My review of Geneshaft has been a long time coming. It was pretty new when I first watched it. At the time I saw tons of reviews on other anime sites, and they all made me think of that line from Galaxy Quest: "Did you guys ever watch the show?". There really wasn't anything that anyone had to say that I could reconcile with the idea that they had actually seen the material they were supposedly reviewing. I've never felt so alone. To this day, I still find the disconnect somewhat frightening.
When I was taking a quick look at Geneshaft after recommending it as similar to another show, I laughed out loud at item b in Nyron's review: "No one on MAL who's reviewed this series has actually watched it, or their reviews were written from memory months or years after half-watching the original run on TV." Actually, that significantly understates how jarring the reviews used to be, but most of those websites no longer exist anyway.
The main reason I have taken so long to write about Geneshaft is that I hate to say "well, you just don't get it". However, that really is what it boils down to. For example, the first time I watched Geneshaft, I found several of the characters almost intolerably annoying. It wasn't until I had watched the whole thing and understood why they were how they were that I ceased to find them annoying. This show has suffered oceans of undeserved hate because it does what it needs to do, right to the end, regardless of who will take unwarranted offence. That's one of its strong points. It proceeds unflinchingly to its final destination, rather than wimping out and rendering the entire story meaningless. It's unfortunate that so many people dislike Geneshaft, but the more I read of others' comments, the more I am convinced that even those who like it don't really get it.
