May 30, 2021
The first three episodes of Mnemosyne tell the story of an immortal detective, the last three episodes of Mnemosyne tell the story of a wanna be End of Evangelion. Mnemosyne's anime and light novel were both written by Hiroshi Oonogi, who wrote the script and light novel for RahXephon, this is why the anime is the way it is.
Mnemosyne is a very complex anime to review. I think if each individual episode were to be rated on their own, I would give them each a 7 or 8. The individual plot of each episode was very interesting, the characters were well written (for the most
...
part), the animation was consistently good, and the ost serviced the series well. I very much enjoyed each episode of this anime, my problem is how poorly these episodes work as a whole series. Mnemosyne works as an episodic detective story, but as an overarching story about immortal women fighting man angels... Well, they should have planned it out better.
Have you watched Ghost in the Shell? You know how the characters in GitS clearly have complex back stories, that are never explicitly explained, and yet you never feel out of the loop in any given situation in that series? Mnemosyne is about immortal women who have been fighting the same battle for thousands of years, their backstories aren't needed to understand the first 3 or 4 episodes, but I was often left with the feeling of "oh, I wish I knew what they're talking about." The first four episodes hint and tease these interesting backstories and unexplained mysteries, which are all explained in the last two episodes... In the form of exposition dumps, villain monologues, and throw away mentions. This is why I would individually rate each episode a 7 or 8, but consider the series as a whole to be a decent 6. Retrospectively, it seems less like the series was trying to tease a mystery to be solved later, and more like the writers were trying to hold off their explanations because they hadn't thought of them yet.
I'm gonna take a moment to address the notion that this anime is "torture porn," and this isn't in reference to any other review, but actually the recommendation from Reddit that led me to watch this series. Certain scenes or themes in this anime may be too much for some viewers and I respect that, but I don't think this anime is anymore violent or bloody than any given seinen anime on the top of the charts. Maybe it's the sex and nudity in addition to the violence that bothers people (there is quite a lot of it), maybe it's the BDSM imagery, but I don't think the series is as suffocatingly grim as I was initially warned.
In conclusion, lack of preplanning is why I wasn't at all surprised that the scriptwriter for RahXephon also wrote Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne is a solid episodic crime drama that fails to fit together as a competent whole.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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