If I had a nickel for every time an anime released with incredible production value only to slowly worsen after a few episodes and produce some less-than-stellar results, then I'd be a millionaire. I can't say I know what's happening in Bug Films, a new studio that broke off from OLM (due to seemingly suffering from overwork/creative differences?), but whatever faulty work life the team here was running from seems to have followed them. It's unfortunate but I'm suspicious as to if that's all that's causing the delay because (to me at least) it's the least of this series's problems.
I can give them the benefit of the doubt and surmise that: while they clearly have the talent to create, running a business is a whole 'nother deal. They got too ambitious, they didn't plan far ahead enough, didn't prepare for enough overhead. Things like that. And I'm sure they feel bad after producing such a strong few first episodes and won't be satisfied until they fully rework their production pipeline and get everything ready for the finale so it satisfies the fans. And good for them if that's what they're doing. However,
Getting back to the series's real problem, the thing great production can't fix, the writing. Something I personally had been feeling was worsening around episode 4. I just can't quite seem to like these characters. They're far too petulant, too childish, or willfully ignorant - A grown adult's idea of "becoming a comedian" is to strip naked and dance like a moron in lieu of actually ever doing or saying a single funny thing in the entire show. In situations where they need to be empathized with or stand up and be heroes, it ends up being impossible to root for them. What little I'd thought I'd learn to grow to like has been re-geared and the characters have seemingly devolved into sorta unfunny, less interesting archetypes.
Then the small truck stop arc, where the main character had to pointlessly redo his whole episode 1 moment? It was the one thing that originally got me to relate to our protagonist and they're just doing it again but worse because we saw him break through this blockade over the course of 6 episodes. I lost faith in the story at that point. The stakes of the characters or the furthering of their goals became that much harder to get invested in. The story didn't lose sight of its goals but just became the same story every single episode with no new really striking perspectives to grab onto. And the whole titular "bucket list"? I lost sight of its purpose first when it was used to "find someone to love" I mean perv on airline attendants and treat their situation so unseriously that they are fully responsible for getting them all killed. Until you arrive at the sad conclusion that our hero isn't a serious enough person to warrant making a bucket list to begin with. Watching a character struggle can be enjoyable but I just can't stand watching them struggle to try to attain something so lofty and difficult with this simple-minded basic attitude. Which follows him episodes later of him "making up with his parents". If he spent any time learning/growing then he could have reached the conclusion that his parents don't need/want his forgiveness at the same time it's made obvious to the audience. It feels like the antithesis of what this character should have been. The ordeals he'd gone through in the first episodes haven't made him any more studious, serious, curious, cautious, emotional, wiser. He keeps stumbling and failing through lessons that are broadcasting their morals a mile away and doesn't queue in on them until *after* the narrative tension could have reaped the rewards.
So if this show never gets renewed, the legacy that it's going to leave in my mind isn't a show that started good but got bad because of production issues but one that got bad because of fundamental flaws in the story and character writing.
But I do hope the Anti-bucket List troop hinted at the end of the episode breathes some new life into the characterization of society being freed through apocalypse-ification. But can the cavalcade of goofy under-developed side characters really add anything other than unwarranted comic relief? |
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