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Feb 19, 2018
The latter season of Fate/Zero left a decidedly sour taste in my mouth. I did not outright dislike it as such, but there was a definite feeling of disappointment that I began to feel from as early as halfway through the season, and it was not immediately clear to me why that was. This review is meant to explore what exactly went wrong, and of course the whole package.
First of all, for background I should point out that I began my journey into the Fate series with the Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works anime. I'd say it was a good choice, as I was pretty
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much immediately hooked and my positive impression of the anime maintained pretty much all the way through and left me with the interest to look into the rest of the Fate series. I will be proceeding with the assumption that anyone considering watching Fate/Zero will have at least a similar level of background with the Fate series; largely because of the series itself works on much the same basis, expecting the viewer to have a solid grasp of the basics the setting and the premise of the Holy Grail War.
Seeing as Fate/Zero was where I headed immediately after, totally skipping the two other routes in the original work, I probably don't have the background knowledge of all the characters necessary to fully appreciate their appearances in Fate/Zero. Nonetheless, it did not pose any significant issues in delving into the story, and the first season of the series largely matched up to my expectations formed based on F/SN: UBW and praise I had seen for the series.
However, I think I already began to see the potential for serious issues by the end of the first season, and unfortunately my worries were realized by the second season. Suffice to say, the first season of Fate/Zero saw very little actual progress of the plot at large, and neither did it sufficiently set up the second season to wrap up the whole story. Saddled with both elaborating the backstories of all the characters and providing satisfactory conclusions to their personal story arcs long after their most memorable and characteristic appearances had already happened in the first season, it is not surprising that many of these conclusions fell rather flat.
Seeing as these character arcs were the meat of the story, this lackluster realization also resulted in the main plot of the series struggling, lacking the same level of excitement that I felt with the various changes in the direction of F/SN: UBW's plot. The fact that the story was written as a prequel to the original one is sure to have played a part here, but I can't help but think that there could have been some more unpredictability to it nonetheless. In fact, not once do I recall feeling genuine surprise at the movements of the plot, even the parts clearly set up elicit such a reaction - quite the opposite, it all felt forced to fit a mold that I already knew, devised solely to achieve a conclusion to the story that had been written before any other key part of it was realized.
But while my first instinct was to put the blame with the ultimate realization of the character arcs in general, I think a more general look at the series as a whole still makes most of them sufficiently interesting to justify a higher evaluation of the series than I intuitively ended up with. So with a more in depth exploration of the matter, I believe I've largely narrowed down the major issues for the series to just occurring in a few characters. Or, to be honest, mainly just one.
So, after that lengthly preamble, let me get to what was originally supposed the main part of the review, dealing with the different characters and their stories in as much detail as I can manage without spoiling anything, as that was indeed the meat of the story itself. I'll use this mainly to highlight the specific issues that I had with the characters and their stories, particularly the ones I felt to be most crucial for the plot at large.
Caster's team: It feels appropriate to deal with these characters first for the simple reason of their relative insignificance to the plot at large. In that way they are in fact rather exemplary of the flaws of the whole narrative structure, though hardly the biggest offenders.
Despite the seemingly central role they play in the storyline taking place at the end of the first season, and the start of the second, a more careful examination of that event shows that it served as little else than a cool battlescene showcasing the abilities of the other servants, with minimal impact on the overall course of the story. Similarly the duo's other appearances served simply as backdrop to the advancing of the rest of the cast's stories.
That said, having a couple of supporting characters serve in such a role is not really such a sin, provided they perform that role well enough and have some merit on their own as well. For both those criteria, I'd give the duo passing marks. Unfortunately, this kind of a role becomes a bigger problem when there are also other characters that seemingly serve the same purpose.
Lancer's team: This trio of characters has neither the most obvious strengths or weaknesses of the bunch, but their largely shared personal stories wrap up into a rather satisfying package. You could even take their personal plots and make it into a neat little story of its own, without much involvement from most of the other characters at all.
The problem with that of course comes in the fact that it means that they also have rather limited importance to the story at large as a consequence. This is all the more unfortunate for the fact that there was clearly a great deal of effort put into them as a means to advance the plot at large. To the writer's credit, this trio's involvement does serve as big character development for some of the main characters of the story. The issue is that this development comes in the form of conflict between these main characters that is subsequently left with pitifully little exploration, much less resolution, making the whole set up appear rather pointless, especially considering the effort put into it.
