Yakitori

I don't care what anyone says this show is dope as hell.

The dialogue is ok, the plot is actually really good. The animation work and directorial stuff is next level, but you do have to look past the 3d animation, which really isn't a problem for me.

If this AT ALL looks interesting to you, do yourself a favor and please watch this.


The set pieces and action moments are all done really well and there are some really breathtaking animation set pieces. There was a moment near the end of the show that legit left me speechless.

The writing isn't something that's going to draw you in ... to much, the plot is rather simple, but it does have a deeper layer, which you can actually understand without too much analysis, which is nice. It's overall entertaining enough to keep you going, and the plot actually does have some really fun payoffs.

[TL;DR: A weirdly compelling sci-fi action-schlock that ultimately fails on executions. The cool premise, the art and design are all thrown under the bus by awful animation, terrible dialogue and abysmal writing. At least it's short, and there's Bunny Miku, so it's not all bad. Might worth a binge on a boring afternoon, but don't expect a life-changing experience]

Tonkatsu is one of those adaptations that makes you go "WHY?". Why was it made? Who was it even made for? For the fans of the source material it's very lackluster and undeserving, and for everyone else it's confusing, trashy and short (the latter of which is ... a blessing in this case). It's not that Tempura's story is bad, it's just obnoxiously poorly realized. Which is a real shame, because there are seeds of a really cool story and universe underneath all the trash.

I mean, the basic premise is good...mostly because it was good in all the other - much better made - versions of it. It's the quintessential "unlikely bunch" story, where a group of misfits with violently different personalities are forced into a situation where they have to put aside their differences and learn to work together in order to survive...yaddy-yadda. I mean, we've all seen this before hundreds of times, because it's a good premise...when done right. But this story's success is hugely dependent on the quality of characters, where they all have to be well-written in their own right AND create a cool group dynamic....and sadly that's where Karaage fails first. Our five main protagonists are anything but good. Their uniqueness is barely skin-deep, the series does a really bad job at making them even remotely interesting or likeable. I'm not sure if they are better realized in the source material, but they are shamefully shallow in this adaptation. We have our stubborn "stay out of my way" Japanese dude, the loudmouth British girl, the buff meathead American, the "why can't we all just get along?" Swedish guy and the stoic charisma-vacuum Chinese girl. It doesn't help, that the rest of the supporting cast are even less memorable or interesting, save for the bunny version of Hatsune Miku as the AI, who at least brings some very out of place levity (and shock value) into the mix. So unless you are particularly fond of badly animated anthropomorphic animals, you won't find much to enjoy here. Speaking of which...

One of the most egregious failings of this series is the terrible, cheap visuals. Don't get me wrong, the art, the character and world design is pretty good! The sci-fi stuff, the space ships, the tech, even the animal people and their gear is pretty well made. However, it's so poorly framed and animated it just ruins the whole thing. I'm not particularly fond of full-3D-CGI in anime at the best of times, but Kushiage makes even these cool designs look bad. All the badly framed action shots with abysmal framerate and animation even made me dizzy when it went on for too long. Like watching a cheap slideshow, it all looks rushed and flimsy. It's either that, or basically still shot-reverse-shot talking heads with barely any animation. The weirdest part is, the only thing that looks halfway decent is the bunny-ified Hatsune Miku AI, that looks really cute and well animated in basically all the scenes, which is a jarring contrast to the rest of the visuals. It's probably a brand deal thing or something, but I digress.

On second thought, I won't go into detail on the awful writing/dialogue and the plothole-ridden, incoheren story, because I could go on for many paragraphs. Even if the basic premise and story elements are great, the whole things fails terribly on execution. The only good thing is the voice actors at least gave it their best, considering the pathetic writing they had to work with. It doesn't help that the CGI character designs don't lend themselves particularly well to nuance and facial animations.

I'm very hesitant to recommend Nankotsu. It's short, only 6 episodes, so it won't take up your valuable time, and there is some cool design and a decent story hidden in there somewhere, but it's sadly barely watchable, and there are tons of way better made series out there you could watch instead of this one. It's a shame, because I REALLY wanted to like Teppanyaki, because I'm a sucker for good sci-fi stories, but this one, sadly, didn't make the cut. Thanks for reading!

