B: The Beginning

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 ... impression is definitely negative, and I would recommend most people to give it a miss. I'll try and sum up why.

This show has a severe identity crisis. It doesn't know what it wants to be, and tries to be many things at once - throwing one idea after another, hoping that it sticks, but failing to execute even a single one of them well. It's what you get when you throw Psycho Pass, Tokyo Ghoul and Darker than Black in a grinder and try to shape resulting slop into a plot.

It was an utter mess in terms of writing. There was little cohesion between the two major plot threads and within them, not much sensibility, no semblance of an underlying message or theme, and it didn't sell any of the characters well enough to make me worry about them, except one spunky detective who reminded me a little of Akane from Psycho-Pass. Otherwise, the cast consists of:

1) Bad Sherlock rip-off who uses calculus to solve crimes somehow
2) Bargain-bin Serial Killer with standard mental issues
3) Emo teen with powers who wants to save (4)
4) Damsel in distress
5) Emo teen #2 who hates (3) and steals (4)
6) Hacker lady who likes to add pedals to her computer setups.. for the boost?

There were some more characters, all inconsequential.

5/10 overall, and it's not a 4 because of the good production values that were consistent throughout the show, and a genuinely great dub.

Needless to say I won't be tuning in for the sequel, unless it's somehow hailed as the saviour of anime. It's not possible to even retroactively fix this mess of a plot.

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 ... someone hunting killers you expect a strong moral desire to inflict vigilante justice. Turns out that’s just a coincidence. He’s really killing specific people (who just happen to be engaged in murder) to send someone a message. I can’t say what that is without giving things away. Basically, most of what you think you know at the beginning is wrong, particularly when it comes to the direction things will take.

Normally I’d be praising such unpredictability, but when you put it all together it’s a jumbled mess. None of the stories work together. The magic boy is hunting for someone in the hands of a massive supernatural organization with ties to the government. The detective is hunting a human serial killer who murdered his sister for personal reasons. Completely different enemies with completely different motives. There’s no mesh. And when they do briefly manage to force the storylines together it’s ridiculously contrived. And soon they go their separate ways again, except now they don’t even pretend that they’re connected. This attempted connection leads to some of the worst exposition I’ve ever heard. Both boy and man explain to us the complicated story that takes what looked like an everyday police procedural with superhuman villains (normal!) and takes it straight down the rabbit hole. It’s crazy stuff, made worse for not fitting in with the more serious elements.

With a series this inconsistent characterization is going to suffer too. They’re so busy rewriting the series away from the police procedural setting that they have precious little time to waste on characterization. And just to make the brief linking of the boy and detective stories work they need to make some serious narrative leaps and irrational character choices. The boy Koku never really recovers from this. His backstory is so monumentally stupid that it’s hard to take him seriously once you know it. After some early attempts to expand his character by showing his skill with musical instruments and their repair they drop all personality and just use him as a tool for action scenes. Oh, and he loses any intelligence he may once have had and goes into the final boss fight with the worst battle plan I’ve ever heard.

Detective Keith fares rather better. He’s a sort of cross between L and the entire department of Psycho Pass. A pretty typical loner detective in many ways, he’s rude, direct, sees patterns where nobody else does, and is an absolute failure at everything else. Where he stands out is his puppetmaster qualities and generally detached personality. Somehow it’s less irritating when he does his own thing without explanation than when most anime characters do it. At least he’s convincingly able to act like he has a plan. This doesn’t make his forced backstory any less silly, but he’s always fun to watch regardless. The less said about the villains the better. Their motivations (such as they are) are tied to Koku’s and make no sense at all. Indeed, they could have ended the entire series at the halfway point and it would have made a whole lot more sense.

The art is at least pretty. The series is set in the fictional European nation of Cremonia, an archipelago kingdom of modern cities, medieval castles, and pointy islands. It looks stunning, although I find it rather odd how little they seem to want this. The mid-series battle takes place in a random Buddhist temple and from that point on they seem determined to hide the visuals indoors or in a series of caves. Character design is a mixed bag. I like Keith, who looks a lot more realistic than most anime protagonists (he could step right into an episode of CSI) but I find Koku to be bland and boring, in whatever form he takes. The rest are a mixed bag. Some are good, others are generic. Only the villains stand out as hideously over-the-top. The realistic and exaggerated styles really don’t mix well here. You can actually tell which plot line a character is a part of by their visual style.

