Tokyo 24-ku

In a special jurisdiction area built in Tokyo Bay commonly known as the 24th Ward, the population enjoys a very safe life thanks to the Hazard Cast—a surveillance system that predicts accidents and assists victims immediately. However, the system cannot foresee the exact nature of these accidents nor prevent them from happening.

Ran Akagi, Kouki Suidou, and Shuuta Aoi—a trio of friends nicknamed "RGB" due to their hair color—experienced the tragic nature of these limitations when Suidou's sister Asami passed away in a fire at her high school. A year later, Shuuta still blames himself for failing to save Asami, while Ran pursues his dream to become a famous street artist, and Kouki works in the Hazard Cast intervention unit.

After the RGB trio reunites at a commemoration for the victims of the school fire, each of them receives a mysterious phone call. Bewildered to hear Asami's voice, the three friends are shown images of the future and asked to choose between two grim alternatives. Refusing to be bound by predetermined outcomes, the three tackle this troubling event head-on, marking the beginning of a series of cruel dilemmas that they will have to overcome in order to protect the 24th Ward and its people.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aoi, Shuuta Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Akagi, Ran Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Suidou, Kouki Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Kinako Supporting

Tomaru, Nanami Japanese

Sakuragi, Mari Supporting

Makino, Yui Japanese

Suidou, Asumi Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Kunai Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Shirakaba, Kozue Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Shirakaba, Hiroki Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Tsuzuragawa, Sakiko Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Higashi, Mao Producer

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Kida, Kazuya Producer

Tamura, Satoshi Producer

Reviews

Apr 6, 2022

NomineMalum

Recommended

Tokyo 24th Ward is an original anime, it’s a drama thriller. I have been waiting to see a few episodes before reviewing this series to have a good idea of where this was going.

So, is this anime worth watching after 12 episodes?

YES OF COURSE!

STORY

Tokyo 24th Ward has an interesting premise. It’s the story of three friends (Shu, Ran and Ko) who have to decide on life-and-death situations after they receive visual messages from their deceased friend. And all of that happens in the 24th ward of Tokyo, an artificial island that has a dystopian feel. However, in the first three episodes, it doesn’t feel ... like the series knows what it wants to be. Is it an action thriller, is it a slice of life, is it science fiction, or all the above? I was left wondering where the story is going. Because, let’s be honest, it wasn’t very clear. Nevertheless, the first three episodes are still entertaining. I felt invested enough in the characters to continue watching. Fortunately, the series does find its ground starting episode four. I just think that it needed more time to introduce the main plot. But once it gets going it’s even better. The story has stakes, action and also emotion. So I’m definitely excited to see where it’s going next. I just hope that considering the nature of the story, the writers have an endgame. One thing is sure, the writers have created an engaging and rich world.

CHARACTERS

The main three characters (Shu, Ran and Ko) are well written and quite compelling. They are so different from each other. Ko is the serious one who wants to follow the rules no matter what, while Ran is a art lover and a free spirit. And Shu is the guy who wants to be a hero so he is always going to try to help people. Shu is definitely my favorite character. He has the most potential and he’s so endearing. And as the story goes, it’s interesting to see the gap forming between them. They were once friends but obviously, they don’t have the same vision on how to handle the whole situation. Thus, they don’t work as an actual team and do things on their own.

ANIMATION

Tokyo 24th Ward has bright and colourful visuals. It’s quite striking. CloverWorks has created a beautiful world. It’s anchored in our present world with elements of dystopian science fiction. I’m impressed by its quality. It’s one of the main strengths of this series.

OPENING AND END CREDITS

The opening credits give me vibes from Banana Fish. And it has a lot to do with the fact that it’s also Survive Said The Prophet who sings the opening for this series. This is a killer Rock group! It’s a dynamic opening with a song that stays in your head. I can tell you I have listened to ‘Paper sky’ on repeat. As for the end credits, it’s sung by the three lead actors as their characters. And I can’t resist hearing Yuma Uchida’s singing voice. It’s a really fine end credits.

VERDICT

Tokyo 24th Ward struggles to find its ground in the first episodes but once it does, it delivers. This series has compelling characters, Shu is an instant favourite! And, it’s visually striking.

