I was certain that this was going to be a great show, but sadly, I was wrong.
The art is gorgeous - everything looks amazing, the characters, the cities, everything. Also, the voice actors were great (I feel like Kaji Yuki only ever voices characters who scream a lot…) The soundtrack is completely forgettable, at times I felt like they were copying themes from shows like Dexter etc.
BUT: the story was a complete mess. It felt like they were trying to tell 2-3 stories over 12 episodes. One story is the supernatural one, and the other the „human“ one. Now I don’t really mind fantasy elements in an otherwise realistic setting, so long as it realistic within its own universe (which this show isn’t)
The fantasy part, for me, does not work at all since the main character (a completely forgettable guy, btw) basically has to save his childhood friend who you don’t care about at all, since her character basically is a victim that needs to be saved. Other than that, you know literally nothing about her, which makes it extremely hard to care if she lives or dies, which is bad - since you’re supposed to root for them. But because the characters are so forgettable and one dimensional, you can’t get invested emotionally. The way their arc ended was unrealistic and over all just really, really boring.
I feel like there were some characters that would have been interesting, but each time I was wondering about a character (like Izanami) and thought you’d get to know more about them, they… let’s just say: they won’t let you.
None of the characters is given enough of a story or time to get to know them, so you really couldn’t care less what happens to them.
The other story isn’t great either. In the beginning, I was intrigued by all of it, but it soon became clear that it was going nowhere. In the end, when everything is said and done, it’s like…so what was the point in all of this? Then a reason Is revealed and you’re like….OK, I guess…but then they just keep talking and adding reasons and you just think alright, enough already.
BTW, if you left out either one of the stories, it would make no difference. They could have made separate 12 episode anime on both of these stories and I bet that would have been better.
All in all, this show had an interesting premise but sadly escalated into a melodramatic, overloaded mess.
