Back to Nocturnal_Nerd's Profile Nocturnal_Nerd's Profile

Have you played Nier? Well, if you have, you are going to like this anime. It borrows some things from the game, but also from many other animes and what I am going to call, AI lore from Japanese pop culture.
Bear in mind, Japanese pop culture regarding AIs, technology, and a future where humans and AIs live together is not quite the way Western pop culture depicts it.
Contradicting what I just said, this anime has also a lot of influences from Terminator, which I bet has influences from other things, I am just stating what famous pieces of art can I detect had an influence ... on Vivy´s argument.
The animation is top-notch, having a lot of frames, that if you pause and take a screenshot will make an amazing wallpaper.
The sound is also very good, and the Intro score remained me of the anime songs from the 2004-06 era.
The fighting scenes are also extremely good and they blew a lot of budget in them for sure.

Is this an instant classic? I don't think so because the argument is lacking in some departments, it is something you are going to rewatch, also probably not, but it is something that stands out way above the median and it will be remembered for sure, even if it is only as a reference. So, go watch it.

I feel like I should warn against this series because a lot of people I know recommended this for me since I like dark, criminal, and detectivesque stories.
This series is all of that, the problem is the pacing. I could not finish it because at one point I didn´t want to continue because I lacked the impulse to start a new episode.
I can compare it with a soap opera show, this series is like 70 chapters and it has a filler episode every 4 or so, and they are boring as hell. And when something happens the plot advances by using the most ... predictable and soup opera solution. I can't explain it without giving examples that would be spoilers.
For me, even if the overall story is good, the execution, pacing and ways of solving intermediate story nodes are very poor and not good at all.
Watching 72 episodes just to have closure wasn't enough for me.

I don't know if you have watched the Gintama chapter that creates a parody called DragonxBleachXPiece or something like that. Well, this series is if like an actual gorilla had written it, and on top of that, instead of trying to create something honest, it was trying to parody the old shonen series. But it fails to be shonen, it fails to be a parody of shonen, it fails in so many levels that there are no words. I give it a 3, just to show some respect for the animators, but is a complete insult.

I'm worried about the future of shonen anime. I ... can only read good things about this series in the Crunchyroll site's comment section. I don't know if the web admins are cheating, or people are genuinely finding enjoyable this series. That, or most of Crunchyroll users that comment are children below 12 years old.
That said, if you are below 12 years old, go and enjoy the series.
I'm writing this review solely because I don't want to this be the future of anime, and I, and excuse me for this, don't want that more people watching this series so Crunchy or other producers may think that this is something worth replicating.

If you are wondering about the past hype, about the animation that everybody talked about, just find on Youtube some mash-up of fighting scenes. And if you watch that and you wonder, what this series is about? well, watching the 13 chapters will leave you even worse.
Why? Why? Why? What? Why? WTF? Why? These questions will populate your mind every second.
As probably you have read in other reviews: the characters are shallow, the plot is not existent, the animation has good moments. I trayed to turn my brain off to just watch it for the fighting scenes, which were ok at the beginning. But as the series progressed, even the fights were so mediocre that you can't even enjoy that.

SUM UP: this series and Giabite (don't quite remember the name) are the worst series not of the year 2020, probably of the entire decade or history of anime. Thanks for that Crunchyroll. Please, invest more in your infrastructure and stop pouring money on mediocre series. I haven't read the manwa, but you are disgracing the image of those writers.

This anime was a pleasant surprise. It started with a first chapter that doesn´t tell the whole story. To everybody that the first chapter didn´t seem like a good show, please continue watching.
This series is one of those that start to grow little by little and by the end you just breathe and think "what a journey".
The animation is superb, especially in the last chapter, you can see that it was made with love, with a lot of passion.
The voice acting and character design are top of the line. The characters are so unique that you don´t see many cliche traits, which ... populate every other show.
The story is not straightforward or that easy but everything falls into place.
It was for me a breeze of fresh air in the midst of so many shows that are kind of the same.
Although I gave it an 8 (just to be fair with superior series) I would say that is a 10/10 recommendation to watch.

Story: 1
Art: 1 (more explanation below, because the first impressions can mislead you)
Character: 1
Overall: 1

The first episode was all right, although the lack of reaction before a certain important thing that happens is unbelievable.
That said, in the second episode this series reveals its true colors, and it´s very bad. The animation is abysmal, even with very good design, that´s all it is, while the characters are standing still and talking the animation is good, but when something happens, the camera cuts are extremely poorly made and there is no fluidity.

The story is garbage, it doesn´t make any sense and lacks originality ... from all sides.

In general, it looks like the show it´s being made using just 3 animators, and the voice acting isn´t good also.

It´s like watching a B or Z series Movie from the '90s in terms of art direction and script but in HD.

In case you are reading this before beginning the first OVA, if you love Code Geass for everything that is not mecha related, don´t watch this. It´s the equivalent of a Netflix adaptation of Code Geass.

Story:1/10
Art and sound: 8/10
Characters: 2/10
Enjoyment: 2/10 (complete disappointment)

The writers removed all that made CG great, the characters, plot, not cliche background and villains, the Machiavellian strategies, and left us with the more generic villain of all times and the worst utilization of the Geass. Not to say that nothing makes sense lore-wise.
Not to mention that at some point they tried to kind of explain the Geass using ... some sort of mumble-jumbo using quantum physics and all the tech-big words they could find in Wikipedia.

The ending it´s the result of very poor writing and it was very painful to watch (no spoilers) I mean in it in the sense that the conclusion was so predictable and cliche that one cannot stop wondering how come they made such a bad argument under the name Code Geass.

This is a review for the whole series of OVAs and also my answer to those asking themselves if they should watch it as fans of Code Geass. This means no spoilers. (Disclaimer: I´m not a native English speaker, sorry if you see some grammatical mistakes)

The short answer to that burning question is: if you love CG for everything that is not mecha related, this shows it´s not for you, the appearance of OP characters can be easily missed and it has nothing of the brilliant strategies and reflections about justice, power, treason, etc... Also, very poor writing, far away from the original series.

Now, if ... you love mechas, this series it´s spot on. The animation is incredible, and the fighting scenes with the Knightmares are very well made. In this show, they removed most of the greatness of Lelouch and his machiavellian personality and strategies, but they compensated it with great action.

That said, I gave it a 5 overall because it carries "Code Geass" in the name, and as a CG spin-off, it´s not good. Also, all that the main series presented as lore regarding the Geass, seems to be thrown away. At least I couldn´t understand a lot of things in this series, they use the Geass as a justification to name this spin-off but it doesn´t make sense.
Very poor writing in that regard. That´s why my score for Story will be a 3. Nothing regarding Geass in this one makes sense, and not to mention that the villain is the more generic villain a story can have: the "I want to destroy the world just because" type. That´s just very poor and lazy writing.

In the end, I think I wasted my time watching it. Most of the reviews I found said the contrary, but besides the great action scenes, it´s a very mediocre story.

For those that have been watching anime for a long time: in this series you will not find anything new. It´s a classic shonen, male character, a past that will be revealed at some point, and powers.
But besides having all the fun of that genre, the powers go without explaining anything, and every battle outcome and plot twist can be seen from a mile away if you are used to the genre.
So, to sum up, it´s very fun to watch, it´s addictive, but nothing new under the sun.
I´m sure it´s very attractive to newer generations, but for the old folks here, it´s the same old ... story. Still, if you are reading this to decide, to see the reason for all the fuss, go watch it, it´s not a waste of time at all and it has room to improve in the coming seasons.