SCORE

8/10 A VERY GOOD SEASON FOR TOKYO 24-KU

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 6, 2022

PyraXadon

Mixed Feelings

You know when you watch something because you think the concept is cool? But it ends up flopping because it’s trying too hard/too much? Yeah.

Story:

In an artificial and isolated island in the middle of Tokyo lies the ’24th ward’. The people who govern this island for better or worse have a desire to officially join the city of Tokyo as an official district. But are required to pass a certain threshold of ‘safety’ in order to do so. As such, the system known as the ‘Kanae System’ monitors the threat potential of its citizens in order to take out any potential outliers that threaten the ... safety of society. It’s here where we meet our three protagonists, affectionally called the ‘RGB boys’, who’ve drifted as a result of an incident several years back. Now in their young adult years, the city’s threat system contacts the three boys and offers them a trolley problem under the guise of a familiar name/figure in order to solve the ward’s problems. Giving them the chance to change the future with…mixed results thanks to conflicting motivations.

On paper, Tokyo 24th Ward is a series that really should’ve worked. It’s in the same vein as psycho-pass and similar shows like that where the narrative is wrapped around proposing a question. In this case, we ask whether or not the order of a computer that governs society and restricts privacy is better than one without. Sacrificing privacy for safety and safety for potential social unrest. A fair question to ask in our current day society. One that I’m sure could’ve worked if it was an idea that was well-implemented. But for this show…that’s debatable at best.

Trolley problems are kind of the main thing this show tries to do. Every few episodes bringing forth a new issue that the RGB boys must deal with that tests their ideals for the future as well as their cooperation. Not only that, but we’ve got backstory. A lot of backstory. Ones that deal with not only how the RGB boys drifted apart, but also why the security system is the way it is. As well as character backstory for a myriad of side characters who all have a stake in the narrative as a whole. Oh, and did I forget the one episode where one of the boys just…grabs his chest for a whole day? Or the one time there was a cooking competition? Tokyo 24th Ward is a classic example of a show that bites off more than it can chew. The show only spans around 12 episodes. But with about 8-9 plot threads throughout the whole thing, the show feels a lot less like a cohesive narrative and more like spaghetti being thrown on the walls.

As such, nothing in this show really sticks for longer than maybe a few minutes. Whatever’s shown either in the last episode or several minutes prior is typically cast aside and replaced with something else that’s about as equally important. By that I mean it should be important to the story, but the show really doesn’t make a strong case for letting stuff last longer for more than a few minutes. Hell the whole graffiti war happened all of a sudden and just kind of ended for no reason? Honestly I still don’t understand that whole thing, and I doubt the series does either. Pacing suffers immensely because of this, and I can’t really make a strong argument for the narrative threads the show tries to make because the end result that culminates in the last two episodes just feels hollow and empty.

Admittedly, I did have some hopes for the series. Thinking it was going to be at least an entertaining piece of media that wasn’t typically anime fare- But I see now that my hopes of getting another dark horse of the season correct was swiftly snuffed. Admittedly, the story conceptually isn’t bad. It’s just that with the insane amount of fluff padding out the runtime, the numerous plot threads, and the poor pacing not executing on the theme/ideas very well just kinda made the show fall unceremoniously without any real takeaways to be had. Like sure, the trolley stuff is cool and all, but maybe a little bit more time on the cutting room floor to make sure the narrative…made sense as a whole would’ve been nice.

Characters:

The RGB boys consist of a graffiti rebel, a wannabe hero, and the dude with glasses who thinks he’s got a better sense of morals because his daddy is the mayor of the entire ward. Very different characters. And at no time do they ever agree on anything. While I think the dynamics make for some fantastic character contrasts that could result in some fantastic character interaction…the truth is often more disappointing than you think. The three characters constantly fight throughout the series, never really being on the same page on anything after the first episode. Made even more egregious because they kind of go off on their own separate things but are mostly just…bystanders to the plot? It’s a really weird viewing experience having the protagonists just watch things happen as the 24th ward erupts in flames. And they don’t really do much aside from interact with their immediate circles and make some indirect impact on the plot. Suffice to say, the RGB boys aren’t really that compelling of a group, and even less so as individual characters since the poor pacing and scattered focus really hemorrhaged their ability to be actual characters in their own story. Which is a shame cause the few times they actually get together are really cool. It just doesn’t have many lasting impacts because it happens so few times that it’s more of a spectacle than a natural narrative point.

