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Regardless of if you like this show or not, the method Mappa has gone about distributing this season is a fucking nightmare. Let's run through this - Oh okay, Attack on Titan: The Final Season, then we have Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part Two, then Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part THREE, and then we have Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part THREE Special ONE. Give me a break. Why the fuck has it taken over TWO YEARS for this show to end already god DAMN.

This schedule also makes no sense to me because you'd assume that the more time that ... passes the more time Mappa has to work on the new season, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that this WAS a rushjob given how slapdash the entire production is. I truly cannot wrap my head around how Mappa has all these resources, all this support, all this commercial success and is still able to churn out shit that looks like this. Unbelievable.

This is only two episodes so there isn't much to talk about to be perfectly honest. What's bad about Mappa's adaptation of AoT remains bad - embarrassing CG, terminally boring and homogenous character designs, lackluster animation cuts even when they try, etc. I have to admit that the first 10 or 15 minutes genuinely gripped me, which is a first for this new season. Seeing Eren tell the little boy he's sorry for murdering him in the future is a uniquely tragic and horrifying scene, and seeing the ways the rumbling is utterly decimating everyone in its path is genuinely brutal, but after that sequence it goes downhill from there. Annie and Armin exchange awkward romantic dialogue literally RIGHT after the terrifying scene of the rumbling killing everybody for some Grade-A tonal whiplash, and Hange sacrifices herself in an overly quick, near incomprehensible scene that people love because good animation is when things move fast. She takes out like 6 or 7 Colossal Titans which absolutely should NOT be able to happen because they've already established Colossal Titans and unbeatable monoliths that burn everything near them. if Hange could take out 6 or 7 of them, then shit why don't you get all the ODM gear you possibly can and just try and kill the Titans? surely you could kill enough to open a path where people can move through the wall of titans so they don't all die, right? This is logistic nerd shit I'm complaining about that shouldn't matter , but there's so little going for this show at this point that even I, someone who doesn't usually give two shits about plot holes even when they're big, noticed this immediately and it bothers the hell out of me.

People get very hyperbolic when talking about AoT, which is why I try my very best to articulate my dissenting opinion in as reasonable a method as I can, but to put it simply I just don't like this show anymore, and I'm sure that hatred shows through in my tone. I'm not enthralled by anything going on storywise or visually, and I figured after the way last season ended we'd all be on the same page about how the narrative has devolved, but people are still coping and championing this season specifically as a spectacular showcase of storytelling, even when there's so much wrong with it.

I for one absolutely cannot wait to see how Mappa fumbles the rest of this show. Thanks for reading.

“Now is the winter of our discontent”

Patlabor 2, in a stark departure from the previous film, is understated, sullen, and cold, both in setting and character. Quiet snowfall drapes Japan in a melancholic blanket of stagnation: precisely where our likable cast of characters of the previous film find themselves – stagnant in their positions, relegated to busywork, disillusioned with the government they serve and searching for their own purpose as the powers that be continue to look weaker and more dysfunctional. Patlabor 2’s subject matter is informed by the real-life post-occupation period of Japan following WWII, and uses its near-future setting to eerily comment ... on our own relationship with war and peace, and military and government incompetence.

Discontent with the top brass has been baked into the 2nd unit’s story since day one. They are the odd ones out, a cast of wild and offbeat disappointments relegated to the strangest and most bizarre cases, never given the respect or acknowledgement they truly deserve. The 2nd unit’s captains Kiichi Goto and Shinobu Nagumo, know this better than anyone, always playing to the strengths of their crew and against all odds doing what even the highest-ranking units in the JGSDF can’t. Whether they operate outside of the top brass’ purview or not, the 2nd unit does what’s right, and doesn’t operate based on profit, glory, or anything else other than what would be the best for Tokyo. As Detective Matsui in the first film puts it, they’re less cops and more “allies of justice”.

Discontent with not only the top positions in the military and the government, but also disillusionment with the people he’s protecting, our antagonist Yukihito Tsuge is radicalized by his years in the force and the hell he’s witnessed, all to protect a seemingly uncaring and unknowing public. Tsuge and his cohorts’ displeasure with their position decide to show Japan, and the world, just how fragile their peace really is, and how easy it is for everything to be thrown away when the people quelling unrest are more incompetent and dysfunctional than the public knows.

Standing in their way of course are the captains from the previous film Kiichi Goto and Shinobu Nagumo, having lost their subordinates to other positions and left to banter with one another exclusively. Goto and Shinobu are perfect leads to face off against our antagonist as they also are people in positions of power – overseeing officers who receive orders from them and even align with them idealistically. Whereas Tsuge uses his connections and his deep-set anger to make a statement by disturbing Japan’s peace, Goto and Shinobu use their connections with the previous members of the 2nd unit to mobilize their own rag-tag hero squad to protect Japan from the acts of terrorism Tsuge would commit. Interestingly though, Goto and Shinobu don’t disagree with Tsuge – they know that the peace they protect is, at least in some ways, a false one – obtained by the higher-ups ordering their underlings to do the dirty work while those at the top don’t truly internalize just what their methods do to those they protect and protect against. As Goto puts it though, even if it’s a false peace, it is one that he must protect. Goto isn’t an idealist, he’s a realist – he can see the unjust peace we live in and the just war that Tsuge plans to start, but will take the unjust peace every time, and isn’t afraid to do whatever he can - even if it costs him his own position – to protect it.

One of the most integral scenes in conveying this theme of peace being obtained through unsavory methods is when all the military divisions of the JGSDF mobilize throughout Japan in order to be ready for whatever the next terrorist attack could be. The terror this sudden and massive mobilization of tanks and armed soldiers instills in the populace is palpable, with the masses terrified by the news bulletin announcing it and the subsequent immediate occupation of all major cities. Several shots with empty, sparse sound design and military equipment in just the wrong place, all sorts of residential areas and roads overrun by tanks, troops, and military labors. There is no attempt by the higher-ups to handle Tsuge’s terrorist acts subtly, utilizing their connections and informants to find another way to get a message across, and instead immediately attempt a counterstatement, showing how seriously they take this situation with no care for the terror and unrest this instills.

The themes of the film inform every aspect of production, especially the visuals. Just like the first film, perhaps even moreso, Patlabor 2 is a feast for the eyes. The color palette, informed by the film’s moral dilemmas, is flush with subdued, muted colors, and utilizes long, contemplative shots dwelling on the various settings and vistas with empty, eerie composition adding even more dread under the surface of an already somber visual landscape. You also can’t talk about a Patlabor project without mentioning the sublime direction and filmmaking found in the action sequences. Little details like the 5 pistons correlating to the 5 fingers on the prototype labor, to the cockpit opening, guns firing, gatling cylinders cooling down, the wobble of the missiles as their tear through the air, all look great and are accented with chunky, accurate sound design. All technical aspects feed into one another to build the setting believably and dramatically, while also giving it a distinctly sullen feel indicative of the headier themes the movie chooses to tackle.