Be warned: the series is rather gruesome, with numerous deaths and tortures happening onscreen. It’s a bit exploitative in nature. Oddly, this cruelty doesn’t extent to anyone we actually care about. The show’s surprisingly protective of its leads. Less so the killers, who suffer more deaths due to random murders than they ever do from our heroes.

I did enjoy the first half of the series, before it switched from police procedural to I don’t even know what. The basic dynamics of the police department were interesting and the setting seemed fresh as well. But it quickly burns out its promising elements and tries to fit a lot of irreconcilable elements together into a single plot. If it had just chosen one (Keith’s story ideally) it could have been fine, but they tried to do too many things and ended up undermining themselves. Ah well, at least it’s short.

B: The Beginning is an anime that has no clear structure. It starts out as a very promising anime, with flashy and attractive characters that develop well in the early chapters, but then lose focus and focus on other things.
Its story is very promising, it seems to be an anime full of mystery and surprises, but it falls short with what it shows.
I think that the screenwriter and director was not very clear about what he wanted to tell, he wants to show a lot and he ended up saying nothing.
And as if that were not enough, the end is discouraging and boring. I am ... very disappointed, I would not recommend watching this anime.

This anime piles on information and backstory like it's all going to add up towards a big reveal of some super plot twists at the end but it really lets you down and 90% of that information/backstory is completely useless and irrelevant. the last episode is all convoluted exposition that tries to fool you into thinking it's all deep and the first 11 episodes were worth the payoff, but as you see from my summary above it clearly wasn't.

The characters are lame and/or unimportant. They try to paint kieth as some super genius but he really doesn't do anything to earn it. lucy? or whatever ... the girl's name is has probably the best written character but the show can't seem to figure out if she's smart or dumb and flops back and forth between the two. She certainly has no business on any police force. The black wing kid has no personality. He just wants to save the girl and gets mad when he is impeded. The only other character I remember is the computer chick. she types fast. thats it. I finished watching this yesterday.

The supernatural side plot never makes any sense, even at the end. The detective side plot is one you could never really figure out on your own which is why it takes 20 minutes of exposition to explain it to you in the last episode. The whole thing was a slap in the face.

As others have noted, the fight scenes are well-done and the overall animation is too. I don't know how anyone could possibly pull any other positives from it. My jaw dropped when I saw it's current score (~7.7)

5/10 mostly for the animation quality

Note: this is my first review so I might stumble about a bit. i will try to keep spoilers out as much as i can though. cheers

To start off, is this show worth a watch at least ? in my opinion, if you're bored with the selection of shows this season or want something to pass the time then the answer is yes

Throughout the promotion of B:The beginning, it was mainly marketed as a crime action thriller type thing which intrigued me since i'm a huge fan of detective shows with good police works. I sat down to watch with high expectations but finished unsatisfied.

Story: ... To start with, this anime isn't what it seems like, it comes off as a good old detective show, a secialist comes in to help hunt down a notorious serial killer, exciting stuff albeit done many times over. It changes angles sharply in the first episode however and becomes an under developed sci-fi ish supernatural thriller (?) which becomes a second plot line running along the first. As you may have surmised already, this doesn't work too well for the show. it becomes convoluted and overly complicated as both plot lines become entangled. Certain episodes move at the speed of a train while others crawl along slowly all the while asking you to follow two different plot lines. In the end i only cared about the noire detective show style plotline because the other was painfully average and was full of the usual cliches found in these sorts of sci-fi supernatural shows. B: The beginning begins to make sense during the final episodes which held my attention better than the first half of the show but even then, the damage had already been done .


