Altered Carbon: Resleeved

Whoever thought to bring anime yakuza sensibilities into the world of Altered Carbon... Thank you. Resleeved was an awesome little addition to the series.

The story is interesting, mixing the detective plot of the first half of the first season with a yakuza power struggle. Then they decide to throw an interesting twist in there that capitalizes on the world it is set in.

Visually, this is a magnificent feat. CG-anime animation that actually looks good throughout the whole thing and manages to flow like real movement? How did they pull that off? Netflix has been doing a lot of that style lately, and they really hit ... their stride with Resleeved. It looks great.

That fluid 3D animation tells right into some really well-choreographed fights that feel ripped straight out of Sega's Yakuza videogame series. The fights are intense and hit heavy, but still show off skilled and intricate fighting.

Overall, Altered Carbon: Resleeved is a successful venture for the series into a new medium that expertly uses that move to create something worth adding to the universe.

In a word: Meh.

The story is bland, boring and predictable. And the characters are not better. Also, as a reader of the novels and fan of the franchise: That´s NOT Takeshi Kovacs.

Envoys are not just combat specialists, they are infiltrators with an uncanny sense sense for body language. They´re supposed to be amazing character readers that smell treason a mile away and can understand the motivations and desires of every person in the room after just 5mins of conversation. And then use that info to manipulate everyone around them. And here there are SO MANY things go over the MC´s head that is not even ... funny. Makes no sense at all.

Honestly, this anime would have worked better if it was just a story taking place in Altered Carbon universe but using different characters and not Kovacs.

Also, there´s a metric ton of fridge logic and plot holes that make zero sense the moment you stop to think about them. Like (no spoilers): Where does the bad guy get his army of cyborg ninjas from? Why is stack backup, which is a staple of the Altered Carbon universe, not even mentioned? Surely if the big bad guy has an army at his disposal he can afford stack backup. Also, tattoo technology that is only known by a single person on the whole planet?

The art is decent though I do not understand why so many people are praising it. It´s good CGI but nothing spectacular. It reminds me of the art style of the Telltale games for some reason.

Altered Carbon: Resleeved (2020)

Since I love the live-action show I really wanted to love this but it is so difficult.

The story of this is actually the best part in that it is well thought out and structured as per the universe that it exists in. It is enjoyable from start to finish in that regard.

The art of this, however, is what brings out down the most. It is CGI but we are not talking about the quality you get with shows like High Score Girl where it has been done well and thought out. Altered Carbon here has absolutely dreadful CGI. The characters ... when they standstill are great to look at and have the detail. When they move they are, however, clunky and all over the place. The combat looks dreadful because of this also. Some of them walk funny whilst others can barely function. The detail itself is good but that is about all you can say. It has a style reminiscent of a certain game series on a planet Pandora. But this has been done dreadfully.

Sound for this is good and is of a level expected.

Characters are difficult to talk about with the ONI which can make anyone everyone. They are , however, very nicely thought out characters. Still unsure how old Holly is.

The shows CGI attempt was awful and should be forgotten and not linked with the main show preferably.