Reviews

For context, I have loved Trigger for years. Ever since I saw Imaishi, Nakashima, and Yoshinari work together to create the stunning Gurren Lagann, I have been a huge fan of their work, and so once Trigger was created, I was all aboard. I have followed Trigger and tried my hardest to watch every work they are part of, even if sometimes it's not really my thing like FranXX or Kiznaiver. It's hard for me to say their track record is perfect with the releases that I have had problems with, but this is the first time I really have to say that I am disappointed in Trigger. With FranXX it was easy for me to wave my hand and say that all the problems of that show stemmed from the fact that A1 Pictures was part of it as well, but this is Trigger, disappointing me all on their own. And it's painful to have to say that.

STORY - 3/10
BNA is a very mixed bag of ideas, concepts, and theories that are sat on and not really divulged for a large amount of the story, only to be thrown at you haphazardly near the end. I had problems with it in the first half, but I enjoyed it the way I enjoyed Little Witch Academia - I was more accepting of the problems that I had with it because it was made up for by at least enjoyable characters and awesome animation. The idea of spending the runtime of the show focusing less on a plot and more about the social, societal, and basic repercussions of the existence of Beastmen sounds like a good idea to me. Each episode could study the sort of ways that different forms of beastmen could be effected by the existence of Anima-City, the problems it has, the issues that effects it, the benefits it has brought, and coming to see how it can improve and how we can all improve our societies.

But that's not really what happens. What happens is that during the second half of the anime, there's exposition coming out of everyone's ears. This isn't irregular for a Trigger story - several Trigger works have done it before, but those works reveled in their crazy concepts and ludicrous plot threads. BNA plays this all straight, and with half the runtime of most other Trigger anime, which means that the plot is even further condensed. The story becomes a real headache to endure, especially near the end.

ART - 8/10

I love Trigger's animation. The character designs are all very stylish, very interesting, really varied, and it's very fun. The animation for a majority of the anime is ridiculously smooth - Yoshinari is an absolute beast when it comes to animation, so it's not a surprise to me. I knew I would visually enjoy this series quite a lot. I can't really say much more than that.

SOUND - 8/10

I can't complain about anything related to the sound. Characters all have very fitting voices that are well performed. Yes, we do get a character voiced by Murase, as we do in all of Trigger's works, and she is great in her character. The music was really good too!

CHARACTER - 4/10

This is another big problem I have with BNA. The protagonist, for a large amount of the story, feels like she has little to no control over anything that is happening in her life. Things happen to her, and around her, and her ally, the big strong Wolf Boi, saves her time and time again. Most of the things the protagonist herself does to change the story or fight for herself feels practically pointless, and if anything she can actually be detriment to the story.

Then we have the Wolf character, Ogami. For a large amount of the series, Ogami feels like the one we should actually be following - he has a plot that he is following, he has more of a grip on the plot, it feels like he is much more of a focus. However, he's also pretty milquetoast. He has little to no charisma and just hates humans.

I'm going to be honest, I wanted more Itami. I adored her character - the smug aura around her, the fact that she frequently felt in control in the underbelly of Anima-City, I would have loved to follow a story where our protagonist may frequently have to get help from her to find out about the reason why she has become a beastman, avoiding the roadblocks that Anima-City has implemented either through their societal structure or through their government's hands. A story analyzing the society, the problems that come with the exclusionary viewpoint of the society in Anima-City, it could have been really interesting to me. But we don't get that. The best character is sidelined.

There's a character who appears later on who I actually thought was pretty interesting, though I can't go into her appearance due to spoilers. So while there are one or two enjoyable characters, the ones we focus on for the most part are kind of annoying or boring.

ENJOYMENT - 5

The plot and characters weren't any fun to watch, but the animation kept me interested. I'll be honest, if this wasn't Trigger, I'd have dropped it.

OVERALL - 5

Marred with problems, especially in its second half, BNA had a high concept, but fell very short. It's hard for me to say that it's legitimately bad, because Trigger is a company I hold very dear to my heart, but I have to say I would only really recommend BNA to fans of Trigger so that they can take in more Trigger animation.