Story: With the world dying to the point that it could no longer sustain life, a man known only as 'Y' rebuilt it from gears and clockwork, thus creating the 'Clockwork Planet' that the characters live in. (Don't ask me how he did it, the characters themselves don't even fucking know) It is here where our dual protagonists come across many wrenches in this world of gears as they try and work out the kinks in the machine.
Based entirely on only a few of the story's beginning arcs, Clockwork Planet is a typical arc-heavy story that relies on different problems arising for our protagonists to deal with, each creating a similar problem in a different way. These outlandish scenarios act as a double-edged sword for the series as while the plots create a semi-engaging scenario for the audience and provide us a reason to continue watching, the actual logistics for each antagonist's reason for doing their evil deeds usually don't really make any sense whatsoever. Especially with the last arc, a lot of the show's cogs fall apart because a lot of plot aspects don't fully mesh well with each other.
It's also important to note that very often the show wastes time with less action-packed scenes and focuses more on comedic or slice-of-life moments that while do help provide a better aspect of life on the clockwork planet, don't really add much to the story. Especially since most of the time they shove these parts in the middle of the action, so it creates a jarring shift in tone.
All in all, Clockwork Planet was a series that had a rocky start, picked up a little bit in the middle, and then ended with the cogs falling apart again. Mixed with plot holes (some of which can be ignored to an extent), unclear antagonist motivation, and a surprising amount of choppiness with the story, Clockwork Planet's story ends up being a clunky mess that has some good aspects, but ultimately falls apart because things don't mesh well enough to create good synchronization.
Overview:
+ Interesting world (Gotta give 'em for an interesting setting)
- Clunky pacing
- Jarring tone shifts
- Unclear antagonist motivation
Characters: Inversely, the characters of Clockwork Planet share a different opinion when compared to its story. Sadly, if you're not a main character, than the show really doesn't care about you.
First are the duality of protagonists, Naota Miura, the boy whose sexual preference is robot and Marie Bell Breguet, the short fused clocksmith gone rogue. Obsessed with clocks and wanting to be a clocksmith, Naota represents the 'Natural Genius', as his uncanny, natural ability to hear minute problems within the rhythm of gears and figure out the problem from that actually makes him quite interesting. As a character, Naota is a boy who adores automata to the point that he makes one his waifu and gets very upset when they're mistreated. Marie on the other hand is an experienced clocksmith representing the 'Learned Genius' as comparatively, she knows how to fix stuff, but has to work to find the answer when her counterpart does the reverse. Because of their contraries, the characters work well together as opposites, and the majority of the runtime is dedicated to their opposing ideas meshing together to fix the problem. While they don't do well on their own, their teamwork brings up a good positive for the show since their bickering is actually really fun and interesting to watch.
Then there's RyuZu, the one who follows. As the main automaton of the series, RyuZu is a sharp-tongued robot gal who hates people but loves/respects Naota because he fixed what 200 years of clocksmiths couldn't repair. Generally acting as a supplement to Naota's character, RyuZu acts as a bit of a gag due to how rude to everyone she is, thus creating some actually charming scenarios between the characters. She mostly stays stagnant in terms of development like the rest of the cast, but the qualities involving her offensive nature make her very entertaining if nothing else. Other automaton like AnchoR and Halter act a similar role in that they add more to the series to make the cast more colorful, but don't have much in the way of development and are really only necessary to the plot when needed.
Aside from them, the supporting characters are shoddy examples of what not to do when creating a supporting cast. The antagonists have very loose motivations that don't really make sense or amount to anything, and the supporting cast either have a very tiny role and/or don't really make much sense.
Overview:
+ Interesting (and entertaining) main characters
+ Entertaining supplementary characters to the main duo
- Supporting cast doesn't really matter all that much
Art: Produced by Xebec, Clockwork Planet's art leaves a lot to be desired. The animation and art itself is standard fare, and the show uses actually really nice CGI in order to create the numerous amounts of gears, cogs, and machines that we see throughout the series. Despite its background appearance, the character designs leave a lot to be desired.
While the original art for clockwork planet does leave some things to be desired, the anime's adaptation of said art has a lot of inconsistencies with it. Character proportions (like AnchoR's head compared to her body) look off, as the heads of the characters are stretched length-wise and create some really peculiar looking people. On top of that, the show's inconsistencies with character design make it so that one shot doesn't look the same as another, thus creating weird shots altogether.
Overview:
+ Good use of CGI
- Inconsistent character designs
Sound: Appropriately (or lazily) named 'Clockwork Planet', the show's OP made by Fripside is...quite samey to what the group makes. A lot of their songs sound very similar, and this one is no different. That isn't to say it's a bad thing, as the inclusion of windup noises and the overall tone of the song is still quite nice despite how similar it sounds to a multitude of their other tracks.
The show's ED on the other hand (also appropriately named), "Anti-clockwise", is a louder, slightly more screechy song with dissonant piano chords and an all around messier structure comparatively to its OP counterpart. It's not that pleasant to listen to, and is one of those things that's worth skipping not because it's forgettable, but because it does grate on the ears a little bit.
Overview:
+/- Tracks vary with your mileage
Personal Enjoyment: I was anticipating the release of Clockwork Planet for quite a while. It was one of those show that I really wanted to watch and I had to wait for its release because it was stuck in development hell for a little while. Unfortunately, the end result I wouldn't say is worth the wait, but despite that, I still enjoyed it regardless of the fact that I can just as easily chalk up a lot of the shows problems and ultimately say that it is indeed a 'bad adaptation'.
Did I enjoy this series?
Critically, the show has many flaws. Despite that, Clockwork Planet still managed to be a guilty pleasure of mine. The bickering between the main cast really made the show enjoyable for me to the point that I really didn't care much for the story or any other aspect of the show. Fripside's OP's always interest me, so I would be remised if I said that I didn't enjoy that too. Sure it's not a great show, but a show doesn't have to be 'great' in order for one to enjoy it.
What didn't I like about this show?
The last arc felt really weak. Especially since it took about a third of the runtime, having a huge portion of the story stumble towards the end was a big letdown, especially since very few things at the moment clicked in place.
Would I recommend this series?
If you just really want to see some interesting characters talk to each other, than Clockwork Planet fits the bill. Again, the show struggles with having a cohesive story and the visuals leave some things to be desired. Despite that, its characters make the show good enough for those with low standards to still find something enjoyable to watch, so if anything, I'd say this show is for those willing to devote some time to enjoy something that's kinda stupid, if anything.
