Flag

This anime had a good concept but terrible execution. I wanted to review it for a long time so here it is. There's spoilers in this review BUT you'll be warned beforehand and you'll be glad I spoiled it for you LOL! This anime was so misleading and bad that I just had to review it for you to save you pain and time.




Basicly there's some kind of war going on in some kind of 3rd-world country and some kind of war journalists (I think they are Japanese but that doesn't matter) go to this country to get pictures because that's their job or as ... they like to say, their ''passion'' or whatever.

So the entire show is told through a camera lense, which was artsy and original at first. It's a very detailed digital view but gets old after a while and serves less & less symbolic purpose as the show goes on. The main character girl who is holding the camera takes pictures throughout the show and we see these nice pictures. They are portrayed as nice pictures, which they are, but none of them are really meaningful. Beleive me I'm a photographer, filmmaker and cinematographer. Only a few parts of the show are shot normally (not through a camera).

The story is this girl war journalist got a lucky shot on the country's flag the moment a back-lit girl was praying and her silouhette could be seen through the flag. Suddenly this picture became the people's symbol for peace, or morality, and the flag became a symbol for.... hope i guess, for the war to stop.... Anyways some terrorists stole it and now a special U.N. team is assembled to retrieve the stolen flag. The girl who took the picture is recruited onto this team to document the mission(s).

What's supposed to make this U.N. team I mentioned earlier 'special' is a giant robot vehicle thing they have as part of their main arsenal. It transforms into a humanoid mode and a car-ish mode. The movements it makes sound more like a little toy than a war machine. Also it's only weapon is a machine gun, Big Whoop! At least give it a laser gun sheesh.... At least it sort-of looks cool.

You'll notice something wrong right away: the war-torn country is too clean. Even the destroyed parts of town are clean and lack any grim detail. The characters, whom most of which are either jounalists who put their necks out into dangerous situations, or soldiers who put their necks out into dangerous situations, are not dirty at all. This anime about the horrors of war, is just not graphic in any way. The only graphic part about this anime is the lack of vibrant colors, but even the washed-out colors that are present are solid and clear.

The graphic quality isn't only lacking in the art style, it's also lacking in the plot and narrative. You won't see much violence. (SPOILERS) The most violence you'll see (for 4 episodes) are one guy getting shot in the arm and bad guys getting shot in the desert with the desert sand getting kicked up to block our view. Then the soldiers return from the mission stone-cold and melancholy to show how terrible war is. Seriously, you'll see 1 blood stain after 4 episodes. I am dumb-founded that an anime like FLAG, which is supposed to be about the horrors of war, actually censors violence, and then follows-up with scenes like the soldiers moping around as if we just saw something truely horrifying that will scar the grey matter of our brains forever and give us post traumatic stress syndrome. There are comedy anime with more blood and violence than FLAG.... This is just unacceptable. Also the show usually prefers to show the aftermath of skirmishes instead of the battles themselves because the main focus is the poorly-implied conflict going on in the characters' minimaly-present souls.

Another thing disappointing is the intelligence of this so-called super secret team of soldiers. (SPOILERS) This is one of those spoilers that you'll be glad i spoiled for you: In one scene the team (I'll just call them ''the team'' from here on) thinks they know where the terrorists are hiding. They go in an unarmed helicopter to check out this fortress in a twisting valley. They stay at a safe distance and send out a small scout drone. It flies over there and discovers heavy anti-air defenses. So what does this super secret team do? Head back to base? Report this intelligence to command? Call in reinforcements? No. They fly this unarmed, non-armored helicopter straight into the hostile airspace. Guess what happens next? They get shot at and the pilot is hit in the arm and only Then do they retreat!

I could not Believe what I just saw! And nobody acknowledged this as a stupid move! Bunch'a idiots. It was at this point that FLAG lost all credibility and I stopped giving it chances (many chances were spent in vain....)

This show also tries to portray war journalists just as brave and valiant as a front-line soldier, which can be true sometimes, but this show fails to do even that. (SPOILERS) Maybe if they showed the main character being shot at or help an injured person or something, but she is never in danger. One scene shows the main character go to a building where a fellow war journalist was killed in an explosion. Her friend war journalist puts a flower in a cup next to the dead guy's camera and has a big monologue about how war journalists are to be respected and are very courageous and all that. Well sure but, could we at least see the explosion so we have some kind of remorse for the guy? We never even see this guy, therefor I don't care about him much.

(SPOILERS) Action scenes (of which there are very, very few) have no music whatsoever and like I mentioned, you'll only see 1 blood stain. I know I didn't see even a single dead terrorist! And you will only see (in the first 4 episodes) one far away terrorist as seen from night vision in only one shot. It's like the show can't wait to get these parts over with and get back to the boring-as-hell parts.

Another thing that REALLY bothers me is this girl was recruited to document the missions of this team, but guess what? (SPOILERS) They don't allow her to go with them on their missions because it's too dangerous! WHAT THE HELL?? The show makes itself redundant right from the get-go! So she stays at the base taking pictures of the scenery, I am not joking about this at all. She takes pictures of the sourounding mountians and wildlife while waiting for the team to return. You have got to be kidding me. All sense of risk, danger and excitement is swiftly extinguished right from the beginning.



So that's my review. FLAG was a good concept but they were afraid to show violence in a show about violence, they were unable to show intelligent characters in a show about intelligent characters, and they were unable to show graphic images in a graphic show.

If anything, FLAG should have been the bloodiest, most disturbing & grotesque anime ever created! Documentaries on the history channel are vastly more entertaining than FLAG. FLAG makes war boring (not to say war is supposed to be exciting in a good way, but you get my point)

This show fails to execute everything it sets out to do. I don't even know what country they were in and I don't care so they obviously failed to set the up the plot in such a way that I'd be interested. This only reviews the first disc (Good God there's more!?).

I give this anime a score of 1.5/10.




If you want to see a piece of film that best portrays the horrors of war (which FLAG tries to do) I reccomend Apocalypse Now. This film captures the essence of the Vietnam war (don't ask me how I know lol).

Or if you want to see anime with great character conflict (which FLAG tries to do) then watch Elfen Lied, or Higurashi (aka When They Cry).


I can sort of see why people would give this anime high-ish reviews; because of what it tries to do and tries to be. There is no show like it. It's one of a kind. Granted, it is a unique show and in a good way (theoretically). Unfortunately in my strong opinion which I will state as fact, it fails and somebody should remake it properly. It has potential, but that's about all it's got and did not deliver for me. I tend to be very critical so if you have second thoughts about my review, go ahead and give it a chance. Many people are happy with FLAG and you might be one of those people.