It’s so rare to see an anime of such high quality to take as many risks as B: The Beginning does. Sure it stumbles a bit along the way, but the final result is undeniably an ambitious and thoroughly entertaining ride worth watching.
The story is totally insane on paper but is somehow even more bewildering in action thanks to such lovingly crafted visuals by Production I.G. with a talented director at the helm. It is in one part a sci-fi police procedural similar to Psycho-Pass, but simultaneously a game of cat and mouse like Death Note. These wild ideas packed on top of each
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other in only a brief 12 episode season makes for slightly underdone execution and lacking development. In my opinion, there’s enough good in this show to outweigh the negatives, but to summarize them before diving into the analysis:
Pros:
+Fantastic Action Scenes
+Great Animation
+Expressive Dub and Good Soundtrack
+Likable Characters
+Shocking Twists that add Rewatch Value
+Emotional Conclusion
Cons:
-Underdone Sci-Fi Setting
-Large Cast of Supporting Characters are Underdeveloped
-Too Fast-Paced at Times
-Confusing Story at First
To start I’ll say, B: The Beginning is a thriller with plenty of twists and turns in its story to keep you interested. It’s not really a traditional mystery because (like Death Note) the titular ‘Killer B’ that the title alludes to is revealed in the first episode and is one of our two protagonists. One being the enigmatic Koku with his black wings and nack for murdering criminals; the other is Keith Flick a gruff former detective who’s helping out the police hunt down killer B. He’s sort of inept in social situations which derives plenty of comedy that I found quite funny. Keith's intelligence makes him a perfect lead to see this investigation from. Whenever he’s in deep thought putting the pieces of a mystery together we see his thoughts visibly through words and diagrams that appear onscreen. It’s all quite neat as well, not cluttering the screen and conveying his organized mind. He even has a tragic backstory to complement his gruff design which ties into the story and is revisited before the end to give him a satisfying conclusion to his character arc.
Our second protagonist, the teenage Koku struggles to maintain relevance until his backstory is fleshed out during the second half. Keith gets the majority of the screen time of the two. All of the characters have some level of charm making them all quite watchable, excluding Koku. He’s just an angsty teenager with black-wings and an arm that turns into a sword… yeah my interest in him was only maintained by his mysterious origin. That origin takes an intruiging shape and justifies all of the insanity we see up until then in an extremely satisfying twist. I found Koku alienating at first, but he proved to be a crucial part of the story as it went on. While I couldn't entirely get invested in his subdued personality, at least I understood why he was so subdued. His backstory and to a greater extent the show's whole story became a mystery I didn't expect to be engaged with but I loved it. I would definitely rewatch this show to understand it with the knowledge of the twists. It was a huge risk making an experience that relies so heavily on ambiguity, thankfully it worked out because the twists are so rewarding.
My favorite member of the supporting cast, Lily stands out with her sarcastic, defiant, and irreverent personality. Working alongside Keith, her lack of experience gives the audience a simpler and more comprehensive perspective on the potentially alienating first half. Her separate scenes were a joy to watch, never hurting the show's overall dark tone. I do wish that she and the other supports had more visible development by the end. At least the protagonists grow a sufficient amount thanks to their backstories being woven into the story.
Throughout the first half of the show, a criminal group creates havoc throughout the show’s fictional sci-fi country Cremona. Sadly the setting becomes little more than an afterthought because the main focus of the show is the game of cat and mouse. Just like the detective Keith and his fellow investigators, we are left in the dark on what exactly is happening in the terror-filled nation of Cremona and why. It's an effective way to immerse us in their struggle to find the truth and put an end to the violent chaos. We get information on the terrorist group as the police do, it rarely feels like the audience is ahead of Keith’s knowledge. Unless of course, we’re seeing the story through Koku’s eyes as he’s fighting at the heart of the cacophony.
Mostly populated by thrilling action sequences, the first half spares very little time on developing the many police officers due to the quick pacing. Instead the talented Kazuto Nakazawa gives us recognizable character designs (oh lord especially the clown makeup cultists), strong English voice performances, and a punchy script that gives the cast enough personality to not be cardboard cutouts fighting a pointless battle. While I did find myself caring about the characters when their lives were threatened, I can’t guarantee everyone else will like their charm. Once the pace settles in the second half, development does come quite plentifully with huge twists that validate the madness seen in the first half. There’s plenty of rewatch value after understanding why the first half is so filled with ambiguity. There's even a teaser at the end of the last episode indicating a potential second season. Even though the story wraps up really well, I'd love to watch another season of it.
