Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst, translated: Ominous Truth: the First, based on the mobile game of the same name (but without the Zuerst).
If you have no idea what to understand of this mobage adaptation, I'd like to refer you to the official anime website and check out the "Specials" tab, because that's where the magic of the show is based upon. The TL;DR is this: KLab Games offered director Naoto Hosoda a free pass to make up his envisioned story of Magatsu Wahrheit, so that both the anime and the game have a similar, overarching story, albeit a timeskip that still honours and establishes the core settings. Not to mention that Hosoda himself is a fan of western live-action and episodic, espionage drama, so it really nails in the niche look of the show that is a rarity in anime form. Not to worry if you've been itching to play the game, because this show can be taken as a one-shot format of a prequel story.
The Golden Rule technique of "Show, Don't Tell" is an art in and of itself, to which the story and characters are related through sensory details and actions. Rather than just ham-fisting readers/viewers with exposition, it fosters with the immersion build-up, allowing them to “be in the room” with the characters. And that's how Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst sets the scene for this show, which takes place 20 years before the game's beginning. Two young characters, seemingly unrelated to one another: Innumael, just an ordinary blue-collar worker, and Leocadio, a soldier in the Wahrheit Imperial Army. Through "A Series of Unfortunate Events" that involves a highly-prized smuggled weapon, and tying both character's fate and destiny individually and together to fighting for what they believe is right with their lives, to the seemingly "random" characters of affiliations, the cat-and-mouse "Two sides of the coin" battle between organizations, cults and empires are truly a force to be reckoned with. Another Akudama Drive-type show, but in a historical military-esque setting that does the suspense well, and keeping up with the illusive foreshadowing of balanced pacing and exposition that defines both the anime and game as a single package. Props to Yuichiro Momose for co-supervising both the scriptwriting and screenplay with Hosoda.
The characters are really interesting as well: Every single one of them is kept being purposeful to the plot that accumulates overtime, tantamount to the endings of stories with solid foundations that actually use their resources to the full. At first, you're left wondering why both Innumael and Leocadio, as young chaps as they can be, seem like fools in a river full of piranhas that have people creep up to them for their actions. But as the story progresses, as we play the "Guessing Game" of theorized craftsmanship, it keeps the extremely tight pacing consistent, while fleshing out the execution of amounting pressures and tensions enough to keep you focused and invested. Every single decision and motivation made between all characters (as many and difficult as you can count and follow, besides Innumael and Leo) actually make sense that moves the story along, and doesn't make you feel like you've wasted an inch of time on this show. That to me can be hit-or-miss, but it really keeps you on your toes of the next plot pointer(s).
Some notable characters of a lightning round:
- Both veteran VAs Asutshi Abe and Yuuki Ono were really good fits for both Innumael and Leocadio.
- The one, the only veteran VA Kenjiro Tsuda, voicing Innumael's superior Captain Helman. The instaneously recognizable gangster voice dubbing a "grim reaper"-like character, that is the charismatic "scummy" voice we all know and love.
- Character designs don't go as nice and well-drawn as Schaake Gutheil. A red-haired, green-eyes girl, and a member of the mysterious organization Headkeeper, she excels at being both serious and a bad-ass.
The reason why I say notable is because this is newcomer Akiko Sugizono's debut anime doing character design all by herself. Having drawn only female characters, and it was a monumental task for her to draw and design male characters, and it was an insane challenge for her. Luckily, Naoto Hosoda also had dips in the formulation of the character designs, so it's a win-win on both sides of the story.
The music is also another fascinating viewpoint. Director Naoto Hosoda explains that the show's voice-acting was done during the COVID season, so most of the Seiyuu have to do their recording remotely, as opposed to the regular sound-mixing studio where the entire cast will gather and do their recording all at once. As a consequence of the pandemic, it took 3 times as long for the entire cast to record their lines, but thanks to the veteran cast's skills and professionalism, along with sound director Kisuke Koizumi, the VA job is handled graciously. Add in another veteran of sound composer Masaru Yokohara (Kanata no Astra, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso), and wow, what a star-studded production team that is a blessing to add to the show's grimacing atmosphere.
Maon Kurosaki attempting an opera-like OP, and H-el-ical// with another dark-edged ED, the OST does a pretty good job setting the mood and the theme of the series, matching its American counterparts of a classic visual opening and silhouetted black-screen ending with "historically classical" music.
The elephant in the room is undoubtedly the mediocre visuals and animation, but it's a no-brainer of a surprise coming from the now 5-year-old studio, Yokohama Animation Laboratory. They did some ONA co-productions in the past, but it's not until Miru Tights that they branched out doing original work. Even with the KLab Games' deal with Summer 2020's Lapis Re:Lights mixed-media franchise, these 2 shows showed potential for the studio to do low-budget animation that's a considerable pass. And everything about both shows can be applied here, just with a dark, cinematic tone (while sticking with KLab's dealership). In spite of the worsening animation (that's lucrative of a low-budget studio), the visuals do get the job done explicitly with art director Hirotsugu Kakoi at the helm, expressing the entire show in its own unique class.
Despite a small production team of a mix between old and new staff, an S-Grade of a character voice-dubbing cast, and masterfully-crafted soulful music of veteran directors, honestly, this show stands on a marvel of its own merit. It's more than just your typical "cash-cow" mobage anime adaptation, and I feel that this is one of the few pedigrees of game adaptations that truly gets the formula right: beckoning anime-onlys to play the game to discover what the advertised game is all about.
I'm just going to say this: even if you have no intentions to check out the mobile game, this is a hidden gem of a must-watch. As I mentioned in the beginning: this is classic Naoto Hosoda storytelling at its finest, and it's expected that not a lot of people will like it (as evident by MAL scores), but please, give this a try.
