Exception

Animation's framerate is not high so watching it on 1.5 speed really helps show to be enjoyable.
There are multiple science-fiction genres in this show.
Biotechnology and neuroscience is super advanced, space travel and physics are also advanced. Has is own unique atmosphere.
Each character has differences and unique principle.
There is also one more thing which is too important; printing weapons is forbidden besides they do not want to solve their problem with complete violence. But you will see progression of how and when they decided to switch to brute force. Storyline was good and immersive. It was not cliche. However ending was not unique.

I ended up watching this on a whim just seeing a picture pop up of a new show. It's pretty short at only 8 episodes, so I found this to be a nice off-hand pick. I went in with no expectations and came out feeling worth the time I spent watching it.

Art & Design - So everyone picks on 3D animation (myself included) but I enjoyed this one a lot. The chosen art style (which I love) really fits the 3D style, so I got used to it pretty quickly and it felt unique enough to warrant me noticing and enjoying the style. (Though sometimes ... I keep thinking it's like 3D Tim Burton for the new age)

Characters & Story - This isn't mind blowing, it's not going to grip you by the throat or pluck heart strings, but I felt the story was good enough to hold it's own. Not amazing, but fine. The characters were well created, I feel, and had believable personalities and all felt different and substantial. For people who are into the sci-fi genre this is probably going to be a good watch for you! (Again, it's only 8 episodes, it's worth the time to invest due to it's smaller size)

Overall Takeaway - 8 episodes of sci-fi with a unique *cough*Tim Burton*cough* art style put together with 3D animation that's not bad. Story that's enjoyable but not amazing, and interesting characters that fit in the story well.

Recommended. Cheers and have a good day!

Underrated, probably by people who watch the isekais where 9/10 mcs have basically the same personally, face, same story and animation is copy pasta and think thats better than this. The truth is this show is solid 7-8.

Art is unique but far cry from being bad, want to see whats actually bad? Take a look at Berserk. The artstyle here reminds lf mix between Land of lustrous and low budget Arcane so of course it could have been better but its not unpleasant to watch.

Story is quite decent with some interesting albeit a bit predictable plot twists. Its complete. A solid complete story for ... scifi fans, what else there is to say?

The characters felt a bit lacking even though they were the focus for 90% of the show, lack of interaction, comradeship, their past and that sort of thing. Given the length of episodes I hoped for more especially given their early introductions.

Music and sound design is honestly great, delivers the sci-fi vibe very well and sends down shivers during colder scenes.

In conclusion, if you are scifi fan, go watch. And even if you are not and looking for something solid to watch, go for it.

Most reviews here scored this with a 7 but in my opinion it's a mediocre 5.
It could have potential to be better but unfortunately, nothing was new.

That 3dcgi design is not for everyone (in my opinion, sometimes it was even worse than Berserk since it was mentioned somewhere), it felt like bad copy of some evil Disney princess or Barbie colorful character with magic butterflies and stuff and made it somehow unpleasant to watch. It did'nt fit with the theme while it could've been better, like for example in Ling Long or Hei Men, if we want to talk about 3d scifis.

The ... story and character building was mediocre too. A team of 4 crew members, arrive with their spacecraft at a new planet that is to be terraformed, in order to make it livable for the future, since humans are forced to leave Earth and migrate. We've seen this concept so often in scifis, simple plot (even in boargames like Terraforming Mars haha).
Anyway the story focuses on each member of the team, that is made by a biological 3D printer but during the printing process of a member, something wrong happens and as a result, a new hybrid is made (which to be honest, was the only likable character in the series). So the rest of the members, are called to take some decisions until they reach the surface of the new planet but each one, has their own goals and different personalities.
Another funny thing was also that 3D printing of weapons in the ship wasn't allowed to avoid violence, while we know that someone, can use even a fork as weapon.

