Seikaisuru Kado

This is my first review, but I can say I am confident in my current opinions on this series. I'll skip over my personal praise and jump to the individual aspects of this series so far however.

Story: 9/10
I am a writer, and am pursuing writing as a very possible career, and have watched quite a bit of anime so far. It is what I pull a lot of inspiration and lessons from, and has been a great way of improving my quality and skills as a writer. Taking in this series and what it has to offer, from just the episodes so far I've learned ... a great lesson in writing; adding uniqueness to your story that has not been seen in other people's stories before. This may be a spoiler, but what occurs in Kado when the cube makes contact is not what you'd expect, which is massive destruction or the emergence of aliens or robots or any other evil foreign entity, but rather the cube setting down almost perfectly and a human emerge which, so far, has not been hostile whatsoever. Breaking barriers of what the viewer expects is great and usually tough to achieve as a writer, but so far Mado Nozaki has done an amazing job with the series.

Art: 8/10
This is actually a surprising score for myself to give, as I generally hate CG/CGI animations, although I've completely lost concern and care for the CGI in Kado so far. The backgrounds and other objects aside from the humans all appear to not be CG/CGI, at least to me, and the humans actually blend very well with them. Also, did I mention how stunning the cube, Kado, has been so far? Its shifting colors and movements are, as another reviewer stated, eye candy, and I've enjoyed every chance I've got to look at Kado. Japan's scenery is also portrayed very well in the series so far, and we have yet to see if the series will extend further to other countries/areas.

Sound: 8/10
I love music and sound effects in anime, and the music is nothing short of a masterpiece so far. The opening gives off eerie yet majestic vibes, and the singer expresses the greatness of what Kado: The Right Answer has to offer. The ending, despite many skipping over it, is actually very good also, and you can even hear the Japanese oriental sounds mixed in near the beginning (pardon me if I termed that incorrectly). Aside from that, from what we've heard songwise in the series so far, almost all of it has been majestic and attractive to the ears, at least mine, and they've done a fantastic job on the sound effects for Kado, the elements of the world, and even the little things such as echoing footsteps and rolling WAM.

Characters: 7/10
So far the characters have been all-around great, with not that many cliches, troupes, or copy-paste characters. And there will always be some underlying similarities between how characters act in anime, as we all are humans and similar in our personalities and reactions. But the characters that most stand out to me are the main-main ones, such as Shindou and zaShunina. Shindou has this very stern and down-to-the-point personality, one that we don't normally see as often if at all, probably because it's hard for most writers to execute well. However Mado has done superb with Shindou and his interaction in the world so far, and everything Shindou says or does intrigues me. This is the same with zaShunina also. I expected zaShunina to come to Earth with some evil plan, whether that be direct or underlying, and when that didn't happen I expected him to come to spread or share an insane idea or religious belief, both of which he did not do either. I am closely analyzing zaShunina whenever he says something, and am waiting to find out what his true intentions are if he even has any, which honestly at this point I'm somewhat convinced he's a character type I have never seen in anime or any other form of media for that matter.

That's about all I have for my review, and I do hope it helped. I highly recommend you give this series a try if you have not yet done so, as I believe it truly offers a story and idea that has never been seen in anime yet, at least in my experience of watching it.

Here are my SPOILER FREE two cents on Seikaisuru Kado. I starting jotting down my thoughts after the third episode in order to write the best review possible, so I’ve had a lot of time to ponder on this.

Animation:

I’ll be honest, I really don’t care for the animation. I don’t like cgi-blend. The art style in episode 0 was superb, which made the art style for the rest of the series kind of a bummer. However, this is my personal opinion.

Story:

Here’s what I love about the story. Despite the fact that it’s just about as sci-fi as sci-fi can be, ... the way it plays out is weirdly...accurate. I feel like humanity’s response to zaShunina in this show is realistically how humanity would respond to this kind of event. The central protagonist isn’t some hot blooded 17 year old Chosen One with the fate of the world in his hands. It’s a government negotiator. A bureaucrat. Everything is disputed politically and diplomatically. Even the UN gets involved here. As complex and fantastical as it can be at times, this story is told practically.