Patlabor 2: The Movie is an absolutely superb animated work helmed by some of the medium’s best and delivers a mature, nuanced, and emotional story rife with political intrigue and takes our characters from the first film in new directions. This is a sublime artistic achievement with no fat to be trimmed, where every technical aspect is painstakingly realized and every story, character, and narrative beat is paced and timed to perfection. This kind of uncompromised perfection across a 2-film saga is an absolute rarity. Now more than ever, with how increasingly commercialized anime productions are becoming, works of art such as these that go in with a compelling, contemporary thematic framework that surrounds a sublime story made by some of the finest craftsmen in the medium is such a treat to behold. Patlabor 1 and 2 are Mecha and anime staples that absolutely no one should miss, and the subject matter contained in each film only grows more and more relevant as our relationship with technology continues to develop and mature.

Thank you dearly for reading.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners faithfully adapts CD Projekt Red’s Night City into an animated landscape whilst instilling it with their own Trigger flair, has a great soundtrack, great visuals, but is sorely lacking in interesting characters and meaningful bonds between those characters.

Trigger did an amazing job animating these people and riddling their designs with all sorts of aspects that inform more about their history and character, but this sets up development that simply isn’t there. Rebecca, Dorio, Pilar, Kiwi, and a good few more from our main cast are unbelievably bland and only a few are saved by Trigger’s stellar facial and character animation work. ...

I can buy David’s latching onto Lucy, how separated they are from the rest of their group and how much they interact with just each other, but the rest of the crew – Maine, Dorio, Rebecca, Falco, Kiwi, and Pilar – I feel next to nothing for them by themselves and especially next to nothing for their bonds with David. Maine’s bond with David is easily the most developed next to Lucy’s, but why did he like Pilar? Why did he like Falco? Kiwi? Rebecca? Dorio? Some flat characters could have been saved by their chemistry with David, but I’m sorry, I’m just not sold on him feeling a connection with these people. Maybe, MAYBE Rebecca if you really want to consider smiling near each other good chemistry, but not even a little bit for everyone else. Even Maine’s bond with him which does get some development feels like it’s given way more importance than it really had. I don’t buy David considering Maine’s death as a key motivation moment, much less as much of a key motivation moment up there with his mother’s death. A sad death for sure, but David never shows a liking towards Maine to a point where his death would set him down a path to fill his shoes; it just doesn’t make sense to me.

David’s arc of wanting to do right by his mother who tragically passed in a car accident is developed and fits well within a Cyberpunk world where every force is pushing David down, but to be completely honest I did not and still don’t buy David’s motivation here. For the little time we get with David and his mother, he seems indifferent to her struggling to provide for him, and once she passes, I had figured David would just do what he could to try and find someplace to be, which I felt would have made much more sense for his character, but by the end of the series he still is trying to fulfill his Mother’s dream of being someone she can be proud of.

This is a character arc, yes, but not a particularly compelling one, and most definitely nothing you haven’t seen before. I simply am not compelled by Kiwi, Maine, Falco, Rebecca, Pilar, or their struggles, and was barely compelled by David and Lucy’s bond, and as a result the big moments of the show just don’t hit for me.

What DOES hit however is the stellar, STELLAR visual quality in this anime. Not simply cool character designs or great animation cuts (of which there are many), but the setting, the colors, the usage of glitchy technological effects, the direction, composition, clarity, all of it is simply divine. I’ve always been a sucker for Trigger’s visual sensibilities, their dynamic angles and chunky impactful movements, and every character in this show is a Studio Trigger dreamboat of evocative character design and fantastically expressive animation that almost got me more invested in their development and struggles, almost.

Night City feels obsessively realized and lived in. When the main antagonist of most of our characters is the city itself, you need your setting to feel oppressive and all-encompassing, and it most certainly does. There is so much excessive detail and personality packed into every inch of the city, and there is literally nothing but metal and neon lights making you really feel just like the characters in the show; sick of the city and everything it wrought, and ready to rebel. The intense and laborious detail put into the depiction of Night City and all its ins and outs is most definitely the standout feature of this anime, because it sure as hell isn’t the increasingly simplified characters and the blistering speed that nearly whizzes past the emotional moments in the show.

I am disappointed in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners because I fell into the trap AGAIN of seeing the rapturous praise it’s gotten, getting my hopes up, then walking out of it thinking it was just alright. This is a relationship I have with many shows. I’d love to write more about this show, its characters and how much of a flatline everything having to do with them was for me, but I simply don’t feel compelled to. These are not especially dreadful stories being told or horrible characters we follow, but they aren’t especially good either. I want more out of a Trigger production than jaw-dropping visuals, I want to be swept up by Night City and feel just as beaten down as our protagonists, but I just couldn’t get behind any of our character’s motivations or how they were handled. I’m still waiting for Trigger’s next masterpiece following Little Witch Academia, but I don’t think Edgerunners is anywhere near that. To the people who love this show: I’d love to hear what you have to say, because as of the writing of this review the exceedingly positive reviews of this show on MAL are overrun with simplified surface-level appreciation and I know that some of you out there appreciate Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on a deeper level, which is something I didn’t feel it had the capacity to give me. Thanks for reading.

Patlabor: The Movie is the best thing that nobody has watched, and I imagine a lot of that comes from the fact that it’s an old anime movie that isn’t Akira or Ghost in the Shell and is tied to a pre-established mecha franchise. Even though it is canonical to the broader Patlabor series, I cannot stress enough that you do not need ANY prior knowledge of ANYTHING Patlabor before you watch this or its sequel film Patlabor 2, which is equally superb. While watching something like Char’s Counterattack mandates you have some knowledge of the prior Gundam meta, Patlabor: The Movie is a true ... stand-alone film that tells an airtight story without any reliance on the previous Patlabor show and OVA. As of the writing of this review, I haven’t even watched any other Patlabor media apart from this movie and its sequel, and I can tell you everything you need to know about every character because this film does such a wonderful job of establishing its major players and using great acting and writing to give you the info you need to keep up with the film’s plot. If all you’re looking for is a simple “yes” or “no” to whether you should give this film a watch, I feel my 10 rating is enough of an answer to that question. Please watch it, it’s so good.

Patlabor revolves around the central plot conceit of the titular utilitarian mecha known as “labors” going haywire while on duty or even while unmanned, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s 2nd Special Vehicles Section’s colorful cast of characters as they work to get to the bottom of the mystery.