Side characters aren’t really much better off since any and all screentime they get is devoted towards building up the world. Or showing off why the place is such a shithole. Backstories are almost entirely shown to give significance to why characters should matter instead of who they are. Without their connection to whatever’s happening in the moment, I’m almost certain that the side characters wouldn’t have anything meaningful to them. Even the ‘antagonist’ of the show isn’t really worth mentioning because the actual role they play is again, geared towards building the world. Like everyone’s just following a torn up script and doing their best to follow along with what’s happening on the screen.

Truly one of the most underwhelming casts I’ve seen in recent history. And it’s a little sad given again, the potential of this series.

Aesthetics:

I’ve said before that Cloverworks is a coin toss in quality. And truthfully, if 24th ward has anything going for it, it’d definitely be its look. On the surface the show isn’t really that interesting to look at. And…it isn’t. But, there’re a few aspects I do like about this show, chiefly in the background art and the designs of the RGB boys.

On the note of background art, Ran’s portfolio (or the R in RGB) and all of the other tagging that goes on in the series is genuinely impressive to look at. Props to the artists that made those cause all of the tagging that goes on in the show’s Shantytown looks really good and I would really like to see all of the background cels that show all of the different pieces of art that was shown in the series. On the note of character design, I personally really like how the RGB boys look, as everything from their clothing to their hairstyle is reflective of the kind of people they are as well as their goals. (I.E. Ran has more of a wild hair to emphasize his loose/anarchic way of life whereas Kouki is more put together and well-dressed to show off his organized and higher income bracket lifestyle.) That and the boys are literally colored Red, Blue, and Green with their eyes swapping colors in order to give them an extra bit of connection with each other. It’s cheesy, but it’s a touch I appreciate.

Survive Said the Prophet’s “Paper Sky” should by no means be as good as it is. It’s a weirdly inspirational rock song that sounds like something you’d here at a concert. It’s a really enjoyable listen for me that was undoubtedly one of my highlights when watching this show. Maybe it’s a little generic for what it is, but considering what this show is, I’m more than willing to give this song a pass because it at least stands out for me. “255,255,255” (They were proud of the RGB puns they put in this show weren’t they?) sung by the RGB boys’ seiyuus is a song that I’d say is as good as its OP sister. It’s a lower energy and comfortable song that stands out to me because it’s just a chill beat that, while maybe a little generic, has an energy to it that I really like.

Final Thoughts:

The word of the day is disappointment. And I’m sticking by that. There’s not a lot about the 24th ward that I think is worth mentioning aside from the fact that the showrunners bit off more than they could chew. The potential for a good series that maybe would become a sleeper hit was there. The first episode was honestly a pretty good first episode that set the standard for what I thought the series would become. Didn’t think that would be the peak. Yeesh.

In spite of that, I still think the showrunners tried to do something good here. Within the show I could tell that there were good nuggets of ideas that they really wanted to show/portray. The struggle between a life of safety vs. a life of privacy did have some genuine merit here. And the issues in the ward definitely weren’t just haphazardly thrown in there as the very idea of the Shantytown full of poor, starving people being restricted even more certainly strikes an uncomfortable note. But they just weren’t able to bring these ideas to fruition in a way that truly made sense. And for that, I lament Tokyo 24th Ward just kind of falling to the wayside, never to be spoken about ever again once the season’s been finished.

Even so, I still wouldn’t recommend the show. There’re far too many narrative problems for it to be even worth someone’s time. If they had maybe been given more time or thinned down the plot threads to be more streamlined, I’m sure we could’ve ended up with something good. As it is…yeah, not really feeling this one. If you’re giving me a full cour of content and it’s unclear on how we got from Point A to Point B then I think the story needs another pass on the drawing board. Like seriously, what was the whole point of the graffiti war if was hardly there for an episode…

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 6, 2022

ZNoteTaku

Not Recommended

SPOILER-FREE!

It’s important to remember that anime is not made by studios, but people. They may be released and financed under the company name, but it is men and women, sometimes from around the world, who are the ones that actually put pen to paper (or stylus and mouse to screen, rather) to produce the content we care about. The studios’ management is involved as well, but the current landscape of the anime industry is often not friendly to its staff, sometimes dumping projects on them with no time to get them finished or rushing them out the door despite their lacking quality. More and more ... stories like these are becoming documented, and it’s important to acknowledge them.

