Back to Alokr's Profile Alokr's Profile

A Missed Opportunity Yet Worth Watching

With the background of a popular mobile game, the hype and anticipation of a series that would depict and expand upon the world of Terra was high. However, the anime struggles to tell the game’s narrative and lore.
The transition from game to anime often presents an opportunity to retouch the story for dramatic effect. However, the anime remains content with a straightforward translation, neither significantly improving upon the narrative nor offering new insights. It skips the chance to integrate various storylines parallel to the main one, which would have made for a more nuanced and engaging plot. While it pays ... homage to the game, they could have taken a bolder step to captivate the viewer.

Visuals:
With Yuki Watanabe as director, Prelude to Dawn is visually captivating. But while the visuals can be stunning, the inconsistent quality is noticeable. For each scene, there are instances where the animation falls short of the standard.
At points, the backgrounds lose their quality, feeling less immersive and more generic.
Similarly, character design is a mixed bag. The protagonists enjoy a diverse range, yet the antagonists come across as a monotonous, generic horde, save for the enemy bosses. This stays true to the game design but translates poorly to anime form, reducing each encounter to a quickly forgettable fight.

Sounds and Music:
The anime does offer one of the better auditory experiences, with one of the highlights being the voice acting. The anime kept all the original voice actors from the game.
Other than that, the choice to keep entire scenes without any music struck a nice contrast and added more weight to those scenes.

Final Thoughts:
All in all, the anime manages to depict the story events just right and offers an enjoyable adaptation of the game, which, in itself is enough to make it a decent watch. The odd phasing and inconsistencies can be partially to blame for the 8-episode format.
As a fan of the game, I highly recommend this anime, it proves to be more than just a commercial for the game.

At first glance, this looks and feels like the average 90s sci-fi mecha show (because it is just that).
This anime goes by the idea that "you get (exactly) what you paid for" and it sticks with it until the end.


It is a good watch if you want your brain to reset and relax. There's no convoluted story nor adrenaline rush scenes. Although the anime doesn't shy away from nightmare-inducing scenes or mild nudity (so keep that in mind).




Unless you don't have anything better to watch, and you enjoy the 90s aesthetics, I recommend this anime.
If you don't like sci-fi, mecha, or those 90s jank ... animes, don't watch this.

Watching this movie will not be your typical experience. By the end, you will either love it or hate it.
For some, this movie is a bootleg copy of "Ghost in a Shell" while for others the movie is far more than a "deep anime" trying to answer the existential problems of today's world, is a statement.

Before starting the review I'd like to say that I don't recommend this movie to casual watchers. Is a movie with a lot of philosophical, anthropological, and political themes.

With all of that said here is the review:

Part 1. "The Absurdity of the World"

When you watch Genocidal Organ, you will always ... feel a little bit off about the movie and what it tries to convey exactly. Is it a movie about terrorism? Is it about patriotism? Is it about the meaning of life? Maybe it is about the horror of war?
Well, in order to pinpoint exactly what the movie tries to convey, we have to understand a few key details about it first.
You see, my dear reader, this is a movie that follows the philosophy of "Existentialism", and, in the manner of a "Sartrian" work, we can see a pattern of alienating the viewer from the action in the movie. This alienation is what we call "the absurdity of the world". A strange feeling inside us that makes us confused or even angry or afraid due to the fact that we see familiar yet strange things, things that are normal and we take for granted... Yet at this very moment, all of these normal concepts become totally estranged from us. This is what the movie likes to call the "Genocidal Organ" or in popular terms "The Absurdity of The World".

If you want to learn more about this philosophy, you should watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQsZxDQgzU

Now that we talked a bit about the movie we should talk a little about the author as well since his personal life had a major impact on the story.

Part 2. Project Itoh

So who is this person?
Well, Itoh Satoshi was a web designer and novelist, but this is not the important part. You see, Satoshi befriended Hideo Kojima, actually, he was one of the "few people" to understand Kojima. This very friendship started Satoshi's passion for writing Metal Gear fan fiction and later on Genocidal Organ. In 2001 He was diagnosed with cancer. During his cancer treatments, he wrote Genocidal Organ and submitted it to the Komatsu Sakyō Award contest in 2006 (winning the contest). His Metal Gear fan fiction experience combined with his private life problems lead to the creation of a unique story known as Genocidal Organ, something that will kill its own "self", a metaphor for humans and humanity as a concept.
So while you are watching the movie you might feel a lot of Metal Gear influences.

