Argento Soma

At first I thought this was going to be an EVA clone, but it isn't really. I had actually dropped it after the first 2 episodes. I picked it back up and finished it a couple years later.

The majority of the episodes consist of the para-military organization "Funeral" defending earth from alien invaders with their mecha. Meanwhile the understory consists of Takuto's desire for revenge against Frank (the monster/hero created from the parts of defeated aliens). Things get quite a bit better once you find out "why" all the aliens are trying to reach the same location on earth.

The storytelling itself ... is sub-par, and character development is lacking. It still turned out to be a decent enough show to watch.

This review will continually be updated as I *eventually* slosh through this series.

I was set up for disappointment. Knowing what sunrise is capable of, ex: Geass, I expected a cool mecha story with some flare. The protagonist looks super cool. I decided to give it a go. Boy am I thoroughly disappointed with this title.

Story: Argento Soma is the rip off of Evangelion with absolutely no budget. Except they somehow took Eva's initially confusing story and morphed it into complete garbage. Out of the blue we learn that aliens are attacking earth? It literally came out of the blue with no hints towards that ... being the case at all. I thought initially it would be a story regarding the exploration of the alien shot down and the struggle between humans and the alien. Buuuuuuut no. Fighting the aliens WITH and alien (looking at you EVA)... like cmon seriously? The organization "Funeral" is literally NERV with a drastic cut in funding. They even have rip off scenes of the MAGI computers and some chick that is supposed to be like Gendo?? like cmon. This story is complete garbage from the get go. The protagonist has NO reason to go as far down his "evil" path... like cmon... a girl that stood you up? This story has horrendous writing. I give it a 2 (Dreadful/Horrible).

Art: The first episode had me. I thought this series might be something special. Well it was a lie. The aliens are all bland in color schemes and look muddied up (not in the good way like battle damage). Some of the characters look straight stupid like the cop in the beginning. I could literally look down at my toilet bowl after taco bell and see better art than this. It gets a 3 (Poor/Very bad).

Sound: This music is absolute garbage. Music doesn't fit scenes. It all out of synch. It this series has awesome music it would be maybe even above average at a 6 as a whole, but alas this isn't the case. I don't even know how to describe the music. Just... Just no. It's like if toddlers tried to make military esque music. It's downright corny. It gets a 1 (Pathetic/Appalling)

Characters: There's only one SEMI interesting character at this point in the show and that is David Lawrence. The amount of mystery that shrouds him as well as the way he talks in old literature is a breath of fresh air. He seems truly evil but like an angel. Sadly the rest of the cast is dog shit. Takuto is edgy for no reason, Harriet is an annoying little girl who believes in elves, Sue is a childish person who would NEVER make it into the US military (oh yeah, its also set in the US). FRANK.. Who's idea was it to name the damn robot Frank? I get that this work was supposed to be an extremely loose interpretation of Frankenstein... but naming him adds to the childish and utterly inconsequential nature of the show. Guinevere is hot and that's it. Michael is the stereotypical African American that the Japanese portray in the military, Ernest is just odd, and Lana is a wannabe Gendo. Characters get a 2 (Dreadful/Horrible).

Enjoyment: Not much to say here. I truly love anime but its so hard to enjoy this show. It receives a 3 (Poor/Very bad).

Overall Rating (incomplete): It gets a 2 (Dreadful/Horrible). I hope this show can change my mind.

First of all, DO NOT start watching because you liked the promo photo. The protagonist in the anime has very little to do with this intriguing and mysterious guy. He is, in fact, a whiny child with no goals and no basic thinking abilities. Someone ready to panic for no reason whatsoever to the point of being ridiculous.

Honestly, I am not sure what was worse in this anime - the Swiss-cheese-like plotholes or the mostly-abysmal characters, who acted with no reasoning, so let's say both.

I am still struggling to understand what this was all about - was it love or was it aliens? ... Anyway, it was ALL very bad.

The screenplay is terrible. I have watched the anime on double speed and still had some moments, which dragged on endlessly, needlessly.