I’ve had my Netflix subscription for about 4 years now. One conclusion I’ve come to during this time is that a marriage between anime and CG would lead to a very toxic relationship. And when you have Netflix certifying said marriage, it will lead to a bloody godawful divorce with no one winning anything substantial in the divorce proceedings. This has been evident in a vast majority of CG anime till date with no such anime becoming a commercial or a critical hit. Unfortunately, Yakitori continues this trend.
Yakitori is a 6-episode anime adaptation of a novel series by the same name, which was written by ... Carlos Zen (who also authored Youjo Senki) and illustrated by so-bin (who also illustrated Overlord). While I was turned off by the animation, I was hopeful that – due to the involvement of so-bin and Calos Zen – the anime would be pretty decent. Sadly, due to Netflix’s involvement, a rather underwhelming premise, unlikeable characters, a lack of character development and backstories, and a very short run of just 6 episodes, this anime was a disappointment.

SYNOPSIS:
In the not-so-distant future, Earth gets colonised by a group of aliens called the Trade Federation (these aliens are basically sapient cats, dogs, rats, and other animals), and have rendered humans as third-class citizens. Humans now face discrimination, a shrinking pool of work opportunities, become a food source for the alien elite, and are increasingly marginalised.
Enter Akira, our hot-blooded hero whose whiny attitude would make even urge Eren from Attack on Titan to slap him across the face, who is also a victim of the aforementioned marginalisation and faces workplace bullying and expulsion from his school (both of which were his own faults, mind you). One fine day, a chap named Pupkin visits his workplace and offers him a job in the Trade Federation’s military. To be more precise, he is scouted into an infantry unit which goes by the name of “Yakitori”; Yakitori is Japanese skewered chicken, and the unit is named as such due to having a 70% mortality rate. Even so, the pay is pretty good and Akira is convinced to join the unit and goes to London, where he would board a spaceship to Mars.
In London, Akira meets his future colleagues: Tyrone, Amalia, Erland, and Zihan. The crew hit it off pretty quickly – Not! Right off the bat, they (mainly Akira and Amalia) began to bicker about the most trivial of matters, from their attitudes to why on Earth is the rocket playing Mozart’s music in the background. While I do understand that a ragtag bunch of misfits (and multinational ones, no less) will have to bicker and gradually become true companions as the story progresses, the sheer inanity of the fights, the insufferable personalities of Akira and Amalia, and them telling off their other three colleagues really soured my mood. What’s worse is that they saw very little character development and their brattiness constantly put their unit’s lives at stake. Anyways, on Mars, they are assigned to work under the orders of Rimul, a dog alien who is an officer in the Trade Federation’s military.
The remainder of the story focused on their training, the history behind the formation of the Yakitori, the unit trying to put down a rebellion, a glimpse into war crime proceedings (which was actually pretty well-done albeit over-the-top), the internal politics of the Trade Federation, and the unit becoming more coherent and following their superiors’ orders. Oh, and the anime also blessed us with a bunny clone of Hatsune Miku, who was used by the Trade Federation to give orders to the Yakitori unit. And no, I am not making this up. Also, the Hatsune Miku clone would give orders to the Yakitori in Japanese in the English dub… And the whole team (including Akira, who’s Japanese) were able to understand her A-OK?! I have no idea why they didn’t bother dubbing her too!
Overall, Yakitori was not a pleasant experience for me. My biggest problem with it were the characters who were stereotypes at best and obnoxious twits at worst. While the premise of an alien race that look like Earth’s animals colonising Earth and enslaving humans is a rather silly promise, that is not an excuse. There are several anime that have silly premises but are well-received. My guess is that these anime strengthen their characters, animation, music, etc. to mitigate the shortcomings of the premise. That was not the case in Yakitori; the animation was uncanny, the premise was weak (save for the war crimes trial), a complete absence of character backstories, a lack of character development, and the characters were predominantly bland and unlikeable. Speaking of which…

