Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

Why do I do this? I recently covered Ghost Hound, a title I found very hard to review, and here I am writing about Paranoia Agent, an anime that I find even harder to talk about. Sigh

Mousou Dairinin is a series that works way more on a conceptual level than at its execution, and it’s also the definition of a series for an acquired taste, as its writing is not very good for the hardest to please most critical viewers, and its narrative is almost unapproachable for a casual audience that just wants to have a good time. Also, being a work with Satoshi Kon in it raises the expectation high in terms of directing and atmosphere, and only one of them is truly achieved in this series. It doesn’t help that this is a show that’s best to watch after you already watched all the movies from the director first to get used to his style for a single, rather short entry before jumping to a full series.

Let’s start with the easiest part which is the animation as a whole, easily one of the best you’ll find in any anime series, not a single quality drop as far as I’m concerned, very well made backgrounds, expressive and detailed motions, great special effects, great use of lighting and shading, great changes from brighter to darker colors whenever needed, and at times different art styles are well integrated within the series both visually and narratively. Plus it has the usual exceptional directing that can be expected from Satoshi Kon, just as he did with his movies before this series, he really captured how distorted the characters perceive reality by either messing up the visuals completely with added first person perspectives, or with a quick succession of scenes transitioning into one another. The only complaint I have here are the designs, which feel derivative from any other work from the director, they are not bad, I appreciate how realistic and varied the character figures are, but they definitely give the idea of being rehashed from somewhere else.

The sound is good but not amazing, and that’s the exact same thing that can be said about each part of the whole department. Voice acting? Good but not among the best you’ll find in the medium. Sound effects? Same thing. Music? Same thing, again, especially coming from Susumu Hirasawa. The opening is weirdly catchy, as it should, the visuals give you the idea that every character is uncontrollably laughing while losing their minds, thus it transmits the idea of paranoia quite well, and the song sounds uncomfortably upbeat for its super weird lyrics, for what’s being displayed on screen, and for the show it’s used for. The ending is simple and repetitive yet it also gives you the feeling of something that’s cute and relaxing at first approach, yet it hides something sinister underneath, while every important character peacefully sleeps around the main mascot of both the series and the world it takes place in, very fitting with the overall feel and themes of the anime, I’d say. With that said, there is a very well made sound mixing in here, especially during the darker and more intense and suspenseful moments, too bad the whole show isn’t like that.

But what is it about? A kid with a bat hitting people in the head, changing his targets on every episode. What feels like a simple episodic series at first, ends up being an interconnected psychological thriller, as every victim is related to a previous one, and there are two police detectives interrogating them and searching for clues to get to the bottom of the mystery and incidents. That’s not all, as every character gets an episode dedicated to showcase their lives and all the mental pressure they go through and the dark secrets they are hiding. Even though some are more important to the answer to the mystery than others, this approach makes every single one of them serviceable as plot devices and fleshed out on a basic level. There’s more though, as every character has technology and gossips/rumors making their lives harder on one way or another, which along with their subsequently more fragile psychological stability, ends up making them have suicidal thoughts, as means to escape from reality and the difficulties they face on a daily basis.

And that’s basically the core idea behind the show, to explore Japan's mentally stressed and overwhelmed, overworked and suicidal society, and how lies and fake news propagate with ease and can ruin lives or at least makes them harder. It also shows how said society deals with that through escapism, through both its use of technology and consumerism, of the cute main mascot from and within the show, as well as just ending it all as a mean to avoid dealing with the struggles and responsibilities one might have. Something very important to talk about for the time it came out at the beginning of the 21st century, that’s perhaps even more relevant now.

I’d like to show this with a quick description of several episodes, without spoilers:

-Episode 1. The first woman and first victim, one of the most important characters in the show, designer of the main mascot from and within the series, hated by her coworkers and pressured to come out with an equally or even more successful successor to the pink dog she popularized. Being the first person to be attacked, she is questioned a lot about the incident and even suspected of making up the whole story, both on her work, by the detectives, and on social media.

-Episode 2. The first kid and third victim, a narcissistic piece of shit suspected and rumored of being the teen with the bat, falsely accused of being a bully and later on being bullied himself, through a photo of him that’s shared on the cell phones of everyone at his school.

-Episode 3. The second woman and fifth victim, private tutor of the previous kid, a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and a prostitute at night. Both personalities try to overcome the other and talk to each other through her phone. This is the best and most Satoshi Kon episode on this Satoshi Kon series.

-Episode 4. The second man and sixth victim, a policeman extorted to work for the mafia to protect his family, under an alias of sorts, he uses a weird mask and stuff, and his personality changes a lot while doing it so. This is quite of a subversive episode of sorts, as the outcome wasn’t like the usual of the previous episodes, and the series dares to take a path that is seemingly going to end the plot in less than half the duration of the show, an interesting but risky move. Also there doesn’t seem to be any implication of technology here.

-Episode 5. I could bet this was one of the most hated and frustrating episodes to watch as it was airing, since the tone is completely different from the rest of the show, thus it comes off as extremely bizarre in an already uncommon series. It is about a kid who sees the whole world as Dragon Quest, while also a parody of sorts of said franchise. Nothing else can be said about it without spoiling a big part of the anime.

-Episode 6. The first girl and seventh victim, who communicates with her father through her cellphone, and she learns that he uses cameras to spy on her. It is directly linked with the fourth episode and adds the technological aspect that said episode was missing. It also flips the whole case up until this point.

-Episode 7. One of the detectives is starting to be affected and becomes paranoiac himself, as he keeps listening to the testimonies and searching for clues on his own, he starts hallucinating because of the static of all the radios he uses for that.

-Episode 10. The fourth man and eight victim, out of the ones shown on screen, as at this point the conflict reaches a much bigger scale than what it’s actually shown on screen. This asshole keeps fucking up the anime of the mascot and blaming everyone else, the connections with technology are many to name, but is the one that has the most distorted view of reality, he does so many horrible things that are shown as quick flashbacks as he is falling asleep while driving. Probably narcoleptic. The episode is also a somewhat self-satire of anime production.

-Episodes 11 to 13. Yeah no, as if I were to talk about the episodes that give the answers and closure to the whole show, as well as a catharsis for some characters.

As you may notice, I didn’t talk about episodes 8 and 9, and that’s where the first problem of this anime lies, since those episodes felt like filler. The first has three online suicide friends, something that apparently exists in Japan and the Dark Web. It makes you think that it’s going to be important but it’s mostly comical in a twisted way and it tries to fool the audience that the criminal is a paranormal force, it’s not, it’s something even crazier. The second is just some women telling some made up stories about the kid with the bat, it’s meant to show the level of gossiping and paranoia up until that point but the rest of the episodes do the same with much better execution and results. These two could easily be skipped without losing much, the characters don’t even appear in the opening and ending like the rest of them, and it makes it feel like the series has an issue in its pacing and amount of episodes.

The second issue is how the anti-suicide and anti-escapism message and answer for the mystery are directly told to the audience with no subtlety, different from the works of the director so far, I’m guessing because he wasn’t on charge of the script.

The third problem lies on the message itself, which is very simplistic and will feel misguided to most western viewers, of which I’m one of. As was discussed on several episodic discussions of this series that I’ve read on different sites, particularly on its eight episode, it’s important to understand that suicide is seen in a different way on the Japanese society and culture. Whereas in the West is commonly thought of as an act of selfishness and cowardice that should be avoided and persuaded from, over there it’s conceived as a way to pay for all the failures in your life, that nobody else should be sticking their noses in, so it’s the not very different but also the ultimate way of handling them, by giving your life on a last failure, basically.

And since Paranoia Agent is a Japanese series made by Japanese people, its message and criticism are not directed towards the problem itself, but the individual, as expected. Let me explain, the anime shows many different harsh scenarios and situations of many different people, and instead of seeing it as a collective problem, it still keeps the blame on every individual, it’s weird that it sees many different sources for what’s a common issue, while somewhat connecting every singular conflict, yet it ultimately concludes and decides that the problem is within each person as an isolated case. This means that the message of the show ends up being: “yeah, we know there are many issues within our society, you might suffer from some of them yourself, but you just have to tough it up and face them”, which is not exactly bad, but it isn’t very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up or an addict to just stop consuming whatever they are addicted to, it’s a good but very simplistic and reductionist and not very empathetic message. It exposes a problem but it does not offer a very critical response to said issue, though I guess it’s expected for its era and I guess it would probably be presented differently nowadays.

The fourth issue are the characters, which although greatly used narratively as great plot devices that are even fleshed out on a basic level, all they have is a backdrop story, no one is very memorable nor have much personality outside their mental issues, and no one has a development, also only the most important ones have something that can be considered a catharsis, and even then one of them just seemed to have become totally delusional and repeats the cycle of another character, whose actions are completely incomprehensible, in a seemingly circular manner. The rest are shown again at one point in the series, thus you get to see what happened to them, but since the events in-between are missing, you don’t get to see how they ended like that, making their struggles and their respective solutions easier and simpler than they were previously presented.

The fifth problem is that it’s meant to be an allegorical series, instead of seeing it as something that it’s actually happening. There’s nothing strictly bad with using symbolisms, especially when they actually mean something instead of being just cool or artsy visuals, but this way the writing comes off as totally unrealistic and nonsensical if seen in a literal manner, almost supernatural or fantastical in a setting that’s otherwise perfectly normal and mundane. Also, this way some of its biggest events come off as uneventful and easily fixable, those storms that take place in the show? Don’t worry, they don’t actually happen and everything is back to normal in the end.

It’s even harder to accept because of the way the series is presented, reality is often twisted as a result of someone’s state of mind in the works of Satoshi Kon, but in almost every one of those, the characters are limited to a small set, often even just one of them, In Perfect Blue, it’s because of the protagonist slowly losing her sanity because of the fear and the pressure, her famous persona and the different image of her that she shows publicly giving her an identity crisis. In Millennium Actress, it comes in the form of the fading and blurry memories of a senile old woman who was also an actress, so her recollections of her life mix in her head with the movies and roles she played. In Tokyo Godfathers, the main homeless trio lies to themselves and others when they talk about how their lives turned that way, and how responsible they are for that. Paranoia Agent plays out in a similar way, but with a much bigger scope and an approach and reasoning that doesn’t feel as close, human and personal as his previous works, as it also partially makes the struggles to be quite external instead of entirely or mostly internal. Unfortunately he would do something similar with his last work Paprika, as dreams and reality blur with each other, only to be solved with an asspulled power up and everything going back to normal like nothing happened.

Bottom line, Paranoia Agent presents some of the best concepts and themes ever in anime with neat visuals and directing, serviceable atmosphere and a great use of interconnected plot devices to deliver an ok although weirdly presented and delivered message, but the writing and characterization are almost an afterthought for that, in a series that feels slow and very hard to digest and accept. I consider it to be worse than Tokyo Godfathers but better than Paprika. Worthy as a complementary one time watch to Satoshi Kon’s previous movies, but not much else.