Anyway, so overall, MIXED FEELINGS because it felt like watching a short soap opera, with predictable dramas, tiwsts, betrayals and some romance, unwrapped during the journey. But for only 8 episodes (and with the faster speed option) with -at least- a complete story, I guess you have nothing to lose. If you are hooked, feel free to try it, but have in mind that there are other better scifis out there, like the 3d ones I said above and many more, worth watching and which stay in your mind.

So Exception is a 3D Scifi Anime about a group of people who are printed clones on a spaceship who are trying to colonize some planet, but the mission get complicated when one of them, Lewis gets misprinted into a grotesque creature.

The Character Designs are done by Yoshitaka Amano, who is the concept artist for alot of the Final Fantasy games. And they hired a famous musician named Ryuichi Sakamoto to compose the Music. The English Release of the anime also stars some famous VAs such as Nolan North as Lewis, Ali Hillis as Nina, Robbie Daymond as Mack aka David Bowie, and Laura Bailey ... as Kate and the ship voiceover. The ones for Oscar and Patty, Eugene Bryd and Nadine Nicole are on camera actors who makes their voiceover debut here but managed to give pretty competent voice performances as well.

I was pretty skeptical myself going in, but ended up finding myself interested thanks to the ongoing mystery and twists. And the Finale is pretty Bittersweet but gives Closure. If you can get past the fact this show is in 3D CGI and the Designs, viewers might be in for a nice scifi watch.

Exception was something that I was not expecting to be amazing, but my expectations have been duly shattered. This was one of the better anime that's been released in the past year and it almost feels right at home with something that would've been released in the 90's or the early 2000's along with GITS and the like.. it was such a breath air to know that we have people on this earth who can put something out like this. What's so good about it?

It has a philosophy, and it sticks to that and fulfills it by the end. That is what this whole anime ... is about. I would go as far as to say that the actual story is secondary to this main concept of the sacredness of the body and spirit and on a more grand scale, life itself. When you take this philosophy and couple it with Yoshitaka Amano's character design and Ryuichi Sakamoto's it morphs and falls into becoming a type of spectacle that has almost been lost to time. I will also say something controversial that applies to this point...

THE CGI IS COOL AND WORKS TO BENEFIT THIS SERIES!!!!!

It reminds me of old animation that was done near the turn of the millennium and gives it a very similar charm. Overall.. it just really reminds me of something that would've been made around that time but not done in a conscious way that would have the nostalgia of that time otherwise taint the vision. It does have flaws but I love it so much for what it is that I choose not to care about them. Don't believe everyone dogging on this series over the CGI, it's good and you should try it out.

People are talking about how bad the animation is and how bad the ending is. I would like to counter those opinions with the fact that the build up was the most important part not the ending itself. Sure you could say the ending was mediocre, i guess. But all the morale dilemmas, the tackling of existential crisis amongst most of the characters, etc. is whats the most beautiful part to me.

so basically what im saying is that if you arent a stickler for animation quality and you dont mind an ending that is just used as a means to an end rather than ... the gem of the show. THEN youd love the show like i did.

tldr; its a show that caters to people who love sci-fi psychological horror (in the sense of existential dread and morale dilemmas) and you will hate it if you cannot get past the animation quality WHICH is only bad for the characters animation. just saying. the characters are the only bad part of the animation...

Let me first preface the fact that yes this is a 3D CGI Anime. I personally don't hate 3d anime and actually think they can be enjoyable rather than outright denying their worth. In the anime community 3D CGI anime are frowned upon like a curse but there are exceptions like Beastars and Houseki no kuni (Just to name a few).So I'll appreciate if you read this review and watch this anime with an open and appreciative lens.

The story is basically similar to among us, What would happen if a group of strangers suddenly woke up on a spaceship out in space and were clueless ... about why they're there or who they are. The plot alone sounds convincing enough right? Well it definitely maintains its mystery and thriller aspect as the people on the spaceship try to figure out their purpose. But all is not what is seems, Dont worry I wont give you any spoilers because this is a story meant to be experienced as spoiler free as possible. There are some plot twists aswell which are the most part nicely executed. It has a good production value and nice sound design. Especially for a show like this, which is set in the bleakness of space, Sound design matters a lot and there's an eerie vibe to it. The staff definitely nailed the stranded alone in space vibe.