Characters: The cast was largely unmemorable and most of the characters were simply there to advance the plot. The show centers around 2 protagonists, one for each plot line. Keith, a highly skilled detective who draws a large amount of his overral character from Sherlock Holmes the only difference being he somehow solves crimes using mathematical equations. Yes seriously. The second main character is your usual angsty angry kid with supernatural abilities who has to find and save the oh so precious childhood friend he got separated from. it's up to you to decide which of these is more compelling. The villains were as uninteresting as the rest of the plot and there isn't much to talk about regarding them without spoiling the show.

Art: This is the strongest part of B: The beginning. the scenes are beautifully animated and the overral art style is good to look at and sets the atmosphere quiete well.

Sound: The sound was eh. i don't remember any pieces i liked very much except for the ED which was good.

Overral, B: The Beginning tries to mash two shows in one and struggles to do so and ends up being an average romp filled with cliches.

B: the Beginning was a weird show. It clearly wanted to be something great and unique but couldn't quite pull that off in my opinion.

The plot was a bit of an incoherent mess. First it's a mystery thriller. Then its a supernatural action drama. The blending of these two concepts is not inherently bad but its an idea that needs to be executed to perfection to work and B did not do that. For example: neither plot really needed the other. For a show to contain two very different main plotlines they need to be intertwined, otherwise it might as well be ... two shows. B's plots touched in a few areas but aside from 1 or 2 episodes where our 2 protags share some info and tell us why they are connected these lines aren't connected.

This leads to my next complaint that the anime prefers to tell rather than show. Rather than letting us figure out that Keith is a genius we are told "Hey, his nickname means genius". Then rather than showing us that Lily is also smart we are told "Hey, Lily is also smart." These are just two minor examples but the show is constantly telling us what to think rather than leading us to conclusions through well written story.

Finally, the ambiguity of the plot points feels like an attempt to keep the mystery up and give the story a sense of intelligence and comlexity. Instead, the show feels like it is withholding information so that the writers wouldn't have to write in explanations for the seemingly disconnected story. For example, I still haven't figured out the purpose of the fiasco in episode 1, or why things like the gold serum were important to the plot. Perhaps I'm just lost in the complexity, but as someone who usually has no problem with complex stories the fact that i can't follow this plot means it's likely a problem for many.

The art and sound of this show were good but were nothing special. While I have heard high praise for these aspects they did not vastly improve the quality of the show by themselves as great soundtrack and visuals can often do (ie: see another 1 letter title "K"), so to rate either higher than 8 feels wrong.

The characters in this show were bland anime tropes for the most part. Keith was an awkward mad genius, Koku was the quiet selfless badass, and the supporting cast was nothing special either. But i like anime and therefore I'm generally fine with anime tropes. What actually bothered me was the boring character motives and crap dialogue. Without spoiling too much, none of the characters are driven by anything unique or interesting. In addition, B attempts to give its protagonists and villains these "meaningful" dialogues or monologues but they are really just random metaphors and poetic nonsense that feel forced. There's a Moby Dick reference that kinda works but then they beat you over the head with it with like they're trying to show off that they got one right. Overall felt cheesy and uninteresting.

Flaws aside I actually did enjoy thus show. Not in the giddy enthusiastic way that I fanboy over a some masterpieces (or even guilty pleasures) but I was genuinely interested to see where this ride would end and how these plots were intertwined. The end of the show somewhat spoiled the intrigue for me once I knew, but I cannot deny that i was intrigued. Despite my complaints I never felt compelled to drop the show and many people seem to have loved it so my complaints are not shared by everyone. Overall I would not recommend the show to most people, but i would also not steer anyone away from the show as it was enjoyable and is clearly appealing to many viewers.

So I’ll break this down as much as I can...

Story

This is pretty hard because 2 plots were going on during the entire anime and while they made it perfectly clear how they intertwined, it was completely unnecessary. We had plot 1, the mystery behind Keith Flick and his sisters death. Plot 2, Koku and the legend of of the black wing king. It’s my personal opinion that neither plot truly needed the other to be good. In fact if both were separate animes I think it would have turned out better. The organization the backed up the doctors murder didn't need to be ... supernatural, in fact they could have twisted it a bit and made him a donor at an orphanage that influenced kids to worship him and take the fall for him. A long shot, but it’s fiction so not entirely out of the norm. Koku’s story obviously needed Keith to fill in the blanks as far as finding the legend, but again I don’t think it had to be him. It was told the way it was told, I just feel these two plots would have been great if perhaps made into movies and separate from one another. Either way, I can see why the anime was released all at once on netflix as opposed to week by week. No one would have kept up with it.

