I wish I had enjoyed this series more really. It had a lot going for it and a rather different premise to most anime currently airing. Plus, Shinchiro Watanabe. Hard not to expect great things there.
And it wasn't a bad series. It had a lot going for it. Interesting premise as I said, plus a very good soundtrack (as always) by Yoko Kanno. I liked the art style too, seems they went for a more "realistic" look which fit well with the tone of the series.
Unfortunately, while some of the ideas were interesting, I never found myself that invested in anything that was going on. I could often see what they were trying to do, but events often just felt "flat" to me, for lack of a better way to explain it. Part of the problem might have been that I was expecting more, for the series to have more of a bit to it. I felt they played a lot of things safe or relied on some tired tropes. These weren't just anime tropes like the whole "transfer student" thing (which was completely unnecesary and never touched on again. I know Lisa went to school and she needed to find a way to meet Twelve, but there's no reason that needed to happen inside the school), there was also stuff like the "disgraced but brilliant detective" who ended up prying too deep and got sidelined to the archives, and the whole "government secret experiments" thing.
I think the problem is I've seen all these elements before, and while they weren't presented particularly badly in this series, nothing was really done to try and put a twist on or subvert any of these elements. They also played it safe with our anti-heros, with all of their bombs never killing anybody (yeah, right...) and them being able to accomplish their goals without dirtying their own hands in the end. I think it would have been much more interesting if they had been bonafide terrorists who did end up killing people but still had a point to make. Perhaps I was hoping for a more conflicted feeling as to whether to root for the main characters (thinking back to series like Breaking Bad here really, with characters you feel genuinely conflicted as to whether to keep rooting for them or not) but this series made it too easy by having them never have to make the tough choices and kill for their beliefs.
The use of Engrish felt rather unnecessary too and it's hard not to be taken out of the moment when you hear a Japanese VA trying their very best to pull off a convincing English line, but really failing badly. Several scenes lost their impact because of that. But that's probably only a problem if you're an English speaker.
Overall not a bad watch by any means, but ultimately I was left a bit underwhelmed.
Review by ManiacBVIP OG 12BlockedParentSpoilers2014-09-29T22:00:42Z
I wish I had enjoyed this series more really. It had a lot going for it and a rather different premise to most anime currently airing. Plus, Shinchiro Watanabe. Hard not to expect great things there.
And it wasn't a bad series. It had a lot going for it. Interesting premise as I said, plus a very good soundtrack (as always) by Yoko Kanno. I liked the art style too, seems they went for a more "realistic" look which fit well with the tone of the series.
Unfortunately, while some of the ideas were interesting, I never found myself that invested in anything that was going on. I could often see what they were trying to do, but events often just felt "flat" to me, for lack of a better way to explain it. Part of the problem might have been that I was expecting more, for the series to have more of a bit to it. I felt they played a lot of things safe or relied on some tired tropes. These weren't just anime tropes like the whole "transfer student" thing (which was completely unnecesary and never touched on again. I know Lisa went to school and she needed to find a way to meet Twelve, but there's no reason that needed to happen inside the school), there was also stuff like the "disgraced but brilliant detective" who ended up prying too deep and got sidelined to the archives, and the whole "government secret experiments" thing.
I think the problem is I've seen all these elements before, and while they weren't presented particularly badly in this series, nothing was really done to try and put a twist on or subvert any of these elements. They also played it safe with our anti-heros, with all of their bombs never killing anybody (yeah, right...) and them being able to accomplish their goals without dirtying their own hands in the end. I think it would have been much more interesting if they had been bonafide terrorists who did end up killing people but still had a point to make. Perhaps I was hoping for a more conflicted feeling as to whether to root for the main characters (thinking back to series like Breaking Bad here really, with characters you feel genuinely conflicted as to whether to keep rooting for them or not) but this series made it too easy by having them never have to make the tough choices and kill for their beliefs.
The use of Engrish felt rather unnecessary too and it's hard not to be taken out of the moment when you hear a Japanese VA trying their very best to pull off a convincing English line, but really failing badly. Several scenes lost their impact because of that. But that's probably only a problem if you're an English speaker.
Overall not a bad watch by any means, but ultimately I was left a bit underwhelmed.