Theme wise, the show focused the most on one thing: humanity, humanity, humanity. When the UN gets involved of the dispute over what to do with the resources zaShunina has given Japan, zaShunina says something that I think sums up the central conundrum of this show: “I came here to help humanity, not countries.” Coming together as humans despite national borders isn’t exactly the conflict in the story here—it’s asking whether or not we’re even capable of doing so.

That is, until the story gets turned backwards and upside down in a plot twist that made me jump up from my couch and start shouting at my tv. But that’s all I’ll say on that. You’ll just have to see for yourself.

There are a couple reasons why I knocked a few points off my score here, because it could very easily have been a 10. One is simply that I tend to be a tough critic so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Second was the animation. I just couldn’t get used to it and I didn’t think it looked good. And last was a combination of a few different inconsistencies.

“Can we trust Yaha-kui zaShunina? Does he really have humanity’s best interest at heart?” This is something I was asking with every episode, but curiously, the show itself only touched on this question from time to time. So when you’re watching it, make sure you ask yourself that. You might be surprised at the answer.

But to that I add my greatest criticism

Characters:

This show is considerably more plot driven than it is character driven. It’s not that the characters are weak or even bad. But when you have a plot this complex and, in my opinion, magnificent, if your characters aren’t equally as strong then the story they exist in is going to overshadow them and swallow them whole. This was the problem with Kado, and big time.

Shindo is...Shindo. As you watched the show you’ll see that everyone admires him immensely. There’s not a person who dislikes him. And he’s a nice guy. I don’t really have anything bad to say about him. But that’s just it. Despite how everyone goes on and on about how exceptional he is, he’s annoyingly average to me. In the last couple episodes his heroic characteristics start to shine though, so by the end of the series he turned out to be a good protagonist. It just took too long to get there

Tsukai Saraka was quite the interesting character. At first I didn’t like her all that much. They tried to make her, a government employee, come across as a tsundere-like character. Why? Why on earth would a show like this need a tsundere?? Anyway, you see a different side of her in episode 7 and from then on I respected her a lot. By the end of the show she was my favorite character. I just don’t understand why she was portrayed as she was initially. Perhaps it was strategic, but it sure got on my nerves.

Hanamori was funny, and definitely the “how the hell did I get caught up in this?” character in the series. Yet he turned out to be crucial to the plot, and I always appreciate it when a show makes the comic relief more significant than you might think they are.

Dr. Shinawa was also another favorite of mine. Sincerely eccentric is how I’d sum her up. I always loved her contributions to the story.

And Yaha-kui zaShunina. Man oh man. Definitely the most impressive development wise. ESPECIALLY by the last episode. His development seemed a bit too rushed in my opinion, but it was still mostly consistent with the pace of the show. I went back and forth between distrusting him and loving him, and often found myself at a weird equilibrium between the two. And I loved it.

I think there was at least an earnest effort to have strong characters, so I’ll give them that. It just didn’t quite work. They focused too much on the story to really give the characters their day in the sun.

So, here are the cliff notes

- Watch episode 0
- Rewatch episodes if you can, it’ll help a lot
- Think really hard about the questions the show asks
- More plot driven than character driven
- But the characters are sincere
- The plot is slow to build but pays off well

I’d give it a 7.5 if I could, that’s what it is in my heart of hearts. It deserves a watch, and despite my criticisms, I highly recommend it.

Saikasuru Kado. What can I say? This is easily the most disappointing show of the year. The ending of the show really messes so much up it isn’t fun. It has been a while that I have seen a show or read a book that started out this good and then crashed and burned like Kado. It is even worse than “Langoliers” by Stephen King which created an amazing atmosphere a great mystery and had a laughable ending. Why is it worse? Because in the case of Kado, it was not just that the ending was weak. This was Donna of “Doctor Who”.

Animation ... – 7
I wasn’t very fond of the CGI-only animation but it actually sort of worked here because of the otherworldliness of Yaha and Kado and the CGI emphasised their alien qualities nicely. In the case of the human characters, it would have been great if they had been animated the old-fashioned way. Maybe a mix of both with a heavier emphasis on CGI would have been good but since the CGI was actually pretty well done a 7 it is.