In a lot of my reviews, you’ll hear me talk about directing a lot because it’s incredibly important when it comes to visual clarity. Anyone with a good head on their shoulders can tell you that the director is the single most important individual when it comes to a film because overseeing all aspects of production and making sure that these raw materials are utilized well is the mark of good directing. Mamoru Oshii, fortunately, knows everything there is to know about great directing and is deified by the anime community because of the positively incomparable directorial flare and quality he possesses.

Mamoru Oshii is a name that should ring a bell, an anime legend known best for Angel’s Egg, The Sky Crawlers, writing Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, and one of the most influential works of Japanese cinema of all time, Ghost in the Shell. He’s got a massive reputation for being an immensely talented director and Patlabor really lets the man flex his muscles and exemplify some of the best visual cohesion that this medium has to offer. His work is what’s most brought up among cinephiles when discussing the best Japanese cinema out there, and being spoken of in the same breath as legends such as Ishiro Honda and Akira Kurosawa is as good a primer as ever to let you know that this man doesn’t just make good anime, but good films, respectable outside of the context of just Japanese animation.

From the very beginning of the film, Patlabor: The Movie fires on all cylinders and exemplifies quintessential exceptional visual storytelling. A man pets a crow as he stands precariously over top an exposed metal beam, his cohorts in the background screaming at him to come back, but no audio except for the empty tinny drum breaking the silence. He falls with a smile on his face, and the sound of flowing wind and birds' wings increase in volume as they cut to the next scene: the JGSDF’s hunt for a haywire Labor. The color usage and time of day reflect the uncertainty of the enemy that the military faces, the ample amounts of time given to show the setting up of the military and their increasingly complex weaponry immediately conveying the intensity of the situation and also illustrating to the viewer just how far into the future we are, the music being foreboding but high tempo as the moonlit battle against the Labor unfolds, and at its resolution reveals that the Labor wasn’t even piloted the entire time. What just happened? How can the robot move without a pilot inside? What importance does that man at the beginning have with the rest of the story? CUE THE TITLE CARD, changing the music from ominous thrills to upbeat guitar to let the viewer know that you are going to get ALL the answers to the questions this intro posed. Textbook perfection right there guys, I don’t know what else to say.

This film, from beginning to end, in all its down moments and emotional apexes, is a treat to take in. The characters are no less well-handled, with great dialogue writing and a fantastic emphasis on the processes they take to come to the conclusions they do. It’s easy with such plot-driven stories like these with so many lines about pulling up files, interviewing people, operating systems, and futuristic technical jargon for the script to feel vacuous, but Patlabor writes its characters all with very simple straightforward personalities that act as great shorthand for how the characters react to certain information: Noa is happier and more positive, prone to see the bright side of the situation and get a plan going, Ohta is brash and loud, prone to not give two shits about the intricacies of the situation and just wants to have something to shoot or break, Goto being deadpan but deathly serious is apt at playing to the strengths of his crew and putting them in positions where they’ll be most suited, and so on. Having simple and straightforward characters in a serious situation can be a dangerous line to tread since it’s easy to have them fall back into caricatures of themselves, which can leave their lighthearted nature to not feel right for a more complicated story, but it’s precisely because they all have such colorful personalities that it’s believable that they are the ones tasked with solving this mystery around the clock. Their unit is looked down upon for being a group of losers and weirdos, when their varying personalities and takes on the situation lead them to come to conclusions other units too busy with their heads stuck in the books won’t come to, ultimately leading them to solve the mystery against all odds. These simple characters also provide great springboards for the deeper development they get in the sequel, which will get a review soon too.

As is the case with most anime films made in the 80’s, Patlabor: The Movie is ceaselessly gorgeous. I’m an absolute sucker for mechanical detail and the intricacies of design-work gone in to make the technology of the world seem as real as it can be, and there’s oodles of that stuff to be found in this film. Railings and joints showing how the limbs move on a mech, varying metal sheens conveying the age or rigidity of a certain alloy, fabric coverings over some joints to protect from dust, piercing blinding eye lights and larger floodlights for varying light conditions, etc. Wonderful rich colors, informative character designs, lived-in and excessively detailed environments, impeccable direction and composition courtesy of your main man Mamoru Oshii; you get the gist. If you’re a nerd for excessively realized technical details, this is your movie.

The sound department on this film is another aspect that is obviously spectacular, to go with all the well-realized technical details of the mecha and the settings are brought to life by chunky, tactile, purposeful sound design reflective of giant metal behemoths tearing through the myriad backgrounds they find themselves in. Bleak interiors of mysterious untouched homes are fittingly silent and eerie, a quiet door creak being deafening in the emptiness, bustling crowd shots overflow with speaking, laughing and yelling. The soundtrack composed by anime legend Kenji Kawai knows when to keep the instrumentation sparse and minimal to convey a mystery and can conversely blast memorable melodies with high-energy guitars and horns to accent a scene’s intensity. The second film’s soundtrack is certainly better, but this one, again, is a gem that plays to the film’s strengths precisely as a soundtrack should.

I’m just gushing at this point, I understand, but know that this is a film that just has got all the bases covered. There is so much to appreciate on the surface, and deeper appreciators have all sorts of themes and animation techniques to chew on throughout the entirety of the film’s runtime. It is such a stellar example of the advantages of animation when telling a story and is among the tightest written stories I can think of. Patlabor has certainly carved out its niche and had a sublime lifespan of TV series, OVA’s and films, but outside mecha circles Patlabor is generally unheard of, which is something I want to rectify. Patlabor: The Movie is an unsung masterpiece made during one of anime’s most famous periods of excessive quality, and is fittingly exceptional in every regard and represents some of the very best this medium has to offer. It’s an absolute gem, and no matter your artistic sensibilities I am 100% positive that you will find something to love.

I’m going to start this review by saying that despite my displeasure with the previous part of the final season and my overall dislike of this season, I feel it necessary to mention something I did not in my review of the first part of the final season, that being the crew working on this and how they did everything they could given the poor schedule they had to make this season special. I still stand by the points in my previous review, but there is simply no reason to be mad at the animators and writers who had to make a show as quickly ... as this one was made and have it live up to the insane hype that this series has gotten. The blame lies on the people enforcing this shit schedule on the workers and not waiting longer so that the kinks in the animation and the story could be ironed out, and the fact that the final season’s adaptation isn’t going to be any more proper than it is now is the reality we’ve got.

