Reviews

Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu had the potential to be a perfect anime. By "perfect" I mean the anime could have legitimately been perfect. It had a strong, yet simple, story that was very easy to grasp, but it also had a relative philosophical meaning if you thought about the parasite's dialogue and actions (or watch the final act where it is shoved down your throat). The animation quality is great and more importantly, consistent. The soundtrack is extremely good with a rocking opening and a somber ending. Also, the background music has a nice electronica/dubstep feel that adds a lot of hype to the actions sequences. Finally, all of the characters are at least mildly interesting and entertaining with our main protagonist actually not being a little twat (pay attention 99% of the anime industry).

So why wasn't it perfect if everything was in place? Two reasons:

1. The characters fire off some of the most asinine dialogue that I have ever heard. Let me paint a little scenario for you from the anime: You are worried about your boyfriend and you just followed him into a park. As you are wondering where he is, you hear gunshots ring out from somewhere in said park. You then follow the gunshots and find your boyfriend surrounded by police officers with their guns pointed at him as he stands over a dead woman while holding an infant... What do you say to him in this situation? Murano, our protagonist's girlfriend, felt that it would be appropriate to say "Are you back?"..... To lend a bit of context to Murano's question; she has been worried about Izumi, the protagonist, because his personality had changed significantly throughout the course of the anime leading up to that point. However, given Izumi's situation at that particular point in time, "Are you back" is literally the stupidest thing I had ever heard. Lines like this are prevalent throughout the entire show, and I just could not ignore them when they would pop up.

2. Kiseijuu broke the usual mold of twenty-four episode animes in that it managed to stay interesting and focused throughout most of the shows airing. It had a strong start, a great middle arc (something that most animes of this length lack), but the third act was disappointing and drawn out. The final episode, in particular, was frustrating in that it spelled out the philosophical undertones of the entire series in case the slower audience members hadn't caught on to the already ham-fisted messages.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu and it is definitely one of my favorites. It was expertly crafted with no single aspect being compromised in favor of anime's latest tropes and trends. The pacing is also incredibly well done for a show of its length. As aforementioned, my only gripes are with some of the dialogue and the final act, with both being easily forgiven because the rest of the anime is so entertaining.