Story – 5
Kado is about First Contact and in the beginning, the show does so many things right that I could have shed a tear. I wondered why it was compared with “Arrival”. They are not really similar but both “Arrival” and “Kado” are about communication and language and so much more. It debates the pros and cons of natural to sudden technological advancement. How would the media handle a first encounter with aliens? How about the political and economic impact of technology that is so far removed from what we know? The show was smart, the pacing was great, the ideas were fascinating but halfway through something changed. Maybe they ran out of ideas, maybe some people wanted to have a say. I don’t know what happened but whatever it was, it was not good and the show suffered massively and received a very stupid deus ex machina ending.

When it comes most of the episodes, especially the first arc (8 episodes), the show would receive either a 9 or 10 but that ending deserves nothing less than a big fat zero, so all in all 5. This is why this show is so frustrating. It had so much potential but Yaha, who had been cool and composed suddenly became downright human and emotional. I adored the developing relationship (in a way undefinable – Friendship? Love? Something more profound?) between Shindou and Yaha and in my eyes, it was not just a simple friendship and then the finale happened. Talk about badly handled.

Music – 10
The music is utterly gorgeous and it is my favourite score of the year so far (and this also includes scores like “Mary Magdalene” by Jóhann Jóhannson). 岩代太郎 already did a great job with A.I.C.O. but outdid himself with the help of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The OP and ED did not only fit perfectly with the images but are also very, very beautiful. There is even a beautiful operatic Aria included (ヤハクィザシュニナ伝 ~Diva Version~). Do buy it. It is totally worth it!

Characters 6
Again a solid ten in the beginning but with an ending like that- 6 is generous.

I hate this show. I love this show. I loved it so much but I hate it for being such a massive let-down at the end.

So, having stumbled across this one, I was quite surprised to read the plot premise as I felt I had exhausted what few adults-only, non-mecha, non-isekai, non-high school based, etc etc anime was out there, and frankly this sounded exactly like the sort of show I'd be interested in. First contact based sci-fi dealing with aliens/other-dimensional beings, and some of the reviews even went as far as to note the DMT/psychedelic motifs that accompany the best of this genre (after all, if you're going to see a tesseract, your brain is gonna bend.)

So far, so good. But, so many of the reviews seemed ... to contain the same critique: "This show started excellent but somewhere around episode 7 (sometimes 6, sometimes 8) it took a nosedive." So, I began the show. I waited with bated breath until episode 7 and - absolutely nothing surprising happened. If *anything* (and without giving away spoilers) there was a slight tone shift from "straight up Arrival-esque sci-fi" to "here come some mild anime tropes and some unexpected character developments." And even the character developments were not what I was somewhat expecting them to be.

Basically, this is very solid sci-fi fare, a rare "mature" anime (term used relatively here), with a closed-loop plot, some great concepts and some decent character interactions which may have simply turned off people who thought they were going to get "pure" Arrival in anime form. I'd recommend this to sci-fi fans, psychonauts, and basically anyone with an interest in higher dimensions and how we as humans cope with those concepts. I think Asimov or Clarke said any sufficiently higher technology would appear to us as magic. Likewise, would a higher dimensional being appear to us as an angel or a god?

Ultimately, it's a first-contact tale for the modern era, it's the Day the Earth Stood Still for our time. Ignore the people complaining about the last third of the series, because honestly, I don't quite get what they were expecting and the story seemed to remain of a consistent quality to me. Again, without spoilers, I'd just say let yourself have some fun on an otherwise high-minded philosophical ride.

My only quibble, if anything, is I wish this was maybe a few episodes longer as I would have liked to see more of the world reacting to the events portrayed, and some of the complex character motivations fleshed out a little further.

Oh, and do watch Episode 0. It's on Crunchyroll. It provides some character backstory that does come back to enhance the plot.

Final thought: I believe the same writer wrote "Babylon" which I started but never finished, but having seen Kado now I think I need to return to Babylon and give it a second chance.

This anime started very well, but towards the end of the show they started jamming in plot twists that didn't fit well with the rest of the show and the dialogue transitioned from legitimately deep and meaningful to stuff you would see on a 6th grader's #deep instagram post. I did not like the ending at all.

