I remember seeing promotional trailers for BNA. I was very excited. I'm a sucker for shows with animals, since I'm a furry, so seeing stylish action show with animals as the leads? Sign me up is what I said! I absolutely love Beastars, so stories with animals as the main characters can work. However, BNA is not an example of this.
Let's start off with the positives. The show is gorgeous. Studio Trigger did an amazing job with the world of BNA. Animacity is full of parodies of real life fast food chains which is something that I heavily appreciated while watching. The voice acting
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was fine for the most part. All the voices fit the characters, so I can't complain about that. The show really shines in action scenes. There's so much style in the animation. Everything is slick and nice to look at. When a character gets hit, the animation makes the impact feel powerful. The animation of the show, at least for me, is the highlight of the show. It's just so well done.
Now, it's time for the negatives. Oh boy. Personally, I prefer anime series to be short. However, I understand when a series need more episodes to complete its story. BNA's biggest problem for me was its short length and pacing. BNA is too short and fast-paced. Since the show is going at such a fast pace with only 12 episodes to work with, we get so many plot-conveniences and plot-holes. This show needed more than 12 episodes.
The main character, Michiru, is able to just get out of any bad situation she's in because she can just randomly stretch her arms out, or get cheetah legs to run really fast, or can grow wings to fly like a bird, or whatever. If this isn't a plot-convenience, I don't know what is. It's never explained how or why Michiru is able to do this; it just happens. It only happens because the plot needs it to happen. Shirou is super fast and super strong. He's basically the BNA version of Superman, but unlike Superman, he literally has no weakness. He never loses. He can't lose. He's overpowered. Why is he overpowered? I dunno; I assume the writers just needed him to be OP so the plot could progress. While this doesn't ruin the action scenes from being flashy, it ruins, at least for me, the personal stakes of the scenes. When I watched Shirou get impaled in the chest, leaving a huge hole in the middle of his body, I felt nothing because I knew that he would just recover in a few minutes. When I see Michiru fight an opponent, I felt nothing because I know she could just randomly make her arms really big to defeat her foes. When Michiru and Shirou need to stop a bird beastman for committing a terrorist attack, all tension is removed when you see that Michiru can just randomly grow bird wings. So many convenient events occur which take away all tension and stakes from all of the action scenes. The reason for Michiru becoming a beastman is just... so... dumb.
BNA has so many plot holes that it's ridiculous. Why does Michiru claim that she hates Beastmen in one episode, then in the next episode, she is perfectly a-okay? The villain, who I will not say in order to avoid spoilers, is a Beastman who is also immortal with three heads. Why is that? I dunno, it's not explained. What's a hybrid Beastman? Why is this villain also immortal? Why is the weasel- err I mean mink- always trying to make money off of people? Why is Michiru so confused about everything? Does Michiru miss her family? So many questions that could've been solved if the show wasn't so rushed.
Since I'm on that topic, let's talk about characters. Or the lack there of. Oh, there are characters in BNA, but they really don't have dynamic personalities. Michiru is the spunky female main character that rushes into situations without thinking in the name of justice. Shirou is the edgy, moody, stoic, cool guy who is basically the no-fun police. Mari is a mink. Not a weasel, a mink. She will let you know that she is a mink. Every. Single. Time. The main villain is evil just for the sake of being evil. All the other characters just exist. No one feels developed. We get barely any time to learn about these characters personally. No one develops. I'm not asking that we get development from the chicken guy that Michiru lives with, but we should be able to identify these characters' personalities. I'm also disappointed in the fact that Michiru and Shirou barely, if at all, develop. Seeing Shirou smile more at the end of episode 12 isn't character development. In fact, I think Shirou is the worst character is the show. He's so boring. He dampens the mood of any scene he is in just to appear serious. Well, while he does appear serious, he's really just no fun. Michiru and Shirou do not have any chemistry whatsoever. When Shirou brings Michiru on missions, it doesn't feel that he brings her because he trusts her or believes her; it feels as if he's forced to bring her, like a parent making you bring your younger sibling to your friend's birthday party. These characters do not bounce off of each other and as a result, they can't develop from each other based off of their interactions.
I would say more, but I don't want to spoil the show. As I said before, I wanted to love this show, but this show is just too short for its own good. BNA feels rushed. It's a mess. I haven't watch much of what Trigger has made, but I have seen Space Patrol Luluco and that show was really good, so I know this studio is capable of making greatness. BNA had so much potential and it was all wasted.
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May 15, 2020
I remember seeing promotional trailers for BNA. I was very excited. I'm a sucker for shows with animals, since I'm a furry, so seeing stylish action show with animals as the leads? Sign me up is what I said! I absolutely love Beastars, so stories with animals as the main characters can work. However, BNA is not an example of this.
Let's start off with the positives. The show is gorgeous. Studio Trigger did an amazing job with the world of BNA. Animacity is full of parodies of real life fast food chains which is something that I heavily appreciated while watching. The voice acting ... |
