Juushinki Pandora

Shoji Kawamori, the creator of the much beloved Macross series of the 80s and 90s, has created another flick to his name, the latest project called Juushinki Pandora, an omage to his works of past of the sci-fi-mecha genre which as of late, has seen much flack due to the many issues with his directorial work.

Oh...how the mighty have fallen. To be fair, the honest takeaway is Shoji Kawamori's mech designs which still look good...at the expense of other areas of the show that quite honestly, isn't a good sales-pitch anymore going forward.

Juushinki Pandora is set in an alternate universe where human beings and AI, ... or much rather, the B.R.A.I, which are machine-made beasts made out from the cause of biological evolution, was spearheaded from an unforeseen explosion by one man who goes under the name of Leon Lau. Formerly a scientist working on the time-space mechanics to maintain mankind through the quantum reactor (which is mainly used to regulate time-space control), his ambitious work came with a high cost, one that would take a long period of time to assimilate the full extent of the damage that is the Neo Xianglong crisis.

Fast forward some years after the crisis, and Leon Lau is called back from exile to help the city of Neo Xianglong (after the rebuilding) to combat the events that have once happened with his major blunder, and also to deflect the evil forces that have culminated to this day, just to see mankind perish under their egoistic dreams and ambitions to see a new breed of mankind under the control of B.R.A.I. Together with the Pandora dream team of Queenie Yoh and Doug Horvat, the trio must pilot their mechs, with their souls beaming across the time-space mechanism that gives the mechs power and push back evil forces to maintain what's known as the "Last Hope" of mankind. (And yes, that' the main English subbed title of the series).

My pointers:
1) Going through 26 episodes seem like a horrendous waste of time, but it comes with the trade-off that for about 80% of the series, it's primarily based on the world-building, built between the connection of mankind and B.R.A.I, and the direct consequences that of the result which happened prior. The wonky part is that the storytelling isn't done by Kawamori himself, but at the hands of Toshizou Nemoto, who did the overall series composition AND script of Macross Delta and the Towa no Quon movie series (so for people who have watched Macross Delta, your shots are fired), so the whole show felt like a chore to go through THIS MUCH where improvements to cut unnecessary filler could be a wise choice and bring this down to a max of either 16 to 24 episodes.

2) As if the production staff ain't competent enough, we have another series of misfires: Director Hidekazu Satou, with the incompetent works of Aquarion Logos and Nobunaga the Fool. Having Kawamori-san as the chief director is heartening enough for anyone who wants to venture into the series, but having Satou-san helm this project is off-putting to say the least (at least that's from Kawamori's perspective). The stories that this series strings out pale in comparison to many 2-cour shows that take advantage of the runtime to showcase everything it needs to and succinct to the point, honestly, if it can be dumbed down to just storytelling juxtaposition and pure action scenes alone, I can live with that.

Overall: just another failure on Shoji Kawamori's part to entice more viewers to his legacy of mech-based anime (of which his forte haven't changed since then, to draw mechs).

Characters:
The Pandora team main fighters: Leon Lau, Doug Horvat and Queenie Yoh.
All 3 of them have their problems and issues that when merged as one, serve as the main driving force for them:
Leon Lau, having to lose a colleague (Dr. Long Wu), his aide in working together to understand the quantum reactor and its various reactions, now striving to understand through the entire process through the many various illusions of Long (which form Sieg the final boss) to question the many purposes and intentions of evolving mankind.
Doug Horvat, primarily a fighter and sniper of the best you could find around, amidst his crude and good-looking personality lies a past that he is tempted and forced to face: the love of a scientist, Dr. Emilia Vally, so much so that the tainted relationship forces them to enclose questions within each other for the sake of building the both of them forward.
Queenie Yoh, the story of clans and promises, the many rivalries she has from young, starting with Mr. Gold (and then Wong) and the foreboding that the clans' past have all but been wiped out with numerous betrayals and backstabs that both sides have come to lament about each other for the growing-up years, until this moment with the help of B.R.A.I to harness power unimaginable.

The Pandora support team: Cain Hasan Ibrahim, Glen Din, and Leon's (adopted) sister Chloe:
Despite appearances, Cain is as calm and collective as you would expect an army general to be, deep down to the point and not wasting any effort in getting things done. Along with comrade Glen, who is a crude fighter and the "don't think twice on actions" guy, his devotion and loyalty is the most annoying part, but yet serves as the resting point for everyone to mock and joke at.