Aside from the story, the art was actually surprisingly good for a show that was almost completely CGI, this is an example of good CGI use. Unfortunately, the art wasn't good enough to make up for all the trash thrown in my face.

This show had so much potential ... but it was all unfortunately put to waste. Makes you wonder what they were thinking when writing it.

Id like to start out with saying the anime starts of realy good, the animation is realy good and the characters seem intresting, but then around ep 6/7 it starts to go down to shit, the story changes drasticly and its just rushed, the characters didnt realy devolep, and they barely had any backstory so you wouldnt get atached to the characters, it reminds me (spoiler) of darling in the franxx it started out pretty good and then middway they had this weird plot twist that wasnt nececery at all and rushed it to the end to ultamatly become a trainwreck known for its ... bad ending, overal id like to say the story started good but was rushed leaving litle room for explanations and such i give it a 4 out of 10

Everything about this anime is perfect - the intro and exit music, the design and pacing, the graphics are unreal crazy beautiful, and the characters are enjoyable. The premise is very interesting - an alien being shows up without being detected by any nation's defense systems. It's weird ass space vehicle is called Kado and it sets down on a Japanese airport, absorbing a plane full of people in the process. It just so happens that a highly ranked government negotiator is on the plane and he becomes the surrogate representative to the world for this alien being.

Beyond the artistry of the graphics, ... I find it interesting how the reactions of people are being depicted. Granted, we only see a small population compared to the world. The power plays being depicted are probably true to form in many ways, especially for governments. For instance, the alien offers a source for unlimited, sustainable, and non-polluting energy to share with everyone. But the United Nation lead countries want to take possession and decide how the power source should be used, who should have it, and of course the power utility brokers don't want it to be shared.

The ethical and moral dilemmas being portrayed are deep. What gives Setten Company the right to expose the world to mind altering technology just because it is offered by the alien? Why isn't anyone questioning why the alien being has suddenly appeared on Earth, alone.

I'm looking forward to seeing how some of my questions are answered and how the characters will be changed - both the alien being changed by exposure to Earth humanity and by the humans as they receive technology light-years beyond our capability of understanding. I think this show is well done on many levels and is one of my current favorites.

As stated in the other reviews, KADO has a top-notch beginning that really gave me a lot of faith in the series. "Finally," I thought, "a mature sci-fi series dealing with the politics of first contact!"

Unfortunately, the show begins to veer off (for me) at the festival episode, and goes downhill from there. The ending in particular was very disappointing to me due to the abundance of tired anime tropes the series had done well to avoid or keep understated so far.

There is also no room left to explore the wider implications of anisotropic tech that earlier episodes seemed to promise.

Regarding the Art, ... I will say that the anisotropic structures were rendered very well and were unmistakably alien. The music was also very good (especially that opening) and gave an inspiring vibe.

It's up to you whether - knowing what you know now - you'll still want to pick up KADO. It's a difficult series to rate numerically because those first few episodes really are very good, while those in the other half are uninspiring to say the least. I take a dimmer view of the overall series because it raised my expectations only to dash them, whereas some worse series at least show you what you're in for.

This anime started off with a lot of promise in the first episode and it seemed like it was gonna be a mature (Or at least not childish) anime involving a lot of politics and tense diplomatic negotiations. It was far from it, I was really disappointed that it turned out so terrible but I wasn't really surprised considering a huge chunk of anime suffer from the things I found bad about this anime.

Let's start off with the story.

The story had so much promise but it fell short in almost every aspect. The story itself could have been bearable if they fixed one or two ... things. Those things being Character and not having so much tropes ruining the atmosphere and "tension" of the anime.

Art

Personally disliked it but for 3DCG they did good.

Sound

Not much to say really, had some alright sound and a nice soundtrack. I think a few of the SFX were stock sounds but they could have been just really similar to what I've heard in other anime so who knows.

Character

The biggest problem with this anime is the characters every character is so very droll and uninspired. This anime would've been a lot better if they managed to make you give a shit about anyone in the show. I can't even find myself hating the characters either, they are so boring and bland that they aren't likable but they aren't really unlikable other than a few "quirks" here and there.

