Back to TheTheory's Profile TheTheory's Profile

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. is a mouthful of a title, and (unfortunately) not very memorable—this is a series that is worth remembering. It does something very interesting by starting off as a fairly laid back, casual, almost slice-of-life in the way it communicates narrative, but then pivots into a fairly detailed, interesting political drama. It retains that laid back feeling, even as the tensions ramp up, making it easily consumed without spiking anxiety (at least for those of us prone to feeling anxious, lol).

Unfortunately, the political angle does get kind of convoluted and messy. There just isn't enough time in twelve episodes to really hammer ... the finer details required to make everything click properly. But I do think it's also representative of trying to do too much—getting too cute with the story. I think they could have streamlined the political side of the plot for a crisper, cleaner experience. It's not a dealbreaker by any stretch, but it does keep my enthusiasm tempered just a touch.

Regardless, this is a fairly easy recommend, especially given how deftly it manages to thread the political intrigue into a series whose tone feels much more casual.

Id: Invaded feels a bit like you're on a train going a few ticks faster than it ought. It's a comfortable ride, but one that feels like could fly off the rails at any moment. Through the window the scenery whips by, making it hard for you to focus on any one thing before it's gone. The world is out there, just shrouded by the limited view the speed-plagued window provides.

There's a world within Id: Invaded. One that feels massive, with a unique sci-fi/fantasy premise that the creators understood. But, whether due to time constraints or simply opting to keep the concepts as trimmed down ... as possible, a lot of details got skimmed over, making the series feel deus ex machinay as it whips the viewer through its 13 high concept episodes. There are just enough really cool, unique ideas here that gel together really well that I don't think these lapses indicate lack of vision from the creators—just when it came down to deciding how much of the mechanics of the world to reveal, they decided on a "less is more" philosophy.

Which I really admire, generally speaking. Great narratives, regardless of medium, have a wealth of background information/details that the writer doesn't ever include; you may not SEE those details, but you can feel that texture. There's a sense of harmony to the way things fit together. Allowing the story to fit comfortably within these details without becoming too burdened by them. It's a fine line to toe. Oversharing vs undersharing, right?

Unfortunately, even as I can feel that cohesion in the background of Id: Invaded, there aren't quite enough of these details for its story to truly come together. I felt like I was on that train, trying to peer out the window.

Death games are a dime a dozen in anime. In a lot of ways it does little to differentiate itself. Protagonist suddenly thrown into a life or death game? Check. Heavy emphasis on phones? Check. Entirely too young kids with death glares? Check.

But the big thing that sets Darwin's Game apart is its protagonist. He doesn't voluntarily opt into the game. He doesn't even know what it's about. This is where the cookie cutter anime script would demand the weak character, overwhelmed by the whole thing. Every possible avenue for personal growth gets stunted by a "noble" refusal to see his reality (ie, you need ... to play to survive). Not so with Darwin's Game's protagonist. Sure, he starts off that way a bit (although not as annoyingly so as some characters), but he does a good job of grasping the situation and starting to play along. And sure, he's got a bit of a "nobility" streak to him—both in how he plays the game and what his goal ends up being—but not enough to stunt his growth. When bad things happen because of decisions he makes, he doesn't use that as an excuse to stagnate, but rather to get better.

I hope a second season is on the horizon; I'd enjoy spending more time in this death game.

Another takes what could be just another anime high school bloodbath and wraps it in a simple yet wonderful concept. Understanding this concept as the narrative unfolds gives Another some serious legs, even when the presumed horror tag gets shuttled to the side for large stretches of the series. The stable of characters help; while at first blush each seems to adhere pretty closely to standard anime tropes, the major ones have surprising depth—places where they stand strong when in similar series they'd collapse, histories that inform their actions rather than cliche.

It's not perfect. The wheels nearly fall off in the last few episodes. Some ... of the logic that had done such a good job of holding the series together up till then threatened to fray. It's messy, a touch gratuitous, and does a disservice to some of the characters. But even so, Another pulls it together to provide a good finale.

If the synopsis intrigues, Another is definitely worth trying and—I suspect—most will really enjoy what Another lays down in its 12 episodes.

An underdeveloped plot doesn't help the absurd synopsis play out any better; this is not a series for narrative-driven anime fans. The characters are either samey, copy-paste sticks without personality or fall into standard anime tropes—few of which actually make sense within context. Yet so bleak and nihilistic and overbearing is the tone of Evil or Live that it becomes kind of compelling despite everything else.

The animation is surprisingly solid with a few really nice action sequences and creative flourishes. The introduction even uses some live action, which creates a pretty unique tone. A spot of live action can't, unfortunately, make the entire series feel ... unique (it's not), but there were definitely some interesting aesthetic decisions made.

Far from a must-see, but if you're looking for something dark in tone and are willing to sacrifice narrative coherency and characters to get that tone, you could do worse than Evil or Live.

That title is god-awful, though, isn't it??

On Netflix US all six shorts that make up this OVA are smooshed into one episode. These are not plot-advancing stories, but rather ways to explore the Dorohedoro world and its characters in a lighthearted way.

The most disappointing thing about the OVA is that it isn't fully animated. I'm sure the cost for fully animating something like this is pretty high compared to the possible return on investment, so I can't say they made a bad decision, but it is distracting that these shorts are, essentially, a parade of still images.

About half the shorts feel like they give some tangible texture to the world and ... its characters—the one featuring Nikaidou and how she got started in her restaurant especially stands out—while the other half are cute little concepts that are fun for their five-or-so minute duration and then leave the mind (Ebisu trying to get her photo taken).