Similar and better works

-Satoshi Kon’s previous filmography (including Magnetic Rose)
-Boogiepop wa Warawanai, in plot structure and some themes
-Shinreigari, in plot structure and some of its topics
-Odd Taxi, in plot structure and main character arc

This will cover both versions

There was a short lived period/phase in my life at the beginning of 2014 where I would read a bunch of yuri manga altogether, Citrus which I dropped, this one that I never finished, Netsuzou Trap, one of the worst, most toxic pieces of shit I’ve read in my life that took me years to finish, and Girl Friends, the only one I loved at the time. It never went completely away though, as I would watch a title from the genre from time to time. So anyways, I wanted to kind of reread and finish this one now, nine years later, since now I have a very different criteria than I used to back then.

There isn’t really much plot to talk about besides what’s already given in the premise, a girl stops time when she feels pressured and finds out some other can move alongside her while everyone else remains stopped. This plot device is weird, since it actually happens in its story, yet it’s not meant to be seen as that being literally the case. Stopping time is just a metaphor for the protagonist running away to her own secluded world whenever she has to socialize, which is why it’s never explained how she got that power, even though the reason why she ends up losing them is implied in story.

Anyways once the setup is established, the two girls just fool around in their school, and later on become a couple, while the main character does everything the other girl wants. And that’s when the manga begins to feel weird, as one of the girls is seemingly being used by the other just for her convenience and amusement, something which thankfully would later on be addressed and subverted, actually. And that would lead to an actual confession near the end which was presented in a very corny and nonsensical way, but honestly the whole story is like that.

The real meat here are the main characters which although simplistic at first, have some kind of background stories and internal monologues to explain why they are the way they are, and how necessary it becomes for them to change, as they are both secluded within themselves with a very twisted view of the rest of the world, that’s when they sincere with each other and have their expected confession and learn to show themselves for who they truly are and not run away from the things that bother them. Unfortunately neither their backdrops nor inner thoughts are very big of a deal, and their catharsis made it seem that all they needed was to have someone to love to solve all of their problems, but it was an ok catharsis for both of them, even if they never faced any real consequence for whatever they did prior and thus the conclusion doesn’t feel that impactful.

There isn’t much to say about the art either, it’s just your typical average shoujoish look and presentation.

The anime adaptation tried to cram the whole manga in just an hour and it failed, the visuals remain as equally average, even more so if possible, with an equally very standard directing, and the sound department goes completely unnoticed, except for the ending which the seiyuus sing in unison, it was quite cute.

The main issue with the adaptation is that it shortened both all of their interactions and their backdrops and even their inner monologues, thus you don’t get to see much of the girls together nor understand what troubles each one of them, something easy to notice even if you are an anime only, which prevents the conclusion from feeling genuine. It tried to incorporate its own things by having them question themselves a little about dreams and time in an attempt to seem deeper, but no added line really says anything meaningful, and those dialogues are very short anyways. There’s also an original scene where the protagonist blushes for having a typical anime “indirect kiss” with a random girl, and really, what was the point in adding that? At least it changed the confession scene by changing two things which I found an improvement, the first was not having anybody else when that happens, whereas the whole school was present in the manga, adding to the cheesiness, and the other was cutting off the line of a friend of the love interest, since that girl badmouthed her at a previous point and thus it didn’t make any sense for her to encourage her friend at the end.

In conclusion, a perfectly average quick read with barely any plot which in turn feels unimportant and quite nonsensical and corny, but there is at least enough character immersion and a good albeit simplistic message in it. The anime movie stripped the first thing away from the plot, thus it prevented it from carry the second with the same strength, which was already not much in the original, thus it’s a poorly made adaptation, despite its minor improvements.

Manga 5/10
Anime 4/10

Although rare, Masaaki Yuasa has some misses among his works, and Kemonozume is one of them. It was the only important show of his left for me to watch and I was surprised with how bad it was, considering he made it between Mind Game and Kaiba.

The premise isn’t very captivating, it’s Romeo and Juliet with human swordsmen and monsters, that’s it, and I couldn’t even buy the way it’s presented, I don’t believe in love at first sight, attraction? Sure, but love? Nah, which is why I never bought it in fiction either. It’s even harder to accept it in here because the two main characters just find the other in the beach and the next day they are already fucking, and that’s what the relationship between them is mostly about, having sex. Other than that, other forms of interaction between them are quite short or cut off by an action scene, no letting the viewer to really buy or be invested by this relationship. It’s even worse when you consider that the main character was a diligent man dedicated to his duty his whole life and left it all because of a woman he just met. It’s even worse when you consider that the main couple left their families and even betrayed their species as a whole for someone they didn’t even really know about for just a few days at most.

At least the show bothers to show some internal problems between the main couple later on, but even those are resolved in shitty ways. The dude cheats on her and when is found out we have the two women insulting each other with a harem or straight up hentai doujinshi level of dialogue.

And it’s not just them really. Almost every male character in this show is driven by sex, they become traitors because they want to have sex, and are even fooled and killed off because of their lust. Meanwhile every woman in this series is limited to a source of problems and just…a bitch, they are all bitches.

The only exception I found are the father and step mother of the protagonist, because although their relationship is a bit silly as well, there is a buildup and consequences because of it, and was thus easier to buy and more interesting to watch.

Leaving that aside, the setting doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, how can the world be almost the same as ours when monsters have been around it forever? And how can they stay mostly hidden and underground? Some of them do try to remain unnoticed but some just kill off humans constantly to feast on them whenever they want, they should be commonly known by everyone and society as a whole should be completely different as it’s presented.

And let’s not even waste much time in talking about the villain, he was so goofy and overpowered and even pretentious near the end of the show, and the way he was taken down was so stupid, he threw whatever little bit of sense and logic was left in the script out the window.

Also, as much as Kemonozume wants to present itself as a tragedy because of all the deaths in it, the tone is mostly silly, feeling more like a comedy than anything else, that monkey that would later on become a regular in Yuasa’s works and even own studio was the absolute worst aspect in the series.

The resolution was completely open and unsatisfactory, it can only counts as a conclusion for the action and main couple but it still does not mean anything for the rest of the world and not even assures what the main couple is going to be like going forward, who says they won’t have the exact same issues they had throughout the show just because they took down the big baddie?

The only saving grace I found in the script is everything revolving the character Kazuma, although also wanting to bone a girl throughout the whole show, he was the most proactive and conflicted character in the whole series. Also diligent, always in the shadow of his brother, wanting to prove himself the whole time, with an identity crisis and mental and physical deterioration as he finds out more about himself and how different he is from what he thought his whole life. He also tries to modernize the swordsmen with technology and way of functioning and funding, so Kemonozume at least follows all the issues he and the Kifuuken as a whole goes through with that, too bad he is incapable of anything at the end because the script had to have him being completely fooled by an overpowered antagonist and the main character being the one to solve everything. Except he doesn’t because as I said, he only cares about a monster pussy and once he assures that, he just sends everything else to fuck off.

Visually the series looks like what you would expect something from Yuasa to look like, except very very sloppy and low budget. Yes, it’s done deliberately to look that way, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a good job. The characters constantly look like deformed doodles, the backgrounds look mostly unfinished, the motions are usually weak, the whole artwork seems cheap, the coloring is rather unpolished and goes psychedelic at times for no reason, and sometimes traced live action footage is used for some reason. Which is a shame because thanks to the rare but powerful very few very well animated bits in the series, and the usual great directing you can expect from Yuasa, you can tell that they could have presented a visually quirky but still neat show. Other than that, there’s nothing here that wasn’t done way better both before and after in the other main series and movies from the director.

As for the sound, it’s only ok as well. The voice acting is ok, the sound effects and music are also just ok, nothing much to say here, the ending was the best part of it. I’m not very fond of the opening, you can find way better jazzy openings out there, this one is musically uninspired, the vocals suck, and half the lyrics are the title of the song being repeated over and over. It ends up being catchy if you don’t skip it while you are watching the show, but it’s still a pretty bad song all things considered.

As a whole, it was a big disappointment coming from Masaaki Yuasa, the script is stupid, almost all the characters are beasts in heat regardless of their species or gender, and visually it looks like the makers weren’t even trying most of the time. Kazuma elevates the whole show to be above Crybaby, and it’s definitely way better than JAPAN STINKS, but it’s still, like, the worst Yuasa Yuasa show, you know what I mean? He only directed Crybaby, and was only a co-director in Japan Sinks 2020, over here he had control of many aspects in the show, and practically none of all of them worked well. It feels more like a demo of what his filmography and directing for Crybaby would be like moving forward, only worthy to check out for someone who want to complete everything from the director, and nothing else.

Disclaimer: Although I don’t think I include any spoilers that would ruin the experience, I do talk about the aspects of the show that usually confuse viewers the most, by describing several of it plot points in perhaps more details than a first time watcher would want. For a short opinion, it is not the easiest watch and it has a lot of issues particularly near the end, but it is a worth watching show as long as you are in the proper mood for it.

Shinreigari: Ghost Hound is one of the most ambitious anime I have watched in my life, not for being very hard to understand or follow, it certainly isn’t, but for covering and tying multiple plot points, topics, themes and several character arcs together. That’s also what makes it one of the hardest anime to review I have come across so far.

The first two things to clarify about it is that although you will see the horror and psychological tags in it, and even though it appears on every recommended horror anime list or video, it is not a scary show. It has ghosts as the title implies, and sometimes they appear out of nowhere, as well as an intense atmosphere, but if you go into it expecting the level of craziness from Mononoke, the jumpscares and creepy visuals from the first season of Yami Shibai, or the dark visuals and creepiness that sometimes anime like Boogiepop Phantom and even Serial Experiments Lain have, you won’t find them here.

And also, although it is not a complicated anime to follow in its structure, theme exploration, narrative or dialogues, it is still quite complex in scope, plotlines and presentation, this is not a series you just go into casually expecting to have a good time as soon as you begin watching it, you don’t just sit and watch this show, it requires you to pay attention to all of its different elements, topics and characters, with sometimes heavy exposition of different things and terms, while it also reveals certain details and character dynamics slowly and through its visuals instead of its dialogues, it shows instead of telling crucial plot points at times. This is why some have a hard time with it or don’t like it much in the end, while they also think that several plot points were left uncovered, forgotten or without answers. That’s why I think it might have been quite the challenging watch when it was airing weekly and why it’s better to watch it now that it’s fully complete and you can dedicate all your time to watch it from beginning to end, without watching much or anything else at the same time.