Animation

This is what honestly got me into the anime to be perfectly honest. I saw it and thought “Huh... I wonder why Howl has a sword for an arm?” It felt so... Miyazaki-esque. Brilliant, beautiful, thrilling, and overall well done. There’s a feeling of nostalgia and suspenseful thrill in just about every episode.

Sound:

Theres a lot going on to fully immerse you in the world at the start of each scene. It’s perfectly... whelming(not underwhelming or overwhelming). Nothing too exciting to make me want to replay a scene over and over like i do with so many other animes. But nothing that was so annoying I needed to just skip through it or make a “WTF” note.

Characters:

I loved the characters in Keith’s plot, all colorful and unique. just the right amount of odd, reliability, outbursts, intelligence, cleverness and and dash of playful evil. Even the antagonist was interesting. I don’t know about likable, but I didn’t hate him. Koku’s plot... I mean everyone just died one after another, enough said. You got to know Koku to artisic-ish, homicidal, one track minded, and clever. When I say homicidal, i am not just referring to him going around killing living weapons. I am also referring to when a dying old man that he probably looked up to as a father leaves him notes to cut up the other kids he has grown up with and attach their body parts to himself. I would have really liked to know that he struggled with that for at least a day or two.

Enjoyment:

Like i said before, the animation and art style is what drew me in so I had high hopes of seeing something truly entertaining. After Keith’s plot and relation to Killer B was revealed, I enjoyed that part of the anime more and looked forward to the fights in Koku’s endeavors. I love a good mystery, so that part I enjoyed. But overall no, I found myself dissecting the anime out of sheer boredom so that I could wonder “was this at all necessary to this plot? was there another way to retell it?” If i could cut out Koku’s story, I would re watch it.

Overall 6.0

Seems rather high for how hard i was bashing on it I know, but its not like I wasn’t entertained. I was able to sit through it without stopping for more than eating something and never took my eyes off it. However I couldn’t see the anime as a whole and that’s what really bothered me. I don’t think I would tell someone to “not watch it” but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. Rather I’d like to see their reaction to it.

kiwk-e
P: the placeholder is a show that put too many eggs in one basket and wasn’t able to properly handle it. The show has two plot lines with one being a mystery police procedural and the second falling more in the line of urban fantasy and both being interconnected by the antagonistic group. The plot isn’t bad per se as it tries to keep the viewers on its toes with its many plot twists and having insignificant plot points being more than it seems. The problem is that the characters are underwhelming. Everyone just comes of as underdeveloped, even the side characters who really don’t ... need that much development or depth in the first place. This also affects the way the plot twists are handled because they really don’t have that much weight to them to a show that heavily relies on them. The only character that is in any sort of way compelling is Lily and that’s many due to her personality and not by her depth or complexity. They all just come off as plot devices, placeholders that someone forgot to properly write in. this is also a “netflix original series” and the production value is really good, but not much else.
I wish i would have written more, but i just don’t care much about this show emotionally to go on further. There’s a sequel to this and i wished i wrote this ahead of time so i would have jokingly called the second season M: the middle and the third E: the ending.

Netflix has recently decided to draw their attention into making more Animes & this year we have been already blessed by the Arrival of Devilman Crybaby. & Recently B the Beginning has come out, which is a collaboration between Netflix & Production IG. Was it good? Let's check the synopsis.

