“Hey, you’re starting to run out of space.”
You were having a lot of fun doing this, but at last, you need to come up with a solution to fit everything together. All of the buildings you have created and the shape of the world you have at the moment, is now an obstacle to the goal you have started with: to place every single building block in the box. So, while not trying to break any of the structures you have created, you start adding the remaining pieces within the box. You keep adding each piece, and in no time whatsoever, you are done. And would you look at that, every piece fit perfectly, as soon as you stacked them together. There’s no more space left for anything.
Quickly, you are disappointed by a realization. There’s no remnant of the world you have created. The only remaining shape is this cube made out of different colored building blocks.
This whole metaphor is how I view the execution of the show.
Lets stop speaking metaphorically for a while. This show explores a tool that creates and stores the unconscious data from a killer’s mind tied to any of the murders they have committed. The way in which it stores this data is messy, and in order to uncover what happened, you need someone that can interpret this data through their deduction skills and being able to explore the world. In this manner, this tool can be used to explore their unconscious in order to reveal key details about their identity, the methods with which these murders were executed, the motivation behind them, their location and even other information that at first sight might seem trivial. However, said tool, while insanely useful, is a mystery within itself. It seems to only allow only people that have committed murders to use it and browse through its database of worlds. Not just anyone can enter it. These worlds also all have some constant elements, which seem to tie them together. While it is definitely a murder mystery, these mysteries are subservient to figuring out how this tool works, as this is what the show focuses on presenting.
On that end, the show starts off great. Something that it does very skillfully from the very beginning is establishing how the world works, and presenting only as much information as the viewer needs to strike a balance between understanding the world they are looking at and leave enough room for questions for the viewer to continue asking “How does this work?”. It seemed like from the start, the world had a clear idea under what rules it was operating, and any time that you would think that something doesn’t really add up, the show was completely ready to affirm that your question was correct to ask, and that you deserve a proper answer for asking it. It knew exactly how to present enough information to keep you intrigued and still understand the natural flow of things within itself. As the show progressed, it kept shaking things up through presenting more and more about the system they are using to catch these criminals works, as well as some questions to keep you thinking. A large part of the success of its early execution is due to it figuring out very early, exactly how everything fits together.
How does it do what I have described in the previous paragraph exactly? Well, I’ll let you know how the first episode starts, but fair warning, the more information you have of what exactly unfolds in each episode prior to watching the show, the lesser your experience will be. I have given you plenty of information for what I’ll say in this paragraph to not matter at this point, but continue to read this paragraph at your own risk, because it still might influence your first impression. The first thing you witness, is a guy waking up in a bed to see that his body is breaking into pieces as he screams terrified out of his fucking mind. Confused as to who he is and how he can be alive while his body is broken into pieces, he starts piecing himself together, both mind and body, and notice that while his body is broken apart, every piece is still connected, and he can fuse them back together or separate them to extend his reach. Still, he’s still missing part of his arm so he cannot be completely whole. He noticed that everything around him is the same, with the entire world also being broken into pieces. Random buildings and parts of the world simply keep floating around him. At some point he notices he is not alone, as he sees the legs of a girl, in a room right above him, so he uses the wonky physics of that world to get to that girl. Once he does, he sees that she is just a corpse that has been recently murdered, but that is enough information for him to cause him to realize a bunch of information about the situation. Her name is Kaeru, and his name is Sakaido, and the reason he was placed in that world is to solve the mystery of her murder. Immediately afterwards, it is revealed that a team is supervising this entire thing, and extracting data from Sakaido’s deep dive into this world, in order to obtain information tied to a murder that has occurred in reality, that parallels that one. And then we go on exploring.
There’s a very specific reason I think this introduction works really well, and that is the fact that show knows how to exploit the fact that you lack so much information about it. The show could’ve very easily revealed first the role of the tool they use and how it works, and then show you the scenario described. While that sounds just like I am stating the obvious since the show’s genre is Mystery, the reason I am pointing this out is because the show didn’t choose to focus on supporting you in solving the mystery alongside it and maybe perhaps solving it before it has a chance to do so. You’re forced to keep up with the show. It would’ve been sufficient to just show you all the information you need, strictly focusing on the mystery behind how the current victim died. It instead tried to present the mystery in a way, where you are directly experiencing the confusion of not having the information required to properly understanding this situation. This achieves two things. The fact that the outlandish world you are presented feels like an enigma so you are motivated to understand how it works and the fact that the viewer instantly is aware of the fact that there are a lot of things they have yet to know, so that will cause them to pay close attention to all events that unfold. It’s a very efficient way to hook someone in. And that’s how things keep unfolding and being presented to you…
…Until a certain point.
What caused the show to be really solid so far and hooking me in so aggressively, was the fact that since its start, it knew exactly what building blocks it was using, and I was only allowed a glimpse of the box each time the world got a new piece added to its structure. And this happened because it figured integrally prior to even being presented what the world is and how it operates. But while this has helped it greatly at the start… it completely betrays the show at the end.
