Bem

Note: This is my first review and I am not a harsh critic on everything except story since I am not an expert reviewer who pays attention to ALL the details.

Story: 5/10 - Since this is a remake of an old anime and since episode 12 got rushed. It would've been better if there were some fillers to flesh out the small stories.

Sound: 8/10 - I usually never rate sound. I don't even know what this is. Voice acting is "very good"/10 (since I don't know what is good and bad) and the choice of opening and ending is 10/10.

Character: 6/10 - I love main ... characters in general, but I LOVE the side characters in general even more. The MCs are well developed, but since the story was rushed, it was inevitable that the characters would be less fleshed out as well. Even if we know the outcome, and even if they are generic, I would still love to see more.

If you'd ask me that Bem was from a source that came out in the same period as the original comedic Dororo of the late 60s to early 70s, heck even the 2006 Studio Comet series, I would still scratch my head and ask: "What is that?"

In any sense of the word, this series, like Dororo, is meant to celebrate its 50th anniversary by creating yet ANOTHER original anime about the demon humanoid characters Bem, Bela and Belo. Only the most faithful of people who like Range Murata's works would ever chance upon this show, whereas for anime-onlys like myself, can only drought in its ... mediocrity.

However, unlike Dororo, where MAPPA and Tezuka Productions gave the 50th anniversary series a hella lot of love for such a big change that we know and love, Production I.G. and a new studio, LandQ, decided to cooperate in this project, where the stark comparisons in dedication can be awfully seen even with the naked eye.

The story in a nutshell is that the demon humanoid trio of Bem, Bela and Belo, are trying to eliminate monsters from the world called Upper, and in the human world termed Outside, these monsters are wrecking the lives of humans, and to add some drama to it, detective Sonia Summers is on the call to find out the connection of the demons and the trio, who want to be acknowledged for their efforts and live another day, growing to be more like humans and hoping to be them.

I don't know about you, but the episodic feel of the show really detriments it, not that it was a show to look out for, it was basically under the radar and it should stay that way. It isn't bad, but by no means it impress, by a very long shot.

The only reason why I'm here is because of the OST. How on earth did we get such a jazzy OP with Maaya Sakamoto that sounds incredibly average is beyond me. JUNNA's ED is crazy soothing and splendid, what a great song.

If you long for a Range Murata work, this is it after quite sometime. If not, pass this up.

A bit spoilerish, but only a bit.

First things first: this is not original work, but I have never seen the source, so I will judge this one on its own merit. And oh boy I do have much to judge. Lets start with the easy part:
-Art. Pretty mediocre, with some parts looking pretty bad to be honest. At least it is not CGI, but it isn't much.
-Sound. Good opening, forgetable everything else.
-Story/world. And here the real problems begin. World is awfully inconsistent, while main trio of monsters look like each other and are of one style, their enemies are something that looks like from ... a comic book - flashy, unique and completely unfitting into the rest of the setting. If there were different ways how people became those enemies - it maybe could pass, but they are all made with SCIENCE by one mad scientist, so why do they very this much? The overall flow of events from episode to episode is pretty disconnected, while characters are the same, I always got an impression that something was missing, some key events or something like that.
-Characters. Well, not really much. MC try to become human cause reasons (really why, if they can't feel at all - they should not be able to feel jealous too). Their development is absent, they just get into fight and dispatch enemy of the episode while trying to look human when not engaged in combat. And here is another problem: there are LOTS of side characters, cause each of 3 monsters has his own contacts. None of them gets development, they are more like decorations, even though the cop girl could be a valuable ally on their road to humanity, and friends should be a valuable experience of human interactions.
-Enjoyment. None, to be honest. While I had hope after episode 1, it faded pretty fast. I don't normally drop reading or watching, so this was the only reason I even finished watching this one, it felt more like a chore and not like something one could enjoy.

Overall: waste of time, low budged, low efford attempt to grab some cash with a relaunch of an old title.