Part 3. The Movie

Considering such an interesting author and source material, the movie doesn't fail to deliver an equally interesting story. With action pack sequences split by lengthy world and character-building segments. Even if the movie is only 114m long it will feel like 4 hours one, not wasting any second with meaningless scenes. The animation

Part 4. The problems and final verdict

The Animation - While the scenes are cinematic and the color schemes are nice. The animation itself feels very "low quality" and outdated for a 2017 anime. Considering that the same studio made Samurai Champloo, Deadman Wonderland, and Ergo Proxy, it is odd that the final product feels so rough. But the problem isn't the rough animation, the real problem is the unnatural mix between 2d and 3d that just sticks out in your eyes.

The Sound - Soundwise the movie is solid, it doesn't have any worth noting problem. With that said sounds and music aren't that memorable.

The Characters - Saying that Genocidal Organ has memorable characters is a huge overstatement. By the end of the movie, I had already forgotten more than half of the names in it (including the main's character). You will not get attached that much if at all to the characters, but considering the theme of the movie, it is fitting, not the best idea but still, fitting enough to not care.

The Story - The story is very similar to Tom Clancy's type of plot. There is not a lot to say about it. The story players out exactly as you'd imagine.

Overall the movie doesn't excel in anything. The art style is pretty common, similar to shows like Jormungand, Black Lagoon, or Ergo Proxy. The animation doesn't impress and the story is predictable offering little entertainment value. So if that's the case why did i rate it 7 instead of 4, 5 or 6. Well, that's the movie does put a lot of accent on details. From military procedures and banter between the soldiers to civilian life and the environment that builds the right atmosphere, in the dubbed version every character has, its own accent based on his native language adding to the flavor and immersion in the story. Oddly enough it manages to deliver the idea of Globalisation better than a lot of movies. In my book that's worth more than 5 or 6. Even if it is on my favorites list, I just can't rank it higher than 7. It is a mediocre movie at worse and a decent/good at best. You either love it or hate it.

Be it a die-hard fan of the series or just a sci-fi/cyberpunk lover, this anime seems to get on the bad side of its watchers. But before you scroll to the next review, i will give you an impartial and fair review of this anime.

With that said, I will split the review into two parts, 1st part will be for newbies that don't know what Blade Runner is. 2nd will be a more detailed review for us, die-hard fans.

--------------------------------- PART 1 ---------------------------------------------

So what is "Blade Runner"?
For all Post-Millenials, Blade Runner is a cult classic among sci-fi movies (from 1982), introducing the first cinematic representation of ... what we know today as "cyberpunk". Yes without Blade Runner we would probably never have had Ghost in the Shell or Matrix. In order to have an idea of what's going on in the Anime and to appreciate it, I highly recommend watching the original Blade Runner before. The term "Blade Runner" refers to a special branch of police that deals with the "retiring" of synthetic humans named "replicants". So a "Blade Runner" is like a bounty hunter (this is something that you are expected to know if you watch the anime).


Do you really need to watch the movies to understand what's going on in the anime?
No, you don't need to watch the movies in order to understand the plot. The plot is a generic action mixed with a bit of thriller, there is no subtility to it, it is simple and comprehensive. exactly what you need after a hard day at work or school. On the other hand, watching the movies at a little bit of flavor to

Is it good?
If you are looking for a simple "beat them up" type of anime with little to no complexity to its plot, ya, it is pretty good, there is a lot of action, with quite a few fight scenes are actually really well made, cinema-worthy I might dare to say. The show certainly has enjoyable moments even if it falls short in areas such as character development and plot.

What about the art style?
The art style... It is a 3d anime. But, and here is a huge BUT, while people hate 3d animation, especially anime, I got to admit that surprisingly this one is not that bad. It has a more western approach, somewhat familiar to the old Star Wars The Clone Wars cartoon. With that said, the overall quality is mediocre to good at best and outdated at worse. The bad thing about this 3d is that it always feels inconsistent, that is due to the fact that the quality differs from model to model and object to object giving an "unfinished" product feeling. The material textures are actually impressive, and at times photorealistic, but this is ruined by bad quality character models or poor lighting and camera position. The exact opposite can happen too, having really good shots with awesome lighting but poor texture quality.

