Story:
Right off the bat you can tell this story is going to require a healthy dose of anti-depressants to sit through. Pick any ugly part of human nature and society and you’ll be sure to see it here. Abuse, power-struggles, self-destruction and then some. There is some serious nihilism going on, I tell you, and the pacing would run backwards if it got any slower. In the end the various strands of the story—the hero’s journey, the gang wars and the changing city--do come together to form a brutally ugly picture of human devolution. It’s like the writers were holding a contest to see how fast their viewers would fall into despair. Jolly bunch, I can tell.
Characters:
Ichise: is the sad sod we follow around for the most part as he plods through one desolate panel to another, from one depressingly violent situation to another. I suppose we’re expected to relate to him but for the life of me I couldn’t. He always seems to be drifting and basically doing nothing but follow someone else around. I’m sure that was intentional in order to “make a point” which is why it bugs me. If he had been someone who looked a little more alive and less distant then the story’s ultimate end would have been much more powerful instead of just predictably unimpressive. Go ahead and apply that last sentence to every other character, too.
Onishi: is one of the various mafias’ top dogs. He seems to be one of the few who are not ready to just keel over and get it over with so he is more sympathetic to the viewer. Still, you know what happens to honourable generals in times of civil war.
Ran: the prophet girl is very adept at walking around town in her fox mask, looking mysterious and saying as little as possible. Er…that’s it. I really didn’t care what happened to her or why.
Basically, these characters are not here for the viewer to like, they are just pawns in a game and the story is all about the game. Sorry, but that’s not my cup of tea. For me, it all starts and ends with the characters.
Animation:
Every goth’s dream palette: nothing but black and grey all the way. It does set a great atmosphere and a suitably despairing tone and the backgrounds are beautiful to look at, especially if you are feeling quasi-suicidal. It has the post-apocalyptic scenery porn nailed and believe me, the way the plot moved you have ample time to do your sightseeing.
I actually liked the character design, mostly because I hate the alien moe-turd look and love the realistic style. The story might be a bit too much on the emo side but the animation is really spot-on. It has any number of inventive sequences, works a great feeling and never shies from showing the buckets of blood and gore that are raining here.
As an aside, here’s a fun exercise for you: jot down the number of people who die violently in this anime and get back to me, because I lost count after the first 50 or so.
Music:
Suitably ambient and dark.
OP: I actually really liked the opening sequence. Plus, you can just take the OP, play it 322 times and you will get the same result as watching the anime.
ED: skipped it, even if it was Gackt (love you Gackt but after 20 minutes of this anime I need AKB48 to stop thinking about suicide…)
Overview:
It took superhuman determination to sit through this over a period of 6 months. To say that it didn’t draw me in would be a colossal understatement. I generally love post-apocalyptic scifi stuff but this felt as appealing as the stuff I found in my fridge when I cleaned it after 3 years. it was just too gritty, too depressing and too bleak.