The story began with a walk through the lives of two (supposedly) genius students and quickly turned into a sci-fi mess with "superbeing" elements. One of the students was fascinated with the other. We, of course, were in the dark why, while the other student was very attached to her professor. We, of course, were once again not informed or shown what made him so great.

Later on, we met a little girl and her grandpa, then moved in with a super-squad fighting the super-bad aliens. Suddenly, our protagonist appeared with a new name and a brand new background, and guess what - we had no idea how this happened and what part of the new story was reliable (if any).

In episode 20, few somewhat new heroes appeared and the story finally began to make sense. Why, oh why they had not chosen a different protagonist or at least given us some background on the key characters? This would have helped save this mess or at least would have added something to grab on to.

The final battle was also a useless effort, as none of the characters ever grew on me, so I could not care less what was happening to them.

The end was disgustingly stupid and came out-of-nowhere. No background, no reason for any of the events shown or the relationships demonstrated.

The final nail in the coffin was the "soma" itself. One would think a word, so pretentiously used in the anime title and as a very prominent alias would mean a lot, wouldn’t it? No. I would not disclose any details, but this “subject” was shortly mentioned as something VERY important at the beginning of the series only to reappear shortly in a newspaper article and never to be mentioned again. Ever. Did the anime creators forget about it?

The storyline was a mishmash of many different stories, which collided at some point and got badly mutilated in the process, leaving us with nothing to see and no one to care about.

Admittedly, the opening and ending were beautiful.

Still, avoid this anime at all costs. It is poorly made, boring and lasts far too long.

TL; DR: Do not watch this, it is not worth it. Characters are weak and uninteresting or totally undeveloped. The storytelling is sloppy and full of plotholes. People calling this anime a "hidden gem" are either devoted hipsters or actually meant "jam".

[This review is spoiler free!] TL;DR: Bland art, characters, fight scenes, and everything else that makes a good anime. All in all, a waste of time.

I have seen a lot of reviews calling Argento Soma a hidden gem. It's not.

For 14 episodes, I sat here and stared at a screen blankly. The neutral colors, lackluster fight scenes, angsty and whiny characters, and bland story makes for a bad time. The only reason I stuck around for so long was because of the positive reviews on this site. I can tell by episode 14 that things are starting to pick up, however, I have ... lost any hope of my future experience being worth the 5+ hours I've already committed to the show.

The main characters; Takuto Kaneshiro and Harriet Bartholomew, both know a solid 2 words between the two of them. I wouldn't be surprised if half of Takuto and Harriet's lines were "Maki!" and "Mr. Fairy" respectively. When those are the type of main characters you are working with, you start to worry for everyone else (and rightfully so).

Plot-wise, I have seen a lot of people compare Argento Soma to EVA. As someone who hasn't watched it, I cannot either confirm or deny this. However if anything I've heard about Shinji is true, Takuto (or Ryu, or Lt. Soma, etc) is definitely the same character type. Whether that is good or bad, that's what you can expect. In my own opinion, he makes for a shitty MC with his wishy-washy ploy for revenge.

I will admit, though, that the concept of a alien with cognitive thinking was a very interesting one. Although, Argento Soma misses the mark on this greatly. It would've been interesting to see more of an attempt between communicating with the alien instead of having the little girl constantly thrown into battle. Although it is obvious that the girl suffers from PTSD from a past I won't get into, her constant crying in each and every episode gets tiresome real quickly.

It doesn't help that a large bulk of the anime is spent running around in circles. Harriet hates the sounds of guns, gets tossed into battle, has the desire to run away and the alien helps her escape. Takuto hates the alien and hopes to kill it, uses the alien's escape as an excuse to engage in a fight with it, chickens out, and goes home. I can't say with 100% certainty that all the episodes are like that, but I can guarantee the first 14 are.

There is honestly so little character development for the side (or any character in general) characters, it is disheartening. I could spend all day writing about the flaws on this show, but I don't want to dedicate anymore of my time to it.

All in all, Argento Soma is a waste of time as a viewer. I don't know why some of the top reviews are people praising this show so highly. If anyone is curious in this anime or wants to watch it, I definitely recommend that you stop while you are ahead.