As if they desperatly wanted to make some money, while failing to understand this medium, that we love.
This feels closer to an advertising Anime-Run, than even most Mobile-Game cashgrabs, we've seen.
Everything it focuses on could be taken straight out of a business meeting, discussing how to market these silly cartoons, made for us nerds:
-It's georgous looking. // "That's the most important thing", they think.
So the budget is huge and every episode has a banger explosion-scene.
-Make it cyberpunk // "That's all over the media. It's trending!", their surveys approve.
But in the end it's your copy and paste dystopian big city stuff, again.
-It needs a cute but cool and strong hottie as a heroin // "Yeah, these otakus love their waifus", they giggle. "That's marketable"
Meanwhile Rogue's character design is the only good quality of an otherwise blank slate, with little personality.
-They throw in some dark politics. Not quite surface level, but easy to understand with no controversy, at all. // "Good, we don't want moral ambiguity. No shitstorms."
So it's boring and not at all as complicated/serious as the Anime makes the setting out to be. It's simple black and white.
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Just think of the most stereotypical, safe and bland story-telling devices, in every situation, and watch Metallic Rogue using them ALL.
The detective is a middle aged man, wearing a trench coat, sipping on a hip flask. The reporter is a tall, blond, free spirit with an oldschool camera. Every soldier is a mean ruffian. Every Kid is a sweet, innoccent soul, in a dark world. Opressed AI, faceless Mercenaries, corporate power and surveillance - you name it. They're the most basic ideas and characters you can imagine.
We don't need our cyberpunk to be overly unique, really. But we need something. Something we haven't seen yet. Or, at least, we need it to do the things that worked in the past well enough for us to overlook it's lack of creativity.
This feels like the clishee Version of every entry to the genre, ever. It's shallow. And there's no reason to watch this, in a world where Ghost in the Shell already exists.
Apart from the fantastic Animation and some great designs there's not much to enjoy here.
This is a Bones-Original. This was meant to be awesome. But it's just a very pretty, empty shell.
