Reviews

Texhnolyze is a ride. A good way of putting the experience is thus: Imagine someone reading Nietzsche to you very slowly, but every 2 hours the lights flash and they shout a haiku at the top of their lungs. Overall, this show paints a portrait of Nihilism as a concept, and while it paints an excellent picture, it's still a deeply flawed portrait that leaves the viewer with a sense that the portrait itself was painted haphazardly because in the end it doesn't matter anyway. First, the story, which I feel for most people is their favorite aspect. To start with the positives, it is obviously well-written, with painstaking detail given to construct a complex storyline that weaves throughout the dozens of primary and secondary and tertiary characters and gives everyone time in the spotlight to be studied, developed, and ultimately deconstructed. The concept itself is also very well-formed, the idea of an underground city run by various gangs and featuring cybernetic enhancements is an excellent foundation from which to build off of. The lore, motivations, and interactions between different characters and groups is also often pretty compelling. However, there are several major flaws with the story of Texhnolyze. First, that the pacing is absolutely busted, which leads to a very disorienting vibe, which even if that's what the show is going for, doesn't do its more engaging concepts any justice. There are whole episodes made up of 13 sentences total and 2 minute panning shots. It takes at least 10 episodes to become even passingly interesting, and that is way too much of an investment for the payoff we end up getting. The story itself also comes to these bleak conclusions about human nature that are so bleak they get in their own way, making no sense at all, even for the clinically depressed populace of Lux. I do indeed understand that this is supposed to be the whole point, that the world the story takes place in is the product of nihilism and that humanity is slipping into extinction as a result, but by the last couple of episodes people's motivations are so obscured and misaligned that they stop making sense in their situations. Even people acting illogically wouldn't act they way they do in the last 2 or 3 episodes, and it makes one acutely aware that they are watching characters that were in fact written to be this bleak and fatalistic, even against what bleak and fatalistic people are actually like in real life. Though even this could be forgiven if the pacing was fixed. This anime takes so long to get anywhere, and lends itself to fits of boredom over and over again, and when one is not bored, one is bewildered, and not because of the high-minded philosophy, but because of poor delivery and insane aesthetic decisions. This brings me to the art. The art, I will say, is a perfect fit for this show. It is bleak, monochromatic, dirty, complicated, and depressive. It is a bulls-eye, and while it is often unpleasant to look at, that's often the point. My issues come with the character's faces, because while their bodies move impressively and flawlessly navigate their scenes, their faces have a distinct issue with emotion. While some faces are ugly or mismatched and others are great fits for their characters, nearly all of them seem to be wearing "masks", which can sometimes be a problem in anime. When a character is supposed to be portraying this emotion or that, they fail to animate it and the character seems dumbstruck instead. Certain characters notably do not suffer from the dreaded mask, like Yoshii, Ichise, or Oonishi, but indeed most seem to suffer from that numb expressionlessness. The sound, like the art, is a spot-on match for the anime it is a part of. The music is dark, depressing, frantic, anxious, grating, harsh, slow, it has it all, and matches itself well to its scenes. The sounds of life meet the necessary standard, especially for a show like this that at first roots itself in realism. All the crunching bones, clanking metal, grimy footsteps, meaty punches, and shuddering breaths are very impressive. To expand on that last example, the voice acting is also quite good, with the sounds of their suffering unmatched for realism elsewhere I have seen. It's almost like they actually beat up their voice talent to achieve such excellent performances. The characters are good, their motivations and interplays interesting, though of course I sincerely wish they were carried through their story at a more lively pace and that their motivations made sense all the way to the finale, which they unfortunately stop short of doing for the sake of arriving at an emotionally complex ending. At the end of the day, I can see what makes this show good, I understand its themes and I comprehend what it tries to tell me, but it fails to reach that image of itself, and it tells me in ways that diminish the content of its message in the first place. I wish it could be as good as that kernel of genius I see inside it, but it just simply falls short.