Reviews

May 4, 2018
Hacka Doll is an advertising anime for an eponymous app. From a common logic, such types of works are supposed to be quite weak, since their sole purpose is for the viewer just to look up the odject of marketing. What's somewhat surprising in this title is that for such a medium it's actually decent.

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STORY:

Episodic and parodical in it's nature, the show stay this way all the way, though the a few recurring characters and themes. The premise of the show is quite basic: a not-so-well AIs that are supposed to help app users in their deeds. What's actually interesting is that every episode usually has an aesop of sorts that even makes sense.
It's hard to rate low the series' pacing, since it stays pretty much the same throughout it and this pacing works well for such a type of anime. I find it's good, though, that the series ends, in a sense, with a Where It All Began trope, which is a nice touch that creates a somewhat solid ending. Again, we're talking about an ads 7-min per episode anime, so keep that in mind.

As a side note, the series, being made with the help of Studio Trigger (which was formed by former GAINAX employees), even has a roundabout moral right to parody some shows, namely Evangelion. I'd say that to me the parody and humor were fine; they would even work for someone not familiar with the subjects.

ARTWORK:

Hacka Doll uses some nice techniques like zooming in on actual images for comedic effect (though it suffers from low resolution in that case), which, with the overall good production values, ends up in a decent art quality. Main characters' design is catchy, though everyone besides them looks generic. The general artwork is surprisingly good and has it's own style, though. For a short series, that is. Which is to be exacted given the supposedly good budget of the show. The OP is very decent too.

I'd also like to separately note the ED is a big surprise with its use of MMD animation. They even have four versions of them. Though short, they are quite well done, one would have to give them that.

SOUND:

The music themes of the series are nice, but aside from them, there isn't much of a soundtrack to note or talk about. VA is nice too, while SFX are rather basic.

CHARACTER:

This section is pretty straightforward: The characters are fairly cardboard, the main trio being a little better that the rest in that matter, and it's not like the is much development for them or other characters. The weird thing is the 4th character, since she was uncalled for and her entire purpose isn't very clear.

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As for the points:

STORY: 5/10
Premise: 1/2 — Slightly interesting.
Pacing: 2/2 — Works well for its type of a show.
Complexity: 0/2 — None whatsoever.
Plausibility: 1/2 — It has comprehensive parodies and little aesopes about acceptance.
Conclusion: 1/2 — It's vague, but it's there.

ARTWORK: 6/10
General Artwork: 2/2 — Good production values.
Character Figures: 1/2 — Aside from main characters everyone is quite generic.
Backgrounds: 1/2 — Average.
Animation: 1/2— Nothing special about it.
VFX: 1/2 — Basic.

SOUND: 4/10
Voice Acting: 2/3 — Decently done.
Music Themes: 1/4 — Aside from nice main themes, there's isn't much of music.
SFX: 1/3 — They're there.

CHARACTER: 3/10
Presence: 1/2 — They play their roles, I guess.
Personality: 1/2 — Cardboard characters
Backdrop: 0/2 — A minimum of it.
Development: 0/2 — Almost none at all.
Catharsis: 1/2 — Extremely basic, but there is some.

VALUE: 2/10
Importance: 0/3 — No real point recommending it to anyone who's not genre fan.
Rewatch value: 0/3 — No real point in it.
Memorability: 2/4 — Good work for it's medium.

ENJOYMENT: 6/10
It was nice for a short time killer.

VERDICT: 4/10 (4.33)
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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