Interlude

This anime does a number of things really well ... and then flops in a number of other areas. The very first thing to understand about this anime is that you aren't going to understand this.

Story
The entire anime plays out similarly to the end of Evangelion where absolutely nothing makes any sense. This is an area that could have used significantly more polish. Done properly, this could have been a mind-twister that really made you think about some important questions in life. In stead what we have is a Half-life/Evangelion hybrid that just doesn't feel right about half of ... the time.

Art
This is by far the series strongest area. The art is relatively well done. There's better out there, of course, but this really isn't bad. The characters feel individualized, well drawn, and well animated. The backgrounds are rich and contrast well enough that the characters don't become drown out by it. The environment overall feels believable.

Sound
I really don't have any particularly strong feelings about the audio in this series. For me it was just ... meh. It certainly isn't bad sound and the theme isn't too bad ... but it also isn't good either. It's just there.

Characters
This is the low point of the series right here. There are token characters everywhere in this one. This includes the obligatory mostly-naked girl in all three episodes. For me, this really took away from the story. Some of the characters are, for the most part, believable. They do their best to draw out the main character but even then he feels ... empty most of the time.

Enjoyment
Surprisingly, I still enjoyed this anime. It certainly wasn't the best out there ... but it was pretty good. It is, for all intents and purposes, average. If you've got nothing all that great to watch, this is at least a somewhat enjoyable experience.

The final verdict: OK ... I suppose.

My first review on an OVA so here it goes!

Interlude, by Merriam-Webster's definition, is an intervening or interruptive period, space, or event. How this can be applied to this OVA is moot. We can conclude that the most likely meaning of the Interlude in this anime is the world of memory, in which all of our characters live their lives in this "intervening pause" of the apocalypse. The tautology of the word can clearly be seen in every intro where one of the heroines gives a monologue (or even a soliloquy) about an abstract idea concerning despair in regard to personal ambition, the point of ... life, or obliviousness to the world around us. I may mention the motifs and symbolism I see throughout the series, which may be full of praise, but this does not reflect my actual review of the OVA as a PRODUCT.

Now the review:

(5) Story: There is no true plot. Just an abstract outline of the apocalypse in parallel with a dream world that was formed to preserve the lives and sanity of a number of humans left in the world. Now the beauty of this lack of plot is that the director gives us a piece of his work, his art and we're supposed to see what is truly being expressed throughout his work. There are questions imposed here that make you really think. Just to name a few:

"Is sacrifice really worth it if a person you're sacrificing for is oblivious to your efforts?"

"Could you live with yourself if everyone else died but you?"

"Does the power of love juxtapose with the shame of regret in times of extreme trauma or does the power of love triumph over the shame of regret in those moments?"

"When and where does morality end and begin?"

I mean you could go on for hours trying to see the symbolism within this short OVA and determine what the author was trying to get across. However, many of my fellow anime fans know that anime is used as a direct means to express a certain emotion, thought, or outlook on an aspect of life or human values. However, making this OVA abstract detracted heavily from actually making this OVA enjoyable for most viewers.

(9) Animation: This is one aspect which the producers clearly did not fail in. The art in this work was very smooth, clean, and crisp within the memory world. The apocalyptic world is portrayed in a fuzzy, surreal manner, giving way to the feeling of shock; how the world became what it was never supposed to be. I can't say the detail was simply amazing, but they way the artists pulled it off did contribute to the sense of illusion and loss of reality within the OVA.

(7) Sound: Again no complaints. Just as with the art, the producers did not neglect on the sound effects, voice acting, or music of the series. However, I can clearly see that they did not go out of their way to use sound as a tool to further convey the feelings and emotions of confusion and dark self-reflection in regard to the main character's interaction with his surroundings, which is why I gave it a positive, but not an outstanding rating.

(6) Character: Again, in relation to to my story rating, I believe the characters are used as a kind of foil, not just to the main character, but to ourselves. The characters were not very well developed because the I believe the director made it his intention to keep his story abstract. The only person whom I believed was really was developed was Mutsuki Saegusa who sacrificed everything for a step-brother whom she truly cared for. I can look into the characters and begin to delve into the realm of philosophy asking questions about myself, humanity, and the surreal. However, this is an anime review so I'm avoiding any digressions when I can! ;)

(9) Enjoyment: I can go forever about this one. Let's keep it short.
I'm a very deep thinker. This OVA presents questions and innuendos that really made me think about values, morality, humanity, etc. Because of this, I enjoyed the anime a lot because it made me reflect on a lot of ethics we follow today.

(6) Overall: Again this OVA is not for people looking for amazing action or getting blown apart in terms of psychological thinking, like with Inception (I know it's not anime but it's a good example). It's supposed to stimulate reflection and provoke some sort of response in terms of what symbols you can pull out of the anime and discuss with other viewers. I enjoyed it as provoker of deep meditation. As an OVA, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they are into finding deep, hidden themes and meanings within the shows.

Look at the poster again - can you see 3 large women? Good. One of them, the long red-haired one is a question mark. While she does vaguely resemble one useless character in the plot, whether it is she on the poster or not, either way both in the anime and on its poster the viewer is left thinking who and what the heck is she even doing in there?

In many respects this summarises the feelings you get after watching Interlude, whose plot doesn't fail to get you worked up with expectations but at the same time gives you a headach for the most ... part due to it being basically pointless. It is one of those animes where the authors tried too hard to twist things up but end up in the end getting twisted themselves with loose ends all over the place and leave the mess up for you to fill in the blanks, pretending all along there is somehow some great psychological logic behind it all which of course nobody grasped!

An underrated piece.

Well built atmosphere, possibly more emotionally invasive than you realize.

Impressive story with deep topic, and good pace.