Ok, but what about the characters?
The show doesn't try a lot to explain or build characters. They are generic and forgettable. The good guys are "good" for the sake of being good, while the "bad" is "bad" for the sake of having a villain. That isn't exactly good to have in a story, but honestly, in this specific case, it doesn't bother me either.
The plot hints at something more but it never dears to evolve the story or its characters. which is a bit of a missed opportunity.
The main character is a girl, she knows how to fight and she's cute. That's it... She's cool, and her design is pretty cute (a bit too stereotypical but still cute), I wish there was more to her character, and, at the beginning, I felt like her evolution was a bit rushed, but considering the theme of the anime I take that back.

Sound?
The sound is generic action movie stuff. You won't be impressed by it, it feels like a low-budget video game FXS, but it gets the job done. The action is enjoyable enough to overlook the sound. The OP and ED songs are a bit of a letdown, considering the setting and tone of the anime I think the songs stand out too much and don't fit with the mood.

--------------------------------- PART 2 ---------------------------------------------


OK so now let's get into the real review.

Story:
So far the story is pretty vanilla for a Blade Runner entry. We already had a similar plot in the last movie (blade runner 2049), but a million times better executed. I felt disappointed by how limited this was. Blade Runner 2049 set some high bards that this show did not surpass or even got close to... With a team of OGs that worked on iconic entries such as "Ghost in the Shell", "Blood". "Jin-Rou" "Psychopass" and "Ergo Proxy" it is hard to imagine that the end product can be something bad, but even so this must be one of the biggest letdowns, and sadly enough the 3d animation is the least of the problems. We can clearly see that the production of 2021's Ghost in the Shell SAC and Star Wars Visions, had a huge off-screen impact on Blade Runner. Budget cuts had to be made and time had to be cut on an anime in production, and if it's gonna be like that you better cut the least anticipated one, this is clearly noticeable throughout the episodes, both plot-wise and art-wise.

Art:
As I said before, a 3d anime is not necessarily bad, and Black Lotus is among the better-looking 3d anime and cartoons. Taking a look at anime like RWBY or even Ghost in the Shell SAC, the quality of Blade Runner managed to be higher and better. My only big issues with the animation is the rushed production and mixed qualities, It is pretty clear that different 3d artists (with different skills) worked on the same assets and scenes mixing bad quality models or textures with good ones. The end product can look really nice sometimes but it always has an unfinished and unpolished look to it. Is like you are looking at a piece of unfinished jewelry, you can see the overall shape and concept but it lacks the shine of that final touch, making it look mediocre instead. On the other hand, as a Blade Runner lover, I appreciate that they kept an overall design similar to the OG Blade Runner, from clutter and machines to locations, it feels like I'm watching something Blade Runner, it's a pleasant surprise that I always appreciate. Clearly, the team wanted to pay homage to the classic instead of doing a totally generic cyberpunk world.

Sound:
I was expecting the sound to be the weakest part of the show, sadly you can't compare anime studio quality to a Hollywood titan. To compare the sound in Black Lotus to the sound in the movies would be highly unfair... But I can compare it with Blackout 2022. The sounds id say are a little bit lower in quality but not that bad either. it still needs some improvement.

Black Out 2022 vs Black Lotus
A lot of people like to compare the two and say that Black Out is better. Honestly is like you are comparing apples with peaches. These are two different styles. I did enjoy Blackout 2022 but I hated the constant "dragging" effect of the animation. The 2d animation was decent the best shots in that short were static images and above all should I mention that even Blade runner 2022 used 3d assets? So I'd say that Black Lotus is an improvement over Black Out, especially combat scenes, they are crisp, they hit good, and look nice, I love them, this is the only reason why I haven't dropped the show.

Enjoyment:
Yes, the character interaction is pretty bad, the plot is mediocre and generic, the quality is overall bad... But man the fighting scenes! Especially episode 6. These are the best part of the show. For some reason, this show has one of the most enjoyable fighting scenes of the year 2021. They are enjoyable and satisfactory.


Final verdict:
A fair grade would be 6, the show is not bad by any means but is not that good either. It is fun and for some, it might have replayable value.
I would highly encourage people to watch it since is not as bad as it sounds. The enjoyment can says the 6 to an 8 easily (personal preference).