The archipelago kingdom of Cremona is served and protected by the RIS (Royal Investigation Service Unit), a branch of the Royal Police that focuses on major crimes. They already have their hands full with a serial killer dubbed Killer B when Keith Flick, a brilliant but eccentric former investigator, returns to duty after several years of ... absence. Killer B only slaughters criminals, leaving behind what looks like a stylized B, but the RIS is unsure of his true objective. Most of the RIS is also unaware that genetically-altered humans nicknamed Reggies are lurking amongst the populace, who plan to use their superpowers to resurrect a supposed god from Cremona's founding legends. Those plans may also include Killer B, whether he's aware of them or not.

As the synopsis suggests, the story is a split between crime drama & Supernatural Battle Epic. & having diverse elements in the story, it needed to be more intregated but it rather felt rough. There are two protagonists, Keith & Koku. In the beginning of the series, they had separate motives & their part of the story goes in parallel tracks. While neither of the plot points is straightforward, The story of Keith is more intricate than Koku's, driven by some really ugly plot twists. Some of its intricacy comes from the fact that the main serial killer case isn't actually the titular Killer B that the beginning of the series focuses on. Instead, this true killer represents the real reason why Keith rejoined the RIS, deeply linked to not only his backstory but also the shared prophecy that links the two plots. The ultimate goal of the real serial killer is also interestingly twisted and deeply personal as he shows some psychotic problems in his personality. By comparison, the Supermatural or I should rather say, the "Demi gods" side of the story follows a more ordinary progression with more predictable story beats, from a search for a lost childhood friend, to a web of revenge plots, to a villain's attempt to master fate by overcoming a prophecy. At least this result in some indulging super-powered action scenes. The story had some "side-issues" which they forgot to deal with but I guess they are kept for 2nd season. The world building also felt a bit lackluster cause they just focused too much on the plot while keeping us at a loss about the world we are seeing.

Now coming to the characters, Keith is a strong protagonist who is wildly, sometimes a bit comical & enormously clever guy with some crazy mathmatical knowledge who plays an crucial role in the story. Meanwhile the other superhuman co-protagonist Koku is one of the blandest, stereotype "I want to save mah girl" vigilante you will ever see". He gets outshinned by Lily, one of the members of Keith's investigation team. Lily is an energetic young woman who brings a welcome bit of verve to the proceedings of the show since the main protagonist are quiet & calm types (mostly). Her irresistible personality, keen insight & stubborn attitude enlightens the show. But she wasn't as much as fleshed out as you want a lead female protag to be. The other members of the RIS team merely makes any impact in the show cause they are mainly used as "I didn't understand, So explain this shite" armour. Both the main human/superhuman antagonist are revealed in the 2nd half of the show & I was able to kinda predict who he/she will be. Their beliefs & philosophy does get highlighted very strongly but those are questionable. & whatever impact they leave gets demolished by the epilogue. (including the indication of the continuity of the series)

The character designs and animation stand out most in facial expressions, especially the way Keith tends to flop around, but all of the characters have distinguished looks that help bring out their personalities. The animation in general is strong, particularly in its use of vehicle CGI. Graphic content can also be intense easily enough to justify a R-17 though the show is gory in punctuated moments rather than pervasively. With quality background detail that consistently complements fluid action, this is a great-looking series thanks to Production I.G. & A big clap goes to the musical score. The ending song "The Perfect World" is a perfect song for the series & by far better than the series as well. It's sung in English by The Singer of "MAN WITH A MISSION" with Marty Friedman doing the guitar work.

To sum it up B the Beginning is basically a super-human vigilante story crossed with eccentric genius driven crime procedurals & kinda messes up, gets flawed & ends by leaving the door open for a future follow-up; while both the serial killer story and the more immediate side of the superhuman story are fully resolved, another mastermind still lurks in the background for potential future schemes. If the story does end here, then it finishes far more satisfyingly as a crime story than a supernatural one. If you have seen & liked shows such as Psycho Pass & Terror in resonance then you will get the same feeling out from it but you will most likely to be dissatisfied. But it's still an enjoyable show & worth a watch.

What to say about this anime? So happy when I saw the annouce on Netflix, it is a mixture between Psycho Pass, 91 days, Ergo Proxy, Death Note, etc. It was all there. I still believe is kinda hard to pull such a bast story in just 12 (in this case) episodes, of course there are series that can do it; but when you produce some many stories inside de main story you start to lose some focus.
Despite the story being kind of confusing at the beginning it reaches a nice ending. I feel the could made a little bit more with the characters, but ... either way was alright.
And that ending, looking forward for another season.