That is also why it stands between a niche and cult classic status for an acquired taste, it is not deep nor complicated nor thought provoking enough for the hardest to please most critical elitists, nor entertaining nor digestible nor easy enough to watch for the more casual viewers, even more so with the current era of anime, way different from the one when this title came out.

Which is a shame because, at least partially, thematically it is a series that would caught more attention nowadays because it deals with mental health, something that is very relevant right now, and what makes this show stands out the most. It is a very rare topic to cover within the medium, and that is also what makes it a bit of a valuable title. But presentation wise, if Ghost Hound were to air nowadays, it would go mostly unnoticed for its slow pace and mostly serious tone. Also, since it is a show aired from 2007 to 2008, I would imagine that part of the real life information and investigations it uses might be outdated in the way it is presented.

Anyways, the show follows three main characters, the polite and rather shy and quiet protagonist Tarou Komori (it’s always this type of protagonists in this type of anime for some reason), the also quiet but hot tempered and rude Makoto Oogami, a distant relative of the former, as far as I understood, and the also rude but seemingly more relaxed, extrovert and more noisy Masayuki Nakajima. These three have initially a rather weird relationship, as the first two are distant and indifferent towards each other, but the third one ends up getting them closer by annoying them by questioning them about a certain tragic and mysterious incident from eleven years before the series begins, and almost forcing them to go with him to the place directly responsible of or linked to their biggest traumas. This, is what ended up making them friends, soon after one of them threatens to kill another.

The three of them had experienced a direct link with death, either as a witness and almost victim of it, or as an indirect (or direct, depending on how you look at it) responsible for it, which is what left said big traumas on them and what would be the reason why they develop out of body experiences and later on gain super powers within the Spirit Realm, an element within the show. Despite this aspect being something close to beliefs and spiritualism, the series also incorporates real experiments, treatments, studies, terms and explanations from psychology, psychiatry and neurology both within the episodes and in the post ending song teasers of the following episodes, as appendixes, despite being a television show, to explain how those incidents had a direct impact on their mental health.

Heck, as the show goes on and moves more from one element to the other, and incorporates more topics and scientific fields, those appendixes even incorporate physics and physical and chemical reactions, so the series ends up expanding to more scientific branches as well.

Shinreigari doesn’t stop there, as it also showcases the family drama each of the three main characters have, from having lost members, whose deaths also left more relatives traumatized, to dysfunctional familial relationships, to divorces, affairs, to labor and economical struggles, what they want to do or not in the future, even with one of them rejecting being the successor head of an influential religious cult. And it’s not that these elements are shown just to flesh out the main cast, they are all related to the main mystery of the plot, and they also end up integrating more side characters, making those more relevant and interconnected than they initially seemed to be. Choosing a rather small town as the main setting was a real good move in terms of writing, otherwise all these connections and relations would come off as a bit too convenient.

Anyways all these different connections, relationships, personal drama and tragic backstories is what definitely make the main trio of characters to be memorable and fleshed out, making up for their rather simple personalities and not very strong developments and catharsis. They open up, they face their biggest fears, they gain abilities, they find out more about their tragic pasts and all the deaths in them, they grow more confident and end up confronting more people, they achieve something at the end, it’s just that it doesn’t feel very impactful for them nor properly presented in series. I will come back to this later.

Other relevant characters worth mentioning include Taro’s counselor and therapist Atsushi Hirata and neurologist and part-time doctor Reika Outori, who also works at Bio-Tech with Masayuki’s father. As plot devices, they function as mouth pieces for the heaviest information, but also have objectives on their own. He initially rejects all the supernatural events happening in the show as different kinds of mental stress, but as they begin to take over and be noticeable to everyone, ends up having his own spiritual occurrences and professional and personal views challenged. She wants to find out what they are really doing at Bio-Tech, but not much else can be said about her because everything about this woman is a spoiler.

Then there is Takahito Komagusu, a lecturer at an university and head of a shrine, used to be close to Makoto’s parents and knows stuff about the Spirit Realm. He also has some interesting things to say about global warming, though his views would feel outdated watching the anime now. Honestly this dude doesn’t have much to add to the show besides information, so more important than him, is his daughter Miyako, a rather serious and mature girl who has the ability to see ghosts and practices exorcisms along with her father, and is also possessed by spirits from time to time. That’s what leads other people to be afraid of her or see her as the dead people that possess her, which is why a big part of her character is she reaffirming that she is her, not anyone else. At some point she is possessed by a certain God being mentioned in classic Japanese literature, from what I gathered, so that’s another field integrated in the plot through it.

There are more side characters with their own problems and objectives, but otherwise don’t have much of a character arc to offer to the show, they are plot devices more than anything else. I could talk about what they do but that would make me spoil a lot of things.

But how does everything and everyone comes together within the plot? It’s hard to explain without spoiling the whole show, I’ll try my best off my memory, I apologize beforehand for any details I might remember wrongly.

Several characters are behind or partially responsible for the kidnapping eleven years before the beginning of the series and the deaths, traumas and more consequences it led to. This ends up allowing a certain religious cult with important political connections to grow in influence and power under the radar, and it also leads to a dam project being cancelled. In present time, Bio-Tech is in charge of a project/program to create artificial bodies of sorts with no actual lives, but because of a sabotage and the strong spirits present in this town and the spiritual energy of its different cultists and priestesses, they do end up being alive, and their spirits, being initially rejected by natural spirits, almost cause a natural disaster by the end of the show. The dude sabotaging the project to sell the information to competitors (I think), throws the bodies to the dam, which is what contaminates the fields, and that’s why Tarou’s family struggles to produce sake. A fake writer who works for the government is investigating everything.

See? Everything comes together.

As for the visuals, being produced by Production I.G, initially the series looks quite good, though that there are some quality drops here and there, and the backgrounds and special effects are really good. The character designs by Mariko Oka are reminiscent of Jigoku Shoujo but not to the point of feeling rehashed, plus there is a lot of variety in body types, faces, even heights, something which ends up playing part of the plot near its end. Unfortunately, being the kind of show it is, there isn’t much to talk about the motions, and as the show goes on, everything starts to feel a bit sloppier than in the beginning, quality drops are more obvious, characters go off model, some of the spirits look quite ridiculous and not serious for the type of show this is, stuff like that. A very good example are the spiritual forms of the main characters, which look and sound like babies made of bubbles with huge heads and visible baby butts, and their evolved forms aren’t much better either. At least the directing is pretty good, using first person perspectives during the out of body experiences, or aligning the movements and sound effects during certain scenes, like a clock clicking just as someone moves a finger, or as the eyes of a character keep opening and closing, stuff like that.

Speaking of that, legendary anime sound director Youta Tsuruoka is the real star from the production team behind this show, even though it’s filled with big names within the industry. Shinreigari has easily one of the best and most immersive atmospheres in the medium, and it’s thanks to its great sound effects, uses of distortion, what I can only describe as spooky ghost noises, sudden silences, among many other things. Too bad this has less presence in the final episodes, as the anime loses a bit of its creepy ambiance for a more lighthearted one. The music is also quite good but not on the same level, as it is not used much because the sound effects are, thankfully, prioritized. The opening is a pretty cool jazz song and the ending is a melancholic and beautiful ballad, sung from the perspective of Miyako, if I understood the lyrics correctly. As for the voice acting, the characters talk with a certain accent, and since I’m not Japanese I can’t tell how good or bad it is, to my ears, the voices sound fitting and the performances atypical, mature and well done, except for the voice you hear the most, and thus most important. Oh poor boy Tarou, to be voiced by a very green Kensho Ono, not once did this man deliver a single line with a convincing emotion that any scene required, unfortunately he brought everyone else down.

But even though Ghost Hound does a good job in connecting so many different plot points and characters, it still isn’t a remarkable series in terms of writing for several reasons.

-The pacing is slow, and I don’t mean that in the general sense, used for when something it’s unexciting and unengaging. Several episodes are dedicated to explain certain details or terms, while the plot doesn’t move much.

-The main trio gains super powers that allows to literally kill their problems, and as the show goes on, said abilities even start working or not however it conveniently suits the plot and/or characters at the moment. Plus, only one of them has a clear reason for why his powers are the way they are. With the other two, you’ll have to explain them yourself based on minor hints.

-There’s a ghost inside Tarou’s head helping him at crucial moments, and it’s never clearly answered nor explained who that was, at best you can make your own headcanon based on vague assumptions.

-Characters give away crucial information with extreme ease to either people that more likely don’t know the beginning of what they are talking about, or to clearly suspicious others.

-Besides Tarou’s dad, who’s completely absent from the plot and themes, and perhaps Miyako’s dad, every other parent just plains sucks or is poorly handled. Makoto’s dad? Quite the ambiguous character. His mom? Impossible to feel empathy towards her, she did everything wrong and even went through and back from amnesia in just one episode (ROFL), at most I felt good for the kid, but her? Just no, terrible character. Miyako’s mom? The absolute worst. Tarou’s mom? Her problem was resolved out of screen. Masayuki’s mom? Barely even a plot device, I don’t even remember hearing her voice. His dad? He never pays for everything he does or is responsible for throughout the show, the way he goes back to his family and they act like a happy family with no issues at the end was one of the most stupid things in it.

-There is a project/program to create life, and only two people are in charge of it? And they are not even properly monitored? One of them even betrays the lab at some point. Just, no.

-Resolutions are simple and easy, especially in the last episode, which was so unfittingly silly, happy and cheesy, on top of rushed and convenient, that it felt like the series was planned to go for a little longer but had to finish sooner than expected for some reason, thus it ended up leaving a bad taste and impression.

-Related to the previous point, the antagonists in this series are some of the worst ever and you don’t even see what happens with them in the final episode.

-There is supposed to be a catharsis for everyone, but it doesn’t feel that way, the way the characters reach a conclusion for what they wanted answers for or achieve their objectives just…feels incomplete, they just kind of go: “You know what? Forget it, it’s not that big of a deal”.

As a whole, Shinreigari: Ghost Hound is one of the most ambitious and interesting anime I have ever watched in my life, covering many different themes, topics, ideas, scientific fields and branches, beliefs, several plot points and character arcs together in a way that felt overall well done, with overall good visuals and some of the best sound designs and atmospheres ever in anime. Unfortunately it loses steam as it goes on, and the writing, resolutions and character arcs have a very bad conclusion, leaving some very poor final impressions and after taste, which is why it doesn’t have a very strong rewatch value for me. It was still a worthy watch, almost to the end.

Note: This review is filled with spoilers, to explain how bad the anime is.

Blue Drop is a lesbian show where one of the main girls killed the whole family of the other, and the first interaction they have in series, but not chronologically, is the former strangling the latter, and not because of a kink. This would be more than enough for me to say that this anime is not worth watching but there sure is a lot more to criticize it for.