As for Leon's (adopted from Long) sister Chloe though, she holds him dear as to everyone like they are a family, more than just a fighter team. Along with the idiosyncrasies of the "family contract" (which forebodes good intentions at the ending) of which there are many unlisted and vaguely conceived (just between Leon and herself alone), she makes for a good sibling to be taken care of and lead on with her brother's consistent fight with cooking Leon's favourite and go-to twisted snack Mahua and the like.

Neo Xianglong's pilot team: Jay Yun, Cecille Sue (and Fiona for the 2nd cour)
For the most part, I thought that Jay as a commander, he relegated his skills well and was able to discern situations to the best of his ability. Along with the Princess Cecille, keeping the city of Neo Xianglong afloat with the many controversies that it has, because with the city itself being an area that is loft for B.R.A.I to manifest, enemy advantages are aplenty, so the city's protection falls under their heavy shoulders.
Fiona herself is pretty much a human-spirited catalyst waiting to happen, the series of happenings that foretell the future of mankind. Essentially, a plot-mover and nothing else.

Overall, characters here display their usual cliché-ness, and needs a lot of work to be refined with.

Art and animation:
For once, while the overall production was good, Kawamori's parent company Satelight took some liberties at trying to envision his idea come to life in anime form, most notably the China-Shanghai reference of Neo Xianglong (Kawamori DID went to China for an interview and proposed the idea as the background art and animation) and the B.R.A.I designs, which are done by Hidekazu Satou and the mech designs by obviously Kawamori himself.

Whilst the animation quality really took a substantial hit by dropping some frames here and there (especially with the action scenes), I'd say that at least it's on par with past Kawamori's works. The pacing however is quite messy and sometimes stuff just don't mesh well together, but that is forgiven (a teeny-weeny bit) due to the story progression with the overall feel of the series.

Music:
This is the first time I've ever heard to BUMP OF CHICKEN (aside from favourites such as Sangatsu no Lion, Kekkai Sensen), and it still holds up within the 6 months of just showcasing the same OP and ED, just broken down into the usual verse and chorus within the songs, and they sound good for the most part. By far the best part of the show.

Overall verdict:
For anyone still living on the promises that Shoji Kawamori would promise whatever he tries to cook up, please don't. This anime is the result of his work, and judging from everything, is still an awful misconception that this would be anything groundbreaking of today's standards.

This show is completely average all around, with nothing to spare. Not something I would recommend, but with a few screws loose.

All right, Satelight, no, Kawamori-san, let's review.

The production gods haven't been kind to your shows of late. Sure, I enjoyed Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, but you had nothing to do with that, did you?

First Aquarion Logos, which probably should never have been given the Aquarion title since you decided to abandon two series' worth of lore and screw around with kanji. I know, it's fun, but I'd rather have watched "Chihayafuru but in the calligraphy club" than that mess you called Aquarion.

Then Macross Delta, which was supposed to be about... what, exactly? There were countless opportunities to connect with the audience (or more specifically, me), and ... all of them were squandered. How you ever managed to get Japanese fans to sell out the live Delta shows/concerts, I will never know. No, wait, it was probably the exclusive merch. "I went to a live concert for a lousy show, and I got this lousy T-shirt! Hurray!"

So, like those two giant robot shows before it, Juushinki Pandora was an exercise of thinking, "Well, maybe it won't be so boring next episode." So I kept going. And going. And finally episode 21, I just concluded, "Kawamori-san doesn't have a damn clue how to write or direct a decent story."

This isn't new. Shoji Kawamori isn't exactly known for storytelling prowess-- Escaflowne became a mad dash of collapsing story arcs towards the end, Basquash couldn't figure out what the hell to do with itself in cour 2, and even Macross F and the first two Aquarions' first halves were "fun but ultimately meaningless compared to the end" episodes. His forte is, and has always been, giant robot design.

But this show, with its incessant posturing dialogue (how I wish I had a time machine so I could throttle the inventor of kabuki), its consistently pointless story, and dreadfully cliche characters... Just. No. No amount of awesome mecha (and the ones that show up here are uninspiring) would be enough to save a show whose sole existence is apparently to sell more toys. I find Kamen Rider more inspiring (live-action Japanese kids' shows tend to be horribly directed), and that makes me sad as a Macross and Aquarion fan.

