Obsolete

Obsolete is an episodic, fully CG, western styled mecha anime about humanity trying to adjust to the arrival of alien technology that they don't understand but changes both the civilian workflow and military landscape drastically. It's by far the most realistic approach to a mecha anime I've seen yet, with not only clear references to real world weaponry in detail, but also consideration on the global political impact the Exosuits brought with them. Unfortunately, it ends very abruptly with no continuation in sight as far as I can tell, but still very enjoyable if you want a more realistic approach to the genre.

Initially I stumbled ... across this series on youtube and after looking it up, I was very much put off by the full CG animations and low review score. But after some consideration I still decided to give it a shot. The main gripe I have with CG animations is that they always feel like the cheap option that lacks detail and just kinda gets thrown in and ruins the immersion. This is absolutely not the case for Obsolete, arguably the exact opposite even.
The amount of detail that is put into this anime is pretty much unprecedented, at least when it comes to military weaponry. And even the Exosuits were designed with a very practical concept in mind which makes them seem much more in line with reality than most mecha.

Now, animations aside, the story is also quite interesting. While the focus is still on mecha fights and military warfare, a good chunk of the story is about the political side of things. This is both a positive and a negative in my opinion. I enjoyed that part, and especially the different ways that it was presented in, but it felt rather slow and will likely bore a majority of viewers and is next to the CG likely one of the main reasons why this show has such a low score. And even though it takes an episodic approach, there's still an overarching story line, so the abrupt ending without much explanation makes it feel like they wanted to produce another season but didn't get enough funding.

Overall I still enjoyed the anime for what it is and what it tried to achieve and can at the very least recommend it to any military nut out there that's tired of the typical moe military and wants something more life-like.

This show has its moments but feels largely held back by its short overall runtime and uneven animation quality between its mecha and human scenes. Military and sci-fi stories benefit greatly from their richness in detail, and this show can't deliver much on that due to this fault and its episodic format. In the end, the show only manages to barely set up its cast of protagonists and antagonists. In other words, by the time the show ends, it'll feel like it's only just begun.


But if you're one of the few people who still closely follows what Urobuchi does these days, I can ... at least assure that the show feels like something Gen Urobuchi wrote and was interested in. The story and setting details that are present are interesting. It IS proper science fiction, in a time where science fiction and mecha shows simply aren't produced much these days.

Overall, its a show that due to its compromises in budget, can only appeal to hardcore Buchi-heads and Mecha fans.

Do not watch the English dubbed version! The voice acting is just bad. The actor's cadence is just unnatural most of the time, with many weird gaps in sentences. I understand that one of the main goals is to match the lip flaps, but there were soooo many times where characters mouths weren't even visible and the cadence was still off. Even the inflections and sounds of the voice actors were bad. If it weren't for the fact that this started airing in 2019, I'd seriously think the voice acting was actually A.I. generated.

I think the other reviews have adequately addressed the plot, so ... I'll just say I'm disappointed in it. I think the core of the plot was really interesting, but after episode 8 the studio just gave up on it and decided to start telling short stories that were almost entirely disconnected from the core story-line.

The only positive for me is the visual design of the show. I actually like the CGI in this. It was clean and consistent throughout the show. I also really like the designs of the suits.