Well... it could've been worse. Unlike Arifuerta, where it was a beautiful mess, this was just a boring mess. I mean, it could've had some promise in it's early stages, but whatever we got, we got the worst version of it. It could've been a potential gem, but thanks to the underdeveloped writing, terrible characters and the awful world building.

First off, Bem is a terrible main character. After the pilot, he just becomes a nothing character even though the show is NAMED after him, but whatever. Belo is an annoying little shit that just comes off as obnoxious and Bela is the only character that ... comes off as a little less bland then the others but that's only because she comes off as somewhat likable. All the other characters are as thick as glass.
Alice, as a character isn't a bad idea. Instead of only focusing on the monsters wanting to become demons, we also focus on a human that is investigating the demons. However, the biggest flaw in the show is that since the audience knows the demons and we mostly focus on them, when something happens with the demons we see it and then when the detectives investigate, they just regurgitate information that we already know. The detectives just become more and more pointless as the show goes and you question the point of them many, many times.

Also, the tonal whiplashes. These happen in virtually every episode (minus the pilot, which is the best episode I believe) where the tone could switch to two characters talking about their past lives and how they could be talking about something from a past life and then suddenly one of the characters gets hit by a giant bowling ball. The giant bowling ball is being thrown by a humanoid monster then looks like Elvis Presley. Yeah, it's that trite and stupid. It also doesn't help that the majority of the show, the tone just doesn't fit the villains. The tone feels dark and dreary, but then you'll have a psychopathic germaphobe that killed his abusive stepdad and Electro from Amazing Spider Man 2 except his electricity is yellow. You would think this would make the show interesting, but it somehow makes all of this feels stupid and boring. There's also characters like Gus and some other kid but their both terrible. All the other characters are either to bland or too obnoxious to care about.

The animation is basic and like Cop Craft, the show did not have a lot of animators to this project and you can see all the shortcuts they make throughout the series. The character designs look good but nothing spectacular. The music is the only part I would say is pretty decent. The OP is solid for a good bit and some of the other pieces are pretty solid and work within the show. But that's not enough to save this show.

Overall, Bem had potential but it was squashed. It wants to be everything: Different ideologies of wanting to be a monster or human, big monster fights, political intrigue, a police drama and so much more and it just never makes it come across as interesting and even when it puts up a decent idea or concept, it's used in the most boring way possible. This was truly a disappointment to finish off the summer season.

Story: 3/10
Art: 3/10
Sound; 4/10
Character: 2/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Overall: 3/10

Bem has a decent Plot that has potential. The Animation is very Poor and Lazy. This is one of those shows where it could have been good but the way it was done just killed it. The Art Style is Bland. The way the Fights are Animated is very disappointing. The Visuals and Fight execution are what makes this Anime look mediocre. It has a Nice Sounding opening that's Animated good and Unique but in the show, what you see is a far-cry from good. In some frames characters look decently rendered, and in other frames the quality of the characters make it seems as ... though they weren't even done drawing them on the screen. The Fights look as though whoever wrote this show completely forgot to factor in how their combat would look so they left it up to the Animation Team to come up with some quick ideas.

The first episode really intrigued me, a goody two shoes detective comes to a rotten and corrupted city of thieves and scum, a classic detective noir setup. Throw in some monsters that want to become humans and I was sold. The problems started to appear in ep. 2, a really ok episode about Bella, yet two glaring issues from this episode will haunt this anime till finish I think.
One beeing the sometimes goofy and totally out of place henchman or monster that will leave confused and sometimes wondering if you aren't watching some other anime.
The second beeing that you can clearly ... see that the action animation was done with a very tight budget, you can see them trying to use every trick in the book to avoid animating the characters in a fight scene as much as possible and as a result they become very dull and boring to look at.
Nice jazzy music tough... I hope this will get better but I am not expecting much.