Ok guys I'll make this short considering how shit this anime is. Oh and sorry for the poor english.

B:the beginning has one of the shitiest stories i have ever seen. First of all the anime itself doesn't know what story it wants to tell. They try to combine supernatural action genre with mystery thriller genre. But in the end it fails miserably. After a few episodes the anime splits into two stories, supernatural and mystery. Honestly the supernatural part of the anime was utter crap. Even without it there wouldn't have been much impact on the anime. Heck I feel it would've done much ... better without that supernatural bullshit. I found the mystery thriller part of the anime to be pretty decent. It's not great but atleast it was fun to watch.

The sound was good. But I highly doubt any of us would give a shit about that.

Ok now the characters. Honestly this anime fails in terms of characterization. This anime has so much bullshit going on that in the end I couldn't give a fuck about the characters. Especially the protagonist koku and his stupid girlfriend what's her face. Koku literally does nothing but shout and fight like a jackass. I felt no sympathy for his stupid back story. And then there's his girlfriend. The classic damsel in distress.No character development whatsoever .And then the villians. Shitiest in the history of anime. The villian in the supernatural part of the story was utter shit considering i don't even remember him but the one in the mystery thriller part was good(Johan libert vibes).Oh ya i almost forgot about the shitty detective kieth. The most amusing part of a good mystery thriller are the deductions made by the detective. This anime lacks this factor. Honestly none of the deductions made by the protagonist(Kieth) were amusing. They just try to show he's intelligent by showing random mathematical equations everywhere. I had no fucking idea what thinking throughout the entire anime.

In the end I i would not recommend this anime to anyone. The only kind of enjoyment you get from this is laughing at how shit it is. If you have started it then I advise you to just drop it. It's a huge waste of time.

So i stumbled on this show by pure coincidence while looking around the web.Decided to read the plot and thought it was interesting and gave it a look.

3 episodes in and i knew nothing about the world the characters are in other than the fact that it has supernatural aspects in it.So in my opinion the world building was a little too slow.

As for the characters I personally really liked Keith as he was an interesting character from beginning to end.On the other hand our other main character Koku was not bad but generic at best.

As for the story.There really is 2 in this show.1 ... about Keith and the other about Koku.In my opinion Keith's story was the much more interesting one and had more impact on me at the end compared to Koku's.Not to say Koku's story was not interesting but it was shadowed by the dept of Keith's.
I can respect that they did their best on writing 2 stories into 12 episodes and did a respectable job doing so however I can see the story being better if it had just stuck to or focusing on 1 story more.At the end when you really think about it after watching all the episodes you can see Keith's story being told very well even without any of the supernatural aspects from Koku's side of the story.

As for the villain it was pretty obvious who it was.But the motivation of this villain is so messed up and insane that it made everything that happened in the show felt so satisfying to me.On the other hand there was kindda 2 villains because of the fact that there are 2 stories being told but the other villains motivations were too shallow to even be able to get behind on or understand.

In the end its a pretty good show and it has good art and decent music so it wont hurt to give it a shot.

Plot: 6

I'm diving into these anime with high expectation after watching the trailer. With all the magic and creepy eyes, however, it does not develop well. There's still plot holes that needed to be filled. But I guess because it's the first season so it's not fully developed yet. However, I'll stick with the six because I feel that it's not properly developed even for the first season.

Characters: 5

I have high hopes for Koku but man he flops. His power and strength, it's not fully exercise and because of this I find that his ability is so mediocre and there's definitely nothing special about ... him at all. And the fact that he is too hung up on Yuna is for me, personally, extremely annoying. I mean he has bigger things to do, more serious things to settle but than he focuses his whole world on Yuna, his world revolves around Yuna.

And Yuna, wow, at least make her a bit less annoying? Yuna is your typical girl in all anime world. She's like the benchmark for all the stereotype on anime girl I've seen.