"Tokyo 24th Ward" was a Winter 2022 anime that regrettably got this problem. One month before the show started airing, key animation director Kiminori Itou vocally stated on Twitter that he was not optimistic about the project, and that the amount of time given to the production paled in comparison to CloverWorks’ other two shows that aired this season, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform and My Dress-Up Darling. This puts "Tokyo 24th Ward" in a weird light – if it succeeded despite itself, it would be all the more impressive. If it failed, it would likely be the result of the series not having enough time to pull itself together. Whether that is the result of CloverWorks themselves, or Aniplex, the company that licensed it, we can only guess. Either way, it is the end product that determines an outcome like that.

The series takes place in a futuristic, economically-divided ward that might be integrated into the larger city of Tokyo. After their friend Asumi dies in a fire at their old elementary school, childhood friends Shuta, Ran, and Koki all receive a mysterious phone call at the same time from someone claiming to be Asumi. Upon answering the call, they receive a vision of one of their friends and her dog stuck on a railroad track and must decide whether to allow the train to hit them or slow down the train and risk hurting the passengers. The phone call also imbues them with enhanced abilities, as they spring into action to try and resolve this rather-literal Trolley Problem. As time passes, more Trolley Problem complications will be presented that the three friends must contend with, and it will test the boundaries of their friendships, the ward, and whatever is causing these things to happen.

One of the Trolley Problem’s caveats in practical application, among many, is that it presents two moral extremes for which there is no possible alternative, which dangerously runs the risk of being too disconnected or disassociated from real life to have any significant meaning (even if one can cherry-pick actual stories of Trolley Problem-esque occurrences). An additional downside is that it can reduce a person’s perception of a situation down to its numerical value rather than an empathic value, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for psychological interpretation. To put it another way as Spock did, one could look at the Problem and argue that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” without understanding the resulting implications for who lives and who dies and the world beyond the problem’s framework. Thus, a story using the Trolley Problem starts on a fundamentally shaky ground because it needs to frame the scenarios as being justifiable both in terms of setting them up and the extremes it presents.

The fact that "Tokyo 24th Ward" takes place in a futuristic setting allows its incorporation of the Trolley Problem to work more seamlessly than it would otherwise. Because the series utilizes advanced machines, surveillance, and revolves primarily around the lives of its three main characters, the Problems read as being the expected result of things not occurring within expected parameters. The machines not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, or actually doing precisely what they’re supposed to be doing but in an unforeseen manner, is why the Trolley Problems themselves manifest. Shuta, Ran, and Koki all have various outlooks on the Problems, which helps fuel the conflict surrounding the moralistic decisions they face, as well as their tolerance of each other’s reasoning.

But as far as the three friends are concerned, their chemistry together, regardless of being fractured from Asumi’s death, isn’t pleasant to watch. Shuta fashions himself as the hero of the 24th Ward and upset that he failed to save Asumi, but fails moreso to have a character beyond being a “nice guy” with a superhero ideology, and sadly not much in the way of intelligence. Wanting to help people is certainly noble, but the more-fascinating relationship among the mains, the one between Ran and Koki, is such because they are at complete odds with one another – Ran is a graffiti artist that uses his talents to convey messages, while Koki is a by-the-book, calculating individual with a penchant for siding with law and order. They naturally gravitate towards different circles and schools of thought.

Interestingly enough, for people who supposedly care so much about Asumi, including the fact that Koki is her brother, it is mind-boggling that Shuta, Ran, and Koki never at any point have an earnest conversation about whether it really is Asumi talking to them, or someone pretending to be her. Especially given the crazy happenings that led to the events in episode one’s climax, one would reasonably expect that there would be some kind of brainstorming session to determine what precisely happened. Even if no conclusion had been reached, even if tempers get particularly flared, or even absent any agreement, this is a conversation that needed to happen. Months in-universe transpire without that dialogue.