Bem is one of those shows that starts off with a lot of potential, but never really grows into its strengths. Instead meandering around semi-conscious before reaching a rushed conclusion that simply fails to satisfy.

The show begins in an unashamedly cliché American detective-cop story way, following a rogue hot head detective (Sonia) that gets themselves into trouble with their higher ups and gets sent to a dead end roll/position, but develops strongly afterwards following the main characters interactions and relationships over time as the cops try to figure out what is happening and the yokai and human-experiments are slowly revealed and explained. All very interesting ... stuff.

The most redeeming quality of the show are the characters, who show highly relatable strengths and weaknesses. The three protagonist yokai consist of an adult male (Bem), child male (Belo), and teenage girl (Bela). Though their age defies them as they're not actually human but immortal creatures that closely resemble vampire archetypes, their personalities do somewhat match their chosen avatars in maturity. This makes them easily accessible and provides variety in content.

Each yokai gets a mini story arc where they get to confirm their long unseen history of being betrayed by those humans with which they attempted to form relationship with using their counter-identities. Some of which go on to become major antagonists in the show later. Before meeting some unprejudiced humans who redeem the species when they discover the truth almost by accident. All while a plot unfolds where a hidden authority attempts to out the yokai as being evil and dangerous. This is where the show gets a little loose, because the show kinda forgets that actually most yokai are evil and dangerous and that it's only these 3 attempting to reach out to humans as friends. This comes across as a major oversight more than any attempt to play "grey area" with morals/ethics because no attempt is ever made to address the fact that technically, the baddies were actually right even though they were as morally bankrupt themselves as the yokai they were trying to condemn. Still, we root for these 3 yokai anyway.

Belo gets the classic "children are innocent and untainted" redemption story, Bela gets the "boy who loves beyond prejudice" redemption story and Bem gets the "ambitious adult who wants to unite the world" arc. Belo gets the most attention even though it was the most rudimentary of the three stories and Bela's friendship story gets half baked even though it was the most interesting and complex character relationship going. Bem's mysterious character is revealed towards the end right as the show begins to deteriorate and his potential deepness is never really expanded upon as the show rushes to a conclusion.

The show, in my opinion, would have had a lot more going for it if it had kept with the tone it set out in the opening episodes (semi-dark/serious). But the mid-level antagonist, the "mad scientist" who is as cartoonish as his name "Dr Recycle" suggests who makes a half man, half vacuum cleaner monster. From here-on it becomes hard to take the show seriously at all. Then there's the god awful finale.

Oh boy, there are so many things wrong with the finale starting with the fact that its orchestrated by "final boss" characters we know nothing about, are discovered suddenly with no gradual build up and puppeteered by the author as if we're supposed to have some kind of investment with them. The ending is a needlessly high stakes affair where the whole city is doomed to blow up through a seemingly benign interaction between the yokai that is shown before and never fully explained; and ends with the final boss being "buried for eternity" in an actually rather shallow river that would have to get dredged anyway to fix the broken bridge they collapsed on top of her. I really want to nit pick more, but i'm 7 paragraphs in and i think the gist of it is here.

The show is generally ok. But it lets itself down when it grows and then doesn't deliver. I completed it because i wanted to know more about what happens with the characters that accept the yokai, but it just doesn't go anywhere. The character development is dropped for the sake of pushing through the plot.

The potential existed for this story to be great, unfortunately it never reached that point. The beginning started off with some world building as well as introducing societal as well as social problems to the mix, which in my opinion is always a plus. The sad thing though, is that these problems were only slightly attempted at and the issues didn't show the slightest bit of progress towards the end. It's unfortunate because these issues were interwoven into the society that couldn't accept Bem,Belo, and Bela. It was a really interesting point to look at from , but the only difference between the end and ... the beginning is that a bridge got destroyed as well as the fact the the hidden council has a kid as the new head rather than a youkai human. The supporting cast became a bit stale, as there only role was to be observers but not even good ones. The doctor that made humans into warped version of youkai humans went missing, and the epilogue doesn't show the police or anyone looking for him.