Rider's team: Now here is the clearly best pair of characters in the entire story. Which unfortunately means that I'm going to have less to say about them than almost all the others.
Suffice to say, pretty much everything is done right here. Rider and his Master provide much needed comedic relief, but unlike Caster and his Master they do that all the while having perhaps the best character development - both individually and as a duo - in the whole series. At the same time, despite not being main characters as such, they do more work than almost anyone else to advance the main plot and shaping it into a coherent whole. Like pretty much everyone else, the conclusion of their character arcs is not quite satisfactory, but even there they beat out most others.
Berserker's team: This is one case where it'd probably help if I knew more about the other two paths of the original work, because of the connections that Berserker's master has to other characters. Nonetheless, this duo of characters has some of the biggest problems in the entire series, as one might perhaps expect from two people that each suffer from a rather incoherent variety of insanity.
But this level of nonsensical actions and general inefficacy as contenders in the Holy Grail War is not something I can excuse based on just 'insanity'. As another duo with minimal impact in the actual main plot, mainly because of the aforementioned inefficacy, they also don't have any real redeeming qualities in their personal story arcs, which actually seem to be solely for the purpose of emphasizing just how tragic the story is, and not actually developing them as characters at all.
Archer's team: Here's another few characters that are clearly among the better ones. This is to be expected based on the fact that this team plays a key role in the main plot all the way through the series, which clearly resulted in extra thought being put into their motivations and characters. This doesn't actually result in a great deal of development on that front, but this is forgivable for the type of characters that they are, very well established from the outset.
In particular Archer himself is another one of the best characters in the whole series, doing work on every front to build the overall narrative. His master is perhaps less so, but with very consistent motivations and stable character he nonetheless also functions well in his role in the story.
Tohsaka Rin: Actually a rather minor character with little role in the plot, it is actually more of a matter of the narrative serving to set up her character as one of the central ones in the Fate/stay night. This, I'm very happy to say, was achieved pretty damn well, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of little Rin's adventures on the screen.
Saber: A main character in both Fate/Zero and F/SN, she is luckily one of the better performers in the series overall. In fact, I find her character to be portrayed better in Fate/Zero than in F/SN; at least the route that I've watched the anime on, which admittedly wasn't the one particularly centered on her. She is obviously very much central to the plot's progress as well, and does that job well enough. That said, her personal story arc, while obviously continuing into F/SN, was unfortunately left rather unfinished even for the parts that could have been delved into more in this series itself.
Emiya Kiritsugu & his backpack: And here we are, finally at the part that made me start writing up this whole review. The one clear reason that I can point out for my dissatisfaction with the entire series. Kiritsugu was an utter disaster for the plot of Fate/Zero, not just failing to carry his weight as THE main character that he was set up to be, but rather dragging down everyone else with him.
In F/SN: UBW Emiya Kiritsugu was a rather vague background character that only just served as inspiration for that series's own main character's actions, and quite frankly he'd have been better if left as such. Where Emiya Shirou's character concept already stretched believability, but was nonetheless a nice twist on a regular shounen main character, Kiritsugu completely escapes the realm of plausibility in an apparent attempt to live up to the original work's expectations for him.
If, for just a moment, I pretend that Kiritsugu's actions had the backing of logic that the everything about the writing seems to imply, instead of being utterly fucking nonsensical most of the time, I still could not find him remotely sympathetic as a character, which adds another layer of inplausibility, in his ability of attract sympathy from other characters.
Further, with him comes a whole slew of minor characters that do absolutely nothing for the narrative as a whole, existing for the purpose his personal character building. Or, more specifically, not building it, but rather just to really hammer home the idea that Kiritsugu is such a tragic character and totally worthy of sympathy - in spite of all evidence to the contrary on the latter count.
Their existence might have been forgivable if not for the fact that their totally unmemorable presences stole so much time from the rest of the story and the better characters, at one point stalling out the whole series, which for the most part kept a good pacing, for at least two whole episodes that were solely dedicated to Kiritsugu's distant backstory with these characters who had no other role in the story. This all happened in the place of Kiritsugu having actual dealings with the other competitors of the Holy Grail War; he was an almost total non-exisence when it came to the conversations and shared character building of the rest of the cast, all the whole his backstory full of unwarranted self-pity was force fed to the viewer despite having no real relevance to the actual plot at hand.
