Before I get into this review I might as well state that I’ve never read the light novels nor the manga and I understand that the ending of the series left a lot of fans frustrated for a different reason than it did me. As I am reviewing this anime by itself regardless of whether the source material is good or not, I hope you’ll respect the fact and excuse anything I say that is contrary to the opinion or view of the fan base who know the material better than I.
Shintaro is a NEET whose lived the past two years without going outside once. The only contact he has with anything is Ene, his adorable AI who floats around his digital devices and annoys him to no end. His first time going outside in years and he winds up getting held hostage at an electronics store. Meanwhile, his sister Momo is an idol who has a strange power that makes every person in an area chase after her like raving, love-stricken lunatics. She meets a group of people, all with special powers, who helps her to understand what is going on. As a load of characters keep showing up with seemingly unrelated stories, everything comes together due to shared pasts and a serpent that controls the fate of the world.
Stylistically and story-wise we see a lot of Monogatari peek through with an animal monster that is manipulating the fates of our young heroes and impressively artistic backdrops. But that’s about where the similarities end. The structure is pretty schizophrenic, focusing on all the characters to some extent and providing occasional glimpses at an underlying story about why things are the way they are. It all culminates in an insane, convoluted, and hard to understand ending that I interpreted a certain way but others interpreted differently. I don’t know if it was meant to be ambiguous or was just way above my head but no matter who you are, you’ll find some reason to be dissatisfied with the finale.
I’m going to refrain too much from talking about the story for those who haven’t seen it. Needless to say I thought it was interesting and fun, even if the conclusion was lacking.
The animation is good, typical Shaft with lots of head tilts and plentiful unique visuals. The soundtrack is also wonderful.
In the character department there were a few stand-outs but all the characters were mildly entertaining to some degree. Ene is, let me get this out there, one of my favorite anime characters of 2014. She’s cute and absolutely hilarious throughout. Her scene with the gun in the final episode was my favorite of the series.
Her master, Shintaro, isn’t too exciting though. In fact, none of the male characters are all that exciting and most of the females are lame too. Marry is the clumsy loli. Momo is an idol and kind of silly and hard-headed. Tsubomi was my second favorite character, a girl who is very shy and has a power that allows her to be invisible.
I wasn’t going to write a review for this show after viewing it because I had very little to say. Usually this is construed as a bad thing but for Mekaku City I feel like it’s better to let you experience the story first hand. It’s a solid experience that only fails in giving a clearer ending; though I’ll maintain I understood it (…I probably didn’t).