The series is about an amnesiac girl who goes to a prestigious girls only high school and ends up sharing room with another girl who strangles her at first contact, and is found out to be an alien from an all-female race that wants to investigate Earth for plot reasons. It immediately tells you that the main character has no backdrop, or that it remains a mystery throughout most of the show, and based on the very typical setup and setting, you just know these girls will end up as the main couple of the show.

Even though it combines slice of life and sci-fi action like Figure 17, the last show I covered before this one, Blue Drop really doesn’t focus on any of them, or at least, not in a way that feels well written, it’s even hard to tell what part is prioritized in it, because, really, it’s none. Scenes transition from the school to a space ship (as in, a spaceship that’s underwater, it´s a spaceship, but it’s a space ship), without a solid reason, they don’t do much in it during the initial episodes.

Eventually it turns out that this spaceship is a traitor, or suspected to be a traitor, again, for no clear reason, yet. It’s not a complicated show in the least, but since stuff just happens for the sake of happening, it’s hard to even tell why or how something just kind of happens. Heck, it’s even hard to say that stuff just happens, things are shown on screen but nothing is progressing any of the two main genres of the series.

When the girls are in school, they just goof around, when the space ship is shown, the dialogues are something like this: “Commander, I kept investigating, we need you here to do that thing”, “Understood, I will keep investigating here, so keep waiting for me there, I will go soon to do that thing”. The show desperately tries to build a mystery but there´s no mystery because nothing is happening.

So, inevitably, the focus ends up shifting to the school setting. Normally this would be to flesh out the cast and build character dynamics, but here the two main characters just flicker and makes fun of the other. The show dedicates screen time to other girls they interact with, but it feels like it’s just there for the sake of being there, it doesn’t really show much of the girls in question besides one or two things about them, and since those characters are ultimately irrelevant to the plot or the characterization of the main characters, it is just a waste of time.

The plot points never connect with each other, each one of them is there just to take screen time from the other. The school life portion just have the girls doing typical stuff, with more drama than deserved and needed, is just there to fill episodes, and eventually it doesn´t even gets a closure. When the stage play that they built for half the show is about to happen, a space invasion kicks in and the play is cancelled and you never get to see it in the show.

The sci-fi portion of it has the actual protagonist being attacked by her alien race, seemingly for being suspected of being a traitor, and she and her friend keeps taking down everyone that goes after them, even when there are more than one. How can a single ship take down a whole fleet, and later on a whole army? Well, you better believe it because it happens.

And it doesn’t stop there. Everything regarding this part of the show is horribly written and it doesn’t even connect with the main story. Unfortunately, to explain this, we have to step into spoiler territory.

-The protagonist is suspected of being a traitor because of an accident, which turns out to be something made deliberately by her superiors just to see what effect would have on their race. Imagine killing lots of your own species just for that, and without any anticipation, it is just revealed when the show is close to being over.

-The all-female alien race can create more of their own, but still came to Earth just to investigate about men. Nonsensical writing, they essentially are here just because it’s the setting that the writer wanted them to be. You never even get to see them around men at any point because there are barely any in this show.

-There is a teacher who is actually a secret agent spying on the amnesiac main character, she is found out by the latter for speaking about it out loud, on phone, in the school. Aside from the dumb writing, the show tries to build drama around them with this but this is the only episode that dedicates them some shared screen time and dynamic, their relationship goes back to normal by the end of it and their interactions are as brief and hollow as they were before.

-Characters suspect that the main girl has some kind of psychic powers, it is never explained properly and it ends up not playing a single part in the plot.

-The protagonist captures an enemy and lets her roam around her ship however she feels like it, never suspecting that she might be an infiltrator. Guess what happens.

-Knowing that her prisoner of war resents both her and the main girl, she still takes the latter to her ship, gets the two of them to know each other, and even sends them together to the same room inside the ship. Guess what happens.

-The spaceship has some level of conscience, yet never tells them what this infiltrator is doing.

-At one point the plot or characters progress because of the spirit of a dead character briefly appearing to tell the protagonist to let go, that it wasn’t her fault.

-Fights keep happening between the aliens but no one notices them, not even the spy teacher reports them. This spaceships even fly through the city at some point and people act as if they were planes. And yet, by the last episode, lots of human armies appear out of thin air to fight against them, only to, obviously, get stomped with ease.

-The outcome somehow leads into the very first scene of the show in the future, but it happens out of screen and after a huge time skip, it feels that it came out of nowhere and that it shouldn’t unfold the way it does.

-The protagonist never explains to the main character that she never actually intentionally killed her family nor destroyed the island she used to live in, all she does is apologizing while crying.

-What is the response of the other girl? A slap, but not for what she thinks she did, the expected confession, and a kiss, with even a shared line of dialogue in unison. Aside from being corny as hell, we the audience at that point know that the other girl wasn’t really responsible for that, but since she doesn’t explain it to the main girl, the latter is still from this point on, and for a very short time, going out with the person that, as far as she knows, killed her whole family and destroyed every place she used to know about.

-The protagonist never explained nor even apologized to the main character for strangling her in their first interaction, yet they are girlfriends by the last episodes.

-Her underling, that wanted her Commander to go back to the spaceship the whole time, decides that her being part of the stage play for the school is more important than preventing the invasion on Earth.

SPOILERS END HERE

And these are just the instances of horrible writing I remember off my memory at the moment of writing this, imagine how many more I could write about if I were to do a quick rewatch of sorts.

As for the characters, as you can tell by me never naming them, these are the things that I remember about them as well, characters, besides their roles as plot devices in the show:

-The main character, she is amnesiac, the plot somehow seemingly revolves around her, but she takes no part in it. At least she is willing to throw some punches when she needs to, I’ll give her that.

-The actual protagonist, she is unexpectedly a prankster.

-The infiltrator, she is resentful for having lost her ex-girlfriend, ends up becoming an ally once she finds out the truth.

-The teacher, she sucks at both of her jobs and ends up having no part in the plot nor any meaningful dynamic with any other character.

-Tall fat girl, her older sister has two babies.

-Cool girl, is the daughter of the school principal.

-Glasses girl, always liked fairy tales when she was a child, after a lot of drama she ends up writing the stage play that is never shown.

-The antagonists, they exist, they are cannon fodder and their reasoning is completely forced by the script with no explanation or logic whatsoever.

I can’t even say that the visuals are good even with three main studios working on this show. I’m sure they were innovating by 2007 standards, but by now they come off as, at best, painfully average and dated. The character designs are simple, generic and forgettable, the artwork is very inconsistent, the motions aren’t very good, the special effects and the backgrounds are not bad actually, but both are filled with very dated and crappy CGI made by Gonzo, a trademark of the studio for a while.

So in the end, Blue Drops ends up being a sci-fi show about an alien invasion that doesn’t go anywhere for most of its screen time, and with a single ship defeating a whole army, with absolutely no reasoning nor logic to unfold the way it does, and with one of the most illogical writing I have ever seen. It is also an empty slice of life series with no fleshed out, memorable nor likeable characters whatsoever, and it never manages to connect its parts together. It is also another nonsensical and quite toxic anime about lesbians, and even a visually very dated show.

But I still have two positive things to say about it. One is that it has a good sound department, very impactful and very well mixed sound effects both during battles and during slice of life moments, and also, very good soundtrack, even a very good opening, which sounds almost elegiac, too bad it ended up in this anime, and a very good ending, although not as good as the opening. Check out the full versions of both, because they are even better. The voice acting is not the typical voice acting I expected, but it is still not that special and not on par with the rest.

The other is having a very important death in it, which remains permanent, the character that dies isn’t magically brought back to life.

And even these two things are still only semi positives, since the volume in this anime randomly goes up and down for no reason, and that ends up being a bit annoying, and a character staying dead should be the norm anyways, and even then it’s weird because you wouldn’t expect this character to die throughout the whole show, it kind of happens to end in a dramatic way, in an attempt to finish with a somewhat bittersweet ending, and as far as I’m concerned it failed because I never cared for the character, and the scene afterwards has a comedic tone to it, ruining its impact.

It is far from the worst anime I watched in my life, and is not the worst nor most toxic, nor my most hated Shoujo Ai anime I watched, since I consumed both Kannazuki no Miko and NTR: Netsuzou TRap, but it is still a very terrible anime and one of the worst written anime I have watched in my life. Aside from listening to the very good soundtrack, I think that the best thing that can be done with this anime, is to stay the fuck away from it.

Figure 17 is the cute story about a little girl who gets parasitized by an alien who takes her form, stays on her house, eats part of her food, pretends to be her twin, is part of the brainwash of her father to make him think he always had two daughters, becomes better than her at everything at school while becoming more popular there, and makes her fight against horrible dangerous monsters.

There’s this little precious Tsubasa Shiina, a shy and rather quiet girl with clear problems to socialize and lack of self-esteem partly because of the loss of her mother, her dad being away almost all day at work and almost absent for her, and because she recently moved on to a new place and school. She bumps into a crashed spaceship where some eggs of extraterrestrial monsters hatch and scatter over Hokkaido, they fed off of it and evolve that way. At the same time she accidentally fuses with an alien weapon/battle armor/life form thing to fight them, which out of battle takes her form, and thus she begins to live on her house as her new twin sister, Hikaru.

How is any of that cute you may ask? Because of the way it’s presented. Let’s clarify that this show is a cutesy and relaxing slice of life and coming of age story first, and a sci-fi action monster of the week series after. The focus is clearly placed on how Tsubasa no longer feels lonely thanks to her new more optimistic, energetic and extrovert sister who is always by her side, cares for her and encourages her to talk to others, get new friends, try more things, and be more confident with herself, while also fights alongside her and protects her from the aliens they face. Since their father is a baker and they live in a farm, the first thing they learn together is to make some breads and cakes and all that stuff, while also stuff about different animals, particularly cows. Then at school they go to class together, practice and compete in sports together, and rehearse and later star on a stage play together, that kind of usual stuff.

As the series goes on, however, after a tragic event, where the more cynical view of the situation which I began this review with gets acknowledged and addressed, and with the acknowledgment of their inevitable parting once all the monsters are defeated, both girls will be a little more apart of each other and Tsubasa will effectively learn to be more sufficient by herself and less dependent of Hikaru.

But how does the action sci-fi part of the show fits in? Well that’s the thing, initially it doesn’t, it feels tacked on and it even drops the overall quality of the show actually, since those monsters are just horrible things with zero dimensions of personality to them, which exist just to be killed on each episode. Not only that but the fights, despite having some battle choreography and strategies to them, usually start with alien policeman D.D getting defeated, and get resolved by Hikaru convincing Tsubasa to not be scared of the opponents, and they defeat them with one punch, even when the more experienced characters couldn’t win.