It's very disposable, even with the world/character texture, but for those who've watched through the first season, it's a nice little treat to wind down with, hence the fairly good score for something that is otherwise basically meaningless.

*frustrated screaming*

The worst part of Dorohedoro was finishing episode 12 and realizing that nothing resolves. Yes, I assume a second season is forthcoming, but I tend to avoid series until they're DONE done because I hate this feeling of suspension; I forgot to do my homework on Dorohedoro. (I'll actually probably just switch over to the manga series once I've knocked out a few of the series I'm actively in the middle of reading.)

But that's all a personal problem. If we just look at what Dorohedoro was able to do in twelve episodes, it's astonishingly great. Great characters drive a beautifully textured world that straddles ... the line between dystopia and urban fantasy, with a convincing plot that I'm actively interested in seeing a conclusion to.

And goddamn, those OP and ED themes! And the art style! And the ability to swing between the super-bleak and the cheerfully humorous!

I should have known it was all too good to be a standalone 12 episode series.

There's an interesting hook to My Mental Choices Are Completely Interfering With My School Romantic Comedy: A god has bestowed (cursed, bestowed, tomayto, tomahto) Kanade Amakusa with choices. These choices show up as multiple choice-style—do option A or do option B—and one of the choices has to be completed. With a first episode that anchors the idea of choices that have rippling historical effects, the stage is set for an anime that has something to say, right?

Not quite.

Instead we get your average, seen-it-a-thousand-times harem. Our poor, oblivious, choice-laden protagonist swamped with girls about ready to burst with their secret love for him. This, somehow, ... despite the fact that his choices—required, impassable—lean towards the crude, embarrassing, degrading. In fact, his erratic behavior has him listed as, officially, the least popular student in school.

There's a loose storyline re: a series of quests to remove the curse, although focusing on that may end up more disappointing than it's worth. The quests are best seen—as with his choices—as arenas for comedic mishap, not as the driving narrative force. (The ending, fwiw, had an opportunity to really make an interesting statement about choices and sacrifice, but it dodges that in favor of, well, the way it does end.)

Embracing the frivolity probably keys into the target demographic better than what I'd have liked to see, so take that as you will. The swift 10 episodes make that frivolity easily consumed and, while any larger questions are dodged, just the idea of these god-imposed mental choices is a fun enough concept to make this a relatively decent watch.

I was today years old when I learned the word "Isekai." Not sure how it's passed me by until now; in hindsight I've watched plenty of anime that fits squarely into the category, including favorites like Sword Art Online and Kyo Kara Maoh!. And Sword Art points to an increasingly common tack for the isekai genre: The other world that the protagonist gets stuck in is a video game.

Such is the case with Demon Lord, Retry, which has a strong Overlord whiff to it. I had multiple feelings of deja vu while watching this, particularly by way of Overlord's first season. But while the whiffs ... are there, the actual tones between the two series are quite opposite. Demon Lord, Retry is lighthearted and frivolous, lacking any kind of real plot, and seems to exist mostly so our insert protagonist can encounter a ton of women who become desperately attached to him.

It's surface-level entertaining as a mindless piece of television to while away half hour chunks of time. But it's not the sort of entertaining that will linger in your mind; if you start skipping this in your anime rotation, it'll be hard to remember to pick it back up. (Which is why it took me, like, three months to watch this 12ep series, lol.)

Episode 12 ends with an optimistic 'To be Continued,' but at this point I'd be shocked any more is made. Even if the series was paused to allow the original light novels to provide more content, this just isn't good enough that a studio is likely to want to sink more money into. That said, despite my poor scores, if they did continue it I'd be curious to check more episodes out—and probably regret it—because there's just enough groundwork laid here that I'd want to see what becomes of it.

A solid, if underwhelming, examination of humanity as seen through the eyes of arbiters, non-humans tasked with judging human life after death. The fashion of this judgment arises through games like darts, bowling, Old Maid. The arbiter given a handy little button to introduce stress on the participants, to allow their true natures to emerge.

It's all fine. I'm always a fan of games being used in life-or-death situations, so found the hook effective enough. But the method of judging always felt pretty hazy to me; we're supposed to accept the presumed impartiality of the arbiters, as very little that we see unfold in the episodes ... actually feel like a reliable guide to the judgments, of which there are two possible outcomes: Reincarnation or The Void.

The series loosely correlates the two outcomes to heaven or hell, a comparison that breaks down if you think about it too hard. Yes, The Void does seems unfortunately hell-like, but reincarnation is not relatable to heaven. Logically, every soul will end up in The Void eventually, right? No one is going to get reincarnated through infinity.

Things start off fairly episodically, although about midway (or a tick or two after) something resembling a story arc starts to emerge. Centered on our protagonist—a human whose judgment has been postponed, so has been acting as an assistant in the meantime—and Decim, the arbiter that she's been assisting, the series tries to ask questions about how just these judgments are. These are questions I'd imagine most viewers have been asking anyway, so it feels like a halfhearted flail rather than the meaningful analysis the topic deserves.

But it's still a mostly pleasant journey. Episodes fly by—and at a mere 12 episodes, the time commitment is relatively low. People who connect with the thematic elements and saw more meaning in them than I did will doubtlessly like this more. Best thing I can say is that if the synopsis appeals to you, it's definitely a series worth trying. Plus the OP theme song is a banger.