Irisviel and Illyasviel: While these two characters are very much linked to Kiritsugu, and thus inevitably made worse for it, they are nonetheless distinct from the other characters I mentioned in association with him, and they connections have purpose for the plot and the characters themselves. Irisviel is a rather central character, if not an especially good one, while Illya is another character that plays a role in F/SN, but who happens to have a rather minimal role in UBW in particular and thus is one that I can't examine in great detail.
Now, I suppose it's about time to wrap this all up. I should mention that on the art and sound categories the series is rather excellent, which, despite such a minor role in this review, are a great part of what nonetheless made even the latter season an enjoyable watch at many points. Again, I did not really hate the series, and would even recommend watching it just for the stories of the better characters, but I definitely think it had the potential to be much better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 27, 2017
I don't even particularly mind the random quotes without even a tangential relevance to the story. A bit of ostentatiousness, even the clueless sort, is acceptable in my book. However, as the show distinctly sets itself up to be judged by its intellectual merits, and I enjoy picking apart such cases, I'm not going to hold back in pointing out any failures behind that.
Indeed, you don't need to go any farther than the premise to realize that this show isn't going to be nearly as smart as the writer imagined. It is easily apparent that the inspiration comes from the various stories that build on
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a premise that is crafted from the start to create particularly strong motivations for the characters and set them up against each other. This way a writer can set themselves up to create very engaging conflicts even without having to extensively elaborate the personal motivations of each character, or the setting at large.
This type of a premise is, of course, a shortcut. It regularly leads to some big drawbacks in other areas of a story, namely that such a premise is usually severely lacking in believability, because of the drastic measures that need to be taken to set up that level of conflict with such little elaboration. This sacrifice can pay off well if you manage to capitalize on the strength gained through it, and even accept the lack of common sense as a part of the story's character.
Of course, the possibility of trying to make use of this strength while at the same time mitigating the drawbacks of the sacrifice isn't totally off the table either. That seems to be where this story's writer is coming from, apparently with a hope to bring some subtletely to where it is usually so lacking. I'm not against the idea, but the execution is not up to par in any manner.
Through introducing an apparent subtlety to the story, very little was gained and much more was lost in return. Through toning down the extreme elements typical to such a premise, the initial impact usually meant to catch the attention of the audience was simply absent. In return, there was practically no gain in believability, as the extra effort put in by the writer to established the setting simply failed in actually explaining the egregious elements still present. If anything, these weak attempts only served to draw attention to these weaknesses, rather than the usual route of distracting the audience so as to allow suspension of disbelief.
Going further, this same failure at the very basis of the show continuously presented itself in the form of an unengaging storyline and characters utterly lacking in defining characteristics and motivation. Indeed, the whole premise of the premise was so watered down as to have the exact opposite result of what is usually sought through this measure. Because the premise itself lacked the necessary force to create conflict, the lack of effort put into fleshing out the casts' backgrounds became even more apparent and there was none of the typical strong motivations left.
Ultimately, the whole story seems to be the result of the writer's failure to commit to the path they had chosen, even if that ultimately might have been what saved the show from total mediocrity. Despite the fact that the constant efforts to make the characters look intelligent only served to highlight the writer's own failure to think things through, all of this was presented so meekly as to make the thought process easy to follow and make the audience feel good about figuring it out without much handholding. Indeed, the few cases where the show was truly unpredictable was where it was at its weakest, cheaply forcing complete failure of consideration on the most, supposedly, intelligent parts of the cast.
Additionally, the technical aspects of the shows presentation were rather good, so as to leave me with no real reason to complain even as I didn't find any of it particularly dazzling. Where the story was at its strongest, the visuals and audio succeeded in backing it up.
I didn't hate the show. I wasn't even particular disappointed, because it was so obviously weak from the beginning, giving me no reason to get my hopes up. There was enough effort put into the show that even as its lack of bravery held it back, it rarely fell at the most obvious and easily avoided hurdles, making it a relatively enjoyable watch all the way through, while still giving me no reason to recommend it to anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 23, 2015
I'm inevitably going to talk a lot about the first season in this review, due to having watched the both of them back to back - note that I haven't watched the OVA's supposed to connect them just yet. I don't there's any issue with that however, due to the fact that there's no reason anyone should be watching the second season first, and because there's quite some differences compared to the first season.
Where the original series got to drag on at leisure with it's episodic structure, having very little progress at all for most of it's run, the this series was only half the
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original's length and had to stick to a strict timetable to be able to tell it's story. Where the first season could develop a great array of good characters with detailed backstories due to this, the second season by comparison was able to create better main characters due to their development with the main story, but the side characters for the most part were left very unfinished and were offered absolutely no closure on.