It’s also worth noting that you should most definitely NOT give two shits about a review that was created before the end of the show or without that person having seen the entirety of the season. MAL for some asinine reason lets people give a rating on a show before it’s even finished airing, so you get all these impulsive 13-year-olds spouting off braindead takes, spamming it with 1-star and 10-star reviews before anything gets resolved and any time has passed to assess the show’s quality reasonably.

With that being said, let’s continue.

I was not a fan of last season. I gave it a 4/10 indicating that I felt that it was below average, and had the series not set my standards so high I wouldn’t have given it that score. In retrospect, it isn’t that much better or worse than most of the anime that come out but being the fourth season in a series that has been an absolute rollercoaster of emotion and revelations and having such a stark downgrade in every technical aspect, it had everything going against it.

The primary issue I have with this season and the one before it is a disconnect between the story they are trying to tell and the competency of every technical aspect of production. I am completely baffled at how some will argue that the visuals, sound design, color choice, character design, facial animation, visual clarity, consistency, etc., of the story are secondary to the plot, which is completely untrue. Every aspect of the production is designed to feed into the other. Berserk 2016 had numerous plot and storytelling issues, but ask anyone who has seen it and the biggest issue they’ll tell you it had was that it looked like a prolapsed anus. Berserk is known for Miura’s unparalleled detail in his art, so the disparity between that and the atrocious direction, color choice, framing, and shot composition of Berserk 2016 was incredibly apparent. Am I saying that this season of Attack on Titan is as bad as one of the single biggest animated atrocities ever made? No, absolutely not, but the point I’m trying to make is that lackluster technical aspects bog a quality story down. I feel most people can at least agree on that.

Before I go deep into my technical issues with this season, I’ll real quick run through my primary issues with the story and characters, since this isn’t what this review is going to be focusing on:

Armin’s character devolves from an intelligent strategist willing to make sacrifices to an impulsive idiot who has 0 idea how to help his friends around him and assist in their troubles reasonably

Mikasa remains hopelessly one-note, but apparently this is okay because she is genetically predisposed to wanting to help Eren, which is probably the stupidest plot point in the entire show

A 4-year time skip to idealist warrior Eren is a copout as all the development he has had up until this point doesn’t point at all to becoming a single-minded idealist, and making him a flat, dull, emotionless character in contrast to the wealth of emotions he showed before is just plain not engaging to watch when the context is something we’re supposed to infer rather than having us show how his time spent in the hospital in Marley changed him for the worse

The lackluster directing of this season infects the scripts, making them long and list-like with little nuance when dumping exposition and leaves most episodes a slog

Falco as a character has no agency and just has shit happen to him constantly without him seeming like he feels strongly one way or the other. I’m sure people will argue that this is on purpose, that somehow him having no personality short of being overly trustworthy or sad sometimes is supposed to be compelling somehow, but I’m struggling to find what kind of thematic relevance this lack of any interesting character traits is supposed to have.

Were there really THAT many wall titans? Like in the last episode there is a veritable fucking swarm of them but dude the Eldian area was so fucking unbelievably small compared to the rest of the world. It’s going to take literally forever for everything to get stomped. Also, because the wall titans are CG, they are hollow and stiff, meaning they can float incredibly easily so they don’t get stuck on the bottom of the ocean like they most definitely should have. Honest to God, I thought Isayama new better than to imply that the colossal titans can fucking swim, but perhaps that hope was misplaced

Connie goes from ready to fucking murder Falco and bring his mom back to forgetting all of that happened and deciding he’s going to be “a soldier his mom can be proud of” which is Isayama’s way of saying “I don’t care about Connie anymore so I’m going to lump him in with the rest of the stragglers who want to stop Eren’s genocide and this is effectively the end of his arc as a character”

Annie should not be welcomed back to the crew with anything short of constant berating and anger from everyone else. Her and Reiner butt heads with everyone like once but don’t try and convince me that these people who have seen so many friends die at the hands of these two fuckwads have barely anything to say about it and will make this teamwork go smoothly.

You’ve all heard people ramble about the decline in writing and the whole genocide debacle with the resistance group deciding one genocide is better than the other or something, so I’m not focusing on that, and I’m not touching the ending since 1: it isn’t in this season and hasn’t been properly adapted yet, and 2: you all know it’s fucking terrible. I don’t care if the sentiment and tone of this review is just echoing the sentiments from people with basic standards for visual clarity and the outcry from the people who prefer WiT’s adaptation. I don’t care if this is the most common criticism levied at Mappa’s handling of Attack on Titan. I’m doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on the depressing state that this second part of AoT’s final season finds itself in.

I really cannot overstate just how hideous I feel this production really is. Every second of every episode, without any kind of hyperbole, was an unabashed slog to try and find what was working about this story so I could somehow relate to the individuals who felt they were being shown a compelling narrative. The character designs are straight-up ugly, and downright homogenous. Each character in the first 3 seasons had a memorable silhouette and defined facial features that were perfect for visual clarity but not so animated as to detract from the realism that the series had. The argument for manga accuracy will always be a losing battle since the anime’s first three seasons already established a departure from Isayama’s art style, and I find the manga art generally unappealing anyway. Let me be clear on this: there is a difference between a logical progression from one character’s design to another, and a plain disregard for trying to make any cohesion between the previous seasons. I would love nothing more than to watch this show and truly feel what these characters are feeling, but every time an emotion is supposed to be shown, it’s always ineptly static and too like every other expression they show for me to feel anything of weight there. What am I supposed to feel when a character is supposed to be angry but their face reads like a mix of boredom and indifference? Why does everyone have these butt-ugly shadows under their eyes? Why would you take Yuki Kaji’s fantastic talent for exemplifying an unhinged passion in intense emotions and make his most emotional character a stale shell? Why is it so hard for me to feel the rage and intensity in Eren’s quest for freedom when every line read is read as if he’s half asleep? Characters are off model between cuts, are completely different from how they looked before, and in action scenes when they attempt to hide the fact that they’re CG, forget about it. You show this to someone getting into anime for the first time and they’ll laugh in your face, provided they aren’t 13, which a good majority of this show’s fanbase is.

The action scenes are another big issue. While it certainly improved since last season (we don’t have anything quite as bad as that initial siege against the Warhammer titan) there’s still plenty of issues that haven’t been ironed out. The CG titans particularly irk me since there are instances of hand-drawn titans in this season that (SHOCKER) look great! If the crew had been given just a little bit more time to really give this adaptation the detail it deserved, we could have something so much more respectable than what we have, but the hype culture surrounding this show necessitated a much quicker and more brutal production schedule than should’ve happened, and a rush job for such an influential and hugely popular series such as AoT should NOT be rushed.

