MINDSET:
Explosions, derpy faces, amazing animation and overly hyped. Its devoid of realism and don't think outside the box...
REVIEW:
According to Collins dictionary terrorism is:
The systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve political ends.
By using this evidence, do I remember any casualties from innocent civilians? No. Even if You may think that there were at least some deaths during the show, they never had the courtesy to at least show some death sequences or just anyone dying as if everyone was plot armoured, and when we do gotten to do the point when people are dying, it felt cheap as if the writers never noticed they should even have casualties.
So even the show that centres around “Terrorism” looks and centres more around just blowing sh*t up. It was obvious right from the get go that the two protagonists needed to launch a nuclear bomb at Tokyo, Consequently, right at the first few minutes of the Anime, we see them successfully stealing plutonium without getting caught and instead of even planning to create a nuclear bomb but all what they did was screw around with the police with riddles and demolishing a couple of skyscrapers without even killing anyone!
Character motives are just way too value or feels like it happened for no reason at all. Like why are these people terrorists in the first place? Seriously, You cannot really link up why and how this whole terrorism thing even started! Their were characters who barely get any fleshing out and feel like backdrop. Like the police force who seem to have an important role to the plot yet the show has never really felt that these supporting roles have a larger meaning or have good character exploration for us to even care! The side cast was completely forgettable as one guy only speaks English in the most Asian way possible and who even cares about such people or anyone in that matter?
Plot device characters are surprisingly everywhere in the Anime, but even if the role was there and the character is grasped well, how can we care? No one ever develops as if we were to show our sympathy at the end. Token girl of the two terrorists was unnecessary, she doesn’t have a role to the plot, she doesn’t even help out the characters emotionally or physically and we never even knew why she's so emo in the first place, since all what she does is look sad! Overall, the cast was an absolute train wreck.
Sure before the unholy revival of the 5th episode it did felt like a good show with how it handles the story. Of course society mass panicked from the extreme vandalism, the police was actually doing something. Though the riddles that the terrorists set up were just plain silly like trying to figure out some cryptic Greek myth to find some number that will lead the police force to enemy HQ felt more hip and cool like a beta version of Death Note. Yes, characters were still terrible at that time, but it seem to contain more self-awareness any ways.
When the show attempts to create some epic revelation twist as a pathetic attempt to blow everyone’s mind, it feels more like stuff being made up along the spot rather than something that feels organic. In this one moment when we reveal the master mind whose behind through most of the weird causes in the show we instead found that it was just one of the detectives friend who committed suicide... Yeah, epic revelation guys I sure had an asthma attack after that one...
At this fifth episode we see the show completely collapsing into itself when he reveal a psycho chick whose only personality is just to be a Yandere, but also: We some of the most asian and most downright cheesiest and the most unmoralistic use of “Engrish” in a damn while! I know these people are meant to be American and this Asian Psycho has to speak English for them to understand, but its still a thousand times better just to leave all of those scenes in just Japanese; I can't help but to utterly face palm and feel ear raped every time I hear it!
Though that is not the biggest of my issues, its when the show decided to hit the mind blow fest, and throw in a bunch of random details of the story that don't add up to anything, and even if it does somehow make sense, it still felt cheap or more importantly some random sh*t where supposed to care about, but ends up being pretentious. As if it was so cheap for the reason why psycho chick was psycho was because she was drugged in school. Can't I ever be more uncaring for such a plot device?
Overall, for something that is meant to be some intense mystery thriller, its horrible, since we don't care about the characters and too many of them feeling like a plot device or just there for absolutely f**k all. The show is classified as “GOOD” until you pass episode 5, and I did enjoy it for what its worth in a certain extent. Consequently, the show ends up not being bad, but another mediocrity because of that factor alone.
Since I never cared about the show, fans were trying to speak at how this show has a “Political Message” yes, even if its excactly true on whatever the show tries to conceptualise, like how making a school for uber smart people so they can farm their genes that will save the needless problems in Japanese society, was presented too subtlety! Yes they somehow vaguely explained it, but even if it was obvious, the reasons just don't really feel natural, and is more of a pretentious arse pull! And even if the message was handled well enough for us to get it, I still cant help but to not care, due to badly directed characters and story.
MAPPA is one of those Animation companies that don't really make the best kind of Animation, well its either mediocre or above average, and they did Animated Hajime No Ippo for whatever that fighting show is worth. Any ways, it was very clear that MAPPA allowed there Animators some fun and creative freedom while still dumping cash bags of savings to make some of the most consistent and well made backgrounds. There is this feeling when there’s a lack of CGI, which is always a plus side and despite of them using a lot of greys, it does make a nift contradiction with some bright colours thrown in whenever someone is outside. The character designs still range to pretty good, or just plain cheap! Like one of the police men having massive eyes and how he's part of the supporting cast. However, most of them give this feeling to synchronize with the whole themes of the show regardless if it was presented badly. How the camera just moves a bit from time to time for no apparent reason is a nice touch, and there were moments like the Ferris Wheel scene when I just want to feel at least some emotion just because it was choreographed so well. Clearly, there has been a lot of thought put into this.
The OST has a strange vibe to it feeling rather unfitting for this kind of show, but it somehow blends well with the whole terrorist thing with crazy visuals. They do use mainstream instruments like the guitar and piano to an extent, but my main issue is that its just too ambitous for me to gladly listen to on a structured basis. It is an OST that feels very odd, it gives You this bizarre, yet somewhat emotional impact. It is clearly one of those OST's that You need to listen by Yourself to get the gist of what people say about it. The OP, does fit in well with the OST, and sure it doesn’t get me excited, but the visual choreography is just a creative use for us to get into a weird mood. The ED is skip worthy, but it is very calm if You'd like to listen to it.
LEGACY:
Its always going to be the Animation of how people will remember such an over hyped mediocrity. Its always going to be the damn budget that I will forever remember on how aesthetically pleasing it was. Even if everyone says that its good, I believe it won't be long until more and more people will cough up to downgrade the overall score...
SCORES:
2.5/10 – The characters have nothing but to fill a one or two dimensional personality, and some of them are complete plot devices or just there or no reason.
4/10 – Its cool just to see the it until episode 5, when the story being on of the redeeming factors collapses into itself.
8.5/10 – A great mix of very creative choreography and a crazy budget that stays consistent.
7/10 – The music is refreshing from the common OST, but its a bit too bizarre for me.
FINALE: 5.5/10 – Its a lousy piece of sh*t if it wasn’t for the budget.