Overall I greatly preferred the structure and main characters of the second season and due to that found it even more interesting to watch than the first season I already liked plenty. I believe the short length of the season prevented it from reaching it's potential, and especially the ending was highly unsatisfactory.
I liked how the series established a good number of strong characters right from the beginning, and did so through showing their personalities in action. This is an improvement over the first season and a necessary one at that. Due to not having the luxury to create in depth backstories for every character like in the first season they had to make strong first impressions to establish them instead - it's also arguably just a superior way to introduce characters, period.
This lead to some unfortunate consequences also, however. The characters were introduced perhaps even too fast, stealing the focus from each other frantically all over the first episodes. This was another consequence of the short length, presumably, as was the fact that most of these side characters ended up receiving no development at all despite being at times very important to the story. A good number of them ended up dying off surprisingly quickly, used seemingly just to develop the main characters, while the others were completely forgotten. In the end, I think a lot of them should have been ditched completely to create an even more focused experience.
What this resulted to was establishing the actual main characters even better, making them more interesting - if not likeable - right from episode 1, compared to the first season where they all had long arcs to establish them but barely actually developed at all. This set up a very good ground to build their bonds between each other, which were the driving forces of the entire plot. This is probably the best part of the entire anime, the fantastic development of the characters in the middle episodes of the season.
Sadly none of the characters received what they deserved with the end of the season. Most of them were simply forgotten completely in favor of trying to desperately wrap up a decent ending. What the main characters got in turn were was some incredibly vague and surreal garbage that starkly contrasted what had been established of the world thus far. While the supernatural is an important part of the story, the general feel of the series is also focused on cold hard reality in which the characters live in. I have similar conclusions on the first season, but the incompleteness made it even worse in this case.
Again, there's no way around the fact that the series needed more episodes. The ending was incredibly rushed, but even beyond that the series is missing many important parts. The side characters were left husks despite strong characterization, the main plot was very vague and ended as soon at it was established, and a lot of the attention to detail that was present in the first season is gone now, due to the simple lack of screen time.
The production of the show was all around good, and overall even better than the first show. It did however lack a lot of the attetion to detail that made the first season so interesting, as well as the humor was almost completely gone - probably since it didn't fit the tone of the story as well.
In conclusion, I really liked the show. Thinking as a whole, I think the first season was a way more satisfactory and complete viewing experience, but I honestly think the second season showed a lot more talent on the writers' part at least. The original was entertaining, something I'd watch when bored, but the focused experience and interesting characters of the second season really grabbed me, compelling me to watch it all in one go, always wanting to find out what happened next. Sadly the conclusion was less than satisfactory. I'd say it's about as good as the first season, with both lower ilows and higher highs, and overall being more to my liking in style.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 3, 2014
To start to write a story with a plot that hinges on time travel is a truly foolhardy thing to do. It's an endeavor that requires one to create laws for something that - even if it was hypothetically possible - goes way beyond a human's ability to keep track of. Whatever the nature of time is, it's something so inherent to our perception that to try to objectively understand it is in itself a way to handicap oneself in creating a story. But just because something is hard doesn't mean it should be avoided, and Steins;Gate does a fine job of proving that it's
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a worthwhile struggle when writing a story.
I have not the faintest clue what the best way to analyze the multifaceted story of this anime so I'll do it in a rambling way that fits a show that has a semicolon in it's two word title. There's much good and bad to talk about, and I believe that despite how the series screws with chronology it's probably best to make a split between the parts of it based on how early or late in the progression they were presented.
The first episode of the series is suitably mysterious while also giving a taste of what's to come. The funky humor that characterizes the first half of the anime especially is already present, but there's also a hint of the time travel and horror to come. It raises plenty of questions without giving any immediate answers. There's really nothing mindblowing going on, as the source of the answers is clearly going to be time travel, even though the specifics are unclear. It's enough to catch your attention without confusing you utterly, thus being a good start to presenting the relatively complicated plot.
What follows the first episode was rather not to my personal liking. I'm hesitant on how to judge these episodes in the first fourth of the series due to how my dislike resulted mostly from the fact that a lot of the humour was simply cringeworthy to me and as such is largely subjective. However, I believe that I'm justified in saying that this part of the anime wasn't handled well because it relied too much on the humor, which shouldn't have been necessary. Even if it didn't almost drive me away, I think the humor simply took space away from actual substance, so that even if I was entertained it still wouldn't have served the story itself well.
