over any other recent remake or adaptation of an old manga, the way it made the whole world to know about the demons thanks to the Internet, updating the setting in a way that others didn’t bother with. By not paying attention to that, a lot of the credibility in Parasyte gets compromised.

Conclusion

In the end, like I already said, Kiseijuu is a very interesting and overall well made series that sadly works better in theme exploration, main characters and conflicts it presents throughout its story than the level of writing of its plot and characters as a whole, and it feels like the author wanted to write a mature seinen story, while something else, like the magazine and later on the committee that ordered its adaptation, wanted to throw some shounen antics in it to make it more appealing for a larger audience, lowering the overall quality of the whole thing. Besides that, it’s worth consuming in either its anime or manga versions at least once thanks to its themes and main characters, with the original being slightly better for taking place in a time when the ways its events play out are easier to buy, but nowhere near as great as the retro suckers and elitists want you to think it is, by deliberately choosing to ignore all of its issues that they criticize whenever they are present on modern shows they don’t like.