The most annoying and boring characters are the MC and the Science chick. The MC is just boring as all hell with the typical can-do attitude every generic anime MC has. The science chick (I forget her name) is so chock full of annoying and boring tropes to make her seem so quirky that it's actually grating. She's one of the few characters who will get any reaction out of you, it's just not the reaction they wanted.

Enjoyment

It was mediocre, but it could have been worse. That's really the only "compliment" I can give it. Overall this anime is like a 5/10. It's just such a "safe" anime. They take no real risks to spice things up and it has all these tropes and boring characters. It really is the epitome of mediocracy

First, I tend to go into shows without really high expectations, and I dont feel I am that hard to please. That being said this is probably one of the first shows I finished and felt completely upset and unsatisfied with.
The concept is great, the first half of the season introduced it well. Sadly it just went down hill, by the end everything about the last episode upset me.

The relationship between the love interest and the main character seemed forced and really unneeded. I felt there was more chemistry between Shindo and zaShunina.

The fact Shindo is the worlds best negotiator but .. ... never really does that?

all of the big empty mumbo jumbo to explain away things.

I could just go on and on.

Personally I was totally on zaShunina's side the whole time. sign me up for that ending.

Kado: The Right Answer offers up a unique premise for an alien-focused anime in that rather than the series being a typical action title focused on conflict between humanity and alien invaders, the series is instead focused on diplomacy and the questions that can arise if humanity suddenly gained abilities and technologies that it may not be ready to accept. These issues are present when human negotiator Kojiro Shindo takes on the job to work with the alien being, Yaha-kui zaShunina, in trying to express and comprehend the gifts that zaShunina provides to advance humanity's evolution.

In the issue of diplomacy, Kado focuses on the interactions ... between Shindo and zaShunina, as Shindo serves as a mediator between the Japanese government and zaShunina in working out the interests of both parties. Besides mediator, Shindo also serves as a sort of confidante to zaShunina who expresses his desires for what he would like to bring for humanity with his gifts and Shindo even gets first exposure to them before the rest of humanity. Still in spite of this diplomacy and zaShunina's apparent benevolence, hints are dropped in early episodes that his motives may not be as benevolent as they would seem on the surface and this gradually becomes more clear as episodes progress into Kado's second half. Even then, the series does enough to develop a character dynamic between Shindo and zaShunina throughout the series where Shindo's interactions with the alien being affect him mentally in leading up to the show's finale.

The other matter in the series, humanity's being unprepared for rapid advancements, gets explored in how the world would respond to such changes and zaShunina's influence in offering them. As zaShunina deliberately chose Japan as the starting point for introducing his technology to humanity, these developments don't exactly make the other countries of the world enthused as they grill political pressure on Japan to share whatever they are provided from the start of the series. The Japanese government also gradually starts to express concern with the rapid advancement in zaShunina's progression of the abilities he bestows upon humanity as Shindo communicates the alien's goals and trying to come up with measures to minimize the effect this would have on the populace at large. Also as mentioned earlier, zaShunina's motives with providing humanity's rapid evolution not being so benevolent contributes to developments in this element of the series as the tools he provides for the advancement serve as components for the plans he has in place.

I feel I should also address two rather controversial elements to Kado that need addressing, the first of which being in the form of the character of Saraka Tsukai, the Japanese government's own negotiator opposed to zaShunina's devices being bestowed upon humanity. There are some rather surprising revelations about her character that get revealed in the show's second half that some fans have assumed to be a deus ex machina of some sort. Granted the series doesn't provide any proper foreshadowing that hint to the revelations coming about. But at the same time, her concerns about zaShunina were brought about in earlier episodes and hints of zaShunina not being so benevolent were shown at points in earlier episodes as well. In addition, a case can be made where her stance on humanity's evolution is a representation of a naturalistic stance in allowing humanity's evolution to happen with time rather than speeding things up as zaShunina is attempting to bring about.

The second and most recent element would come in the form of the show's ending. Again, some may argue how it came about would be a kind of deus ex machina since hints of how the events come about were not hinted to in the anime's prior episode. I would argue in this particular case, enough was fleshed out in earlier episodes about the capabilities of the anisotropic where what came about was not necessarily so out of nowhere, especially with what is revealed about Tsukai. It also meshes up with the naturalistic views on evolution that Tsukai favors since the interactions between humanity and the anisotropic bring about a potential new path in evolution for both species rather than the rapid advancement that zaShunina was forcing about.