Fortunately this appear to have been realized on the writing room at some point, and as the show goes on, the monsters keep evolving and sharing information with the others, gaining new characteristics and forcing the heroes to face them together, form new strategies and use new weapons in order to win, by the end of the show no alien can be defeated by the girls all by themselves, they have to fight alongside the two veteran space police officers in order to win, even survive.

But that’s just an improvement action wise, how it ends up connecting with the main plot? Well, first, by having D.D and the later introduced other officer Oldina have a little, but very little, lives on Earth on their own as well while they gather information about their enemies. Second, by having them changing a little from their cold initial attitude to be more comprehensible and respectful of the things the two sisters go through the show, even letting them out of a few fights and having a few instances where they take the monsters on their own. Although short lived, it was a very welcomed change to have the two veteran space police officers be the ones to kill the aliens. Third, since the majority of the series is dedicated to the slice of life moments on Hokkaido, having all of the characters the girls interact with at stake as the show goes on, makes the following fights to be and feel important. And fourth, part of the growth Tsubasa goes through ends up playing a part as well, since it leads to an improvement on their way of fighting, and she even gets to save Hikaru at some point, an even more welcomed change.

Another way the writing tried to connect the two plot points with each other was with the presence of an investigator who realizes weird stuff is happening in the environment of Hokkaido, even appearing in the final battle. Although this portion of the show is necessary to understand the actual effects that the monsters have, it is universally considered filler, and to be honest everything regarding this character feel as such. Which is a shame since it is something very easy to solve, just have D.D and Oldina be the ones to investigate this stuff, they already use some pseudo-science to learn more stuff about their enemies, might as well have them look into what those monsters are doing to the Earth, that would help them in their own investigation, and give them more screen time to have a little more lives on their own on our planet, and thus have a bit more presence and character outside the action bits. Eventually this investigator ends up getting a catharsis, but like I said, everything about this character feels unnecessary and tacked on.

Another thing worth mentioning is the unexpected but welcomed lack of plot armor, especially with how many times D.D could have died but didn’t in the initial episodes. This I find to be positive, since despite being primarily a slice of life show, Figure 17 still has stakes, and having important characters dying permanently is the proper way to make said stakes feel real and their consequences important for not being taken away. And is not like the deaths come out of nowhere for shock effect, they are properly anticipated and it’s great that the series does not chickens out with them, even leading to a somewhat bittersweet ending.

To continue with the positives, I was surprised by the visual quality of the show, since it is a rather minor production from 2001. There are quality drops and characters go off model when seen from afar, and the designs are simple and generic, even very lookalike to what the designer would do later on Planetes, for example, but still the visuals are usually very good, very good special effects, very little and well rendered CGI for its time, in turn well mixed with the rest, and some of the most beautiful hand drawn backgrounds you’ll get to see on anime. The motions, though not always, are usually pretty good as well, and even the slice of life bits have vivid enough body language to not feel those bits as visually inferior.

As for the sound, the children sound very cute and convincing, every voice fits perfectly and is well performed. The adults however, partially because of their part on the show, sound a bit more typical, not bad, just not special in any way. The background music is good, composed of cute and relaxing themes for the slice of life portion of the series, and heavy rockers for the sci-fi half of it. With that said, the soundtrack ends up coming off as repetitive because some themes have many different versions and are reused in the exact same way every time in similar scenes. The opening is also a cool rock track, and the base for some tracks of the soundtrack, but it almost does not feel like the overall vibe of the show, luckily the more relaxing ending song fits better, and compliments it well, just like the two different genres don’t fit together at first but end up making a proper whole later on. The sound effects are nothing special but they are fine.

And now for the issues of the show, aside from the ones I already mentioned.

-Brainwashing is one of the laziest plot devices to use in writing regardless of what it is used for, thus it is an issue here.

-Although somewhat explained, having just one human notice what’s happening it’s impossible to buy, another major flaw and another reason to get rid of that investigator.

-By the end of the show all memory and track of what happened is erased, except for Tsubasa’s, this way it does not takes away the most relevant aspect of the show, but still makes the ending to feel like very little mattered in the end.

-The sisters are away of all the people they live and interact with everyday every time they get called to fight, and no one notices them going away to fight and get back to their house late at night at times, how convenient.

Despite the minuses, I still found it to be a pretty good slice of life and action hybrid, each genre is ok by itself at first, and they get tied together properly as the series goes on. Plus, it’s a slice of life show with plot continuity, stakes, permanent consequences and actual character growth by the end of it, quite rare within this medium, and somewhat valuable and memorable because of it. It is also one of the atypical and unusual oddities coming from OLM, the Pokémon studio, worthy to check out when they make something outside their comfort zone, like this, or Odd Taxi, or Berserk, to name a few. Still, with each episode being 45 minutes long, the simplicity of its plot and how it takes a while for its two genres to feel like they belong in the same series, I don’t find rewatch value in here, but for a one time experience, it is a good choice.

For similar stuff, there are actually way too many options, but just to name a few:

For the slice of life portion of it

-Gin no Saji, a coming of age series about high school students from the countryside.

-NieA_7, a slice of life comedy about a woman living with an alien.

-Hinamatsuri, a slice of life dramedy about alien girls living on Japan.

For the sci-fi action bit of it

-The Guyver action franchise, about a guy who accidentally fuses with a bio-organic alien armor to fight against extraterrestrial monsters invading Earth.

-Brigadoon, a science fantasy action romance dramedy about a girl being protected by a bio-organic extraterrestrial being from other soldiers like him, as well as many other monsters.

-The Tetsuwan Birdy action franchise, about a guy who for plot reasons shares body with a female space police officer who captures space criminals.

And more, there are a bunch more similar titles out there, damn. Another title that it’s usually recommended along this one is Blue Drop, but as I will explain next time, it’s best to stay far away from it.

Before I start I would like to give two warnings: Fist, I love this show, so this review is most likely going to be very biased, second, I did not (and will not) play the videogame, so the mentions of it I could make are going to be limited to what I saw on just one walkthrough, and of course, I am not going to complain about how is not a 1:1 adaptation because of that, even more so because this is mainly directed towards anime only viewers like myself.

TL; DR: It has poor CGI and is not a videogame, but despite some issues it is still a great science fiction show.

Oh poor show, all it took was one episode of bad CGI and not doing the impossible of making a tv series to be exactly like a videogame for most to not give it a chance. And then something weird happened (they said COVID, but it has become hard to believe) that messed up the release completely, and even more stopped giving a damn because it would come out like a manga on hiatus.

Let’s get the production out of the way. A-1 Pictures usually delivers with the visuals, but I never felt like any of their shows was visually impressive, and NieR:Automata Ver1.1a could have been the exception, but it is not. The overall artwork is great, I had no issue with it, there are no obvious quality drops, the backgrounds of the game are captured perfectly on the show, the motions during battles are really good even when the fights are short, although not so much during relaxing moments, the special effects are really good as well, and the character designs were translated well to 2D, even though the lines in the joints of the characters in the series do not reflect the fact that they are androids as well as the 3D models from the videogame, and obviously, the hairs do not have as much volume as in the game. Some people have issues with 2B’s face since she seems to have lipstick and eye liner or something, not me. That seems very superficial and minimal to me, especially when she wears a skirt and high heels during battles. But the main issue with this anime is the infamous CGI that made lots of people drop it with just one episode. At first glance it is plain awful, but maybe I got used to it, because it did not look that bad to me during a rewatch, I mean, it is still pretty bad compared to the rest, since those CGI mecha do not seem to match with the rest of the show at times, but the motions are still good even during those moments. Luckily it is not that present after the first episode, but it is still the worst visual aspect in a show that is otherwise very solid.

Sound wise, the show is kind of amazing even if it could have been even better. The sound effects are impactful enough and usually very good, yet they could have been a bit louder sometimes in a particular episode, the background music in the show is immersive and very reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell’s, but I have to take points from it for being practically reused from the videogame or the original Nier, even Advent Children had different arrangements of the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack, this series does not seem to be changing the themes one bit, nor add its own. The opening and ending are good but did not make the best first impressions on me. They definitely grew on me over time though, particularly after hearing the full versions, and even more so when I found out a bit more about the lyrics and how they reflect the perspective of the main characters. As for the voice acting, every voice fits the character just right and is well interpreted, and is good what they did editing wise with the robot characters, they might sound a bit annoying to some perhaps but since they are robots trying (and ultimately failing) to be, act and sound human, what was done with them sounds accordingly. I would never have had an issue with this department if I had not watch a walkthrough of the game. I do not know if this is just a thing on the English dub that I watched and it was different on the original Japanese, but over there the robots sound more monotonous and lifeless, which fits the idea and characterization behind them a bit better, as well as the weird feeling both the protagonists and viewer are meant to feel when that happens. So, funnily, if I have to criticize something from the voice acting it is from being way too well done, but I am still not taking points from it.

And now I can finally move to the meat of the series. The premise is rather typical but usually interesting and exciting if you are into science fiction, humanity lives on the Moon and tries to get back Earth which was taken by aliens after they attacked it and conquered it, with the spin of both sides using robots and androids as their military forces. Throughout the show we follow two androids on Earth interacting with the Resistance and fighting alien machines there while investigating a former unit going rogue. It seems like there is not much conflict in it and it is just two sides at war, but there are different interesting clashing perspectives in it:

-The YoRHa units are built to just kill every robot they see so they want to be done with it as soon as possible.

-The androids on Earth were fighting for so long and know and are in contact and even negotiations with some machines, so they are tired of the war and not nearly as extreme. They also have been neglected help from the Human Council for so much time that they do not trust YoRHa units all that much. And even then they have their fair share of internal differences.

-Similarly, the machines have been fighting for so long and had seen so many of them getting destroyed that some of them just want to live peacefully in community.

-Then there is A2, who considers she has been betrayed by the Human Council and YoRHa in the past so she goes rogue on her mission. It is interesting that she is still hunting machines despite not being ordered to do so, but she has a personal reason to do that.

-Then mankind, which you never get to see, just want to take back Earth despite all the sacrificed androids it takes.

-The YoRHa commander, who just seems to be serious and cold at first and not caring about using the Resistance members as decoys like the Human Council orders, yet does not like sending the androids to their destruction.

As you know already if you played the videogame, or have guessed with the above, this is another one of those what if stories where AI essentially developed a level of conscience and self-awareness that they consider themselves to be humans, or equals to humans. So here you have every character going existential in one way or another, and this is a very important thing to clarify. If you go into this show expecting to get all the action from the videogame, you will be disappointed. There is action alright but the series focuses more on the existential drama of the story of the game. The characters in this show are constantly pondering about how humans are and act, how we do certain things, the things we do under certain moments, why are those even important and what do they mean to us, and are also curious about Earth and why is it so important to mankind, while the alien machines that now want to live in peace on the planet try to mimic what they came to know about humans and life on Earth, and they talk about emotions, bonds, ways to organize and live in society, concepts such as loyalty and love, they claim to have a soul, and even try to mimic different ways humans show affection, heck they even have sex at one point.