The substance wasn't entirely absent however, since this part of the series at least started introducing the characters and laying groundwork for their personalities. This was a crucial part that was handled sufficiently well, if only barely. What it did well was succeeding in presenting a lot of peculiar personalities, but it also managed to make me near enough hate a lot of them due to how they were used for the purposes of humor.
Past the first fourth of the show things slowly started getting better as the depth of all the characters was slowly shown. I don't know why that depth was hidden so long, but I managed to somehow soldier through long enough to see it anyway. With each episode I started appreciating the characters more and more, which was absolutely necessary for what was to come. As it became evident that these characters were as they were because of their experiences as people rather than an attempt at humor at their expense, I could begin to understand the basis of the story more and more. And as the characters became more interesting, so did their playing around with a time machine. Morals are tied to people, and as such dealing with morally questionable matters in a story also requires believable characters to relate to those morals.
Around the halfway point is when the main plot of the story really started rolling, the exponentially increasing momentum seemingly almost getting completely out of hand. The funky humor of the series was finally starkly contrasted by how the story turned to near enough horror. The idea that screwing with time is something to be taken seriously in the hypothetical setting where it's actually possible became crushingly evident. At this point the story started dealing more and more with morals and psychology, as each character was tested in their turn. This was only possible due to the characters being so very believable despite (and because) of their peculiarities.
The ever increasing depth of the characters is perhaps the most important and impressive part of the entire anime, the driving force that makes the experience truly impactful for the viewer. It's the only way I can imagine that can not only do that but also keep a story about time travel on track. Beyond the ten or so meticulously built characters there is a world that changes drastically each time they meddle with their time machine, giving the story plenty of chances to be terribly pretentious. But instead of that the characters and viewer both only glimpse the varied possible timelines through another character whom has been personally affected by these changes in different ways each time. A person they know, whom is a part of their group, not some obscure ideal.
The same theme becomes stronger and more evident throughout the series, as the main character struggles to find the determination to see it all through. In the end he doesn't care about changing the world even when told it's all up to him to prevent disaster. What he fights for, seeks to retain, is his own small group of friends that he loves. It's not for some higher ideal, but for his own selfish desires. It's almost pathetic, but that's where the excruciating beauty of it lies, the culmination of all of the story. He's a human with completely human motivations, not an obscure ideal of a hero, and that's why he not only wants to, but actually can change things.
Time travel is an integral part of the premise and the plot, but it's not the core of the story. As the latter half of the story slowly digs deeper into the idea of time travel it's only done at the behest of human interests, which is why it remains at it's rightful place as what enables the story, instead of running away with it. It's not done amazing well, but it serves its purpose. To keep it under control the concept and method of time travel had to be brought to a mostly integral and simplistic level, and this had to be done through a variety of contrived rules and regulations that have no base in actual reality.
That is to say, there's absolutely nothing believable about the time travel when considering it scientifically or even just common sense. This is where the idea of suspension of disbelief comes in. Steins;Gate doesn't happen in our reality but in a fictitious world where time travel works under these contrived rules. It's all about context. What is crucial is the essence of the story of a small number of humans. In this way the time travelling of the story is extremely believable. It retains internal consistency and thus the story makes logical sense and that is how it retains its worth despite the sacrifices made in other areas. That doesn't mean that those sacrifices are solely a good thing for the story, for it could have been even more interesting without them, but I have never seen time travel dealt with better, in practice. If the first part of the series was used better, the time travel aspect could perhaps have been afforded more detail, but it's quite impressive as is.
And thus arrives the conclusion. Well, partly it happened in the start of the anime but... nevermind. The point is, the last three episodes of Steins;Gate are the best ending I have ever seen in an anime. The range of feelings it instilled me goes beyond what should be possible within such a short span; just saying that it made me cry in desperate sadness and smile in relieved happiness doesn't do it justice. The way the story delivers its conclusion on each theme it dealt with and wraps up every tightly controlled storyline is truly masterful. I have never been so completely satisfied at the end of a story.
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I guess I'm also obliged to mention the technical achievements of the anime, though they feel so utterly irrelevant after all that. Yet the truth is that the fact the art and the sound design of the anime keeping up with the story is very important, and quite impressive in this particular case.
The best word to describe the art is 'solid'. It does everything it needs to even though it's not the most beautiful I've ever seen. At no point did the art cause any confusion to me, as it blended well with what was happening. Crisply detailed, yet keeping its own artistic charm the backgrounds always fit the mood of the story. The character designs were simple enough, but they were just as lively as the personalities they accompanied. At times there were even flashes of excellence, particularly when related to the time travel aspect of the anime, depicting the nature of the change very impactfully.