Overall, I can kind of see where the events of Kado's second half may cause viewers of the series to be divided in their reception of it with some of the major seemingly sudden developments that I brought up above. Still, I feel that there was enough fleshed out and explored within earlier episodes of the series where the developments didn't completely come out of nowhere and made enough sense once you picked apart the hints alluded from earlier episodes. The series offers a rather engaging and solid exploration of debating about following a natural path of evolution or attempting to speed up the process, and creates some engaging chemistry in the interactions between Shindo and zaShunina with their growing relationship that eventually turns confrontational due to their differing ideologies on human evolution. Kado won't be for those that prefer their anime to be on the more action-heavy side. But if you are looking for a unique sci-fi title, Kado is an easy recommendation I would make.

This is an ode to mediocrity, intolerance and fear from everything and everyone different; a confession of how people are happier, when the ones challenging the status quo are excluded, hated, and preferably extinct; how everyone slightly unusual should mend their ways.

This TV show embodies anime as cheap propaganda on how the main goal of humanity is to procreate; and a mirror showing how people are like a train with enormous, strong wings, which will never attempt to fly, as this would mean getting separated from its rails.

As the aforementioned approach is socially acceptable, and is what society wants us all to believe, ... I am just yawning.

This is too usual to be poor or bad, it is simply mediocre.

I'm writing this SUPER short review just because of all the butthurt comments I'm continuously seeing about this anime.

I first approached this anime because the plot seemed interesting. I mean, come on, some "higher dimensional" being that comes into our average world to speed up our progress as a human race? I had to see how they would play this out realistically. I wasn't bored a single second of the anime because of how well they portrayed how an authentic government would handle something like that and anything this potential threat provided. So in that regard, the story lived up exactly to how it describes ... in MAL's synopsis.

Character development and sounds were pretty decent, nothing to complain about.

The only thing I had a problem with in this anime was the ugly CGI and the ending. They mix the typical animation with CGI the majority of the time. CGI is ugly when you use it on main and supporting characters, but for special scenes with lights slapping everyone in the face and magical pewpew beams it looks really well, so I guess I can't complain.
In the end it didn't turn out like Berserk's CGI animation, so I'm really thankful.

The ending could have been done better. It was like they just gave up trying to explain stuff and slapped something together to be Edgelord-worthy.

tl;dr Good anime worth a watch if you like realistic first-encounter stuff, but has an ending that isn't the best, but NOT enough to judge the entire anime negatively.

Just finished the series with the ending fresh in my mind, and the once thing that stands out is that this show does syfy right.

Art and music are insanely high quality for this 13 episode series, with cg that isn't overbearing and sets a great tone for the futuristic higher dimensional story. The score through out is pleasant and leaves moments feeling epic complementing stunning visuals of realistic scenery mixed with mesmerizing objects of the anisotropic.

The storyline plays out initially as an aliens from another world vibe with Yaha-kui zaShunina, an anisotropic being, a being from the 37th or so dimension, landing on an airport ... in Japan to spread knowledge of the anisotropic. The things he shows humanity offer in depth psychological insights for many syfy powers/abilities/inventions and what they mean for life as we know it. Later there are twists and unexpected happenings that improve upon the deep story, and honestly I just love the ending

The refreshing take on a realistic approach to first contact along with the many stunning parts of this anime make it a solid 9 for me and a personal favorite from this season.

*Review of first 6 episodes*

Want to watch a non-hentai "adult" anime with a well-written story that takes your intelligence seriously? In a season very light on good original shows, Kado: The Right Answer may well be the best non-sequel of the season. Here's why:

-Story-

On the surface Kado is a show about alien first contract. However, as the title suggests, the real emphasis of this anime is about whether humanity will choose "The Right Answer" - progress - or fail to grasp the opportunity because of infighting and reluctance to change.

What makes Kado great is the quality of the writing. There's just enough tension ... and mystery without descending into drama. The fact it is an entirely original story means that the episode to episode progression is mostly smooth with new reveals and information at a steady pace.

