The first thing that caught my attention was the artwork. It was more cartoon-like, so I was uncertain how serious I should take the show. But slowly I witnessed how sinister the world truly was. After a while I began to notice all the subtleties and supporting elements the artwork helped establish, and I quickly grew fond of it there onwards. As for the plot at the beginning, it had me hooked with the the way it conveyed thought provoking questions to the audience - it always left me wondering about something after watching an episode. On another note, the main character was quiet and complacent most of the time. This allowed the environment and people around him develop the story instead, engrossing the audience further into the world. In a span of one mere episode, many morals were put into question, including not only the relationships between family and friends but the relationship between one's own mind and body as well.
As for the story goes, it was capable of delivering moral ambiguities and mixed emotions with an apathetically melodramatic tone, if that makes sense. The atmosphere was very calm and lull like, but at the same time the audience was sometimes forced to witness something morally outrageous. This seems hard to do, but Kaiba successfully pulled it off. There is this dissonance created between how sinister and selfish the world is and how the world is portrayed to the audience.
The story repetitively showed how dark the world was, but it also showed glimpses of love and compassion throughout the series. Yes humans are selfish, depraved, and weak-willed, but they also have the potential to become selfless, compassionate, and courageous. I enjoyed how there was always a glimmer of hope no matter how inauspicious the story developed.
I can't forget to talk about how unorthodox the plot is delivered. Like what we've seen in Baccano and the famous western flick, Pulp-fiction, the story is not told in a chronological order. Instead, it throws you into a world you have no connection with and forces you to observe and come to your own conclusions about what is going on. Seriously, you will have no idea what's going on at first, but that is fine because neither does the main character. As the story progresses everything starts to make sense. Although, once you get a real understanding of the plot it begins to jump back and forth between events and memories, giving more depth to the characters and answering many questions, but still leaving more to be answered until the final moment where all the pieces finally come together and everything becomes clear.
With all this in mind, this anime obviously isn't for everyone. But if you are looking for a wild ride where you need to be sitting in your thinking chair and wearing your thinking cap to not fall off, Kaiba is most definitely worth checking out.