Similar things can be said about the sound design of the series. Not one sound ever seemed out of place. But even beyond that, the sound of the anime was often absolutely masterful on top of serving its purpose. The voice acting, a most crucial part in an anime with such a small selection of throuroughly designed character, was spot on. It always augmented each scene brilliantly, bringing the characters to life fully. There wasn't a single bit of noise without some sort of purpose, yet all in all it never felt like something was missing in that aspect either. And just the amount of importance in the most basic possible sound of phone was actually amazing. The music was also just great, mixing with all the other aspects excellently. And of course, the opening and ending songs of the anime capture the nature of it beautifully, aside being just beautuful to listen to.
All in all, the complete package is of great and consistent quality. There are flaws in the execution and the content both, but few of them were blatant enough to be really harmful to the whole, and there were of course also times were it was also impressed me greatly. Throughout the entire series it only keeps improving until the absolutely outstanding ending. The fact remains that in many areas there could be improvement, but the whole is excellent. It should be worth anyone's time, but also I also wouldn't blame anyone that was driven away by the start of the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 26, 2014
A tragic story with both action and mystery, all leading to the unveiling of a dark truth. Despite how many people seem to think, this is truly not all that original of a concept. Of course, originality isn't really necessary for a good anime, so let's see what other aspects this one is lacking in.
The one issue that seems to destroy the story before it even gets started is that it's trying too hard. I still don't know at what, but the apparent originality of the concept is definitely a part of it. At times it did provide me a fair amount of enjoyment, but
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I can't honestly say I felt like it was actually trying to entertain me. The humor of the show was extremely weak, a complete afterthought, the action scenes were all filled with an opressive need for dramatic effect.
What was all the more apparent for that was that it wished to instill awe in the audience. It wanted to be deep, touching the viewers beyond the mere notion of 'entertainment'. That's not wrong, in fact it's enjoyable for me personally. But that's where it really falls apart; it's not plausible at all, thus failing to be 'deep' in any way at all. The suspension of disbelief is all about circumstance after all. If one wishes to tell a fantastical tale they need only take it into a fantastical setting. However, the setting of this story is the very real world with its very real problems. It is not impossible to tap into these problems for inspiration, but if you actually stage your story in such a completely established setting you need to be able to reflect the nature of that setting in your story. This anime didn't for a moment truly manage that. It hoped to depict tragedy but also hope on a massive scale; without death. Death in our world isn't a mystical thing reserved only for great occasions like the anime depicts it, bizarrely while including the legacy of the destruction in Japan following the second world war.
The issue of inplausibility goes beyond just the specifics of what happens in the story. It's the greatest blight of the characters of the story. In this of a supposedly the realistic world the characters can almost all be split into two categories of unbelievable. There's the ones that aren't really a part of the story, just filling in there to make it feel alive without having any purpose of their own. But more important are the core characters of the story; people that have one and all experienced tragedy that defines their roles in the story. And yet those tragedies are all just completely out of this world ridiculous or just normal things taken to stupid extents. I wish I could have related to the main characters, I really do, but that would have required a plausible explanation for what happened to them beyond 'humans are bad'.
The one thing that partly saves the story for me is Shibazaki; the single believable and relatable character in the story. One with real problems for which he looks real solutions, unlike the rest of the cast. A fine character, but not really great, he kept up the believability of the story long enough for me to enjoy most of it before I started actually thinking. Problem is, I started thinking before the end; which made the conclusion of the series fall completely flat.
The technical aspects of the show were more successful, though they suffer partly for the same problem as the story, of trying to be more than they are. The art quality was good, and fitting for the story that the show tried to depict, and animation were also very solid. Yet the way it's implemented reeks of attempted artistic signifigance where there was none. As such, the 'dreamy' feel that it attempts ends up simply a weak distortion of reality like the rest of the show.
Sound quality was overall good as well. The music were perhaps even better than that, but on the other hand the attempted English voice acting broke the immersion on more than one occasion. I'd like to give credit for the fact that the 'engrish' wasn't as terrible as it could be, but I can't ignore the fact that it's also far from how native speakers that they tried to depict actually sound.