The reaction to the alien arrival is, unlike many alien stories and perhaps anime in general, realistic, nuanced, and intelligent. The reaction of the Japanese government, the public, and the international community to events seem close to what might actually happen. It is clear that a good amount of thought went into writing this show.

The only major flaw in Kado as of ep 6 is that in the most recent episode, there's kind of a cop-out regarding the reveal at the end of ep 5. This is the only time I've felt disappointed about the progression of the story.

-Art-

Kado is a CGI anime which certainly will put some people off, but it probably works better here than it has in most anime in the past. The show is mostly people sat around talking to eachother, so there's less of the usual jerky animations associated with anime CGI. The models, especially yaShunina's, look fairly good. Overall Kado isn't a visual marvel but it's animation does the job.

-Sound-

The nature of the story means the VAs don't get much chance to emote, but so far they all sound fine. The only annoying VA is the scientist girl, but that aspect of her character is I think intentional. The OP is pretty unique for an anime and sets the tone very well.

-Overall-

Despite its visuals and not being based on any source material, Kado is gaining more and more of a following and recognition, atleast in the western fandom - and for good reason. If the plot summary interests you at all, you owe it to yourself to atleast check out this very novel anime.

WARNING: This anime is not for those who don't like to think.
This anime includes politics and philosophy.
So this anime explores philosophical questions like, how would humanity react to a visit from a being from another dimension and how would they react to the rapid advancement of knowledge and technology.
This anime presents a sort of a thought experiment: would you agree for humanity to be able to rapidly advance it's knowledge or technology to satisfy all of it's needs?
If all needs are met for humanity, what is left for humanity to live for? how would it affect humanity? what would be the reason for people ... to live for? would it change? If we all are satisfied, are we just beings that crave for more information or experiences? What in essence are we if we all could live forever and without worries? Would we go about exploring the universe to satisfy our craving for knowledge and experience? We would essentially become what the anisotropic are...

all this questions are explored in the anime, and makes us think and wonder about the answers.
So to fully appreciate the story of this anime you need to have knowledge or be familiar with how politics works in real life and be curios about philosophical questions about humanity.
The reason why i really enjoyed this anime is because of that, it includes, i would say, a taste of how politics really are and with the addition of philosophical questions. Also, I learned a few new things thanks to watching this anime, like for example what are anisotropic environments.

In conclusion, this anime deserves a high score because of its well thought out presentation of these questions that the story allowed for the viewer to grasp and be intrigued by.

This series has a very orignal and interesting premise. The concept of rapid technological and societal advancement is always intriguing and the show manages to keep your utmost attention for the first 8 episodes. It introduces certain philosophical concepts and paradoxes that make you deeply contemplate about them and consider your stance.

However, from episode 9 and onwards, it feels as if the writer and director got a reality check that there are not many episodes left, and the show degraded to a moronic battle shounen showdown (Kirito style) that completely renders everything before that point null and pointless. It is an extremely infuriating show ... in the sense that it has such an interesting premise that builds so much anticipation and then it goes flat so rapidly and suddenly towards the end that you cannot but vigorously hate it as everything goes to waste.

Kado the new Matrix....

I personally absolutely do love this anime and it became my favorite.

But please be awere, this anime is done for more matured weivers, adults and nerds like me.

Most of character are working bureaucrats aged 20+ so they think and act like adults. Please do not expect easy going high school anime based 13 - 18 teenagers mentality, neither plenty of action stuff or gayness.

What you can find in Kado is interesting philosophy about universe creation, plenty of information based on physics, especially quantum theory, awsome psychedelic animation combined with splendid music. Also well done and lovely main and supporting characters, romance ... for straight shippers (I love gay too but it just doesnt fit much into this kind of plot - species of the same gender can not reproduce...) funny scenes and every atributes what quality anime shoud have.

Even when you can get impression the develepmont is slow, each next episede provides you a lot of interesting information and takes you to higher level, as far as you are able to follow it. (reason why so many started to dislike Kado at some point)

I can say this is the best sci-fi I saw in last 15 years of my life. Every simple details in this anime are connected and all the progres is absolutely logical, if you have sufficient background information to understad.