Sound design-wise, nothing stands out one way or the other, aside from the usage of the show’s soundtrack. Hiroyuki Sawano’s AoT OST is unbelievably good and fits the high-intensity spectacle that the first 3 seasons stayed mostly committed to, but when you insert that hype mix of orchestral and electronic instrumentation into a world with a muddy color palette and direction as intense as a lesiurely stroll, the tonal difference is abhorrently obvious. In addition to this, the opening theme, while not a terrible song on its own or in a less serious context, is a COLOSSALLY poor fit for Attack on Titan. It’s loud, brazen, and this corny-ass nu metal butt rock sound does NOT fit for what is intended to be a story that is supposed to be taken seriously. This is a song for the AMV crowd and most definitely does not work for this season. I would have skipped it every time it played if not for the hilarious tonal disparity it offers, which is genuinely funny. If you can listen to a song where Japanese Chester Bennington literally vocalizes verbatim Eren’s character and internal struggle while “RUMBRING, RUMBRING, IT’S COMING” blares in the background and take it seriously, then you’re more tolerable than I. Embarassing.

In my mind, I feel like all these issues I’m talking about are obvious. When a show looks really good, people are usually very quick to point that out. When a show looks really bad, people are usually very quick to point that out too. But with this season, even when there is a baseline for direct comparison with WIT’s adaptation and all the obvious downgrades, and people don’t seem to have any issue, I’m left not knowing what in the hell you even got out of the first 3 seasons to begin with. Mappa’s art style change is a hugely misguided effort when this season is intended to be a CONTINUATION to what WIT already did. I realize that I stated earlier that I bear no ill will towards the animators and other individuals who worked on this season but you can NOT tell me that a passionate crew with an enthusiasm for the source material made this show. I simply don’t see it.

Listen, I can keep going. I’m a forgetful gibbon so as I watched the new season, I jotted down my thoughts, and there’s just no end to this shit. Scene after scene that is made a mockery of due to a rushed, dispassionate staff, moment after moment undercut by sloppy cuts, poor direction and distracting soundtrack implementation; etc. I just don’t know how much more I’m really willing to sit through just so I can write a review. I feel an obligation to keep watching for the dialogue I get with my friends and the fact that it’s such a popular show, but had this show not had the reputation it does, you bet your ass I would’ve jumped ship one season ago.

I also need to reaffirm my stance on AoT as a whole so you don’t assume I’m some dickhead who hates on AoT for no legitimate reason. I had an absolutely stellar time with the first two seasons of Attack on Titan, and while the first half of season 3 was probably the biggest of the show’s many pacing issues, the second half brought it back with some of the most emphatic moments in recent anime that I can think of. Seeing the series go from fantastic to comically incompetent is not a progression I take joy in watching, literally. I hated watching every episode of this and last season except for maybe a combined total of 3 episodes. I tried to entertain this season to maybe find something to latch onto, but I simply cannot disregard my deep, honest, all-encompassing vehement distaste I really truly feel about Mappa’s handling of this whole Final season. Without any exaggeration, I can confidently say that with this second half of the final season, I hate where Attack on Titan is and where it’s going and have nothing but apprehensiveness and morbid interest in me so that I can see how Mappa churns out the embarrassing final stretch of this story.

It isn’t lost on me how unpopular my take on this show is, and if you disagree or have an issue with anything I stated here, I urge you to message me so we can take the discussion further. I grew to appreciate last season much more from how I spoke about it with friends, and there’s always something to gain from criticism and critical discussions.

Thank you dearly for reading this far, whether you agree or disagree.

Kentaro Miura's seminal work, the premier Dark Fantasy comic, and arguably the most well-regarded and well-remembered manga of all time, Berserk is an incredible, uncompromising, consistent, and immaculately handled tale that is the prime example of when an artist dedicates their life to a work and doesn't falter for even a single panel.

Writing a review on a work so beloved and deeply engrained into the culture of anime and manga brings with it a lot of repeated statements. Berserk has an insane reputation, having inspired too many works to count and having run for so long making it always running during most anime/manga ... fans' introductions to the medium, and is always brought up when discussing the medium's best works. What I want to make sure that everyone who reads this knows however, is that none of these common statements about Berserk's quality are unfounded. I never like calling anyone who works on something a genius, as I believe it undercuts the human capacity for failure that is always there, but Miura undoubtedly had that special something that set him apart from all other mangaka, comic writers, and illustrators.

Berserk's most defining trait is Miura's unbelievable artwork. The story being told is also stellar and equally original, but being a mangaka means having a good grasp on how to draw panels in a sequential style making for easy readability, and using the visuals of the story to complement the writing, and vice versa. Berserk's serialization caught a lot of flak during its run for how long chapters take to come out, which can reflect poorly on the writers and editors, implying that something is going wrong behind the scenes or someone has lost interest, but in Berserk's - and Miura's - case, this is due to to the positively unparalleled level of detail present in the art. The detail here isn't just the level of things happening on a page, but just how much Miura is willing to devote to any character, major or minor. The Golden Age arc features several impeccably staged massive battles, with huge seas of soldiers crashing into one another, making for these imposing two-page spreads that evoke the feeling of 1600's Renaissance war paintings, and diving into these battles shows specific unique armor details on each soldier, meticulously picked out to perfection. Mercenaries are clad in lopsided, leather armor with asymmetrical designs and mismatched armor parts, the Purple Rhino Knights wearing characteristically brawny and chunky armor matching their brazenly hot-headed leader, to the distinctly Indian styling of the Kushan Empire's armor and ships, with Hindu God's stylings and checkerboard fabric on their war elephants. Miura has a very clear and deep love for fantasy and all of its tropes and visual iconography, but injects enough of his own signature style and influences to create a stunningly intricate world and characters. Miura's insane detail also allows for some of the most detailed, evocative, and emotional facial drawings I've ever seen in a manga context. The man has a true talent for the facial form, with each character's shape being distinctive and indicative of their personality; Guts has a rough jawline and thick eyebrows reflecting his own rough exterior and battle-hardened demeanor, and Griffith has soft features and plush lips reflecting his outwardly commanding nature and otherworldly influence he possesses over others. The action scenes are textbook perfection in terms of laying out panels in a readable way, with every swing of Guts' huge sword given multiple panels showing the thick steps and positioning of his body making the swing feel natural and correct, culminating in one hugely detailed page where the arc of the swing goes from the top of the page to the bottom, with ample cross-hatching and motion lines to make the reader truly feel the intensity and weight of the attack. Guts' aging is captured perfectly and realistically, the differing textures in the settings and character's outfits give depth and dimension, otherworldly demons are drawn with appendages in the wrong areas and splitting jaws and abdomens, and so much more incredible incredible visuals throughout the entirety of Berserk's run. Detail pervades every panel of Berserk, and the long waits in between chapters are there for good reason, Miura was an unbelievably talented artist who made sure every panel got the time and effort it deserved.