Jumping sporadically from one catastrophe to the next, the story showcases Production I.G.’s best abilities. CGI vehicles shake with realistic physics during the many entertaining car chase scenes. The camera is always placed right at the center of the action, never shying away from an abundance of violence, never afraid of blowing its budget on the spectacle. The creator/director Kazuto Nakazawa known for good animation work on series like Samurai Champloo has finally been given a project worthy of his talent. This is the only anime that I can say has a clown makeup wearing cultist skateboarding down the side of a skyscraper while being chased by a black-winged vigilante teenager. All with beautifully fluid animation at high speeds. If that's not ambitious, then I don't know what is.
Most of all, the background art is always well detailed, sometimes breathtaking. Even if those backgrounds don’t necessarily have details that flesh out the setting much more than ‘it looks pretty much like modern-day America’, they still look damn great.
B: The Beginning may have a confusing and fast-paced first half, with a poorly explained setting and a lack of villain motivations, but at least it’s never boring. Not one bit.
The villains eventually do get explained motivations (and the clown makeup actually makes sense!) but it does come in a twist so you’ll have to find out the answers for yourself! Getting to those motivations will mean you’ll have to get through the bewildering first half, but don’t worry! And besides, the sword duals are so amazing during the early episodes. It’s constant fluidly animated, sakuga that will grab your attention where the writing may not. But like I said before, after watching it I can say confidently there is a reason for everything that happens early on, even if it's confusing for a first time viewer.
On top of the great visuals, the sound design is also spectacular. Everything from the slice of a sword, whirring car engines heard as they drive by, and explosions with intense audiovisual feedback. It’s so impactful at every moment. Even when there isn’t a satisfying sound effect playing, the perfectly cerebral thriller soundtrack is reverberating. The ending song “The Perfect World” is amazing too, performed by Marty Friedman with Man With A Mission’s quite talented vocalist.
It’s common for people to criticize edginess in dark and violent anime like this one. It definitely lives up to the shows that inspired it, but does it break out of the overbearing edginess we’re used to seeing in this Crime-Thriller genre? In my opinion, absolutely. There’s enough comic relief separated from the high stakes action to make the characters seem like real people, not just pawns in a to be moved by the writer. There's an overall silliness that covers much of it, but it knows when to be serious. However, nothing is spared from the craziness that B loves to employ. It's everywhere; from the absurd hacking sequences with foot pedals (for what reason, I don't know!) to the to its occasionally hilarious cast. Also, the cultists' uniform makeup also helps them seem less like a feared undefined entity and more like mentally disturbed clowns that you’d want to run from if you ever saw on the streets. It's a ride, a really fun time that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty and only tries to entertain.
Score Breakdown:
[Story: 5/10] A rollercoaster that takes it’s time to get going, but it makes for great entertainment.
[Character: 5/10] Likable but not much to them.
[Art: 8.5/10] All around great, relatively tame towards the end.
[Sound: 9/10] Solid dub and soundtrack. Mediocre sub.
[Enjoyment: 8/10] Confusing at first, becomes more engaging as it goes.
[Overall Score: 7/10]
It's all too rare for us to get a high budget anime like B: The Beginning that takes so many risks to create a unique and memorable experience. Thankfully those risks paid off and it turned out really good. It's far from perfect, but I'm just happy such a lovingly crafted experience like this got made at all. This is the kind of uncommonly crazy anime that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I'm glad not everything is the same as it.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: B: The Beginning
More titlesInformation
Type:
ONA
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Mar 2, 2018
Producers:
Netflix
Licensors:
None found, add some
Studios:
Production I.G
Source:
Original
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#37502
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#680
Members:
347,944
Favorites:
1,403
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 116 / 118
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Your Feelings Categories Mar 2, 2018
It’s so rare to see an anime of such high quality to take as many risks as B: The Beginning does. Sure it stumbles a bit along the way, but the final result is undeniably an ambitious and thoroughly entertaining ride worth watching.
The story is totally insane on paper but is somehow even more bewildering in action thanks to such lovingly crafted visuals by Production I.G. with a talented director at the helm. It is in one part a sci-fi police procedural similar to Psycho-Pass, but simultaneously a game of cat and mouse like Death Note. These wild ideas packed on top of each ... Mar 4, 2018
B: The Beginning combines two separate stories within each other, one of supernatural mystery and one with a detective searching for a murderer. The fundamental problem with the show is that both stories suck ass and don’t really connect together at all. You could rather easily cut out one of these plot lines from the entire narrative and not lose that much in terms of story quality in the other. Hell, the show may be better for it. So, don’t even read the rest of this review, just write the show off based on the word of one internet stranger alone. Trust me, I’m
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Mar 2, 2018
Have you ever thought to yourself: "Hey, I wonder what would it be like if someone combined Terror in Resonance with Tokyo Ghoul." ? or "What if someone combined Psycho Pass with Death Note?"