Occasionally ridiculous moment which unexpectedly enhanced contrast.

Seemingly childish music, but again, enhanced the bizarre feeling, mixed with depression yet hope.

... I watched this several years ago, with no expectation. Then I realized this is a despariring yet encouraging story, with unexpected psychological mark left in my brain. The feeling simply came back to me from time to time, but I couldn't remember where it came from. I couldn't even remember if I watched it, or if it was just a dream.

Yes, maybe it's just a dream.

its been a while since i wrote my last anime review. this one really made me want to write because its so fascinating

~SPOLIERS BELOW~



STORY 6/10

-quick summary:
the anime starts off with our MC (akio) in high school with his childhood friend tama. the day goes on per usual however every so often he begins to see odd things, experiences vivid nightmares, and remembers people/events others around him dont. he bumps into a girl named aya and through her, realize that he isnt alone in what he experiences; she too has experienced the disappearance of her entire town, has memory lapses, and saw things other ... around her didnt (before they disappeared). they both soon discover there was an unnamed and ambiguous catastrophic event that wiped out all but 12 humans on earth. for the survival of these 12, a virtual world created inside their own minds was built for them to continuously live through their own memories. this world collapses when MC and aya discover the truth, and decide to leave their minds and experience the dystopian real world together.

this section i thought was solid for the amount of time/episodes allotted. i really liked the concept of the anime. theres just something about dystopian futures and matrices that are so polarizing. i thought the pacing of the story was well executed and i enjoyed all of the plot twists; i honestly didnt see most of them coming. the only qualm i have with the plot is that there are quite a lot of plot holes or just aspects that were never gone over again.

the summary i wrote left a lot out for the sake of being concise but the matrix had 11 people living their memories through one girl (mutuski) who sacrificed herself to basically be like the "server" for these created worlds to take place. this whole idea was actually executed by the MCs older brother and his wife, mutuski's older sister. -- why were there only 12 survivors? why did she have to sacrifice herself so everyone can live inside their own minds? why did it just so happen that the MCs brother was able to figure all of this out? everything they are seeing/experiencing MUST have come from their life before the catastrophe (whether conscious or unconscious) so where does aya fit in? it seemed as though she lived in a completely different town and attended a completely different school as the MC as far as the audience knows. how does she play a part in this? everyone else the MC meets, who are they? what relationship did they have with MC before the apocalypse? none of that was really answered. i suppose you are just expected to suspend your disbelief because the whole anime takes place in a recreation of life so anything could happen.

ART 5/10:

the art was ok for the time. everyone was modeled very differently, which is always nice to see. sometimes background characters/secondary characters sometime get no love or effort put into their design that makes them somewhat memorable but this anime put in some effort. the MC looks like a standard anime protagonist but aya, tama, the other secondary students, the 3 older women they meet were all very distinct. animation was a little rough. there were moments where perspective was wonky (i.e. sometimes going up/down stairs didnt look like that at all), animation didnt perfectly line up with the sound (i.e. the karaoke scene), the animation was a little sloppy in spots.

sound 6/10:

the voice acting was fair. nothing bad to say about it. the music and sound design was pretty good. one of the things i think this anime gets right is the successfully impactful timings of the sound effects to induce tension, fear, or confusion. there was a lot of singing in this anime that wasnt the best though. tama's VA is not the best singer lol but it added to the relatability of the characters.

characters 5/10:

i felt like the characters were very hit or miss. they were either really good, or really added to the plot in some way or they totally didnt at all. i think hit characters were aya, MC and tama just because they all felt the realest to me. tama really felt like they was longing for something she didnt really know she wanted and what she wanted was just out of reach. she had a lot of personality. aya and MC didnt have that same personality or energy but they had strong motives that influenced their decision making; MC wanted to understand what was happening with his world and why he was constantly having these nightmares, while aya was desperately trying to reunite herself with her family and friends. they both were driven by the truth and it was really interesting to see where that took them both. i would also consider MCs older brother and mutsuki as hits because they too were motivated characters and had a lot of stake in keeping the world a secret in order to maintain the status quo and to protect the "greater good" in a sense.

complete misses were the three woman who worked for city hall; they truly were just there as fan service. the old pervy man they also meet with the shotgun doesnt really add anything to the plot. mutsuki's older sister has no motivations or much of a personality. she really isnt even given much air time. there are the minions who roam the dystopian world controlled by mutsuki that dont have their existence explained. they are just random hoodlum, which im going to assume unconsciously represent looters and thugs that appeared post apocalypse to raid and pillage what was left of the resources. they added nothing.

with all of that being said though my ENJOYMENT was 7/10 simply because i liked the philosophical nature of the anime, the basic premise, and i was also able to suspend my disbelief to allow the plot to unfold the way that it did. when you acknowledge that MC spent a countless amount of time within his own mind, you can kind of excuse the weird or random things that have no explanation to view the story for what it is and what is represents. they tackle the age old debate of whether or not you should base sweeping decisions on pleasure or a select few or is it worth sacrificing one for the wellbeing of the group. it tackles the basic human question of "what is real" as well as debating whether or not its even worth taking the risk to leave the safety of your mind to venture into the unknown. it also tackles the distinction between familial/platonic love (between MC and tama) vs (im assuming) a more sexual or "adult" kind of partnership (between MC and aya).

I enjoyed the story as I felt it was a fun mystery to unwarp. The story was only about two hours long yet the world building made it feel like it was 10 (in a good way) and with the show did an amazing job with building a cool atmosphere. The story had some sad parts which Ill admit got me in my feels, but though some people would say the ending is sad I saw it was a more hopeful ending. I don't want to spoil it but I just would say if you watch the show to think at the end if you ... felt the choice he made was the right one. Overall great show.