Basically, the series more or less references to, or combines ideas of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Nietzsche, Theseus and Pascal and although the way said ideas are integrated is basic, this makes the experience easily digestible and enjoyable, instead of tedious and tiresome. Also, since the concepts are related to the plot and characterization, and unlike other anime Nier:Automata Ver1.1a does not quotes the philosophers, and thus it does not comes off as pretentious.

But it is not like the show just has androids and robots just talking about these things either, there is also action, mainly the hack & slash portions of the videogame, while 9S’ hacking sections and the shoot ‘em up/bullet hell bits have a much more minimal presence, even more so with the latter. And even those are usually accompanied by the machines challenging the concept of them that the androids have been bombarded with all the time by YoRHa and the Human Council, so there is theme exploration even there.

There is also some comedy, and although I was born a grumpy old man that prefers his serious moody shows to stay as serious and moody as possible, I was mostly fine with the mix here. There is some Yoko Taro trademark humor in it, like a post ending puppet theater segment that shows all the alternative endings from the videogame, as well as speeding up the credits that come right after, like in the videogame. There are some silly bits that are meant to relax, yet they are usually followed by soldiers talking about everything they have lost, their need for hope, or if all the fighting is really worth it, or the scene where the village leader Pascal says to 9S that despite all the modifications for weaponry done on his body, he is still the same on the inside because of his soul or heart, even Operator 21O asking 9S to collect photos of certain things on Earth are meant to show her curiosity about it and humans, or Operator 6O asking 2B to put a flower on her hair is meant to show hers about the same things, as well as certain human customs and even fashion choices. So there is theme exploration even in those moments, no scene in this series feels like it wastes time.

And it is not like the show sacrifices its plot and pacing for the sake of theme exploration either, on episode 2, 2B and 9S are assigned the mission to do reconnaissance and find the reason for the weird behavior of the alien machines, as well as why so many other YoRHa units have been disappearing. With proper anticipation and build up, and without having you wait that much time for answers, by the eight episode you already know the reasons for both of those things, and there is a proper follow up after said answers were given.

And it is also not like the show is all plot and no interesting characters either. The protagonists as you sure know are female android YoRHa Model No.2 Type B (for Battler) and male android YoRHa Model No.9 Type S (for Scanner), 2B and 9S respectively for short.

She seems to be always serious and collected during relaxing moments and wants to complete missions as quick as possible, and she always tells 9S to no get emotional, but is clearly affected by the loss of a squad she was part of at the beginning of the show, which is why she does not mind doing errands instead of fighting, as well as 9S being a different 9S she fought along with in the first episode, which is why she refuses to call him by his nickname, so she is the more emotional of the two. She is also clearly doubtful about her duty and the depiction of the alien machines from YoRHa and the Human Council’s propaganda compared to what she finds on Earth.

He, on the contrary, tries to get closer to 2B and is always far more relaxed and friendly during relaxing moments, but is otherwise serious and merciless during battles, not doubting to kill innocent machines, even children. He also hacks robots during fights and gets to see their memories, convinced that they cannot possibly have something such as memories and they are just trying to fool him by mimicking humans. He is clearly more in line with YoRHa and the Human Council’s propaganda and denies every display of emotion and cognition done by the robots, but even he starts to doubt that throughout the series as he interacts with the Resistance, or Pascal, or the encounter with A2, and even spies on YoRHa’s commander at one point.

Other important characters include deserter veteran soldier Type A (for Attacker) No.2, A2 for short, on the hunt of machines and trying to put YoRHa units against the Human Council because of her past, adding a former soldier betrayed by her military layer to the show, Resistance members Lily the leader, with a close past connection with A2, and Jackass, who acts as a comic relief character and a technology and data freak of sorts but still has her serious and sharp side like Lily.

The only somewhat fleshed out robot would be Pascal, a former battle unit, leader of a village, trying to be up to his position, acting silly at times and challenging 9S’ views at others. Much like A2, he is a deserter, and much like Adam, he yearns for learning.

The machine brothers Adam and Eve, acting as antagonists in the show, evolved from many others. The former develops intelligence and language throughout their apparitions, by reading and interpreting different human writings to be like them, while the latter is just defined by how much he admires his older brother.

There are more robots that appear for about one episode to explore certain themes, and they have a backdrop, but they are not as important because of lack of screen time.

There are also more characters from the Nier franchise as a nod to the fans but they appear as cameos with not much to do or say.

Aside from the writing, another thing that stands out is the directing, with very good battle choreography during fights, following every motion and even referencing the videogame at points. Sometimes there are also long atmospheric scenes with very minimal dialogue, or even mute, letting the viewer figure what is happening by themselves, showing instead of telling. The art style also changes completely when showing Pascal’s past. The sixth episode which is the one showing Lily and A2’s past is the one that stands out the most, using first person perspective during some shots, and having Lily and 2B walking on a place, while the memories of the former transition over to behind the space they are walking on, so she is, in a way, reliving her past. I find it quite impressive coming from the people responsible for it, who before this title did not make anything that I find to be particularly good.

Another thing that I want to point out as a positive, is the fact that, despite being based on a videogame where it is possible to have a relatively high level of fanservice, and adapted by #1 butt fetishist Japanese studio A-1 Pictures, the instances in the show where skin is shown that can be counted as fanservice are few, scattered, and subtle. It also makes sense to have like three or four very quick butt shots with 2B jumping everywhere while using a skirt, so I did not have a problem with them while watching the series, and if you have read another one of my reviews you may know that I always bitch about unnecessary nudity moments. Still, I have to say that I did not like how they increased in the final episodes.

But despite my praises, Nier:Automata Ver1.1a is certainly not without its questionable things of different nature.

The first one has to do with the concept itself. As much as I tend to love these kind of stories where AI becomes sentient and stuff, the scenario is still hard to accept even in these times. AI is programmed by humans, the things it can do are limited to what a human commands. Granted, this story happens way further in the future so who knows, but in our times, the concept is still not fully believable. Another thing to point out about these premises are how AI develop conscience, self-awareness and free will, despite being built and programmed by others, so the things they should develop on their own by definition, were actually programmed by others, sounds a bit contradictory does not it? It is even weirder when it comes to the machines, but is it perhaps easier to accept since they were made by a supposedly advanced space species, again, in the future.

Then there are things that are questionable within the writing of Nier:Automata itself, like why would you program emotions into your android military forces, knowing that could potentially lead them to oppose you, which is something that actually happens, should not the YoRHa units be more monitored and controlled in some way to prevent that same possibility? Why would the robots try to be humans when they were made by another completely different species? Ok maybe the reasoning is that they want to live on Earth and they want to show androids and humans that they can be the same, and they fail, so the franchise addresses that in a way. Then there is something regarding the robots and their alien creators which does not make much sense when you consider that a good number of them moves in sloppy ways, and cannot even fight against the androids. These are things that affect the credibility of Nier:Automata specifically, and without clear answers they feel like they are the way they are just so the story can happen.

And another issue of the anime itself, is how it shows the backgrounds of certain machines and throws references to the original Nier. Although I do appreciate how those scenes are presented as I said earlier, it is true that if you are an anime only like myself you can be confused by what is shown, even more so with the references. Like, I know who Kaine is, but since I did not watch a walkthrough of the original Nier yet, I did not get why her brief apparition was important, or what that wedding earlier even was. The scenes by their own still function at showing the background stories of the characters and impact 9S, but it is understandable if anime onlys are confused with them and feel indifferent towards them.

Other issues include how sometimes some cinematics from Route B are integrated in ways that do not feel properly contextualized, and the fact that part of the plot is left to be adapted. The season ends in a good point but the story is still incomplete. Also, as great as 2B and 9S are, and although the rest of the cast is still somewhat fleshed out and given a good enough either presence or personality, or a backdrop, or all of those things, they are still not as good characters as the main two, which are the only ones to get proper development and catharsis.

I would now like to talk about the criticisms about how the adaptation works compared to the videogame. I heard and read complaints about how the videogame is more engaging thanks to the three obligatory runs to complete the whole story, and how it shows more information about the story and characters each time that way, there is replay value, while the anime gives you all the information you need at once, thus it does not have the same sense of intrigue and rewatch value. Those points are somewhat true but also unfair with the show, an anime television series is not a videogame, it is supposed to give you the full story at once to be complete, which is why it skips most side quests. Also it has rewatch value because that way you might notice things you missed the first time, or how it foreshadows or builds up future events.

Granted, a more faithful adaptation to the videogame could be possible with more seasons, but for that to be done that way, I can only think that it should be like either the Endless Eight arc of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, which although it had interesting directing choices, it was mostly hated even by its fans for how minimal the new content was on each episode, or the Fate/Stay Night franchise, which adapts each route on a different series each time. The problem with that approach is how every adaptation lacks important details about either the story or the world or the lore or the characters, even in the original game. If you just consume Fate or Unlimited Blade Works, you know nothing about several characters, and you are missing a lot of lore that is only shown on Heaven’s Feel, on which so many characters die so fast and early, you have to watch or play the other two to even know who they are. If you adapt a videogame that way, it might mean more possible money and a longer time you have a fanbase, but writing wise it is not a good way to do it, because none of the stories will be entirely complete without the others. Retakes of a same story from different perspectives can work just fine, but exact reruns of that said same story works only for videogames, and is otherwise not good writing.
And this criticism did not even age well now that the season is complete and the continuation adapting the third route was confirmed.

Plus, imagine how much time it would take them to release three series instead of just one or two, why with the horrible release date this one alone had. That is a serious criticism that can be made about this anime but not in terms of writing, it is not a problem within the series itself, but rather a problem of it as a product, thanks to the people responsible for it. The release schedule was so irregular without much explanation, and the one given, COVID, was hard to believe for how long the series was postponed. It was even worse because in the meantime they released all kind of products, from the soundtrack, to podcasts, to a card game, to figurines, to puzzles, even the puppets you can see in the post credits each episode, among many more, it felt like they were trolling us and delaying the series on purpose to sell more stuff of it. Obviously this will not be a problem once the series is fully complete and available to watch from beginning to end whenever someone feels like it, but in the era of overproduction of products, hype, instant gratification, and short memory and attentions spans, it is a big issue for some, and I do not see many people recommending this anime in the future because it became kind of niche even when it was airing.

And now, I would like to add a summary for people who have already played the videogame, where I tell you what parts of the videogame are adapted on each episode, and what the adaptation skips or changes, as much as I can notice:

Episode 1-A foreshadowing of route A ending, followed by the prologue, including the very beginning of route B.