Story and character wise, Miura was no less detailed. The characters of Berserk live in an increasingly bleak and oppressive fantasy world, where darkness and demoralization infect every corner. The weight of the world's state rests heavily on each character as not only must they deal with the burden of a terrifying and dangerous world, but also their own deep-seated struggles and trauma. This is exemplified no better than with the protagonist Guts, a soul burdened with hardship from the moment they were born, literally being born from a corpse and raised by an immoral bastard named Gambino, who Guts still sees as a father figure because it's the closest he's got to one. Guts is set up as knowing nothing else other than combat, a past he had no way to escape from given his circumstances, but a past he can leave behind as he helps the Band of the Hawk get more high-profile opportunities, eventually leading him to leave and find his own path, with spurs on Griffith's downward dive, and in turn sets up the Eclipse. Guts' central conflict of the story is how he reconciles with the trauma that Griffith imposed upon him and his friends, whether getting revenge on Griffith is ideal or even feasible, and just what kind of life he can secure for he and his compatriots that would be the best course of action. Guts has a direct hand in what set him down this path of intense pain, making his moral battle so much more tangible and relatable; does Guts surrender to his desires and pursue getting revenge on Griffith fully, or does he focus his attention on the new band of friends he's amassed since going on an adventure to restore Casca's memory? this question also plays into how Guts interacts with the titular Berserker armor, a power-up which acts as a thematic and stylistic shorthand for everything that Berserk is - A conflict of morality, finding what is most important to you, and doing the best with the circumstances you're given.

Each and every other character in this story is also given significant attention and thought to their backstory and place in the world. Standouts like Griffith and Casca are key to the plot and Guts' internal struggle, and are no less grounded and developed. Griffith is an aspiring mercenary leader who does true good for the world and places value in the companionship he accrues from his fellow mercenaries, but finds his ambition to be too all-consuming, and makes the ultimate sacrifice by offering up the lives of his entire mercenary band so that he can ascend to demonhood. The story asks questions about morality, as Griffith, though he sacrificed all of his friends to attain ultimate power, he then uses that ultimate power later on in the story to attempt to unite the world under a common flag, and succeeds to a degree. Does Griffith's terrible deeds in the past outweigh the tremendous good he's doing? Does Guts deserve to take revenge on Griffith even though he's at odds with what most of the country considers to be a transcendent hero? Griffith sacrificed everything to his ambition, and it paid off, but can the same be said for Guts? Is Guts' seeking of revenge truly immoral and unfeasible, or is it what is truly the right thing to do given Griffith's betrayal? Does sacrificing something in the name of the greater good always a good choice? There's plenty to look into in Berserk's thematic elements, but one thing that I love most about Berserk is how large it's scope is, but how small and interpersonal its central moral conflicts are. In a world full of terrifying hellish demons, multiple planes of reality, grand scale battles, Inter-dimensional beings who rule over causality, and so much more high fantasy, the story chooses to tell the story of one man, traumatized from birth, betrayed by a good friend, the loss of the only one he ever fell in love in with, and details his struggle to be the best person he can be and battle his internal struggles in order to secure the best possible life for the friends he's made. The emotions of the story are at their fullest all throughout, and Miura's sensational artwork drives home the relatability of Guts' struggle against himself and his world.

Kentaro Miura, Berserk's author, passed away unexpectedly on May 6, 2021, leaving with him just one more chapter that was released after his passing. Berserk is not finished, and with Miura gone will never be finished, but I want it to be known that this is far from the worst outcome. Miura died, an unabashed tragedy, but the last few chapters we got definitely had a sense of finality to them and left a lot of our favorite characters in that safe place we've wanted them to be for so long, and while the chapter ends with one hell of a cliffhanger, this is as good a spot to stop as any given Miura's unexpected death. There was most definitely more to tell, more to explain, more of Miura's impeccable artwork and poignant storytelling to be seen, but that's all a dream now. Miura isn't with us anymore, but his presence is felt. People will continue to read Berserk to this day, people will continue to enjoy all sorts of works that were heavily inspired by Berserk, and people will continue to remember what a special gift he left for us. Guts' journey will continue on for as long as people remember Berserk, and thanks to Kentaro Miura, and all of the effort he put in to realizing such a resonant piece of work, that journey won't be ending any time soon.

Sonny Boy is a fantastic show. Starting off as an offbeat mystery to figure out the nature of the world these kids have been transported to, then evolving into creating a working civilization out of the unique properties and powers the kids have attained, and then finally morphing into a much more introspective story on what these kids want out of life, how they deal with the circumstances they're given, their relationships, and a lot more, Sonny Boy does a sublime job of juggling these aspects and packages some deep character moments and themes of growth and one's place in the world with some jaw-droppingly ... consistent production and a KILLER soundtrack that brings the show's emotional apexes to soaring heights. The emotion here is where the show truly excels, with director Shingo Natsume using perfect shot composition and flow to let the feelings come naturally and strongly, this is an anime made by people who know their way around a professional production and it certainly shows. Sonny Boy's art style has a timeless quality to it, where had I not been there for the show's release, I could have seen this show being made at any point during the last 20 years and I could believe it. Facial animations are 10 times more expressive and realistic than most anime, and generally expressive character animation helps to differentiate the huge cast well. Sonny Boy is a deeply emotional experience and something I would recommend to anyone who wants a show that gets introspective and presents itself in a unique way; do NOT miss Sonny Boy.

Getter Robo Sekai Saigo no Hi (or Getter Robo Armageddon as it's usually called) is not a show that just anyone can hop in and enjoy. The only people who are going to find any true merit here and not write the show off as an absolute mess are people who are die-hard mecha fans and are an absolute sucker for hot-blooded mecha action with all the staples: yelling at the top of your lungs, announcing all of your attacks for an inane amount of time, gritty and angular character designs, yelling, exhilarating action sequences, transforming, combining, and more yelling.