No? Well, me neither. However, it seems B: The Beginning is here to fulfil your non-existent needs... But this isn't even exactly true either. Story: Whilst the central story borrows many elements like that which I have mentioned, it is, with all elements combined, very different to most Anime of the genre. Although I have to say the synopsis given on MAL is very vague and misleading. To start off with, Koku, the seemingly-angsty teen ... Mar 2, 2018
At first I thought this was going to be an simple cat and mouse game. Where the police would go after the murderer only to find him in ep 12 as the nice boy no one would suspect, but that wasn't the case and I loved it. I got more and more hooked on the story as I progressed. The mystery started to unravel. Who was the real murderer? and to find it out in ep 12 got me fired up, everything fell into place, everything became clear I always love it when an anime resolves everything in the end. One minor side-note I would
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Mar 3, 2018
Before watching:
Damn, this show has a really good OP! Hopefully the show lives up to it. And the PV makes it seem like it'll be a nice crime thriller. After watching: Okay, thanks for The Perfect World, which was apparently the ED, but I want my 5 hours back. No one told me this was Botched: The Beginning. I wanted to like this show, I really did. I want the new shows coming out on Netflix to do justice to the medium, since they'll be available to a wide global audience who aren't exposed to anime. I wouldn't say it didn't keep me engaged throughout, but overall my ... Mar 7, 2018
Where to begin. Pretentious. Plain and simple.
This anime is awful. In all the anime I have seen I believe an overwhelming majority of them had something to say and left the viewer with at least one thought at its conclusion. This does not do that in the slightest. That is not without it trying to do so. Story: Garbage confusing and says nothing. IN the end it left me feeling and asking for what reason was this made. Art: The art was very impressive and fluid. I will without a doubt mention that merit which it indeed deserves. The action scenes are very well choreographed ... Mar 3, 2018
One very cold morning in London I went on Netflix to look for new anime to watch upon clicking on Netflix anime it showed a new series called B: The Beginning which was brand new.
Unlike Devilman Crybaby this show upon its release didn’t get much attention from anime fans. It did get same attention and hype but it wasn’t in the same level as Crybaby where everyone was literally hyping the living hell of the show to a point where it’s now the second coming of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of Crybaby not because it was simply a Netflix show but ... Mar 3, 2018
B: The Beginning is an interesting anime that is flawlessly put together as an anime that has no manga or resources to begin with. It starts off pretty strange as another one of those shows that has crime and they solve the murders, but each murder and each episode builds off each other fits into place and makes the story unique. The story is good at shockers and confusion into making you question what everything means and the best part is the journey of how it gets there and how all the puzzles pieces fit together.
Story: 10 Most animes can't get a good story going and ... Mar 3, 2018
Animation-wise, I'm loving it! This anime might remind you of Psycho Pass but for me, it's more like Witch Hunter Robin.
I really love how they handle the animation scene when characters are too fast. Yuna and Koku will remind you of Guilty Crown. The music and the gold will remind you of witch hunter robin. And when you thought that the rune B means rebirth and death, it has other meaning and also the CANOPUS. look for JP context :) ... Mar 2, 2018
I think this anime was good, I rate it 8/10. If you liked Death Note you will probably like this one as well :) It has a lot of psychology and mystery involved :)
I would say that the art is very well made, one of my favorites. Story - 8.5 / 10 . Looks like whoever wrote this had given it a deep thought, cause, in my opinion, it's pretty good :) Sound - (?) I didn't pay attention :) but the original Japanese dub can sometimes be awful :D Character-9/10. Oh man, the things I enjoyed most are the stories and traumas behind them. I do not ... Mar 18, 2018
This is a series that’s never what it seems. When you turn it on it seems to be an odd mix of Psycho Pass and Death Note. It’s obvious that the series is going to be a police procedural with a quirky and antisocial cop chasing after a supernatural demon boy who hunts serial killers. Except that it isn’t. The hunt is pretty perfunctory and they drop it as soon as they can. Same with the serial killer-hunting stuff. The detective and the boy aren’t even fierce opponents, they just happen to be following different plotlines. The boy’s story isn’t what you expect either. From
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Apr 13, 2018
The time came, when you wanted to watch anime like Psycho-Pass, I looked at the list of recommendations and I decided to look at, what netflix had prepared for us.
