First of all, I really wanted to like this anime. I haven't read the manga yet, so i can't say anything about that. But after watching the trailer of the anime, i was sure that no doubt, this is going to be an amazing action fantasy anime, with horror elements. But they basically cut all of the badass looking scenes in the anime, and titled it as trailer, making it look like, what I expected it to be: twisted, sick, with horroristic enemies and nerve wracking fights.
Let me start by saying, how many chances they missed, when it comes to characters. In the beginning we met Gareki and Nai. It could have been interesting if the anime just followed their journey, but no. As soon as they met the organisation called Circus, they blended into the crew of the ship, and became uninteresting sidecharacters. So I was basically left with 2 interesting episodes in the beginning. After that I couldn't even tell anymore, who was supposed to be the main character, because, non of them got enough time on screen to be somewhat loveable, or to make the audience get attached to them.
But let me explain one by one:
Nai: They could have done so much with him, but instead, his character showed absolute no development. Expect his ability to hear noises, the others can't, he didn't do anything. He wasn't mysterious, nor interesting. And I get it, what they were trying the do. But it didn't work. Nai was supposed to be the typical naiv and innocent boy, who only sees the good in the world, but it just became forced after a while, and he didn't get depth to him, and because of that we couldn't actually understand or like him.
Gareki: He is the "badass" guy in this anime. Even tho he basically doesn't do anything, only in the first and in the last episode. But other than that, all he does, is staring at the events, that are happening around him, and getting kidnapped everytime He doesn't fight, barely talks, or shows any development. I was pretty surprised at some parts. For example, when they were sent to the ship, he wanted to go back into the town. You would think, oh sure because he wanted to go on his own way. But no. He wanted to go, to buy clothes?! I have never seen any "badass" characters like this. Just as i said at Nai, the character doesn't work, as they wanted it to.
Yogi: The character, you could barely ever take seriously. He was supposed to be the funny guy, but yet again: it didn't work. He was quiet annoying at times, just as Nai. There wasn't any depth to him, and his personality was too similar to Nai's.
Throughout the anime, I could see how hard they tried to give us some fanservice by giving us "cute" guys and scenes, but it failed. Even the relationships between them turned out to be boring, and we didn't see them interacting to each other in private, so there was no sign of the relationships developing to a deeper level, where the characters could have gotten attached to each other.
But there was an other thing about the characters that bothered me. The looks. I don't really want to write a lot about this, but I feel like i have to mention it. In the beginning everything fine, but after that, they gave the characters pink and girly outfits, which didn't really fit them. Especially at Gareki.
The plot could have been better, if they explained some things. But no, we were left with many questions, a lot of plot holes, and with scenes or claimes that didn't make much sense.
This anime was full of awkward and boring situations/scenes. And they characters we met but only for a few episodes were forgottable, and they had no power to share us some emotions.
The fights. Theye were the worst. I can forgive the not much developed or weird looking characters, but not the fights. Especially because there was BARELY ANY. We got a few ones, but these "fights" were the worsts i have ever seen in any anime. They were finished in few seconds, and most of the time, with a sidecharacter, who showed up from nothing, just in the final moment. Noone else did anything, and most of the time, expect Yogi none of the main characters even attempted to fight. Why?!
And they didn't even show the end of the fights in the final episodes!
Now you may ask 'But if there was barely any "fighting" in the anime, then what was?'- Mostly boring and uninteresting scenes. Pointless situations and forgottable moments, and characters, and basically no or just a few seconds lasting fights. In the trailer were the only cool parts, and we could have gotten much more out of it.
We didn't even get a boss fight or a big explaination for everything in the final episode.
But the the visuals and the sound were outstanding.
In conclusion, I am very disappointed, what this anime turned out to be. I'm not judging if anyone likes it, even tho i can't understand why. All I'm saying is, that this is just my opinion, no hate towards the fans. But I just think it's so sad, how they had so much to work with and they missed it all. It started out soo good, but ended as a boring and unenjoyable anime. And I can't give a higher score for like 2 fine episodes in the whole anime.