Keith... ummm, his character is interesting. Still, I need to know more about him

Gilbert, I... kinda like him but again, I need him to develop a bit further. I like to know what goes in his mind and his point of views, really that would be extremely interesting.


Honestly, this would be a good anime but, the undeveloped character and power, this is sad to say, an average anime for me

This story is a mix of darling in the franxx and a detective thriller. Now I say mix but it's more like a pancake with little bit of butter on top. The butter being the darling in the franxx.
Now this story consists of two parts.
Part one - Sum gey figgit wanting his grill back
Part two - A man coming back from his retirement to find a killer who has been hiding in plains sight for 8 years.
As you see one of these storylines has a ahit-ton more interest than the other. But, the other line decides to destroy any suspension of greater evils by ... pitting the side character Koku against everyone. So, the final reveal at the end of the story has no bang and neither does any opponent he has to compete against. Because we know our "main" character won't fucking die, so why should we worry. This got to the point that I was bored in the final fight. This wasn't a case of cliche foe cliche's sake because we have other anime's where we know the main character isn't gonna die yet the fights are still fun to watch (see jojo's bizarre adventures).

In the end, all that's needed to make this story better is to cut out koku and his side hoes. This would make the reggie somewhat menacing due to the abilities and the finally would actually answers questions then to have it restate shit we already knew.

Before I start with the actual review, let me tell you: it pains me to write all of this.

I was certain that this was going to be a great show, but sadly, I was wrong.

The art is gorgeous - everything looks amazing, the characters, the cities, everything. Also, the voice actors were great (I feel like Kaji Yuki only ever voices characters who scream a lot…) The soundtrack is completely forgettable, at times I felt like they were copying themes from shows like Dexter etc.

BUT: the story was a complete mess. It felt like they were trying to tell 2-3 stories over ... 12 episodes. One story is the supernatural one, and the other the „human“ one. Now I don’t really mind fantasy elements in an otherwise realistic setting, so long as it realistic within its own universe (which this show isn’t)

The fantasy part, for me, does not work at all since the main character (a completely forgettable guy, btw) basically has to save his childhood friend who you don’t care about at all, since her character basically is a victim that needs to be saved. Other than that, you know literally nothing about her, which makes it extremely hard to care if she lives or dies, which is bad - since you’re supposed to root for them. But because the characters are so forgettable and one dimensional, you can’t get invested emotionally. The way their arc ended was unrealistic and over all just really, really boring.
I feel like there were some characters that would have been interesting, but each time I was wondering about a character (like Izanami) and thought you’d get to know more about them, they… let’s just say: they won’t let you.

None of the characters is given enough of a story or time to get to know them, so you really couldn’t care less what happens to them.


The other story isn’t great either. In the beginning, I was intrigued by all of it, but it soon became clear that it was going nowhere. In the end, when everything is said and done, it’s like…so what was the point in all of this? Then a reason Is revealed and you’re like….OK, I guess…but then they just keep talking and adding reasons and you just think alright, enough already.


BTW, if you left out either one of the stories, it would make no difference. They could have made separate 12 episode anime on both of these stories and I bet that would have been better.

All in all, this show had an interesting premise but sadly escalated into a melodramatic, overloaded mess.

It's a Zankyou no Terror ripp off mixed with Darling in the FranXX but instead of robots you get people who can turn their limbs into swords.
One of the main characters is a police investigator , and this character is completely ripped off of Zankyou no Terror. Other two characters are basically Zero two and Hiro for Darling in the FranXX.
In the anime there is advanced technology (some more advanced than ours) , yet they all drive 50's cars.
At the end barely get to see the characters after all the chaos.
It's not a bad anime but it isn't a great ... one either. Watch it only if you ain't got any better anime to watch.

I personally wasn't a big fan of the outer world aspect of the anime, it was slightly confusing, was hard to follow for me and seemed ill-placed when paired up with the more realistic kinda detective plot, which was really enjoyable for me. The characters were written well, and had great design though. I just think both the outer world and detective aspects would be better off being separate themes. But overall I believe the anime was pretty all right, all though I believe the ideas aren't that great paired together, I found the anime pretty interesting and had you on edge every episode. However ... I am new to anime so take from my review what you will, thank you!