Episode 2-It is mostly original, half of it follows a robot that grows and take care of flowers, while the other half shows the Resistance, which 2B and 9S get to meet after the maintenance scene. Anemone is replaced by Lily and also, Devola and Popola appear. It includes some cinematics from Route B.

Episode 3-Follows 2B and 9S meeting the Resistance camp, including Jackass, who is more energetic and silly here, acting as the comic relief character. They also go to the desert, and the City Ruins where they meet all the android corpses and very briefly fight against Adam and Eve. The only important skipped bit was the member of the Resistance that wants to conserve his original leg, as the only remain of his original self. This conversation is somewhat present on episode 7.

Episode 4-2B and 9S go to the Amusement Park and fight against Simone/Beauvoir, I guess the Memories of a Songstress novel from the videogame is included in a way as a flashback, though the dialogues are quite different, so maybe not. At the end of it 9S tells 2B to not hesitate to kill machines, this way is far more impactful and makes more sense than in the videogame, partly because of the events on the episode itself, and partly because on the original he says that to her during a random encounter with a group on the desert, while the player has the option to casually slaughter them to grind experience without hesitation.

Episode 5-2B and 9S go to the Ruins of Commercial Facilities and the village where Pascal lives, they also find Emil, in a way, and reveal him as a weapon. Kaine appears in a flashback. It includes cinematics of Adam and Eve on the table.

Episode 6-Shows Lily and A2’s past, adapted from the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation novels from the game, the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play, and the YoRHa: Shinjuwan Kouka Sakusen Kiroku manga. Anemone appears as a side character, as she was replaced by Lily in this series. Very good on its own but I found the other version I saw to be more detailed and introspective, thus better.

Episode 7-It fuses some side quests into a new one of sorts, leading 2B and 9S into the Forest Kingdom and their encounter and fight with A2. Since she cleared all the guards, it skips all the fights in it, and the castle sequence from the game, but it shows the backstory of the place that is shown on Route B. An important thing that was skipped between episode 5 and this one is the second encounter with Adam and Eve, and the reveal of what happened with the aliens. In this episode Pascal and 92 discuss about how much of you is still you if you change your body too much, so in a way it has the conversation that could have been on episode 2.

Episode 8-It mostly has the main characters interacting in the Flooded City, with the Lunar Tear accessory included, it does not adapt the fights and protecting the carrier mission from the game, thus it does not feature the other YoRHa units. With major changes, the end of the episode leads into the mission to find 9S.

Episode 9-It begins with 9S arguing with Adam in the cyberspace, then 2B reaches that room where the last episode left off, and goes to the Underground to find an access to the Copied City, where Adams presents himself and reveals what happened with the aliens, a bit that was missing from earlier episodes, as the second encounter was completely skipped. Then the two of them fight, with a major change in the outcome, for the better, honestly.

Episode 10-It adapts 2B going to the abandoned factory and fighting the Robot God, a mission from the videogame which was reconnected directly with the main plot through the outcome of the previous episode, thus I find it better than the original. The after credits puppet theater shows the Red Girls briefly.

Episode 11-It has the full scale attack of the alien machines on the Resistance Camp rewritten into an original fight which I did not find all that good in any particular way, but at least had the Resistance being a somewhat active part of it, unlike the game. It also has a bit more of immersion giving to the brothers and now the Red Girls officially appear in the anime, even if for an even more brief moment than before. Still, as a whole, I found this episode to be the worst of the season, both as an adaptation and on its own.

Episode 12-It shows the outcome and the Route A ending, even finishing with End of the World as a mid-episode ending song. Afterwards it shows 9S getting all the information he comes to learn about during his data overhaul and synchronization in Route B, even displaying some messages he reads in the game. It also shows him encountering the Red Girls, now responsible for these leaks in information, something which I also find it to be better than the original. Aside from that, their apparition, alongside with a post ending teaser, anticipates events from Route C and the second season.

As a whole, despite not free of issues in writing, visuals and presentation, along with a very bad release schedule, I found it to be a great existential post-apocalyptic war drama and the best anime to come out in years, as well as the best videogame adaptation so far for keeping the core story with more changes to its favor, although some of them were not as equally good, and also for making every second of it count for plot progression, characterization and theme exploration. An easy entry among my favorites anime of all time.

Note: There might be a little bit of spoilers in here. To sum it up: the visuals and atmosphere are great, but there is very little plot and characters in here, and what is in it, is a waste of time.

It’s interesting that this donghua even caught some attention, given that initially the premise was very vague, and it adapts a seemingly not that well known webcomic. I guess it has to do with it being easily available.

Well, aside from that, there’s the hook, two dudes go to an escape room and win it, for one of them, the protagonist, to have recurring visions of different escape rooms and the female owner of the place they went to, afterwards. Quite unusual, plus during the first three episodes the pacing is quite good, having the setup and a cliffhanger in the first, the resolution in the second, and a hint of the backdrop stories that connects all the characters in the third.

The visuals are also very good, nothing mind blowing but definitely way better than the average anime out there, especially modern ones. The artwork is very well done, it’s always consistent without quality drops whatsoever, very well made backgrounds despite being limited to the same places in the same city all the time, and a better use of lighting and shading than any anime out there these days. The special effects are also very good, and the CGI used in the show is mixed very well with the rest, compared to other anime, and donghua as well. Plus the visuals and directing during the hallucination parts are very good as well. The parts that stood out the most for me were the genuinely visually dark moments in the show, which nowadays I don’t find anywhere else, even in series that are supposed to have dark aesthetics. The minuses in this department have to do with how stiff the series is most of the time, and how simple the character designs are, the only character that stands out a little is the main girl, and only because of her dress, black and red like her hair and eyes respectively. When she appears with other clothes she blends within everyone else like the rest of the cast.

The sound department is also very good, very well made sound effects during both relaxing and intense moments and the soundtrack is pretty immersive. The opening fits the mysterious vibe from the initial episodes very well and the ending, although nothing special, is fine as well. I take out points here because of the voice acting, it feels very generic and without much variety in delivery among different scenes and events.

But that’s as far as the positives go for me.

Initially the series plays out as a suspenseful psychological thriller making the viewer guess why is this happening? Is it all just a dream? Is the protagonist going crazy? Did he fall in love with the woman? Is she a demon that bewitches all men as the rumors say? Is it that all Chinese men can’t stop having recurring thoughts about a woman they met for like an hour?

Well, let me tell you, from episode 4 to 13 and half of 14, X & Y is not a psychological thriller, is not suspenseful and it’s not a drama in the least. It’s a romcom about the two main characters teasing each other. You can forget about the setup because so does the show, as it becomes a lighthearted slice of life and romantic comedy series with no plot progression whatsoever that made it feel way longer than just a 16 episodes series of a runtime of 15 minutes per episode. Plus from that point the initial thrilling tone and atmosphere became weaker and weaker until disappearing almost completely. No wonder it ended up falling into obscurity once again.

Ok, sometimes a character would appear to yell at the protagonist to STAY AWAY FROM THAT WOMAN, SHE IS THE DEVIL is a most exaggerated and ridiculous way, only for that to lead to nothing. Ok, bad things keep happening to people that harass the main girl, as well as acquaintances of the main character, fuelling the initial suspicion. But that also leads to nothing happening in the end, a girl gets kidnapped and placed in an escape room for several episodes? Nothing happens to her in the end, it was all fake tension, the show just felt like wasting some episodes. Did a character die for harassing that other woman? It happens out of screen or you won’t see what ends up happening to the asshole.

They also keep bringing up how suspicious it is that the woman could build such a big and complex escape room place out of nowhere, but I don’t recall the show ever answering that.

Another big issue are the slice of life moments, which normally serve to at least flesh out the cast, but that doesn’t happen either. Everyone remains one note up until the last two and a half episodes. In the meantime they have the most unnatural interactions in a slice of life series ever, maybe the translation is to blame but seriously who talks like that? Even leaving the dialogues aside, there’s nothing to learn about this cast, they only appear in one place and they do the exact same things every time. Do you want to know more about the protagonist and what the heck is going on in his head? Well, too bad, he is amnesiac and he doesn’t get a clue about himself or the plot until the 14th episode out of 16, and the way he got that was so easy and simple you can’t help but think that it should have happened way earlier.

Anyways, once the answers are given, turns out there’s no supernatural stuff, and the protagonist isn’t losing his mind either, everything was a lie the whole time. To be fair, the reason behind all of this isn’t too bad, if the series was good, it could have been something like a mix between The Truman Show (minus the reality show aspect) and Memento or some shit. But there’s none of that here, and what ends up being the answer certainly isn’t very believable, in fact I dare to say it’s not at all, the characters shouldn’t interact the way they do at all, given their backdrop story, and it definitely didn’t mindfucked the protagonist nearly as much as it should have done, and it definitely didn’t need 16 episodes to show it, it could have been a short movie combining the first three episodes, very few scenes of the next ten, and then the last three. Either that but with better writing, or at least anticipate the outcome a bit for it to not feel as sudden as it was, plus it would have been more impactful and relevant for the protagonist. Ok, maybe if we track every escape room shown prior in the series we could find some hints, but I’m not doing that, and even if I did and they exist, I bet they are few, little, very easy to miss, and not really adding to the big picture nor highlighted in a way that might feel well written or directed. You would find more pausing the opening.

And you know what the worst thing about this show is? The ending is open and circular, and from what I read the series only adapts half the source material, which follows a similar pattern to end with, again, an open and circular ending.

Down to it, this is a show that promises a suspenseful psychological thriller early on, only to give Babylon vibes in a most exaggerated way, full of red herrings and fake tension, a dead pacing with barely any plot progression, a very inconsistent tone, some of the most unnatural interactions among characters ever in one of the emptiest slice of life series ever, no proper anticipation for the outcome, very nonsensical writing as a whole, disappointing resolutions, a story that essentially goes nowhere, and a complete waste of very good visuals, directing, sound, and atmosphere. I didn’t complete many donghua so far, but among those few, this is the worst of them all (but certainly not the worst one I ever checked out, that is Evil or Live, by far).

Since this movie came out it became the worst rated MAJOR Disney movie since Chicken Little (that means without counting those unnecessary direct to video sequels), and I just can’t understand why, even the critics that always praise every Disney movie for the simplest of reasons only praised the visuals and representation, so I’ll try to cover it from a different perspective, because I find it incredibly unfair.

But first, let’s get the obvious out of the picture real quick. As you would expect form a Disney movie, it looks and sounds almost impeccable. The only points to take from this aspects are the characters looking very similar to the ones in Encanto and the music being not as good as the sound effects or the voice acting. Other than that the dressing is very good, particularly the motions and sounds of the non-human creatures.