The story isn't exactly nonsense, ... but it certainly seems that way given how poor of a job the show presents its plot points. Not visually, mind you: the animation of Getter Robo Armageddon is some of the best mecha action around, with every big moment having tons of great shots and ceaselessly detailed and dynamic movements, but story-wise presents its sequence of events clumsily at best, and plain not at all at worst. The writing is hyperbolic and juvenile, the acting is stilted and awkward save for a few characters, and it can be a bit of a chore to get through if you are a viewer who is actively trying to get interested in the story, and for this show that would be a mistake. Anime is a visual medium, and while your story is generally what should be the focus, and is where a lot of the deeper appreciation for any visual medium comes from, visuals are important too- doubly so since they are a method of storytelling on their own. This statement doesn't apply too well to Getter Robo Armageddon however, since it's a half and half series, one half being all of the cool shit: the character and setting design, creature effects, combination and transforming effects, mech action and battle scenes, and the adrenaline-fueled triumphant super robot schlock that mecha enthusiasts like me lap up, and the other half: the difficult to follow story, the confusing storyline decisions, poorly developed science and internal logic, poorly developed antagonists, the 1 dimensional side characters, etc., and whether or not this slapdash and clumsy approach to the show is a deal breaker for you really depends on your own preferences- are you someone who wants a compelling story AND gorgeous animation 100% of the time? Are you someone who is willing to overlook the bad aspects and focus on the good? Are you someone who goes into everything with 0 expectations? Whatever kind of viewer you are (and mind you none is better than the other) Getter Robo Armageddon is a show that will take some effort to find the good in. Even I, a trash-brain orangutan of a man who loves mecha to my dying breath 10 times more than any other anime subgenre had a rough time getting to the nuggets of gold that were in this show.

The soundtrack is absolute god tier and if you never give this show a watch at the very VERY least listen to the OST. Some of mecha's most hype orchestral arrangements combined with some disco and funk instrumentation for some of the battle tracks, and you have a diverse and stylish OST that is up there with some of the best mecha anime have to offer.

Getter Robo Armageddon is the definition of a 5/10: infinite technical competency, legendary shots and frames, influential to some of modern anime's true masterpieces, but narratively sloppy, lacking in compelling characters, repetitive, and difficult to sit through if you're not partial to mecha. I'm giving it a 6 because yes I AM a chimp and I like this show a smidge more than most people. Appreciate you reading this far.

When I saw all of the overwhelming praise that Odd Taxi got, as well as its premise and character designs, I got a great sense of excitement and anticipation. I'm very critical of the sameyness and uninteresting generic nature that most modern shows seem to have, and Odd Taxi's vibe seemed so offbeat and interesting that I was excited to give it a watch, ready to be blown away by great stories, awesome charming characters, and all sorts of unique exceptional aspects for this well-regarded sleeper hit.

As I watched Odd Taxi however, I felt a familiar tightness in my chest. My brow went furrowed, my ... hands got clammy, and my face turned to one of concern rather than interest. This feeling of disappointment, and this feeling of missing something was overwhelming, but rather than mull over these feelings and just let them fester, I'm letting them out here because I feel my perspective on this show could be a unique one, so please keep reading if this interests you.

I don't know if I'm just an asshole, or some fool who missed how good this show truly is, but Odd Taxi just didn't deliver.

Odd Taxi consists of our Walrus main character Odokawa interacting and getting caught up with multiple strangers and acquaintances that put him in different circumstances, only for all of these separate stories to come together in interesting ways and forcing Odokawa to try and fix everything so everyone comes out of it okay. In trying to understand what was the standout and exceptional aspect of this show, I read multiple reviews, and most seem to cite the sheer number of interesting plots and how they're woven in with each other as an aspect of this show that is truly masterful, but I'm not sure if I agree. There certainly are a lot of stories going on here, but not all are equally interesting or developed as would be ideal in my eyes. Kakihana's story is one of a hopeless romantic getting involved with a girl who turns out to be into him for the wrong reasons, but there isn't a lot of interesting interplay between him and the girl for the twist to feel like a neat subversion. There's a big blue hippo fella who is obsessed with online popularity and makes it his goal to go viral, eventually getting people to rally behind him in his efforts to find and apprehend a dangerous criminal, but the way his story is developed doesn't feel super natural - we don't see why he's taken such an interest in Dobu, we don't see the depths of just how much he needs or wants online popularity enough to be effective, and we don't follow his story consistently enough for it to always be in the back of the viewer's head. There's a story of two comedians who start out as radio show comedians and slowly drift apart as one gets more high-profile opportunities, but again these two and their chemistry isn't great. They only ever act abrasive towards one another, and it isn't clear why either of them need the other one to do comedy, or even why either of them like each other enough to want to do comedy together in the first place. One of the more interesting ones is definitely with Odokawa, seeing this hapless misanthrope who can't help but get involved and do the right thing try and balance everything going on is pretty interesting, but you'd think he'd show some kind of exhaustion or something to illustrate the toll that all this responsibility is taking on him, but there is very little of that, and it's pretty nuts that such a socially distant individual is able to get on everybody's good side with such ease. The fact that all these storylines are being told parallel to one another in any capacity is impressive, and the way they come together is neat, but at some point Odd Taxi cared more about making the stories line up and end rather than the emotional content of each of the stories. There are very few poignant, emotionally resonant moments throughout this story, instead choosing to put most of its dialogue into exposition and elaboration between characters reiterating what is already happening, and as a result this show was a very dull watch. No jaws dropped, no smiles, no frowns, but a generally apathetic viewing experience that left me empty and unsatisfied.

The writing of Odd Taxi has also been praised as Tarantino-esque, with personality and flair indicative of each character's personalities, but the voice actors here aren't exactly churning out top-tier performances and never blindsided me with a particularly exceptional line delivery. Comparing Odd Taxi to anything Scorsese or Tarantino though is ultimately a fruitless and shallow venture, since stacking Odd Taxi up against some of the greatest cinema ever made simply isn't a fair comparison, as Odd Taxi doesn't have the directorial expertise as either of the guys I've stated above, nor the fantastically varied writing that their best works have either. Plus, an anime such as this should be showing more than it's telling, and as is typical with plot-heavy anime, there is a whole heaping helping of exposition and elaboration here, which is never delivered with any unique characterful style. A vast majority of these lines, along with the way they're delivered, feel interchangeable between characters, and since there isn't much in the way of outstanding visual storytelling here, Odd Taxi's story and sequence of events is not nearly as engaging to follow as I was expecting.

Technical aspects here are also very dull and not very noteworthy. The setting and character design is above average here, with very realized and detailed areas and very evocative character designs, but not much in the way of great facial animation or emoting. Shots are framed very rudimentarily, and there is little in the way of compelling direction to get some interesting ebbs and flows in how scenes play out. The soundtrack here has its moments too, and some nice sound design bits as well, but they are very few and very far between and just aren't much to write home about.

