Overall this movie is very enjoyable, with great fluid animation, appealing character design, and an overall compelling story.
The story is this movie's strongest and weakest point. The concept is great and extremely thought provoking, and it often makes allusions to other works and ideas which I loved. The world this movie is set in is very well built and established. The characters are often traveling and moving around and there are some complex political conflicts between and within nations and groups, which is presented in a way that isn't so complicated that the viewer gets lost. Very well done in that aspect.
We travel through the plot from the perspective of the main character and with him we come to understand human nature in the context of responsibility and freedom. The stance the movie takes on this subject doesn't interest me as much as how the movie simply brings this idea to the table for discussion. That was one of the aspects of the movie that bothered me, I just wish it went full out on the unfolding of the story and the conflict between the characters and the conflict within the characters instead of spending time making their personal commentary on the subjects. Another criticism I have is that there are some plot discontinuities and the actual concept of the "genocidal organ" seems pretty baseless and kinda boring, not that I'm a psychologist or anything. But these criticisms aren't too significant in light of how happy I am with what this movie did right with the main theme of how freedom comes with responsibility that you have to be willing to bear.
I highly enjoyed the characters from their designs to their personalities and struggles. They have flaws, make discoveries throughout the story, and have genuine thoughts and reactions. Their personalities are probably the weakest part because the story focuses on how the characters are relevant in the plot, although there are a few scenes that feature the characters in an everyday normal situation, and those scenes were great for their characterization, I just wish there was just a little bit more of that. All of the relevant characters are memorable, but there are some minor characters that serve as plot facilitators who are not expanded upon, and most of these characters work perfectly fine in the story, only one or two of them I wish were expanded upon a little bit more.
As far as sound goes, they took a relatively minimalist approach to it, not having any outstanding standalone tracks, but simply having tracks that enhanced the scenes without making me wish for more. Overall I had no problem with the sound.
The visuals were almost outstanding including composition, animation quality, color scheme, and design. The only issue I have is that there are a few short shots here and there where the animation isn't as good as the rest of the movie, and are pretty jarring relative to the rest of the visuals. But besides that, the quality is great, and the fight/action scenes are composed and executed extremely well, making the action easy to follow and visually appealing, not to mention that these scenes have substance and meaning that relates to the story and themes, they are not just hollow and visually appealing for the sake of cool fight scenes.
I think the themes of freedom and responsibility as well as the topic of terrorism are relevant in our current world, so I would personally give it an 8/10. It's a great movie that is entertaining and thought provoking, I definitely recommend it.