Story 8/10- I want to say now, anime would have deserved a masterpiece if there were 24 episodes than 12- the whole story was suppressed. Kazama Flick, Keith- his own story I liked more then Koku's because it was really interesting to look at it, deep investigation and enough for 12 episodes, but Koku's- could have devoted another 12 episodes, because his story from the past seems to me abnormally short, he and his school reminded ... Mar 3, 2018
I love mystery anime genre so I was extremely happy to find this series is out. Felt that the beginning looks so much promising, I immediately knew that I am going to binge-watch this. Then, the downfall was imminent from the end of the first episode. From that point on, it bleeds the flaws and the story flops at times. Sadly and surprisingly it couldn't recover till the end.
Although it didn't take advantage of many chances of interluding motives between characters, I like some character compilations. But as many reviewers point out, I feel they are largely underdeveloped. AND there's an annoying shrewish female character ... Jul 24, 2021
I have never had a bigger disappointment than when I watched B: the beginning.
I initially was exited to see it, the premise was promising, a somewhat supernatural mystery with a cool vigilante guy. In addition to the seemingly great fight scenes. However, this very quickly was dropped to focus an a half-assed story that had me checking every five minutes if I accidentally skipped to the second season. B: the beginning felt that a mystery means not letting the audience know anything about the world or the characters until the very end, having the reveal be incurably boring having me wish that they let me ... Mar 7, 2018
B: The Beginning is a complete mess. I couldn't get passed EP 2. I was totally into the tone it tried to convey at the beginning of the first episode. But then I got blue balled by the change in tone straight after the opening. This happened more than once. It kept pulling me right out of the moment far too many times, in just one episode. It's trying to be too many animes at once, and it's what kills it. The story doesn't help either. You got two or more different plot points going at the same time. It left me confused, and disinterested
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Mar 7, 2018
B: The Beginning had a lot of hype being the follow up ONA of Devilman Crybaby on netflix which was a smash hit. It had a lot to live up to and I was curious to see if netflix would start a trend of licensing good quality shows. I saw it the moment it aired and binged it in under six hours. So it obviously held my attention, but did it live up to the hype or did it crash and burn? Fortunately and unfortunately, neither.
Animation: B: The Beginning is an original anime produced by the master of CGI vehicles itself, Production I.G. (Ghost in ... Nov 7, 2023
I’m giving this a 9/10 because I think the average score should be higher than it is currently.
For those that think the writing is “messy” and that the story lines “don’t connect”, I have to disagree with you. This story just takes a little more brain power to piece together. I personally find the complexity engaging. The animation is great. The cinematic fight scenes are masterful. The characters are complex as is the story. I had no idea what was happening for the first 5 episodes and I was still completely engaged. This anime unravels its story in an unusual and insightful way. The ... Mar 18, 2018
Okay, so what exactly makes B: The Beginning special?
What you need to know here is that this isn't just one story. It's composed by two different stories of different genres, (and ultimately two different protagonists) intersecting and complementing nicely each other until the end. The first story and strongest one, is a crime/police drama, the kind of "guess who the killer is", while the second and weakest one is the classic route where people who were experimented on were granted supernatural abilities. Even though the second one sounds like the one which would be at the center, it only serves as fodder to explain the ... Mar 4, 2018
The story is relatively complex, you will enjoy it, the art is just really unique, the fighting scenes are 10000/10 it is very fluid and very nicely drawn, the characters are really charming and quite fleshed out even if some of them look like generic anime characters, but they have their own desires and motives.
This show just feels like watching a mix of Monster,Psycho-Pass and Death Note. The main character, and his best friend, I can actually relate to their friendship and the ending, never expected it to end that way actually, pretty much shocked. Overall this is anime was a treat, something we deserved ... Mar 4, 2018
This anime is pretty good, but it is not for everyone. In the simplest way possible, it could be described as Death Note with more supernatural elements to it. Sure, Death Note had Shinigami's and a special book, but outside of that, it had a realistic setting. B is about a "righteous murderer" that has supernatural abilities. The police are trying to catch the person to bring them to justice while a criminal organization full of people with similar supernatural gifts are trying to capture the person for their own purposes.
Story: Similar to Death Note, it purposely leaves you confused for a bit until the ... |