Ranked #570

Texhnolyze

Texhnolyze is an adult show.
You may happen to witness homosexuality, SM, pedophilia,incest, blood sheds, meaningless violence and utter despair while watching it.
This is a pitch black cyber-punk tale of High Quality -Abe Yoshitoshi- in all regards : entrancing music, beautyfull art, bright direction and mind-blowing plot.

The pacing is slow, and the naration often resorts to visual communication and minimalist dialogues as you follow the taciturn (yet so hot) Ichise in the turmoil-city of Lux. You have to think of it as a highly symbolic and esthetic tale questioning civilisation, progress, evolution, survival, violence, loneliness and their conflicts with morality and sanity.

Story: Due to the slow, unusual story-telling and somewhat symbolic plot, the show sometimes fails to keep your mind plugged. However, the directing is really top notch: centerings, lightings, designs are some of the best i ever seen in an anime, period.

Sound: An opening with no karaoke is just pure win, plus it's trans-what else? The sound track fits the dark-industrial-cyberpunk mood very well, with some strings here and there and a heart-breaking song for the last episode.

Characters: Oonishi the King, Ishise the Fighter, Eriko the Artist, Ran the Virgin, Yoshii the Stranger... each of them are strong symbolic figures with deep and complex psychologies, motives and desires.

Enjoyment: I won't say this show is a masterpiece, but it is so refreshing, ambitious and wiked that the flaws are easyly forgiven. I did not had a really fun time watching it, it is indeed pretty violent and utterly depressing -this is no entertainment. Nonetheless, the show is apart (and far far better) from your daily anime, and it truely deserves some attention and praise. read more

A cyberpunk series from the creator of Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze is a very dark and gritty anime, filled with lots of violence, sexual scenes and a general feeling of gloom and despair. Set in the underground city of Lux, the series follows several characters who are all caught up in a seemingly inevitable war between the three rival gangs that rule the streets.

Lain's influence is readily apparent on Texhnolyze. Both are slow, contemplative cyberpunk series which make heavy use of ambient music and visuals. Texhnolyze takes this a little further than Lain did though. If you like your anime fast-paced and uncomplicated, this probably isn't the series for you.

Texhnolyze is an anime that doesn't really care too much for words, and often prefers to let its images do the talking. This idea is taken to its extreme in the first episode, where there is almost no dialogue throughout, rendering it rather indecipherable and unfriendly to anyone who might want to watch the series. Fortunately, later episodes are not quite so avant-garde, but the series remains a somewhat "quiet" anime, limiting the amount of dialogue spoken and instead making use of implication and symbolism.

Given this lack of dialogue, it helps that the ambient music is absolutely astounding, contributing enormously to the dark and moody atmosphere. The OP (Guardian Angel by Juno Reactor) is well chosen, fitting the cyberpunk theme perfectly. In fact the music in Texhnolyze is some of the best ever seen in an anime.

As well as the music, the tone of the series is also made apparent in its art. Lux looks suitably dirty and downtrodden, with a colour palette consisting mostly of browns and greys, and the occasional use of overexposed scenes gives it a menacing look.

There's loads of violence and despair, and at times it's not the easiest story to follow. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to work out what's going on, though in fairness it's not the most complicated storyline ever, just difficult to decipher. Unfortunately, although the series has a strong set of characters, we never really get to know them as well as we could have. Also, the pacing is a little too slow at times, particularly at the start of the series. For the first few episodes it almost feels like the series is going absolutely nowhere, but fortunately it picks up the pace after about five episodes or so. Basically, this is not a series for everyone, but if you're willing to accept its flaws then Texhnolyze is a great anime series, recommended to fans of the science fiction and psychological genres in particular. read more