The ending is a bit too open with not any of the problems being resolved, however the main three characters were what really pulled the show through. Their aspirations to be accepted and become human were easy to empathize with and easy to support. The emotional betrayals they felt hit home and their weird family/friend bond with each other was sweet, and in my opinion should've been explored more. The music , especially the opening was cool and , and it was one of the great draws that made me watch the show to the end . The main three could've done with more backstory or bonding time, or even more personal arcs, because as a viewer that's what I was invested in, the societal machinations never pulled through after all.

What I'm trying to say is that it was good, it has a lot of loose ends, definitely needed more episodes , and the battles were average, but the main characters are great and the music is enjoyable , so it should be an easy watch on a Sunday if there's no other anime in your queue.

Politically, socially and philosophically (if you want to call it that way), BEM fails to create the serious plot that it wanted.

–

Remember, children. Showing vague social stereotypes isn't good if you're trying to make a serious criticism about it.
BEM takes place in Libra City, which is divided into Upper City (the city of the rich) and Outside (the city of the poor) through a bridge. The three protagonists meet on this bridge every night (and surprisingly no one ever discovers them there). The three Youkai Ningen save humans from different monsters, hoping that in the future they will become humans themselves. The plot doesn't sound ... THAT bad, right? Generic, yes, but bearable. However, it's worse than that.
As I said earlier, the trio thinks they will become humans after saving other humans. Although the idea sounds stupid, Bem himself admits it doesn't have much foundation, so I'll ignore it. I'm more interested in talking about that desire to become humans they have, which hardly develops in the course of the whole series. We know they want to be human, yes, but nothing deeper than that. Personal reasons? No. Moment when they decided to pursue that dream? Nah. Other ideas to get it? To hell with that, they want to be human and that's it. Obviously, the anime ended without resolving this issue and instead gave us a fight against a giant that came out of nowhere. Finally, as the cherry on top, we have an open ending that leaves many questions unanswered.
We also have the individual stories of each character, which don't lead to anything interesting, to be honest.

I will focus on the three Youkai Ningen, Sonia Summers, Roddy and Daryl, and then I will make a brief summary of what I think of the rest I haven't named. First we have Bem, the leader of the trio and the poorest, since he has almost no personality. Unlike Bela and Belo, Bem's life revolves around becoming human. However, because he isn't the only one who fights against the monsters that lurk the city, he practically doesn't possess any trait that individualizes him from his companions. Although we could consider his interactions with Sonia as a distinctive, Bela and Bem also have contact with humans (and, let me tell you, the interactions between Bem and Sonia aren't memoriable at all). On the other hand we have Bela, a Youkai Ningen who attends school to feel more human and interact with them. Believe me, every episode focused on her was a torment. Due to her naive nature, harsh attitude and avenger complex, it's difficult to get attached to her. And let's not talk about her relationship with Roddy, which was only a tease for 12 episodes. In the end, we have Belo, the youngest of the trio, who hasn't yet passed his edgy stage and makes comments abut humans's nature as deep as a pot of mayonnaise. Don't get me wrong, Belo is my favorite out of the three, but his structure as a character is just as poor as that of his partners. Belo doesn't want to become human as much as the other two, resigning himself that this will never happen. However, this doesn't justify his bitter personality or his choice in enviroments (he wanders on Outside, while Bela studies in Upper Town, but we never have a clue as to why the younger of the two chose to settle there). Considering that his personality doesn't develop into something different in the course of the entire series, there isn't much to talk about him (although it isn't as if the other characters had any development either). But hey! If you thought this sounded painful, I regret to tell you that these three static monsters were even better treated compared to the secondary characters: Sonia, Roddy and Daryl. The reason why I put these three together is because the three play the same role: being flat and one-dimensional characters that serve so that the three protagonists can rely on them. Because c'mon, Sonia's "goody two-shoes" personality, Roddy's crush, and Daryl's unreal revenge, only served to give Bem, Bela and Belo more material to participate with. That's why it's not surprising that they made Sonia adopt a little girl (with whom the writers didn't know what to do) at the last moment, that Roddy got set aside without a clossure of his own, and that Daryl got easily forgiven by Belo and then became the head of an organization that controls Libra City, even though he's 13 years old. I'm not even going to talk about the Mysterious Lady, since we'd barely met her in one of the last episodes and then she already portrait herself as the main villain. And not to mention Agent Joel Woods who literally had no reason to exist, the ridiculously racist Helmut Felt, the stagnant and generic Dr. Recycle, Bela's friends that on the last episode turned out to be bitches, or the cartoony villains, God. The only characters I would save would be Belo's three friends, because although they had no development either, at least they were kinda sympathetic.

