Before I jump ahead to give you the full details, I'm pretty sure that 6,942.0 of you should at least know the brains behind Tesla Note: Masafumi Nishida and Tadayoshi Kubo. Not so much with the latter as this is his first time writing a manga, but the former has a track record to his name: the creator of the much acclaimed Tiger & Bunny. For reference, last season's MAPPA-produced water polo show Re-Main was his chance to create something original and different by being the head honcho of the usual anime production aspects (creator, director, script and sound), but depending on how you view that show, it can come off as the stereotypical "love it or hate it" rhetoric. This is pretty much the exact same scenario with Tesla Note, which the manga only started serializing this year, and the anime pretty much adapted the entire source material (if going off by sources alone) so there's not an incentive to read the soon-to-be translated manga anyways.
If anything, Tesla Note in Masafumi Nishida's writing is the epitome of a classic action-heavy, comedy-spliced spy/espionage show with a simple premise: locate, seek and destroy the source of power from evil who's using that power to take over the world. And that power is inspired from the deep down by the legendary Nikola Tesla, in the form of the Shards of Tesla: different numbered Shards that all emit different types of powers, that when combined together, create the basis of an atomic structure that is powerful enough to bring the world to its knees. Not the most unique of ideas, but that's one heft of a concept work. The overall execution though will "amaze-balls" you at how shallow it can be at times, but at least it serves as tension relief.
That concept work is paired with characters that are walking tropes, but at least they're self-aware so there's some "comedic fun" to be had within each of them. Going off on the Japanese spy side of things with Japan Safety & Promotion Co., you have teenage spies Botan Negoro and Kuruma, strategist Kyouhei Himi, negotiator Ryuunosuke Takamatsu, and heading this "agency" is Botan's grandfather Jingo. It's actually impressive how Botan and Kuruma are so characteristically and dynamically different but alike as well, they're like yin and yang to always have small, bickering arguments that during operations, they operate with one mind to save loved ones, that actually makes Tesla Note watchable for once. The one extroverted softie, and the other being a crude and rude guy, both having a heart of compassion when it comes down to the crunch. Kyouhei and Ryuunosuke are there as mere guides, but also do a fairly good job too with the plot twists in the series. The CIA with agent Mickey Miller and assistant Oliver Thornton, one a very extravagant charismatic, and the other serving as background support. I've gotta say that VA Junichi Suwabe really fits Mickey's character, especially with all the quote-unquote "complex wording explanation overlay" to make him more professional "smart aleck" sounding than he actually is. Others are there to fill their roles, and just come off as being subpar to at best decent.
The elephant in the room is the ironic decision to produce this in a 2D-3DCG mix just like Ex-Arm (like come on, what are you guys thinking to do?), but to be fair, while it's still jarring to see the exact same "puke" moments of the 2D and 3D mix, in defense of Tesla Note, this show is at least trying to be more expressful than the pure abomination of the former. One thing to note is that although Gambit is credited for the main production, it's not an animation company, but rather a casting company. The production assistance comes from 3 studios: creative studio Risemore and CG studios Studio Bokan and Type Zero. For their efforts from coming fresh off from the horrible job of Visual Flight being all "live-action" like, at least this was in the right direction of getting the expressions down, while feeling so cheap. But still, this feels like a stretch in frustration, the realization of a 2D-3DCG mix for primetime anime will never be ready, not even for light years to come.
At least the OST does sound kinda cool. Most especially with TOKYO MONSTERS's OP, it has a cool lick to it that gets the pumpin' driving beats, you most certainly can't deny that the more this gets a listen, the more this song is low-key certified banger though. Though I can't say the same for Yui Ninomiya's ED which is just a contrast to the show overall.
Tesla Note really had the unfortunate fate of being branded as Ex-Arm 2.0 because of the sole decision to go exactly the way that it went in the animation department. Like why, is this supposed to be the next "quantum leap" forward in anime? I most certainly don't think so. Even if the other aspects of the show were or weren't able to cover up the fact that THIS specific animation style was chosen to highlight how it would've looked like in the first place, it was just a case of a bad call which made everyone's day worse.
Stray away from Tesla Note unless you want to be electrically brainwashed, but it's isn't as bad as anyone would think.