Now for the actual meat, this movie was first accused of being not original as a criticism, even though execution is what matters. I mean sure, this movie has stuff that you can expect from every Disney product these days. Brown skin main characters, a gay protagonist, pro ecology messages, generational trauma and family issues being the source of internal conflict among the group, strong women. And yet it is never preachy or in some face about any of these things, so why the hell are conservatives calling the film super woke and telling other people to not let their children watch this is? I just cannot understand.

-The characters are not a wrong ethnic representation based on north American stereotypes of what people from other places look like, because the setting is not our world.

-One of the three protagonists being gay hardly matters in the plot, it’s just mentioned thrice in the film, and shown a fourth time, every occasion during relaxation moments, so it doesn’t hurt the tone nor pacing one bit. It is also not preachy since everyone is supportive of the guy.

-The pro ecology themes are the plot in a premise where the whole world is at stakes, so the setup is exciting, and the way to show these are through the rules and consequences of a card game, where we get to see how each of the three main characters would handle a specific situation, and the consequences each decision could have, very good exposition. Plus, despite the film ultimately leaning to the later generation being right, it does not negates that the other ways of doing things are effective in their own right, as there are instances when both the grandfather and the father save everyone doing things their way, and even get to the understand and get close to each other because of that.

-A point can be made that family issues and generational trauma take away screentime from the world ending natural disaster and thus from the actual plot, yet it doesn’t because the characters need to cooperate to survive what’s coming for them and for that they need to understand each other. Plus, it’s not like there isn’t any of the action adventure the movie promises along with it. Plus it makes sense how family members apart from each other for so much time and with so different way of handling things would have such discussions, it even leads to the father to understand that, despite wanting to be different than his father his whole life, he ended up doing the same thing with his son, only in a different way. Which is a total thing in real life and so many generation X never come to accept, as well as many millennial don’t realize they do it themselves, not even when seeing it in a film like this or Everything Everywhere All At once. So good job to the movie for having the balls to include something here for the adults that might see it, even if they might ignore it.

-The movie is not preachy about strong women either, no character belittles what they do and praise them for what they know how to do, it doesn’t demonize any male character.
And do you know what this movie doesn’t have that other Disney movies do?

-A preachy Mary Sue female protagonist that’s always right and has magical powers that don’t fit the setting to solve every possible conflict and be plot armored as well.

-Musical numbers to disguise lazy exposition and slow down the plot. None of that shit here. Every bit is either full of action or important to the plot, themes, messages, or characters.

-A lame villain that comes out of nowhere through a very bad ass pulled reveal. The conflict is entirely internal and even when someone goes against the rest of the group at some point, she gets corrected by the plot when she comes to understand the circumstances, and to top it all she realizes it not by being told, but by seeing what’s happening. Thus she is SHOWN, NOT TOLD, that she’s wrong. Again good exposition.

Also what’s this about this movie being derivative and not original for Disney standards as I read? Just because it is sci-fi as some others? Disney has produced very little sci-fi compared to all the fantasy they made. Also, what’s so original about childish retellings about centuries old tales? Nothing, even more so when almost every movie had a previous adaptation before. The early ‘00s was the most original time period for Disney exactly because they tried sci-fi, admittedly with mixed results, before going back to play it safe with revisited and more childish retelling of tales in the ‘10s. And even then, no title had a setting and plot as original as this. I dare say this is easily the most original Disney film in decades, so how come it’s criticized for being not? And it’s even more than what it initially seemed thanks to the first plot twist of the movie which changes almost everything and yet without contradicting the initial premise or the themes or messages, nor taking away the stakes, good job once again.

With all that said, it’s not like I want to sell you an underrated masterpiece, no Disney film is a masterpiece, and certainly not this one. These are the issues with it:

-Despite being sci-fi, like all the rest of their films in this genre, the science is barely explained and it sure doesn’t make sense, it’s just a gimmick or part of a colorful setting. Also, physics be damned, this is an action adventure film made primarily for kids.

-Despite the whole world being at stake, it never feels like the characters are in actual danger, they can either sort any difficulty or survive anything with barely any damage and certainly no casualties whatsoever, and that undermines the whole thing a bit. I know this is a Disney film, but characters did die in their films in the past, so they could and should have killed someone here as well.

-The grandfather being so conservative towards his son having a different job than him yet having no issue with his grandson being gay is weird. Well I guess grandparents go easier on their grandchildren than their own kids, but still.

-Despite the pacing being overall good to the most part, the characters can face revelations that defy their whole life and worldview and accept them almost instantly. It counts as development and character arcs but it doesn’t feel organic that way, the movie definitely needed more breathing time for the characters to let that sink in, even if it meant slowing the pacing and increasing the runtime a bit. Hey, perhaps take some time from the end credits next time.

-The characters are a mixed bag, not only their developments and catharsis are not very believable, but also: the grandfather Jaeger has a strong presence and is definitely memorable, but he doesn’t have much personality, he is just an alpha male, the son has a strong personality and a big revelation, but he is not memorable because he doesn’t have a name, he is named Searcher, what the hell is he, a character class in a videogame? The talking animals and one trait nobles from their earlier decades might have been less flawed and simpler, but they were more charismatic and unforgettable. Finally Ethan the kid, he has both a strong personality and presence, so he balances both good aspects of his dad and grandpa, but since his whole worldview is not challenged like the other two, his character arc is the weakest.

And finally the most important two biggest issues of this film:

-A fucking time skip near the ending prevents the characters to deal with the consequences of what they did, they saved the underground but seemingly doomed the surface, but don’t worry, that solves itself inexplicably out of screen.

-And at the very end of the film, there is a second plot twist that ruins practically everything. The characters are an ethnic representation, just who knows which one, the whole world is not at stake, the setting is not very original and this world is not very strange, and whatever logic and sense was left in this film just died. What a stupid revelation, whose idea was to almost ruin the whole film!? Plus it serves as a sequel bait, but good luck with that with how bad the movie tanked in the box office.

So, although I do consider Strange World to be underrated and overhated, and the best Disney film since Wreck it Ralph a decade before it, poor time management in the last third and a horrible second plot twist that ruined practically the whole film, turned what was easily their best film ever into just another decent one of their catalogue, just like almost all the rest of them.

Now to excuse the score a bit better:

Visuals 9/10 (Impeccable except for the simple and generic character designs).

Sound 9/10 (Impeccable voice acting and sound effects, the music was just good).

Story 5/10 (Great premise and packed with themes and messages to deem it as complex for a movie for kids, but the pacing suffers near the end, and the finale ruined every possible sense that was in it).

Characters 5/10 (So-so presence, personality and background stories, their development and catharsis don’t feel organic).

Value 5/10 (Unforgettable experience but it’s easily the most ignored Disney film ever and the ending made it impossible to rewatch).

Enjoyment 5/10 (Eh, I half liked it, I was really pissed by the second plot twist).

Final score:

At the beginning of the now finished season there were two post-apocalyptic survival themed anime with very interesting early episodes and disappointing final ones. One was Hikari no Ou which I already covered, and the other one is this title. Likewise, it caught some early attention because of Tsutomu Nihei, who is an author I don’t care about because he seems to make mostly very dry sci-fi, but decided to check this one out because it was something seemingly very different. It also lost some viewers because of the animation, some people just can’t take any CGI that isn’t perfect.

Although visually better that the anime its studio made in the past (but not cartoons, Transfomers: War for Cybertron is way better), the motions are still not that good, facial movements in particular, the character designs are typical, and the CGI itself is not that good. Definitely not bad but it will look weak in just a few years, even the best visual aspect, which are the backgrounds, has some crappy water and effects here and there at times.

Soundwise, the effects and voice acting are fine but they are not that good either. Nobuyuki Hiyama must be kind of old by now but his voice still sounds kind of young, he did his best acting wise but his voice was definitely not the most fitting for the main villain. The background music is pretty good and quite atmospheric at times, the opening and ending are fine too but not that memorable and they don’t exactly sell the stakes of the premise with how lighthearted they sound.

Speaking of premise, the setup is interesting but definitely not original, it’s basically Nausicaa with perhaps some element that you had seen on another anime about ecology already. But seriously, a princess going to battle and into the forest, a world saving prophecy (although more like a legend actually), giant bugs, a setting with limited resources (in this case, water), two nations at war, with another, way less idealistic female general on the other side. See? Very similar.

Still though, the first half of the show was good because it was setting up all of this and its background lore, while also some cool aspects such as the princess not being as idealistic and willing to sacrifice her life. Her father, the king, willing to sacrifice his daughter in order to protect his country, and the series showing the situation of the two nations at war and its citizens, one at risk of getting flooded, and the other, a mobile fortress, at the end of its capacity, with most of its people being colonized from now no longer existing nations, at the mercy of their new ruthless ruler, thus making the conflict seem gray with both sides having their fair reasons to do what they do.

With that said, it wasn’t perfect, as the pacing was kind of slow and there were some silly bits such as the main characters having a typical comical moment from an ecchi show with the two of them peeing from a giant tree. Also, the water was working in whatever way it suited the plot at the moment, making you wonder, are we sure the characters are in such crisis as they claim to be?

Eventually the problems began when the show introduced the other nation in the second half, by revealing that its citizens are not really its citizens, and that every person in the military is a one dimensional asshole, the conflict became one sided, you can’t have a very good (most of the time even just good) war drama if one side of the war is demonized. And that was not the biggest issue, as the writing became really bad in this second half, three people can fool a whole militaristic nation and escape from it, obviously with the help of every plot convenience imaginable to plot armor the heroes, plot devices that come out of nowhere such as a giant water monster or a giant mecha thing are ultimately useless, while others that can solve the conflict are encountered by pure luck or coincidence, they are seemingly lost but in reality not, thus resulting in a cheap attempt at drama, and also, suddenly, a big fucking laser. Also, more silly bits with fanservice included.

There’s a finale but the way everything led to that felt like bullshit, plus it’s incomplete because there’s a movie sequel coming out who knows when. At least unlike Hikari no Ou, this was announced right away, so we all knew or at least suspected that the ending was not going to be completely satisfactory.

Another issue are the characters, with none of them having much to offer, very simplistic, very unmemorable, barely any backdrop, not real development, much less any closure, and they even become worse in the second half. Kaina remains naive and clueless the whole show. Ririha goes from what I described earlier to a generic idealistic pacifist princess in constant need of rescue, and Yaona her brother goes from a former crybaby willing to risk his life and travel the world to save his sister to a useless bystander with nothing to add to the plot. The others? They are there, nothing more.

So, a good show in the beginning that becomes crap in the second half, with no resolution, making you watch its sequel that frankly could have just been two more episodes without the need to come out as a separate entry, with even a giant laser at disposal to solve every possible problem, thus mediocre as a whole. Watch, or even better, read Nausicaa instead.