You see, because it was so determined about showing the viewer exactly what it is, eventually it realizes that it will run out of time, so the show had a choice. Present as much of the information as fast as possible at the risk of doing it sloppily, but the viewer will have a full picture of what exactly they have watched, or risk to never show the genius behind its execution and this world to remain forever foreign to its audience. It has chosen the former.
So, after that certain point, instead of being presented information so you can understand what happens next, you will be presented information so that things can happen next. You’re presented with a high volume of ideas and details about the world that, if given enough time to be executed properly, they might’ve been interesting to witness, but at the pace they are presented, as things get close to the end, they start feeling convenient and only there so that the remaining events can unfold. These ideas aren’t particularly unheard of, so just having a lot of elements going on within the story isn’t enough to lift the show to be of high quality. None of the information we are revealed is earned. They have very little to no setup, and is presented to us just so that things can keep moving along. Which is not at all how the show did things until a few episodes ago. There’s no reason to be curious any longer, and that makes the events to be witnessed… without any worth. The highest merit of the show was the way in which it conveyed information. Which it has chosen to discard in order to reveal everything about itself.
I don’t understand that decision, since this very show has made me realize how important and how much more depth something can have, because you know that some details are missing. Withholding information is a great tool, a tool I have noticed the show using. And it could’ve kept using until the very end, at the risk of the world feeling foreign, but also keeping a lot of depth and mystery still inside it. It wouldn’t have lost any intrigue. The problem is, this was a sci-fi mystery. The world feeling foreign, is something entirely warranted. If the show didn’t have enough time to reveal everything about itself, it shouldn’t have, and instead it could’ve used its remaining time, to create an even bigger mystery, while answering the questions it still had some time for. I get that it is difficult to pull an ending of the sort, but that doesn’t change that it didn’t have time to execute all of the ideas it had, so as a result, it cheapened all of them. It wasn’t enough to place every single block inside the box. If some blocks were outside of the box, the lack of the remaining pieces could’ve given what’s inside it a different shape, and made the viewers view the content very differently. And who knows, if the box would’ve gotten bigger, every single piece outside the box could’ve been arranged inside it to give any shape and structure wanted by the creators.
I'm afraid that when it comes to this show, this is the driving force behind it. I could speak about the characters, but the roles of the characters are strictly subservient in creating the mystery, and giving any details away would mean giving you information that could cheapen your experience. I can mention that the characters for not seeming to have much individuality or depth, aside from the closest character to a protagonist. All of them are there to serve a purpose and are a narrative tool to make that world work. Do not get me wrong, I believe them lacking depth and individuality is perfectly fine for this story, but the characters are not what you will watch ID Invaded for. The animation is also not particularly stellar in some places, but given the general pace of the show, the design of the scenario it creates more than makes up for that and the fact that is keys you in on the important details without much effort. The sound design however is solid, with some solid tracks that really build intrigue and suspense quite well. I personally really liked the protagonist's voice actor. He has this very distinct growly voice that really fits the character, and is a pleasure for me to listen to.
The last thing I want to say prior to concluding is regarding an overarching theme. Or rather, the fact that it is difficult to grasp any. When I think about what was the point for ID Invaded's story, the answer I can come up with is to present its world and the ideas behind it. But if you ask me exactly what it is that the story tried to convey, that's very difficult. You see, there is some moral high ground to the story, and that is to not be a victim of your own circumstances and to not play a role just because it was given to you. You should always have personal agency and aspire to do so, without letting your impulses and what you are not conscious of, drive you forward. But I am not really sure any of this is earned, since by the end of the story, none of the characters really achieve that. They spout it, yes, but they definitely do not achieve it because they have been victims to the aforementioned things and suddenly no longer seem to believe that is a factor in their life. There isn't really anything that I have taken away from this story, and I believe that's also to blame of the high volume of ideas that were presented by the end, and the fact that none of them were given any value.
To conclude, I think the decision to watch this series is best left up to how interested you are in what I have said so far about it. The first half of ID Invaded has a solid execution in presenting the world and all of its mysteries quite well. I consider that they were worth watching for me at least. But the fact that towards the end it fails to give a proper pay off might sour the experience for you if you do end up watching it. So it becomes a question of outcome versus process. Do you enjoy the series for the overall product it is, and as a result you'd only look at the cube the show builds inside the box? Or do you appreciate each of its elements separately, and can enjoy experiencing each scenario that was built in the box prior to it becoming a cube. If it's the latter, I think you can enjoy the series as it is. I certainly was entertained by it despite falling in the latter category. But if you're in the former category, I'm afraid that your experience might be cheapened, as it's one of those trends with anime that keep happening. They start off strong and are able to hook you in, but botch it as time goes on as they didn't know what they intended to be. ID Invaded knew what it wanted to be, but it had no idea how to get there in such a short amount of time, so at the very least that is to be appreciated. Still, the following hold true. ID Invaded was ambitious and entertaining. And due to its ambition, it failed in some aspects, but I appreciate its ambition regardless and that's enough to consider it a worthwhile watch for myself.