This anime has such a weird pacing to it. It almost feels at time like a Tarantino film where there's constant build up and finally a huge action scene, however this anime does it in a bad way because the build up scenes have little to no suspense to them and when the action comes around the majority of the time you have no idea what's going on and why they are fighting.

It's not a bad anime, however its far from great. Feel like they could of done a little better with this one.

Perhaps maybe with further clarification at certain points, or perhaps another few ... episodes to just explain things more, instead of hey here's the bad guy.

This show is poorly written, especially the police procedural/mystery/thriller part of it. As a spectator it's hard to ignore a poor script if you're familiar with the genre and you can recall plenty of better works.
Both the characters and the situations are stereotyped, they often failed to persuade me, and the plot twists aren’t quite surprising. If I wanted to make a harsh critique, I would say it doesn’t feel like a consistent story, nor a consistent world. And sometimes the things are a little messy. What it feels like, indeed, is that a lazy staff was content with a superficial, not quite well ... thought work.
Just to be clear, Psycho-Pass is a popular anime that shares some similarities with B, but the former is a masterpiece if compared to the latter.

The supernatural part of the show was slightly better, as well as the backstory, which caught my attention more than the current events.

Checking on Anime News Network, apparently the script was written by someone named Ishida Katsuya, who previously only wrote one episode of Hajime no Ippo. If that’s true… well, as a debut it’s not too bad, I guess.

It’s a shame, because the series surely has some merits. I really enjoyed the animation, and the general mood of the series was appealing too, but I could not ignore the obvious flaws this show has.
If you can just get over it, maybe you will enjoy the anime a lot more than me. Actually, I think many people can, that's why I don't want to be too strict with the rating... but I can't even be too kind. It's a 6.5.
Anyway I would not recommend it to someone who is already used to (well crafted) crime shows.

Finally, to be honest, there is one thing I loved: the ending theme (and the visuals too). “The Perfect World” is an amazing song, I listened to it again and again.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this series going in and feel almost exactly the same way coming out of it. The story takes so many twists and turns that you're both not ready for and not really capable of caring about since the characters or world hasn't been developed to an adequate level yet the show treats these moments as major reveals. The frequency of these occurences is probably one of the stand out frustrations along with the pacing just being so over the place that it's hard to get a sense for any one character or subplot and more or less ... the show just throws you around until it kind of just abruptly ends.

The story itself starts promising with a lot of mystery and potential that definitely makes you intrigued and want to know more, however that is where the problems begin. When we start to learn backstory or even just the overall plot revealing itself, the show bunny hops to an insane degree. We get serious chunks of flashbacks and exposition that feel like they pause the show and then when we get back to it there happens to be another major turning point which then causes the show to stop again and explain itself. It is so frustrating only because some points or aspects are genuinely gripping in their own right but not one aspect is given enough focus for you to latch on as a viewer.

The design and animation is probably mostly what kept me going. For the most part it's fairly standard but the occasional action scene or intense moments are animated very well and combined with some stand out character designs and unique concepts make for a fairly enjoyable visual fare.
The presentation in general with the intros and openings and the moody soundtrack also elevates the show somewhat and helps enforce an atmosphere that is quite engaging.

The characters never really connect incredibly well but they are all fairly individual and have distinct personalities but that is not to say they aren't all stereotypes or in some cases just kind of bland or dull. Again, the standout for the characters is probably their design over anything else since that is the key communicator aside from the large amounts of exposition we get.

The general direction of the story is rather typical which ends up being quite sad by the end since it felt much more unique in the beginning and had a lot of potential for world building and interesting dynamics but it mostly forsakes it for a plot that prioritises the angst and the cliche morality questions that are so prevalent already in anime.

Overall: The show is enjoyable and reaches a place of slightly above average for me but it definitely struggles to get there with lackluster characters, a very convoluted and poorly paced narrative, but makes up for some of it with interesting visual ideas and some solid presentation.