Ranked #1958

B'tX

Story
Although at first glance, B'tX appears to be 'just another mecha story', it's a little bit more than that. The story is excellent, but it is executed poorly - it has potential that is just never truly used. It's similar in concept to 'Zoids'. The idea that bio-mechanical, intelligent mecha creatures mingle with humans is interestingly placed into the story, but there are many cliche's and it's easy to predict what will happen next. It's a sad case of works-in-theory but not in execution. Overall, I gave it a six because coming from the studio that produced Akira I expected a little bit more.

Art
The art can be obnoxious at times, but it's generally acceptable, with stunning amounts of detail on the b'ts and intriguing character designs.
The animation itself can be irritating, mainly because they recycle animation frequently. The first five minutes of every episode is a recap, and they insist upon using the two-minute 'transformation' sequence whenever Teppei and X go into battle - at least twice an episode. It gets old quickly but, then again, that's why fast-foward was created. Ignoring the fact that many sequences are recycled over and over, the actual effects have a very 80's-anime appearance, somewhat reminiscent of Dragon Ball.

Character
The character development is limited and restrained, characteristic of this studio's other productions. What surprised me was, despite the fact that the characters are highly stereotypical (The 80's-hair Bible-thumping bishie, evil scientists, the over-muscled baddies) you get drawn into them in a odd way that, even if you can tell what they will do next, you need to see the next episode. I gave the characters a five because, looking at the studio's portfolio it's fairly middle-of-the-road compared to shows like Doraemon and Panda Go Panda.

Sound
The sound, especially in the dub, are enough to drive a person insane. Instead of having voice actors actually whisper or yell, they simply have them speak normally and then adjust the background music to give the impression of whispering or shouting. This results in hard-to-hear voices, as well as generally bad voice acting. So much of the audio in this makes a person want to cry, and not in a good way, either.

Overall / Enjoyment
I scored this a nine and eight in the end solely because of the concept of the story. The actual idea of the story is very interesting, but it is so terribly executed that it ruins it. I can see people starting roleplays or writing fanfiction based on the ideas of b'tx, if not the actual anime itself. read more