Exception

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.

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...

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.

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.