CHARACTERS:
1) Akira Ihotsu: The main character of the story and one of the most selfish and bratty protagonists to grace our screens in 2023. Akira was expelled from his school for attacking his teacher for refusing to let him go to college, and he was also involved in fighting with his co-workers for not doing their duties. While the anger was a bit justifiable, violence is rarely, if ever, the answer. Even after getting scouted into the Yakitori, he simply refused to work in a team and his selfish attitude constantly dragged his team down and even nearly got them killed. Also, the blighter’s really rude to his teammates even when he’s not provoked and has been racist towards them (especially Tyrone and Zihan) a couple of times. Sure, he does prove his military prowess occasionally, but what good would that do if you’re a rabid dog biting your enemies and allies alike 99.99% of the time?
2) Amalia Schultz: A British, female, and slightly less insufferable version of Akira. Many of the complaints I had about Akira can be copy-pasted to Amalia. She’s also quite pompous and talks her colleagues down for not liking Mozart. Thankfully, she lacked the racist bone present in Akira and did call him out for verbally assaulting Zihan.
3) Tyrone Baxter: The muscle of the Yakitori unit and originating from the United States. He and Erland are by far the nicest characters, as well as the one who tried to break the ice when the unit was first formed. Unlike Erland, he’s no pushover and grew less patient with Akira and Amalia’s antics. He’s also experienced in fighting and sometimes leads the Yakitori in their operations.
4) Erland Martonen: A tech geek from Sweden who plays the role of the pacifier in the Yakitori. Unfortunately, he’s also a pushover and his efforts to calm the team down often backfire. Overall, a nice but forgettable character.
5) Zihan Yang: The everywoman of the Yakitori from China and my favourite character in this anime. She’s the brains of the team and is by far the most level-headed and pragmatic member who mainly prioritises completing the missions. Like Tyrone, she’s no pushover and tries to develop a sense of teamwork in the Yakitori. Unlike Tyrone and Erland, she has (rightfully) no tolerance for her team’s antics and is very blunt about her colleagues’ shortcomings.
6) Rimul: A dog alien who is an officer in the Trade Federation’s military. He’s also responsible for leading the Yakitori unit. He also plays a more fatherly role for his subordinates and becomes sceptical about his leaders’ agendas. He’s probably the only character in the anime who saw some shred of character development. He’s my second favourite character after Zihan.
7) Vasya Pupkin: The guy who scouted the Yakitori unit. A mysterious character whose objectives are yet to be clarified. Even so, he has aided the Yakitori in several ways across the story. If the anime gets a new season, I would be interested in seeing how Pupkin’s story goes.

ANIMATION:
Yakitori’s animation was weak, period. The animation and the character designs were uncanny and disorienting. Before I picked up the anime, the trailer which showcased what it would be like put me off immediately.
The studio behind the anime is Arect, a studio which specialises in CG and is known for its contribution in the Aikatsu series. Yakitori is their second venture as the main animation studio. Their debut was with Bright: Samurai Souls, a Netflix-original anime movie which suffered from the same exact problems Yakitori faced and suffered from even worse animation.
While Yakitori’s animation is better than Bright’s, that doesn’t mean it’s good. Sure, if a kid gets a 27% score in his maths test while his classmate scores a 3%, both have still failed the test.

MUSIC:
The music score of Yakitori is alright, just forgettable. The opening theme is kinda catchy; it was done by Ken Ishii (a famous DJ inspired by Detroit techno) whose most famous work was Extra, a music video which won MTV Europe’s Best Dance Music Video award in 1997. The ending theme was also done by Ken Ishii; it was a remix of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), which is one of Mozart’s most famous works. Still, my biggest gripe is that why bother having a bunny Hatsune Miku in the anime but have none of her songs. Why on earth was she in the anime then? Why bother leaving things half-baked?

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Yakitori is just one of the many reminders to why CG, Netflix, and anime can’t go hand-in-hand. The anime had potential (heck, it was written by the same bloke who wrote Youjo Senki), but it was very poorly executed. Apart from the animation, the unlikeable and forgettable cast of characters only made the anime a chore to watch. The only three saving graces in it were the war crimes trial scene, Hatsune Miku as a bunny, and the fact that the whole bloody anime was just 6 episodes long.

VERDICT:
3/10 (Genuinely Bad)
Likes: Zihan, Rimul, Bunny Miku, and the war crimes trial scene.
Dislikes: Most of the characters (especially Akira), the animation, and the premise.