Back to iveykun's Profile iveykun's Profile

Hidden Gem:

This was a surprise! I thought it would be that generic loli harem or whatever, and it does feel like that for the first few episodes... But as soon as you hit episode 3, you get hit by the emotion truck.

This anime has a beautifully crafted background story for each of the lovable characters, so beautiful it's like pick your poison; who do you want to cry to?

The art and music were nothing special, but the story carries all of those towards the realm of the perfect score.

The pacing is wonderfully done; you will find yourself shaking with excitement at the nyan-cat game, ... crying when the characters cry; Those characters feel REAL. They're so true to themselves and feel so human.

This is amazing.

This anime is a bit special to me; it was written by the author of No Game No Life, one of my favorite lightnovels, Yuu Kamiya-sensei.

First off, I would like to say that the benchmarks for a 10 are:

Story: Steins;Gate, Iron-Blooded Orphans
Art: 5 cm per second, Violet Evergarden
Sound: Guilty Crown, Spice and Wolf
Character: Kimi no na Wa, Koe no Katachi
Enjoyment: Lucky Star, Ghost in the Shell
Overall: Working!!
...
It is the story of a genius boy (Naoto) that can hear every detail inside a world made entirely out of clockwork by a man named Y 1000 years ago: Clockwork Planet. His skill is certainly useful in this world where everything is made out of gears since he can spot problems really quickly.

One day, a girl automaton - human-looking androids that are wholly made of gears - falls from the sky. She has one gear malfunction, which Naoto quickly repairs. She is revealed to be RyuZU, over 1000 years old, and was built by Y himself. Thus starts the story of a genius boy and his legendary automaton, along with another genius girl, Marie Breguet, youngest Meister in history, and her butler.

As you can see, there's lots of geniuses in this story, which is a trademark of Kamiya's work. If you read the light novel, you also know that the playful tone gently complements the dense details very well. The story is paced a bit weird, but paced enjoyably, so it gets very good; it doesn't matter what technique they used as long as the consumer enjoys.

This anime makes quite a good use of the medium; it is stunning to see a world entirely made out of clockwork. The style is also what I expected: I really liked Naoto and AnchoR's designs. However, I would have liked to see a bit more details and shadows here and there. It feels like the budget was lacking a little, after spending it all on animating the countess gears. The endings and openings are much better animated than the anime. If the whole anime was animated like that, I would comfortably give a ten. Therefore, I also notched it down to a 9, because the quality was inconsistent. Although the gears are absolutely stunning and beautiful, some scenes are literally a character standing there while the background pans from left to right. I believe Kamiya-sensei's work deserves more budget than this.

As for the sound, I find it quite pleasant to listen to. The OP and ED aren't particularly good, but neither are they particularly bad. They sound quite generic, but the animation is something absolutely amazing to watch. The music paced well with the actions of the characters, and it flowed melodiously and didn't feel weird. It deserves an 8 because it isn't particularly touching either.

The characters are getting a solid 9, almost touching 10. Naoto's baby-like idiot behavior is something that not many anime exploit, and RyuZU's arrogant but loving servant attitude is pretty unique too. Breguet and AnchoR are both quite memorable; you won't mistake them for anyone else in the "Waifu or Laifu" game. There is quite a good character development, but still somehow lacking compared to most romantic, character-centered animes. It still gets 9 because this anime is more story and action-centered, and we have to compensate for that too.

Enjoyment gets full marks: any anime that's interesting enough to make me stay up the whole night watching (me, who isn't a binge watcher and got tests coming) are deserving of full marks. The fanservice isn't appreciated by me (not a fan) but I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable rewatching it at school. Some moments even made me laugh. The rewatch rating is also very high; would rewatch anytime. Enjoyment is up there with Rewrite, Working!! and Lucky Star.

Overall, it gets a 9. It would have been a 10 if only the art was a bit better. It's a really thin line, but it's probably in the 9.5 range, since I did see the amazing OP and ED, meaning the studio did have the skill to animate this properly.

Reccomend: Chobits, for an enjoyable trip to a cozy home in future Japan