Now let's come to the one glaring negative, While the 3d CGI isn't bad by any means. Sometimes the framerate or whatever its called (sorry I'm not an expert at this) drops really low. As a result of this drop the scenes feel somewhat laggy at times but thankfully it doesnt take away from the show as a whole.

Its definitely an underrated gem in my opinion because I've never seen anyone talk about it which is the reason why I'm writing this review haha.
I'll recommend binging this in one sitting because the pacing and the surprises will definitely feel better that way.
Thanks for reading!

As far as CGI anime productions go, Exception is no exception and has a fair number of hiccups and oddities. However, the way they've chosen to frame this project is more effective than the average CGI series, even amongst those with a comparatively vast budget. The frame-rate may be "off" compared to 2D animation, and there is still the unnatural computer game look and stiffness, especially the hair models, but the character art and set designs stand out. It's also probably worth noting that some people have found they enjoy Exception and some other CGI anime with frame-rate issues more when they upped the speed ... slightly to 1.5x. This is not how I experienced the series, but it may help smooth things out with minimal impact to the pacing or dialogue distortion, though this caveat not only places emphasis upon a serious aesthetic flaw, I doubt it's much of a fix.

This production is more concerned with a philosophical sci-fi plot and character writing, somewhat minimizing the awkward movements. Unfortunately, early episodes do have a few fights with the monster, and later episodes have more elaborate choreography and flipping around, with characters constantly shifting alliances and giving mercy, much to the detriment of their plans, over and over. Additionally, there are some silly elements when it comes to the lurking threat of the monster and any attempts to hunt him down. One character takes him on with a measly pool stick! Characters split up or wander around without weapons, despite the ease with which the creature could maul them. At one point, they 3D print a hammer to use as a tool, and the tension is heightened by the lack of real weapons and intentional design limitations of the 3D printer that prevents them from being able to defend themselves well. Many of these choices often forego the film's strengths and instead pushes the rough CGI to its limits. The series is a more philosophical Alien clone at first, but it quickly becomes a predictable Among Us whodunnit, then goes full-on-ecocuck suspense thriller, complete with the saboteur pulling a 180, cackling madly, like a scheming, unhinged Bond villain. This person had idealistic motives but is tediously framed as borderline insane and evil, having not really bonded with the other characters to elicit emotion. It's not even particularly hard to narrow down whodunnit. Although this is a thoughtful reboot of the basic idea with various sci-fi gimmicks to differentiate itself, the less convoluted Alien is the much stronger and more polished work, aging better than Exception could ever hope to say for itself in the coming decades.

For the sci-fi themes, we're dealing with consciousness and questions of what makes us who we are. There are existential questions about what it means to be human when you're effectively expendable and your next 3D-printed clone is right around the corner. If you're using genetic material to cobble together humans who presumably once existed and had memories, and you imparted those memories, are they the same person? What if you end up printing them again? Or if you have two copies but one is misprinted and so on. Alongside the main thematic content, there's also terraforming and an effort for humanity to colonize the galaxy or other parts of the universe, as well as corporate themes similar to Alien. Nothing too original or necessarily exquisitely executed, but it's interesting enough in tandem with a sort of striking but heavily flawed aesthetic.

The main reason the series got much attention was because of Yoshitaka Amano, who is famous for his character designs and artwork, but few anime have managed to truly capture his elegant designs. Angel's Egg is one of the few, but that was an oddity of the 1980's OVA boom and a short production. Quite a few other projects Amano worked on required the character designs to be simplified; notably, Gibiate listed him as a "character designer," but the final product looked nothing like his work, and that's because the studio was working on a low budget and couldn't feasibly animate Amano's designs. Most of the best commercial work Amano has committed to would probably be static designs that you would see in earlier Final Fantasy games, Kartia, novel covers, comics, etc.