So if you are the one interested about how and why was this universe created, about humans and their purpose of life, or if you aleready have som psychedelic experience, love fractals and all psy- conected stuf, you will love this unique piece of art created in extra high quality.

I want to say thank you, creators of this anime, watching your work took me out of ordinarity of my everyday life and made me feel happy.

PF: Watched the last ep recently, the end was obvious and didnt surprised me at all.

Watching this anime I definitely feeled like watching Matrix movies 15 years ago, especially the last episode Yahakui vs. Shindo == Neo vs. Agent.

Have you ever thought about the great mysteries of our universe? About what possibly lies just beyond humanities reach? If you've answered yes to either of these questions, than Kado might be an interesting and thought provoking series to watch.

Unfortunately the important word in the previous sentence is "might". Generally I try to describe the good in an anime, in the hopes of getting people to watch and form their own opinions. However in this case I think I should take the time to warn you in the hopes of saving you from disappointment.

Kado is a mostly good series. It has a strong cast ... of unique adult characters, splendid art and sound design, coupled with a fascinating "first contact" style sci-fi story. Most of this goes to shit by the end though. This show is an excellent example of a train-wreck. It takes its core sci-fi elements, philosophical questions, smart characters, and kills them all one by one.

I give this anime a 6/10. It kept me entertained throughout most of its run. It was thought provoking, gorgeous to look at, and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I wish it had stayed that way till the end, but what can you do.

PS: If you want more context for my scores out of 10, please visit my profile.
PPS: Although it is listed here on MyAnimeList as being 12 episodes. There are in fact 13, make sure you watch episode 0.

*spoilers*

Story: 6/10
In the beginning, the plot is quite heavy which was about anisotropic beings creating things for humanity advancement and all that debating. Later on, it turned out to be saving humanity from anisotropic? That's when things went downhill for me.

Art: 10/10
Truly amazing visuals for the characters and the background scenaries. Everything was beautiful and really pleasing to the eyes for a CGI anime.

Sound: 10/10
Music was really good in this anime, ending, opening, for showing suspense, etc.
...
The seiyuus did a good job expressing the emotions for the characters, especially for zaShunina in the last episode. Extremely well done, felt so much emotions coming from him.

Character: 9/10
Character development really came a long way, especially for zaShunina. Saraka was second.

Personally didn't like Saraka since the beginning I saw her. A tsundere debater and she turned out to be an anisotropic being, which was shocking.

Shindo was really smart and definitely one of my favourite characters. Tried his best to understand zaShunina and teaching him lots of things about humanity.

zaShunina started off with no signs of expressions but later started showing more emotions like a human being after the 2nd or 3rd last episode which was great and very happy to see. The last episode was the best in how he expresses his feelings for Shindo and the cycle of emotions that he showed after Hanamori and Yukika appeared. Was 100% spot on, love it! My heart broke in a million pieces for zaShunina ;-;

Enjoyment: 7/10
It started off really great and got me hooked to it but ended to be such a huge disappointment. 2 of my favourite characters died and it felt like it was rushed. Lots of unexpecting turn of events but they just had to make zaShunina the bad guy huh. Hated that concept/idea.

Ending was pretty horrible and not what I expected. I have never disliked an ending so much. It had me go "What? Ok ..." I'm still so so upset about zaShunina's death. I feel that they could've made the fight end by him not dying? Not really for Shindo because he had to die in order to save humanity and buy time for Yukika.

(Still would've preferred that Shindo didn't need to die and go by an alternative ending of Shindo leaving for the anisotropic world with zaShunina).

Overall: 7/10
This anime had so much potential but the creators had to ruin it after making Saraka the main character and went off the wrong direction instead of focusing on the main plot, or at least what I expected this anime to be, which is sci-fi about "humanity advancement" and no romance at all. Sadly during the last few episodes, there was romance involved, which makes me want to forget them but I can't due to zaShunina's character development as a whole, it was splendid.

Sigh, like the majority of the viewers, it was great while it lasted. Wouldn't really recommend this for plot but you might like it either way, in terms of character development and art. Think the type of audience for this is for adult anime lovers.