40/100 (average rating rounded up)
(Copied from serializd, I might migrate all of my anime reviews from there on here)
Started this because a friend of mine that started Eva because of me said I should watch it (not because he thought it's good but because he thought it would be funny if I'd see it) so I felt that I kind of owe him one and decided to binge the entire season in a day (I'm sick so no school which means it was a perfect time to do it). This is definitely not my type of show at all but I was surprised to find
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Mar 21, 2024 Recommended
82/100 (average rating + 2 cause I think it's better than the sum of its parts)
(Forgot to paste the review on this site as well oopsy 🤭) [Slight hints at the ending in the third paragraph; no spoilers or anything but I figured I should still leave a warning here) Pluto is definitely one of the most interesting and entertaining anime series I've ever seen. A seemingly simple murder mystery set in a far (?) feature where artificial intelligence has evolved so much that robots are living among humans, sometimes even downright looking indistinguishable from one, develops into a much more satisfying story about hatred, the useless-ness ... and terrifying effects of war both on individuals who partake in one and the countries affected by it, and the nature of the human experience. Urasawa does all of these themes (and more) justice by seamlessly implementing them into the aforementioned mystery involving a serial killer who seems fixated on murdering all of the best (most advanced, I mean) robots in the whole world. All that in a sparse 8 episode runtime. The characters are probably the best part of the whole show, unsurprisingly given that it's Urasawa at the writing helm. Gesicht is obviously the best and most layered character that's been given the most depth out of the whole entire rich cast (despite my favorite being Dr. Tenma, and no not just because of the name lol), but even episodic characters like North No. 2 and the old blind musician from the pilot make a lasting impact on the viewer (or just me, at least), thereby feeling like they had a much more prominent role despite only being, once again, episodic. The characters arcs are almost all really satisfactory and well developed (well, maybe a little rushed at the end, but I'll get to that a bit later). If I would start explaining the changes every character goes through, you might see some of them as somewhat cliched (I'm especially thinking of Adolf here), but they work beautifully within the context of the show and the themes it tries to touch on. The specific theme of hatred could be seen as kind of childish in a vacuum but the way that each characters sort of reacts to this this theme makes for not only very entertaining dynamics between them but also superb social commentary (most of which is being told through robots, funnily enough). This might just be me talking out of my ass because I haven't read the Astro Boy arc this is an adaptation of, but I really doubt it surpassed this series...in any respect, really. Not to say that this is some flawless masterpiece that couldn't possibly be touched by anything in this world but the way this show is structured is such that virtually everything set up at the beginning has a cleary thought out and genuinely surprising conclusion at the end; basically, you can clearly feel that you're watching the work of a master who knows what he's doing at every step, and that feeling's pretty hard to come by. But the show isn't, as I mentioned before, undoubtedly perfect. It particularly fumbles its exit, rushing through a lot of the seemingly important plot points and final fights, making them lose their emotional impact and instead feeling like something that *has* to happen. And even though it does balances things out with the more unique animation that feeling of total control is lost, if only by a little bit. The satisfying plot progression becomes "just" passable or fine, and some people were understandably pretty upset and/or disappointed when they reached the finish line, perhaps because the show builds up (at the very least subconsciously) your expectations pretty much every single episode, and also usually delivers. I get it. But while I do think the ending could've benefited from an additional hour of footage to maybe expand upon the final threat and such a little more thoroughly, I actually think what Urasawa achieves is genuinely commendable. The series' aforementioned premise about a killer fixated on murdering the most technologically advanced robots of the world, coupled with the fact that the most important characters are said robots, make it kind of doomed to end somewhat awkwardly from the start. And as amazing and as exciting as it is to follow this mystery and storyline and getting clearer and clearer answers as it goes on, the series does write itself into a corner due to the aforementioned (aforehinted, more like) reasons, so a kind of cumbersome finale that throws a lot of different and unfinished plot lines onto only a few characters should've been expected, at least looking at it now in retrospect. Not saying that the complaints about it are invalid, but to make this ending more satisfying all-around is to sacrifice a lot of what made the show previously so damn great and praised for, at least in my opinion. I personally wouldn't have wanted this version of the series if I'm honest. The score, voice acting, character design, animation and even cinematography at times is absolutely top tier in this show as well though. I haven't really touched on the music in my individual reviews because I always forgot to whenever I sat down to write them (I know that might sound like an anti-compliment against it but take it more as me having an extremely shitty memory), but holy hell is it beautiful, actively enhancing the experience and complimenting the visuals, which, once again, are really pretty looking on