So, I'll drop yet another mediocre series in this season which, aside from a few thriller/action series renewals that I will never have the stomach for, is a sea of mediocrity. I'm fine with that, I'd rather watch reruns than be bored to tears every week. Maybe I'll pick up Yama no Susume, though I'll have to watch the first 2 seasons first.

*No Spoilers*

Summary:
Last Hope (Juushinki Pandora) is a sci-fi anime based in a fictional, post-apocalyptic, Asian country in the not-too-distant future. The story takes place after the main character and a partner attempt to create a fancy energy-related device that ends up destroying most of the world by merging machines and biological creatures. The premise is interesting, and the characters’ backstories start off rather intriguing. However, as the plot progresses, the story as a whole falls apart. The already pseudo-scientific physics babble and “quantum reactor” plot turns sideways when absurdly disconnected subplots start getting rammed together, merging physics, spirituality, ridiculous multidimensional travel, giant fighting robots, morality, ... yin and yang, biology, and the characters’ backstories, into one messy ending. Part 1 starts off pretty interesting all around, but it begins to fall apart toward the end. Part 2 is just a mess. With that said, the show does have some pretty funny moments for a sci-fi anime, and it was generally entertaining, particularly in Part 1. If you enjoy sci-fi and action, this might be a good fit for you.

Story: 2/10
Last Hope starts off with an interesting and simple plot: The main character has been outcasted after a failed invention causes the destruction of pretty much the whole world. The setting itself is interesting, as animals and machines have integrated, and the main character tries to fix his mistake and protect his city and sister. Part 1 begins nicely with some character development intertwined with the seemingly simple plot. Midway through Part 1, some backstories seem to come back to haunt the other characters, and this is when the plot becomes muddled. Part 2 becomes so disarrayed with abstract, pseudo-scientific, and spiritual concepts, that it doesn’t make any sense. If it had stuck true to the more basic, sci-fi mystery portion that is presented in the beginning, it would have been much more cohesive, worthwhile, and redeemable. I give Part 1 a 4/10 since it starts off decent, albeit already starts to fall apart halfway through. Part 2 is just a complete disaster, so I give it a 0/10 for plot and general storytelling.

Art: 7/10
The art is beautiful and the best piece of this anime. Some of the character designs are outlandish, like Queenie’s ridiculous armor leotard, but the character designs are generally fitting of the setting. The world-building is interesting, which is enhanced by the excellent artwork. There are some scenes with lots of flashing lights during parts where there’s some funky robot dimension-merging, which may bother someone who is sensitive to flashing visuals.

Sound: 4/10
The soundtrack, openings, and endings are average in terms of anime music. There’s nothing too memorable about the music, besides maybe the ending theme. The voice acting is decent and fits the characters well.

Character: 3/10
Characters have fairly interesting backstories, although the anime focuses almost solely on their traumas. If the characters were left alone and developed as the story progressed, I would give them a higher rating here. However, the plot really prevented this from happening due to its absurdities. Each of the main “hero” characters knows someone who just happened to survive the earthly destruction and come back to attack them in different ways. The antagonists all have generic backstories, whereas the protagonists are pretty interesting and likeable. Sadly, the main way the protagonists develop is to use some magical, spiritual, or pseudo-scientific cross-dimensional growth that enables them to overcome their predetermined antagonist. Again, I believe the protagonists are somewhat unique to begin with, so I would give them a 5/10 to start but a 1/10 by the end because of the ridiculousness of the plot. Also, the whole “family” concept starts off cute but becomes extremely overused by the end.

Enjoyment: 1.5/10
I was really hopeful for this one. It started off compelling, even though I knew the pseudo-scientific babble was not realistic. By the end of Part 1, I was doubtful it would be worthwhile. Part 2 was honestly one of the least enjoyable parts of an anime I have ever seen because of its nonsensicalness. I didn’t want to finish the show but wanted to be able to review it in its entirety on here for you. I’d say the first ½ of Part 1 was an 8/10 for enjoyment. It then got exponentially worse and became a huge letdown.

Overall: 3.5/10