The combination of all these aspects ends up with a completely unmemorable show where it clearly looked to be a dramatic and memorable story. Despite this I can't say I didn't find the show enjoyable to an extent, to start with at least. It was a fair bit of fun as long as I didn't apply any critical thinking to it. In the case of a show that hopes to be intelligent this really isn't praise, but there's at least the fact that the show wasn't memorable for being particularly bad either.
*sigh*
This is the kind of anime that offered me a decent amount of enjoyment as I watched it, but left me thoroughly unimpressed after the end. It kept up the appearances of intellect, but the more you actually look at it the more it really falls apart. And in the end, even as it clearly doesn't fall in the 'category' of intelligent, it still in fact believes it does. Further it takes itself deadly serious no matter how unbelievable the things it depicts. This is what I'd call pretentious - and I love a lot of stories that many others would call that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 8, 2014
I decided to rewatch Ergo Proxy, seeing as I just didn't remember anything about it from the last time I watched, aside that it was a massive mindfuck and a very entertaining series. The rewatch really did remind me again why I thought so. It really doesn't do anything half assed.
From the very start, the style of the series strikes true for the dystopian society of a post apocalyptic future it shows, both with the stunning art that is combined with excellent animation, and chilling music. There's just something strangely alluring about the contrast of light and dark present everywhere in the art, even as
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it never shows a hint of simplicity. And of course, I personally absolutely love the design of Re-l (which is showed by my avatar, as usual), one of the main characters.
As contrast to the explosive start, the series progressed at a very calm pace at many points, and even seemingly went off the rails at times. On one hand, I feel the pacing is perhaps the biggest weakness of the entire show, but on the other hand I never felt bored for a long amount of time. In fact, it was very much welcome when I had a moment to calm down, because even at its slower points the series kept me very tense most of the time. The feeling of a completely uncertain world was very impressively depicted by the story, and I was afraid to feel affection towards any single character in the show with the knowledge that the world really didn't care much about what happened to them.
At the same time, I appreciated every single character in the show for what they provided. Perhaps it managed to go even deeper than that. Despite the chaotic setting, the story itself was in truth quite straightforward and meticulously constructed. The pre-planned purpose of every character in the story was not just a matter of their parts in the story, but also dealt with as a theme throughout the series. In fact, the series showed wonderful self awareness in dealing with this, rather than the usual the curious contradiction of praising human free will while ignoring the fact that every expression of the was in truth constructed by the creator of the story.
Such self awareness and introspection from the view point of the creator of the story was present throughout the series, in many different ways. This lead to another aspect of the show that could be considered a weakness. Aside the pacing being strange, the story also wasn't presented in as straightforward fashion as it seemingly travelled. At times there was seemingly huge differences between where the last episode left off and where the new one started, in a couple of cases completely jarring. The couple of the more extreme cases I do believe were poorly handled, but the way the series was structured in itself wasn't necessarily bad. In most cases, every episode dealt with a different theme, most of which were both very philosophical and deeply psychological, and they did so very well. What was really jarring was that the writer seemingly saw it purposeful to interject the view points of both themselves and the watchers directly into the story. While I understand the purpose of this, especially in such an experimental show, I do think it wasn't worth it in every case.
Speaking of philosophical and psychological... I think this is a prime example of what a lot of people would call pretentious. I personally disagree on that. When I originally watched the series years ago, neither my brain nor my understanding of philosophy were nearly enough developed to really grasp most of it, but even then I don't think I ever dismissed it as just being nonsense. I'm glad about that, because on this rewatch I feel like I was actually able to keep up very well, even through the less elegant twists of the story. There each case there was some real thought put into it, but the really impressive part was that all of these ideas were able to be delivered without the attempt to insert conclusions into them. One of the key things in succesfully writing something like this is the ability to keep in mind one's own fallibility, which I think was achieved in this case.
In the end the story and the characters managed to enthrall me quite well. Even as it dealt with complex themes, the story managed to keep a certain necessary simplicity to it. For the most part, actual unnecessary elements were eliminated, thus keeping the story well on its track until the very end. Where it sadly stumbled a little bit, as often is. The conclusion was satisfactory in a manner, so I feel there is no need to harp on it too much, but it didn't reach quite the potential such a show had. Perhaps it was because there was actually in the end a certain unnecessary element, brought into it in an attempt to reach the excellence the ending deserved, but departing from the solid progression of the story in a harmful way. It's also entirely possible that there really actually just wasn't enough to the story in its simplicity, though I personally do find that complications added for the sake of it aren't necessary for a grand conclusion.
