Disappointing.
If I were to describe this anime it one word, it would be disappointing. What started off as a beautiful political journey pushed by science and philosophy, within episodes became generic and predictable.
Story: 4
As said before, the story idea and story itself were fantastic. The pace was perfect - not too slow to bore us, but not to fast to make us super confused. There were many new terms used, but, for the most part, were explained in a way that was easy to understand, or simply didn't take away from the overall experience. Each episode was a joy - wanting to know what would
...
take place next; what would the media do? how would the UN react? would the people revolt to the changes? e.t.c Really, there was so much potential to be had in the story.
But then episode 9 came, and all was lost. Was it because they had to rush? - after all, it was an original which had no manga or novel as a true backbone. Maybe they thought the viewers would prefer it this way. Perhaps it was a matter of one person placing their terrible ideas on the table. I don't know, but I do know that the result was devastating. Politics? Gone. The people and their opinions? Gone. The influence of the media? Gone. Subliminal philosophy which made you think regardless of whether you wanted to or not? Gone. All the amazing things that have been built up until now? Absolutely gone; disappeared. Or, rather, replaced. And by utterly predictable 'romance' and the generic tropes one would expect of an 'arrival sci-fi', caused by one annoying 'girl' who feels the world should be dictated by herself and herself alone.
Art:10
Actually outstanding. The art was magical. Toei really outdid themselves here. Managing to mix 3D and 2D in such a smooth, barely noticeable way, the animation style was new and fresh. The character designs were easy on the eyes and this quality remained constant throughout the whole anime. The use of patterns and symmetry in both the OP, anime and ED, was incredibly fitting - it really evoked a sense of the 'anisotropic' and of incomprehensible, alien thoughts. Honest kudos to the studio here - it was breath taking. A shame that the latter part of the story put it to waste.
Sound: 8
Again, magical. The timing has been great, regardless of what point in the plot we were in. I can't remember anything particularly spell-binding, or so perfectly suitable to the animation that it made me repeat said scene several times. The OP and ED were the same as the overall art - made in such a way to not use actual human languages or words, but to simply evoke ideas using music.
Character: 5
And here we are, at last. Shindo - the negotiator who stood between the anisotropic and humanity('universe'). He was essentially a translator for everything, but was also our eyes into the world as he was always the first to see the new items brought to humanity. Shindo was an interesting character; he wasn't made to be anything special and had the nice balance of being a human and being a calm, collected government official. His relationship with Shu(zaShunina) was most intriguing to watch - it was clearly a mutual adoration; Shindo was interested in the anistortopic and Shu was interested in Shindo himself who he walked side-by-side with in the advancement of humanity. It was made very easy to see why these two were put together as a 'team' - they have a nice dynamic and would honestly be interesting to watch together regardless of setting.
Shu, himself, was an interesting specimen. He's treated like a baby or a sheltered person, who has all the knowledge in the world, but no actual experience to go with it(note; babies don't have all the knowledge in the world, but he's like a baby in that he's new to the world). It's a joy to see his stoic expression and general countenance fade to smiles and expressions fitting what he was actually feeling. We know that he reads books to enable him to understand human culture more, which, again, has influence on his expressions and actions. The cool thing with his arms were also nice - adding a feature to outwardly show how different he was to the world. Shu was a great character. Towards the end, I didn't like where his character alignment was going, as he had to switch roles for the sake of plot convenience. However, he still remained a nice character - he learnt even more emotions, made his motivations clear, e.t.c This adorable anisotropic creature really was the biggest delight of the series for me.
And then we have Tsukai Saraka, the generic-creator. Honestly, Saraka would've made a far better side-character. Her motivations were sound; her actual personality was believable; seeing how she balanced family and her tsundere-like nature with her work personality was fine. What wasn't okay, however, was what she did to the plot. Honestly, this character single-handedly turned what was amazing and unique into a pile of generic tropes and predictability. What should've been Shindo and Shu, the representations of humanity and the anisotropic, getting to know and understand each other and their values, in turn helping each other develop and advance like in a symbiotic relationship, turned into something else entirely. Saraka would've worked far better as the simple human girl with simple, straightforward, human values, contrasting with that of Shindo's and Shu's, who wouldn't get her way because the plot would be far more flavourful that way.
Lastly, the actual side characters. They do well to fuel the plot, from the Prime Minister to the childish scientist( whom everyone seemed to hate for some reason which eludes me). They were believable, yes, including the childish scientist, who mirrors actual scientists, and honestly didn't cause any discrepancies.
Enjoyment: 6
Again, my enjoyment greatly deteriorated as more episodes passed by, due to the absolute 180 in plot and genres. However, everything else was still mostly great, so I couldn't lower my score that much.
Overall: 6.6
6 was probably too harsh considering it only had one terrible factor, and 7 was too high because of that said terrible factor, so no rounding done here. The anime was - has been - a joy, for the most part. It was simply pulled down by the last few episodes, which are currently influencing my review the most. I haven't finished yet, and there is the possibility that my score will change depending on how this goes(hopefully it'll be higher because I don't want to leave this anime bitter). I definitely recommend watching this, however be prepared for the utter drop in story quality towards eps 8-10 at the least.
Also, forgive my typos, I was too lazy to re-read.
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Jun 16, 2017
Seikaisuru Kado
(Anime)
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Disappointing.
If I were to describe this anime it one word, it would be disappointing. What started off as a beautiful political journey pushed by science and philosophy, within episodes became generic and predictable. Story: 4 As said before, the story idea and story itself were fantastic. The pace was perfect - not too slow to bore us, but not to fast to make us super confused. There were many new terms used, but, for the most part, were explained in a way that was easy to understand, or simply didn't take away from the overall experience. Each episode was a joy - wanting to know what would ... |