All of this and a bit more piled on top of each other, episode after episode failed to amaze, and I've come to my conclusion that Odd Taxi didn't click, and it's kind of fucking with me since one look at the reception to this show across the internet shows overwhelming, well-worded and well thought -out positively ASCENDANT praise for this show, but all of the aspects of the show that should have mixed together to make a bona fide stunner of a 2021 anime made, for me, an above-average show with some good twists and fun moments that, while certainly a good attempt at a story of this kind, ultimately fell short of the mark, and I couldn't help but feel that familiar sense of disappointment and discontent writing every word of this review.

I think on paper, there's a recipe for your quintessential sleeper hit masterpiece here: Unique character designs, a cool title, flew under the radar, has an interesting plot and story in comparison to what's usually offered, a great twist ending that recontextualizes the series, but in my eyes, after fully taking in all of what Odd Taxi had to offer, tackling the show on its own terms and assessing its quality based on my own taste and standards, I'm still at the same conclusion - disappointment.

If I'm a complete fool and have got it all wrong, feel free to leave a comment letting me know your thoughts, I'd love to have some dialogues surrounding this show, especially given how disillusioned I feel with the general consensus. Thanks a bunch for reading this far.

I think that Gundam Unicorn is the premier and quintessential contemporary Gundam narrative. Never before, as of recent years, has there been a series that so effectively understands what Gundam is, what Gundam was, what it stands for, what elements are typical and atypical of a Gundam story, and packages all of it with some of the cleanest and most jaw-droppingly gorgeous production I have ever seen.

Story-wise, Gundam Unicorn follows Banagher Links, who finds himself randomly entangled with a runaway Zeon princess and a mysterious white mobile suit known as the Unicorn Gundam. The Zeon princess, Mineva Zabi, disguised as a civilian named ... Audrey Burne, informs Banagher of the exisence of Laplace's Box; not a literal box or item, but rather a piece of information that, if learned, is rumored to bring about the end of the Earth Federation's rule. I'll stop there since I'm bad at writing synopses, and I consider one of the most useless parts of a review, so from here on in it'll be my thoughts and my thoughts only, so I'd appreciate it if you kept reading.

Gundam Unicorn's production, it's sound design, character designs, shot composition, shot flow, color choice, animation, and mecha design, is on a level well above that of pretty much any other Gundam series that's been released and eclipses most other anime series I can think of. The visual consistency of Gundam Unicorn is absolutely incredible, with 0 stray ugly frames and some of the smoothest and most exhilarating mech action ever animated, punctuated by immaculate sound design. Every gun that shoots, every piece of fabric that shifts, every step taken, every door opened is mixed so well and with such perfection and delicious cacophonous tactile sound that even the quiet moments feel interesting and investing because of all the small details that are pulling you into the world that has been so painstakingly created here. Each character design is informative of their own personality and traits, and is drawn with 100% accuracy every second they are on screen. The settings and background design also have so much effort put into them to make them evocative, interesting, and feel very lived-in. I understand there has been a lot of hyperbole and overly descriptive sentences in this paragraph, but just know that the reason for this is the visual presentation of Gundam Unicorn is so consistently beautiful that a needlessly verbose dummy such as myself has trouble putting into words just how well-produced everything is here. It's a feast for the eyes even during its down moments.

The OST of Gundam Unicorn is probably the aspect of the show I'm the most acquainted with, as I've listened to the entire multi disc soundtrack countless times. Action-packed and intense tracks such as MOBILE SUIT and LAPLACE take the already gorgeous mech action scenes to insane heights, the Banshee's theme (titled BANSHEE duh) gives the black Unicorn an enhanced air of terror and fear, ceaselessly beautiful songs like ON YOUR MARK, OYM-PF, and PIANO TO ANNA all accentuate the drama and emotions on screen so well, and even tracks like ANGELO and MINOVSKY PARTICLE dance across your headphones with strange, electronic alternative sounds that throw you for a loop whenever they play due to their otherworldly nature. Each and every track here is instrumentally and compositionally rich and impressive, and succeeds in not falling under the weight of the visuals and the story and instead enhances them.

The story that unfolds in Gundam Unicorn is akin to a race or a scavenger hunt, with both Neo Zeon and the Earth Federation darting across space and Earth following the coordinates of the Laplace program hidden inside the Unicorn Gundam that tips them off on where to go next. Along the way, our protagonist Banagher gets stolen and switches sides a few times, which gives him the perspective of both sides and lets him really come into his own as his own self-propelled part in the race to find Laplace's box. Banagher is an initially very aimless character, and admittedly a very strong aspect of his motivation is his attachment to the female lead Mineva, but it plays well together because Banagher, an overly emotional child, is the one who falls into the role of the titular Unicorn Gundam's pilot - someone so in tune with the feelings of all he meets, that he ends up using the power of the Unicorn Gundam to bring people together and find understanding rather than using the raw power of the Unicorn to fight blindly for one side or the other. You can easily see how, given how all the adults think and behave in this universe, no progress would be made to further our understanding of each other as people if an adult, or someone tied to a cause or group were to be in the pilot's seat. The Unicorn Gundam operates and synchronizes with the will of it's pilot, making it essentially a Super Robot. You'd think that in a primarily REAL robot franchise such as Gundam how a mech with such otherworldly powers might not fit, but it works so well with the series focus on NewTypes and what they really are and mean. NewTypes are sort of described as less a literal new species of human, like some kind of genetic mutation or biological difference, and more a metaphor, for a future kind of human that evolution brings about through mutual emotional understanding with each other. For a series like Gundam, who is so intent on showing the horrors of war and the depth of human misunderstanding, selfishness, anger, and grief, to end in such a way that really honestly leaves the world in a better place than where it started, is very powerful. Emotions and the human condition meld with the Unicorn's natural battle capabilities to give it otherworldly strength and a sort of mystical influence that makes it much more than just a mech made to fight, but instead a tool for resonating with others. Gundam Unicorn does such a wonderful job showing how this misunderstanding of people's intentions and feelings can bring people to very dark places, and in some cases their own demise. Our emotions dictate what we feel and do, and it is portrayed so effectively by the struggles that Banagher goes to to come to any of these conclusions - he doesn't simply realize this all at once, he gains a more worldly and relatable viewpoint through the individuals who have already been ravaged by the horrors of war and outcomes of the emotional strain circumstances like that put you through. It is such a wonderful message that understanding of each other brings about peace, and that that understanding, that possibility for the world to be this utopic place where everyone resonates with each other and are all free of war, even though it may be assisted by a superpowered emotional mecha, is ultimately posessed by humans.

There's a lot more to talk about with Gundam Unicorn, but I feel right here is all you need to decide whether it is worth your time or not. I've detailed the show's technical competency, it's themes and how they are integrated into the story, and dissected the series' main character who acts as the eyes which we view the events through. If you've made it this far, and liked or disliked my review, thank you.