Admittedly, Amano's designs might have gone too far, as some of them look more akin to fantasy characters or court jesters than anything you'd expect in a sci-fi, especially Oscar and Mack. I chuckled when a flashback had Lewis and Mack wearing suits, as they looked so out of place with the series' visual design! But from looking at the lavishly constructed and decorative corridors, vivid colors, and the organic-looking dragon junk (in reference to a Chinese seafaring vessel), which is similar to some of the old concept art for aborted film projects of Frank Herbert's Dune, one can argue that the character designs fit perfectly. The females, Mack, and the monster-version of Lewis are the most effective designs when it comes to portraying Amano's vision; Oscar's prominent jowls, lard-ass shape, puke-colored attire, and bulky-diaper crotch render him as almost too grotesque. Non-mutated Lewis is a little bland and looks especially goofy in the idyllic scenes, brimming with sunlight.

Other than the possibility of a high budget 2D animation, I actually think 3D is a nice avenue for Amano's designs and other similarly elegant ones that don't lend themselves well to traditional animation. The art direction and setting is strong, and I'd suspect Amano had a hand in that as well, or they were inspired by his past design work when it comes to establishing the setting, as there is a lot of similarity to what I've seen from his concept art and comics. For an easy reference, his Final Fantasy 6 concept art is similar, just less monochrome and intensely colored. Additionally, the recently deceased Ryuichi Sakamoto provides a fitting, though somewhat bland, ambient score, often synergizing well with the intended mood.

This is coming from an anime weeb who has watched more than 250+ animes but compared to others, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at their massive 1000+ anime watched, I'm so weak compared to them. Anyway, point is, even tho I'm a weeb, I'm still not used to sci-fi, much less when it comes to outer space. So, this review is rather amateurish so bear with me.

I felt a pull to my heart on some of the characters when they fulfilled their purpose after their last breath, which is something I didn't expect and that I would connect and relate to them. I love space ... movies, so I watched this anime just because the setting is outer space. It's 3D, which is why most anime fans wouldn't prefer but I still watched it anyway just for a different experience.

Going back to the main topic, I didn't know how to feel about the main character Nina at first but her last moments are the events that got me to love her. For Mack, I like this dude, he's not that particularly unique, I don't even remember if he has any flashbacks to have a peek at his backstory but w/o even that, they still managed to make me like him by giving us the idea that he has his own principle, values, and purpose. Lewes too, I feel a lot for this dude, you get it too.

One aspect I didn't like was the execution and the emphasis on their surroundings. It's close to nitpicking if it comes to the latter but the execution is severely lacking. I don't know exactly what execution means but I'll write as if I understand the general idea. They could have put more emphasis and foreshadowing. I didn't even know Patty has her own printing machine(?), or I just miss it during my watch, they made it appear as if "Wahaha, I got printed first before you so know I'm ahead of you," it's something you use whenever you just need to fit in the gap and appear as if it was smartly done. They could have shown hints here and there but they mostly didn't.

The ending tho, the ending left a long-lasting impression, it was worth it I thought while watching the greeneries unfold within the screen. It was a fine ending, with nothing left to be unsatisfied about.

It was good, not that bad or amazing. It's something I might forget after a year or two but might retain more than that who knows.

Almost no reviews, a precious soundtrack, great story, and questions that'll make you think more than most media. Why isn't there an audience for it?

For starters, the story seems pretty normal in retrospect. A crew is sent on a mission towards an unknown planned, but something goes wrong, and somebody seems to be the culprit. In that sense, it seems normal to dismiss it as “Among us the anime”, but there's something weird that pulled me into the atmosphere instantly. These people aren't conventional humans.