–

To be honest, this series can be entertaining if you like to sit down and not think much about what happens. However, if you are interested in well-developed characters and a promising plot, BEM will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

I have not written a review in some time. This anime could be looked at in many ways. One of which the writer is trying to showcase the ugliness of human beings.

The story line goes to three characters that are humanoid monsters. They give little explanation to where they may have come from but what they do showcase is that they would like to become human. What is human however? They go on a journey in a corrupt city that sounds similar to classism. Separation of classes.

I gave the story line a 6 due to the description I gave above. It showcases the real ... depth of human beings and their hatred for anything unknown. That they destroy what they don't understand or fear, even when that creature is willing to risk it's life to save us.

The art, like other's have mentioned, was not the best quality, but I have seen worse. It isn't my favorite art, but it does seem inconsistent at times.

The characters I did enjoy. I liked how they were able to look into each of their wishes and wanted they all wanted was to truly become human. Even after they found out what being human meant they still had integrity. I enjoyed how each one was different and the relationships they attempted to form.

All and all this anime is interesting and I would recommend it to those who are looking to think critically about what being human means.

I didnt saw the original series or the 2006 remake so i had nothing to compare it. I saw this show with no expectations at all and i think that best way to watch it in an objective way. SPOILERS

Story: The story is a mess... The show introduces 3 main characters Bem, Bela and Belo anthropomorfic monsters with the long to be humans that live in Libra City, a city that symbolize classism, and that summarize the whole show. The way that was written and directed are the main problem, the show tried to be a social criticism about the classism, humans being the real ... monsters and corruption in goverments. Because of that the anime doesnt explain a thing... we dont know the origin of the main trio, how they met, why they live in that city and the secondary characters like Sonia or Vega "the main villain" are only plot devices to continue the story.
The final battle is rushed and the purpose of it didnt make any sense. I attribute all the to the low budget that the show had. (5/10)

Art: Despite the low budget the anime doesnt abuse of the 3D animation, the action scenes are very fluid, the monster designs are very generic and without personality. (5/10)

Sound: The only good thing about the show, the selection of jazzy jams for the OST and the opening were an excellent choice. The anime ending is a very good song as well (7/10)

Characters: The anime doesnt explain anything of the main trio so we cant relate to them, their personality, decisions etc are only to make the story continue (3/10)

BEM could have been a great anime but the director and the writter decisions combined with low budget made it a mediocre and forgettable anime. Overall the only thing retrievable about this anime is the OST and the OP/ED. (5/10)

Plot execution: meh
Characters: likeable
Soundtrack: fantastic

Long story short, storytelling destroyed this anime. I decided to write down a few words, because I had high hopes for this anime, which actually looked promising. Overall, characters are likeable, Sonia might be annoying, but she's harmless overall. The stories of three protagonists are showing their personalities and dreams well, despite not creating much of a character development (maybe a liiittle). But when it comes to the plot, it's full of question marks. Last episode was the absolute trash, being so rushed I had the feeling it's rather an abridged version of something longer, or that I actually missed at ... least one full episode which fills out the holes in the plot.