their own (don't expect some Evangelion level cinematography here or anything like that but there are quite a lot of shots that remained in my memory even after I finished the show and most of them are at the very least visually pleasing; that may not sound like such a praiseworthy aspect but most anime series have generally been directed quite lazily, with most shots only existing to show you the exact action that is taking place without much thought put into the framing, so I'm taking it here for sure). The voice actors really embody their characters and are a very important factor in bringing them to life*, so to speak (imagine my surprise when I realized that the voice actor for Light also voice Epsilon aka Johan But Good in this show; like yeah, knowing that I can totally see it, but dude really has range like damn), and the character design is either just genuinely cool looking and memorable, or downright creepy (I'm thinking Pluto in the first 6 episodes). And the best part with Urasawa's designs is that most of the time you can pretty much look at any random character and you will instantly know their personality almost perfectly. It's genuinely kinda funny like I'm serious pick any random character and start forming an idea of how they are and see how close you are to the truth, cause I can guarantee you that 90% of the time you'll be pretty much spot on. And while I wasn't that sold on the animation at first (I mean an Urasawa work adapted with even Berserk 1997 style animation would've been a dream so I was obviously still satisfied) it started growing on me as I kept watching and by the end I actually think this has some of the most interestingly presented fight scenes I've seen in anime (and I say that as someone who's watched...like 13 animes, but still you get the point they look cool idc). It is quite awkward when the characters are just walking though, the amount of land traversed is not equal with the pace that they walked with visually speaking so it looks pretty weird. But that's a pretty minuscule problem in the grand scheme of things and as pretentious as I am I can't say (write I guess) with a straight face that the walking scenes are actually a problem that genuinely brings the whole show's quality down lol. At best they were a slight visual inconvenience while I watched them, but I pretty much forgot about it by the next scene (although I just said earlier that I also forgot to write about the music which I love so maybe my memory isn't the best indicator for whether or not I liked something lol). Jesus I wanted this to be longer than usual since it's a full series review and all (I don't like the one I have for Eva that's only 3 medium lenght paragraphs, but that's my second most liked review paradoxically) but I didn't expect it to be that long lol. So yeah I can't believe I called Mr. Robot self-indulgent when I'm pulling yap sessions like this smh the hypocrisy is too much 😔 Anyway pretty peak show, definitely recommend to most people since it's relatively short in the grand scheme of things and achieves quite a lot with that short runtime (I love myself a long ass show but to quote Shakespeare: "brevity is the soul of wit"...which is a quote I'm not using correctly but how else am I supposed to communicate to you that I'm really smart cause only smart people know Shakespeare (but yeah quantity does not always equal quality that's what I'm struggling to say here lmao)). Alright you can go live your life now (but only after you like this I'm watching you lil bro 😠). * Rant incoming 🗣: I have no problem with anybody watching anime dubbed but I have to get this out of my chest: you're looking at a genuinely different show if you're watching it dubbed. Like, sure, you can go to a theater play to watch Romeo and Juliet, but you're not gonna pretend like you watched Shakespeare's actual, original vision afterwards, right? That analogy is quite stupid because there's a lot more things changed when adapting a play but my point is that a dub literally changes THE ACTORS. You're watching the same footage acted by different people. Yeah sure their facial expressions remain the same but I assure you the voice acting is like 80% of the character in most cases, and if you don't belive me try watching the absolute shitties dub you can find for a random favorite character of yours and then tell me "it's basically the same character". Ehm, no it's not Michael, stop disrespecting voice actors and stop acting like watching dub is "not a big deal" or "literally the exact same thing" (ok just to clarify of course the voice actors that dub are doing their best as well and should be respected, but I never saw the point of a dub anyhow unless you genuinely cannot read at all and I have seen WAY too many people act like dub and sub are interchangeable when they're not; plus, I prefer to watch the original vision of the filmakers, so I'll skip even actually good dubs, even though finding one better than the original is close to impossible imo (yes I have listened to the Death Note one and yes it's inferior rant over I sound like an asshole at this point lmao ignore me)).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 2, 2024
Serial Experiments Lain
(Anime)
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Recommended
73/100 (average rating + 1 because I think this show is better than the sum of its parts)