Born from a 3D printer womb, right from the beginning, every character asks the questions that one needs to. How human ... are they? And how human is the monster that was born from the same womb? It's an existential series that poses questions about identity in the midst of scientific advancement. At the same time, having a thriller narrative about culprits, schemes, and being one step from each other in this claustrophobic environment. Incredible writing, tight, slow-burner that uses the 8 episodes to its maximum potential. It's an incredibly solid series, if it was simply by its writing, and pacing, but of course, there's the filter. People can't stand the animation or ending.

I'll forever defend the animation, and art-style from the series. Memorable designs, every single character having a different color scheme, pretty expressive in a down-to-earth, realistic sense. Sure, it's stiff at times, but it visually conveys every character without need for explanations on personality. My biggest, and only problem, are the long, sometimes weird fight scenes. Characters gain a strange move which only activates when the plot requires it to; allowing them to win out of nowhere. However, I never felt as if it was stupid, or ugly, just incredibly stylized. It doesn't search realism, more of an artificial feel to it, which fits the series perfectly.

The music, on the other hand, I usually don't notice it. It's something I instantly felt attracted to, mesmerized even. Ethereal, larger than life, galactic, but incredibly claustrophobic at other times, while not missing the uncanny nature in the concepts. 61 tracks, and there's not a single one that manipulates emotions.

I have some issues though, not with the ending, but with one character that changes drastically after a reveal. I'd hope, even with changes in the narrative, characters remain entirely consistent, instead of how dramatic it becomes from that. The ending, maybe just the heavy narration which could've been cut. I know that without it, I'd get what was going on. The directing is pretty good, so there's no need for it.

TLDR; I thoroughly enjoyed the series, and I hope more people can give it a shot. It's incredibly paced, well written, great designs, only if you aren't close-minded with the animation and art-style. Mesmerizing music, and a plot that made me think close to those “existential crisis” concepts.

8.3/10. Man, what an underrated gem.

Honestly, I believe this is why people don't enjoy Netflix shows. This show could have been way better if it had better marketing and animation put in motion. Overall this show asks the question of should humans have the ultimate ability to print each other through their science.
Besides it's overall poor choice in animation and color saturation for a show released in 2022, there is nothing really bad about this series.
It has well rounded characters with each person having their own purpose in the bigger picture.
A somewhat abrupt ending but still worth the entertaining watch.
I'd say the music choice and sound effects are pretty ... poor, but the story really didn't require it lacking peak action and all.
I do commend the story's plot, purpose and pace though, I could go far as to say it was a masterpiece but the ending just doesn't tie up for the entire story.
The whole story really just defines how greedy each human really is with the crew members having their own goals for being on a mission to a new haven for humanity.

It was something like this.
Me: "Ah, another Netlfix CGI monstrosity."
Exception credits on screen: (original design by Yoshitaka Amano)
"Oh, OK then. Imagine hiring Amano for char design and you turn them into Gamecube CGI characters though. But let's try."
- I'd obviously try, as a big Yoshitaka Amano fan.
...
Me: "This opening piano chord doesn't fool me.. expecting some cheap crap already.."
Exception credits on screen: (music by Ryuichi Sakamoto)
Me: "FINE! You won. I'd better shut up and watch before anything."

Catchy show, low framerate CGI that didn't bother me, some very interesting ideas. Seemed like a light-hearted version of claustrophobic spaceship thrillers such as Event Horizon, Alien ... etc. I definitely didn't like the ending, it was actually funny and there are some unnecessary things I will not mention (spoiler). Reccomended but not anything high-priority. Could be better, yes, but they already achieved something extraordinary by making a series in this format/platform that doesn't disappoint me.

I'd also like to mention I took at least 3 episodes to notice I was watching the english dub. I don't know if the slow square graphics help to fit the dubs in a way I can't see working in a standard anime, but it was also the first time I could watch an eng-dub anime without laughing at or getting extremely annoyed.

If you're a fan of Amano and Sakamoto, go for it. Script is from the writer of Goth manga; can't remember because I read that around 15 years ago, but was an OK manga back then.