On the positive note I must say that the opening and ending are both fantastic, and for me clearly the highlight of the season or two, hands down. The soundtrack is equally great and gives off a bit of a noir-y feeling.

Bem is a remake of the original Youkai Ningen Bem series from the late 60s. I'm generally not a fan of remakes, but this was a very strong show. The world they created was really interesting. It had this film noir style, reminiscent of the Batman TAS from the 90s. I also really liked how they developed the characters throughout the series. They wanted you to become invested in the world, and I definitely felt it. Unfortunately, the story felt rushed because of the brevity of the series. The original series was 26 episodes long. I think this series should've mirrored that in order to ... aid in the world-building. This is a strong revival of the series, but I think it could've been much better had they lengthened it.

I don't know how to put this one easy. This anime is the biggest dissapointment i have seen this year apart from my own actions. When i saw the cover i should have noticed something was off in that poster, that it was trying to imitate that edgy shading but not nailing it right, but I as a fool when i read the synopsis i had hopes for this anime. I felt so dissapointed that I made an account for this website just to make this shitty angry bwaaaa bwaaaa, I'm a cry baby bwaaah review

What a fool I was.

Animation: The animation is similar if ... not worse than Ben 10, Ben 10 had decent fight scenes and everything, but the animation only shined in the final episode, every other episode where just poor, uninteresting and forgetable, there where no moments when it could do anything risky or anything entertaining at all

Story: Pseudo intelectual would be a perfect way of describing it. It trys to be something it cannot acomplish because of the bad writting, the only characters with kinda decent writting are the 3 protagonist and maybe Summers. But the whole plot trys to do something similar to what Babylon acomplished on its first 3 eps, but that shock, surprice element, anything never comes, there is not even one big plot twist or anything that makes me want to care, the sub plot that goes in every ep till the end when it becomes the main plot its just plain bad, maybe someone else here can express how bad it is than i do, because i know nothing about writting. But one thing in specific that made me angry was how retarded all the politics are, one almost gets killed in his own house by a mercenary, so what is his next move, proceeds to do a conference and gets his friend killed by that same mercenary and also him at his house after knowing that mercenary can get in his house.

I think a way of describing it would be, it trys to pull out a The Mentalist plot (referencing non anime in a anime website you heretic) but its 12 eps and its target audience are people between 9 to 15 who would think this is a high iq anime becuase it has conspiracies and social issues, and a secret society 😎😎😎 and also human bad monster more human than human.

Characters: The characters that are not the 4 protagonists are just one dimensional, the 3 friends of Bella are close to be one character, the firends of Belo are just not really interesting at all even with thier back story of being kids living with terrible abusive parents or just homeless, this thing never actually adds a weight to them or anything.
Belo and Bella might be the characters with the most development alongside with officer Summers, I actually liked Bella a little becuase she really had a change, and she essentially by the end she is a human in the way she thinks, Belo kinda did the same, and Bem had a guy there too but was with Summers who is the lady in trouble in every episode.

The kid who becomes supreme leader of the undeground society thing also find him kinda dumb in the writing for letting him find everything his father couldn't and could and never get an actual death treat as his father had, unlike they just want to justify it by the woman wanted him to be alive or some shit like that.

The main villan, I don't remember shit, I only remember she was like, human bad, yokai good, why yokai want to be human? and then gets owned epic style and gets trapped in the bottom of the ocean even tho she has enough power to destroy and move the bridge if she wants.

The other bad guys be like a ghost from ghost stories literally, even those had more depht into them, except for the not really bad one russian man with the girl every other character was just really super basic, Russian Astronaut had a little more story but still some pseudo sad moment that didn't have enough serious build up to be taken seriously.

Sound: Sound effects and shit are forgetable but it has cool jazz music doe, the op music is good.

Overall: I'm still waiting for the good part. By ep 8 its enjoyable but the good part never really comes.