The setting of Malice@Doll is in a city devoid of any biological life and populated only by intelligent and self aware machines. These machines and robots (for lack of a better term), go about their daily tasks as they were programmed for despite the fact that most of these tasks are now unnecessary. Some though don't even have that, which is where the main protagonist Malice comes in. She is a sex doll, and with no human customers, Malice and her fellow dolls pass eternity while their mechanical bodies slowly deteriorate. One day, while searching for the repairer robot she encounters a strange apparition of a girl and is led to a strange device and after being attacked she wakes up to find that she is now a flesh and blood human being. She soon discovers she is able to make the other robots and machines into flesh and blood with a kiss. Soon it the machine world begins to crumble as the machines programming becomes their desires and threatens them all.
It is a surprisingly deep and thoughtful story. The world while looking quite futuristic and strange still felt oddly familiar. The pacing is steady and there is a good amount of action and suspense. I was left guessing how it was going to turn out until the very end. The end itself is a bit obscure and leaves itself up to the viewer to interrupt but I felt it was appropriate. Though everything is not really adequately explained either which makes forming your own conclusions about the ending a bit difficult.
The cast of characters is fairly small with the most important being Malice herself and her fellow dolls. Though in the beginning she is an emotionless robot she is a very interesting character. There is a sadness and despair about her and her other doll robots but it is something they are unable to truly express. Malice limps around seemingly barely able to keep moving because of the degradation of her mechanical body. Many of the other dolls are in even worse shape and it’s a bit heartbreaking even if you know they are just machines, and only sex toys at that. The fact that she is a sex doll is also important to her and the other characters and how they develop in the story. Malice constantly tells other machines she will give them a kiss, because that’s all she can do. If that doesn’t pull at your heart a little bit then you probably just don’t have one.
As I mentioned earlier, Malice@Doll is completely animated with CG effects. Sometimes it is quite spectacular. Malice in her human form is quite lifelike and some of the settings and action are visually stunning. The doll Doris is probably the most amazing looking character in the program though. That can’t be said for everything though, as I felt some character designs were awful and while many of the settings are great looking others look pretty bad. The inconsistency drives down its overall score. The voice acting is good, particularly from Malice. There isn’t a lot of music to comment on, with only background music and a pretty good song at the end.
Overall Malice@Doll is a solid show that I would recommend to fans of apocalyptic and horror/psychological storylines, as well as those who enjoy CG anime. Though I did have problems with some of the inadequacies in the plot and the inconsistent animation quality, I think this show is worth your time.
