The plot is pretty darn generic- pretty much Unassuming Local Bumpkin gets invited into this whole creepy underworld of Ingress, where he meets Plucky Blonde Love Interest who has some reason why Generic Evil Bunch is chasing her. Along the way, he has to fend off Tsundere Frenemy Guy from the opposite faction, who is out for his own ends and decides to kill Unassuming Local Bumpkin because he's the opposite faction, even while on the lookout for his Long-Lost Bestie, who died in an accident that Plucky Blonde Love Interest was at. Lots of other things happen, but honestly... it ends exactly like you think it might. Why is that a bad thing? Because this plot has been done to death in so many other anime out there- in most cases, even better than it is here. There's mentions of the various factions and item names and things from Ingress: The Game, and truly a fan of the game might understand more of what's going on. But honestly? Like I said, switch around the words and the visuals, and this plot could be from any number of tie-in anime.
The characters... are just as bad as the plot. I mean, let's face it- you read the descriptions above and you could put faces to those descriptions just by watching one episode, because the characters are all just... flat. They're desires given form, if you will- because they don't grow. I mean, if there was some sort of growth they could show, some new ideas- but no, they just stay the same people they were in the beginning, and worse- they're just not memorable. You might remember them as the concepts they were supposed to represent, but as themselves, they just... vanish into a sea of faces you'll struggle to remember three days after you finish the series.
The sound is, well... pretty passable. It's nothing really memorable, but there's nothing that will remind you of a symphony orchestra going through a trash compacter, either. The art is the same- it's obvious the focus here was rushing the anime to completion so the show could be used for an advertising ploy to get more people to start playing Ingress. Just treat it like you would eleven episodes of G.I. Joe- maybe entertaining for a short while, but purely made as an advertising method.
In the end, Ingress: the Animation just isn't that memorable or something. If you were to compare it to food, it'd be the bologna sandwich- perfectly filling, perfectly serviceable, but bland and boring as all anything. Everything it does has been done before, and most oftentimes better, but if you absolutely have to, you could do worse than this to watch.