The reason for this is because, without Asumi’s insistence that when the three are working together that anything is possible, the narrative doesn’t really have a friendship to cultivate for them. The show plays up the chasm between the three in light of Asumi’s death, which makes sense. But whether through flashback or present-time events, we see little evidence of an earnestness between the mains that existed beforehand. Hence, a dialogue taking place evaluating the truth of whether Asumi called them after the first episode cannot happen because the connection via friendship is, more or less, nonexistent.

Instead, the second episode follows the Ward putting on a cooking festival for the residents, resulting in a controversy over someone buying up all the cabbage. This handling of storytelling priority is a part of what makes "Tokyo 24th Ward" so bewildering; the series will propose plots or threads that are theoretically interesting, but shies away from exploring many of them. And when it does try to explore some of those threads, its sense of dramaturgy makes for some questionable decisions. During that same cooking festival arc, the three main characters are outside a warehouse and are deciding whether to bust in and get the cabbage they need for their friend’s okonomiyaki recipe, only to be told by someone that they don’t need to do that because they found some more cabbage lying around that they could use. There’s a build-up that insinuates some kind of action-style sequence will occur, only to pull the rug out from under itself by saying that such a thing wasn’t necessary in the first place.

The roster of secondary characters is wide, and it’s rather sad that they tend to be vastly more interesting and theoretically-compelling than most stories involving the trio. Given the outcomes of some of the Trolley Problems that take place, the secondaries occasionally have to face the ramifications of the trio’s decisions. Kozue is one particular character who stands out in this respect, as an entire episode is centered around her in the aftershock of what happened. But she, like many others, is stymied by "Tokyo 24th Ward" having her take actions or decisions that either lead to unspectacular payoffs via poor buildup or head-scratching choices.

And unfortunately, not even the overall animation or aesthetic can carry the show along, either. It seems that Kiminori Itou’s frustrations make themselves most evident in this regard. Despite the decent look of the cityscape and the ward itself, the character designs are rather uninteresting or are, at worst, horribly off-model. Watching this show from week-to-week made it feel like the show got quite shortchanged in regards to the animation side of production, and given that episodes were delayed twice with a mid-series recap thrown in, this really becomes a nuisance. That doesn’t mean that there are no moments that don’t work, because some do. But given the level of animation CloverWorks is capable of, they are few and far between.

Perhaps the biggest frustration within "Tokyo 24th Ward" is that the various ideas that are on display here are indeed more than capable of filling out a twelve-episode narrative. But as presented, it is oversaturated and cannot accommodate everything in a satisfactory manner. The result is a slew of concepts that are half-baked, unable to reach anything moderately close to full realization, whatever that could be. If the show wants to propose a series of ethical or moralistic decisions that our characters are thrust into, or paint its world with overarching themes that carry particular significance for its characters, then it needs to make a commitment to actually investigate them seriously. It doesn’t need offer a complete, perfect solution to each question (and it would be presumptuous to assume one exists), but the exercise of engaging with the discussions the show wants to have must still be fun in and of itself. For me, this wasn’t.

One could argue that the series is not trying to actually probe that deeply about its concepts, that a series where conflicts are presented to generally last a couple of episodes doesn’t bear the responsibility to fully flesh them out. But when the series puts forward the ideas of economic class disparity via Shantytown, ethical decisions about who should live and die via the Trolley Problems, technology’s growing presence in our lives and its misuse, and stopping crimes before they happen (among other things), it’s not really a compliment to make a claim that the show doesn’t have to put in the legwork. It doesn’t need to be on the level of elegant prose, but it cannot read as disingenuous, which was what it left me with. By the time the final episode had rolled around and presented its last predicament, my interest had, much like Asumi, long since died.

"Tokyo 24th Ward" is an inconsistent lumping of concepts and aesthetic, trying to have its various pieces come together in a way that makes sense, but cannot commit to doing so. Its drama often does not work both at the individual episodic level and the grander narrative overall, with characters making unusual decisions or having revelations that lack dramatic weight and sensibility. The designs are often off-model, and the plot is a hodgepodge of events that don’t deliver despite trying to make use of its Trolley Problem framework. Ultimately, it was a misfire. It’s ironic that a series about having to make decisions with little time to spare was made by animators and writers with little time to spare themselves. Delaying an episode an extra week or having a placeholder recap is only a temporary band-aid for a larger wound. This is one case however where life imitating art resulted in the worser of two results.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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