In conclusion, I think this anime is possibly one of the best things ever. It's also entirely possible that I'm just a pretentious prick that enjoyed it simply because I felt I understood something complicated that perhaps wasn't fully there in the first place.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 1, 2014
A total and utter mess. A very intriguing one at that, but still a mess.
Story: 3/10
For humanity to best an enemy that threatens its very existence, they must first find unity. The gastrea virus, turning humans themselves to monsters that are at best difficult to beat, at worst practically immortal, is definitely such an enemy. As such, the main character who tries to defeat the gastrea finds himself first struggling to defeat the discrimination of the general public and the plain self interest of those in high places, before he even has a chance to fight the real enemy.
This idea has been tackled by quite
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a number of series to different amounts of success. It is an intriguing premise that offers many possibilties, yet requires one to be very careful to not to let the different threads of the story get tangled. Sadly, in this case they did get tangled, terribly so. While the story really does quite a decent job of justifying the main character's struggle, it only seems to manage to do so through making the antagonists of the story vary from the plain stupid to those that are actually just batshit insane. While there is no disputing that that message isn't entirely unjustified either, it fails to utterly to deal with the roots of these problems as the justification for the atrocities that are committed never go beyond plain revenge. While making the viewer question humanity's right to existence was not in itself bad, the original intention behind it all remains painfully unclear. The actual explanation as to where the hate and discrimination originates was never expressed in a clear way - if the intention was to say that it was completely unjustified, it still fails to have compelling rationale for happening.
One of the more successful aspects of the story is the portrayal of the real(?) enemy, the gastrea. Despite remaining more of a backdrop for a good part of the series, as is often the case in this kind of plot, the threat is felt in a very real way on multiple occasions. The gastrea never become completely insignificant and are even capable of concerted attacks on occasion, proving that ignoring them is not an actual option. This is perhaps the only plot point of the story that keeps progressing fairly consistently, while everything else is all over the place.
The characters are something that at first appear to be the strong point of the series, with much potential for growth, especially in the case of the main character. None of them are especially innovative, but they seem to be set to become more interesting with this. This doesn't happen. The main character seems to possess an uncanny resistance to character growth, ignoring every single chance he ever has to reform his ideas into something more consistent. The lolis, despite being potentially very good portrayals of children, end up being mainly utilized for the annoying fanservice bullshit. The few characters that experience any development do so with overnight 180s on their personalities.
One of the most jarring things about the entire series is its utterly abysmal pacing. The important story developments are very rushed, while the downtime between the big stuff takes up a huge amount of the show. While I'm not one to dismiss the importance of exposition under any circumstance, it's even more baffling that the series fails to deliver an even nearly acceptable amount in those large segments that seem should be dedicated to it. At a closer look, these bits are actually all about developing the character relationships. Which seems to be something that the show does well, all up until you realize there has been zero actual progress, aside a couple of abrupt jumps, on this too. All in all, these huge amount of time spent trying to immerse the viewer in the characters left me to be completely unaffected when these characters were brutally murdered.
Character: 6/10
Through all the other inconsistencies, one thing that the series manages to achieve is a consistent style. However, judging from the fact that I can't think of a single good thing to say about that, I have to conclude that this was achieved through simply sticking to mediocrity.
Art: 7/10
I have no complaints, aside that I will never learn to understand Japanese ideas behind designing alien looking monsters. I have a hard time taking the gastrea seriously based on what is probably supposed to be a very intimidating appearance. Aside that, the art is good. Not outstanding in any manner, but really pleasing enough to the eye.
Sound: 9/10
Clearly the best part of the anime. I believe the only reason the anime managed to invoke any sort of feelings in me was because of the excellent voice acting reinforcing the personalities of the character to a huge degree. The music also was spot on most of the time, bringing the tension that was otherwise lacking in the rushed fight scenes. Also, the opening song was really the highlight of each episode of this anime, to be completely honest.
Enjoyment: 7/10
It manages to retain the resemblance of a quality anime for much of it, just barely, despite the constant inconsistencies (I actually think that's the right choice of words, dreadful as it is) and the terrible pacing with zero exposition. It's actually quite good fun whenever the nonsense isn't too jarring.
Overall: 6/10
It's not a terrible anime, and I dare say it had huge potential to be absolutely great. In general it keeps good production quality and doesn't go completely of the rails in any aspect. However, for someone who puts as much weight on story as I do, it's a painfully mediocre anime. It feels like the team really has what it takes to make a great anime, but perhaps the director was simply unqualified for the task.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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