SPOILERS AHEAD... AND BEFORE I BEGIN: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS ANIME IF YOU HAVE A HISTORY OF SUICIDAL THOUGHTS OR WANT TO HARM YOURSELF. SEEK HELP.
Babylon is a 12 episode discussion about a crisis facing Japan: Suicide. This is framed within the opening of a new city in Japan called Shiniki. A city established by powerful politicians with motives to create a better society unencumbered by regulations in Tokyo. But it's quickly hijacked by the politician they picked to be the Mayor: Kaika Itsuki. Itsuki, with Ai Magase (The main villain of the plot) quickly form a political suicide cult and pass a suicide law, allowing people to kill themselves with dignity.
Herein lies the first problem, because the law sounds like it's making suicide legal, but how can you outlaw suicide in the first place? What are you going to do? Arrest the corpses? So, you pretty much have to add your own logic to the plot here and just decide they're talking about assisted suicide, even though most of the people killing themselves are doing so without any assistance.
In the midst of all this, the protagonist Zen, is drawn in. What starts off as an investigation into the powerful politicians who violated the law to create Shiniki and manipulate its elections, quickly turns into Zen trying to find a way to take down Itsuki and Magase. And that is where the anime shines. Right in those middle episodes where it's more of a detective drama, with Zen and his team of prosecutors trying to find a way to bring down Itsuki and Magase, which is difficult as they can't prove they've actually broken any laws by passing the law for dignified (assisted) suicide.
This part of the anime was BRILLIANT, and I would put it on the same level as the anime "Monster" or the first season of "Psycho Pass". It was tight, dramatic, mysterious and intriguing. The investigators discover that Magase has the ability to influence people to commit suicide and desire death just by speaking to them. And they are determined to take her down, culminating in a tense standoff at a political debate over the Suicide Law. These episodes were excellent.
And then it went off the rails...
Things start to go wrong in the aftermath of Zen's team trying to take matters into their own hands to stop Itsuki and Magase. Things don't go as they plan, to say the least. But, After these events and their fallout concludes, the story switches to the United States and starts following the President Alex Wood, instead of Zen. The story shifts to more and more cities adopting the Suicide Law, and follows "The Thinker" doing WAY too much thinking, about how America is going to respond.
The idea that a small, new city in Japan passing an (assisted) suicide law, would suddenly become a point of global concern that would include the UN, CIA and FBI was ludicrous. As more cities began passing the law, it became less ludicrous, but they kept raising the bar of ridiculousness, going as far as having the Prime Minister of the UK threaten War against other countries if they supported laws allowing their OWN citizens to die. (What?) and having a scene where the President is called upon to talk a citizen of Shiniki down from the ledge of a building on live T.V. Just super unrealistic for what was such an intelligent thriller.
Still, it wasn't so bad that it destroyed the anime, but it definitely pulled it from the ranks of "Monster" and "Psycho Pass" easily. But, the story really suffered from switching the focus from Zen to Wood. It was a very odd choice to push the MC, chasing down a criminal, to the back of the anime to focus on the strained musings of a new, somewhat boring character. But, that's what they did. Just very long conversations with the President talking to pastors, world leaders, Zen....mayors....his staff......his wife.......his kid......himself........a random stray cat.....about suicide and good and evil. For days, man. HE DID THIS FOR DAYS.
In the midst of this, however, there's still Zen tracking down the ever mysterious and supernaturally powerful Magase. It became a bit frustrating, as those parts were good, but they were so sparse, because the director felt we needed to see President Wood touch his nose for the 193rd time while saying "Hmmmm...". And what made it even more irritating is that after he would think for DAYS on something, he would get an epiphany that was totally mundane. If you think for days about a problem, and then your "Aha" moment is: "Wait, I don't have to worry about this at all, THEY can handle it!"? You're an idiot. "Thinker"? No. "Idiot.".
At any rate, it all comes to a head when the G7 come together to discuss the suicide laws, at the same time Itsuki convenes a summit between the 7 cities who passed the suicide laws in Shiniki. (Which leads to the aforementioned moment of the President talking the girl off the building.). Ai Magase makes her move against the President of the United States and that leads to a pretty shocking, but deeply unfulfilling conclusion and the biggest problem with Babylon: crucial elements of the story went completely unexplained.
Who was Ai Magase? You get the idea that they wanted you to think she was Lucifer in female form. Evil incarnate. And that's why she could merely whisper a suggestion to mankind, and make them kill themselves and could change her appearance completely. One problem with that: They ruined that explanation by having Zen meet her Uncle, so she was a normal human being. So, exactly how could she do what she does as a normal human? Explain it.
Why did Ai Magase do what she did? What was her motivation? They explained Itsuki's motivation through his Son, but what was the plan with her brainwashing other city leaders to pass this law? They kept talking about Magase and Itsuki's grand global scheme, but it was never really revealed. Did Magase want the whole world to be under the suicide law and then convince everyone to kill themselves? If so, why? We don't know. What did she even want? Why even bother with a law when you can just whisper and get people to commit suicide with or without a law? Why did she target Zen? Just because his name meant "Good"?
All of this went unexplained because they tried to be "clever" with a Sopranos style ending. A stand off between Magase and Zen, that ends with a "bang" to black and a post-credit scene with Magase getting off of a bus later on. I guess they did not get the memo that people did NOT like the way the Sopranos ended. And this ending sucked, too. What happened to Zen? How did she escape? Who was she? What the hell was it all for?! I guess they've left it up to us to figure out. And that's just lazy storytelling cloaking itself in "mystery".
In the end, this was an anime trying too hard to be intelligent and philosophical, and forgot to perform the basic tenants of story telling. It's like if Plato couldn't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It's disappointing really, because if they just kept this in Japan, had Zen and Magase work towards a final standoff inside of Shiniki and explained key elements of Magase's character and agenda, this probably could've been an Anime of the Year candidate. It was too smart for its own good and thought itself out of being a top tier anime.