(I have written a 6 pages long review on my phone's notes app and accidentally deleted it and then committed fucking sepuku but thankfully I came back to life to rewrite this, genuinely the most annoying thing ever) Weird show (go figure). Serial Experiments Lain is a show that above all seems to be misguided. Don't get me wrong, I think it's quite great, but the series' modus operandi doesn't really work with what it ultimately tried to achieve. It's actually commendable how great the last episode specifically is ... because of that. Lain was always a show that prioritized atmosphere over everything else. That's what I liked about it the most. The pacing and way of presenting virtually everything, the way the characters behave and the bizarre universe they live in that's technically realistic and simultaneously completely surreal, the shot composition and eerie score, they all worked together to create one of the most atmospheric shows out there. And that's obviously a positive, at least in my mind; it's been quite a long time since I've seen something with so much style (including movies and such) that wasn't a rewatch. It's formally very bold and narratively loose enough to keep you constantly guessing and analyzing what it all means. But what it's this show's best achievement is also its biggest problem. When you're trying to approach the subjects and themes this tries to touch on, you need something very important: character connection. As in, I, the viewer, need to connect with the characters in order to truly understand and empathize with their problems. But Lain (the show) never really focused on its characters, or at least the way it did always kept me at an arm's lenght from being able to connect with them. Really, the worst part is that I neither dislike nor like most of its characters. I'm simply left cold by them, which is the worst feeling to get when you're trying to explore such topics as the desire to not exist, or the fear of getting hurt by other people's perception of you, at least in my opinion. Thankfully, Lain (the character) does get some sort of compelling arc throughout the show, which, coupled with the fact that she is the most prominent character in the series, meant that I could at least empathize with her, which was ideal for being able to appreciate the last episode. Speaking of which, the last episode of the series is easily the best. The way the first half works as It's a Wonderful Life's classic ending if neither George Bailey nor the angel appeared, leaving only the viewer to wonder alone in the series' world, and the second half as an Evangelion-like exploration of Lain's psyche was a perfect way to end the series. I do think it might've gotten a little bit too Evangelion-like, though. The main factor that truly pushed me to say "now's the time" and finally start this show in the first place was a tiktok comment (ik, ik, I don't have any excuses) that said something along the lines of this being like Eva's last two episodes stretched for an entire series, and while I've been actively against that idea (and the comparison to Evangelion as a whole aside from some surface-level stuff like the intertitles that sometimes show up here and such) throughout the show, I have to admit the themes the ending specifically chose to address, and the way it addressed them, felt way too similar to Eva to me (I mean ffs Lain chats with herself about her problems in a fucking train – probably more like a tram of sorts but it looks similar to Eva's anyhow – at some point as well c'mon now). That feeling of Lain originality was somewhat gone, which might be my biggest complaint for the finale. That's basically why I said at the beginning that the show is misguided. In a paradoxical way its best episode is the only one that feels specifically like something else, the show's signature being almost lost, simply because they dropped much of the peculiarly unique style it previously prided itself with. But enough negativity, because, as you can (hopefully) tell by my score, I thought this was pretty great overall. The animation isn't the best and there's times certain stuff look quite silly because of it, as well as the voice acting sometimes leaving more to be desired, but this show truly excels when we're talking about its filmmaking techniques. The cinematography and the score manage to create some of the most terrifying and nightmare-inducing scenes I've personally ever seen. The pacing also beautifully compliments the series' odd vibe; the only times I thought it didn't work, really, are in some of the dialogue scenes – in the first half of the show specifically – where the awkwardly slow pauses between lines broke the tension and temporarily pulled me out of the show, but that's a fairly small quibble to have. I was never bored and my intrigue only became greater and greater as the show went on, and, as I already mentioned, the finale was beyond satisfying. I won't act as if I got all the small subtleties and symbolisms, so an analysis of the show will probably happen after a rewatch, but this is the type of series that lets you still heavily enjoy watching it even if you're for the most part confused. It's formally bold (something that I always appreciate by default) and excitingly different in presentation, and for that (and the great, half-unique finale) I think most people should at least give it a chance, even though a lot of folks will obviously be put off by it. No reason not to try it since it's so short, though! Alright this review happened to be longer than the initial one that I wrote and accidentally deleted. I was so angry at myself that I decided to take a break and ended up writing this the next day, so that decision proved to be a good idea in the end. I took a weirdly long amount of time to finish Lain (23 days to be exact, which is insane for a 13 episode show) because of school and stuff but hopefully I'll be able to binge a lot more stuff now. Probably my 8th favorite anime at the moment (out of about 11-12 finished anime series, which might seem like I didn't really like it at all but I just happened to watch mostly stuff that catered towards my taste, this is still quite great as I said), just slightly under FMA: Brotherhood and a little over Steins;Gate. Definitely a show that I plan on rewatching in the future simply because of how complicated it was. My next watch will be Pluto which I'm very excited about btw. Anyway, fairly great show, worth checking out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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