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Normally, I'm a dead sucker for slow and somber character dramas set in gritty political messes. Jin-Roh captures that atmosphere excellently. We begin with molotovs, riots, and the sense of human beings caught living in unsettling times. Little people in the middle of big troubles, humanity in anarchy, and the interface between brutality and humanity are the order of the day.

The setup was good; the metaphors potent; the music and animation dead on point. Serious anime being serious anime, it uses the lovely and reliable formula of long still shots combined with fluid moving sequences. We follow the drilling, the walks, and the sweat ... of our characters in excellent detail. We dive into dreams, sit with allegorical monologues, and do the other Serious Art tricks that you'll either love or hate. You know who you are and what you like.

Unfortunately, while the journey is good, the destination is subpar. In my eyes, Jin Roh failed as a character drama. I understand the journey of Constable Fuze, but I did not feel or learn from his journey. None of the little quirks, the non-lethal takedowns, the relationships, none of it results in any interesting changes or discussions.

The tagline is: "We are not men disguised as mere dogs. We are wolves disguised as men."

Your out-of-context reaction to that line should dictate to that show. If you buy it immediately, you'll love the movie. Personally, I was not sold on the tagline, but I wanted to be bargained and coaxed through some interesting themes. Personally, I wanted to be sold on it. See a little anguish, struggle, philosophical debate, whatever. It's a serious and dark movie, so I figured we deserved some deep themes to wank ourselves off with. Nah. The Red Riding Hood allegory, the symbolism, it's all shallow water in the end. Nihilism is not a replacement for philosophy.

On the whole I had a good experience, and despite my moaning, I don't really feel that bad about the disappointing end. I had a good enough time on the way there. I'm going to rate by the good I had rather than the good I missed, so it's a 7/10 for me, dog.

First I will let the writing speak for itself, in this spoiler-free passage below:

"“I was convinced that I had grasped your behavioral patterns completely by now. But I couldn’t predict your statement just now at all. Can you imagine how amusing this is for someone accustomed to eternal boredom?” she says, looking delighted."

There's more. For instance, in the opening scenes of this supposedly dark and gritty series, the main heroine reveals her reality-defying power by telling the main character about the color of a girl's panties. It's a cold open, a rolling intro, and a crash into a panty flash.

God and Buddha help me, ... I read every volume to witness and report on the hundreds of examples of awful dialogue and Light Novel cliches, If your mind can interpret this trainwreck as salvageable, you have an inhumanly forgiving mind that I am unable to comprehend.

I've helped edit literary abortions-in-progress, and have produced terrible work myself. I understand that madness that results in teenage characters using fifty words instead of eight. I sympathize with the stupidity of tacking backstories of abuse onto small children and having one mutter, literally, "murdermurdermurder" in the least subtle possible way of setting up the twist villain of a book. But the humane way to handle those manuscripts is to label them as inherently irrecoverable, and then to euthanize them.

You might think this will be funny, or at the least, a campy and edgy read. This is true for many light novels and web novels. By any faith or philosophy you might hold, trust me, this is not true here. Worse than just bad, the writing is boring. If you are into bad video game mechanics being described in pointless and excruciating detail, you know who you are, and no force in imagination will restrain you from reading this.

If you do not give this writer a single yen, and avoid supporting the paid publication of further work, my work will be done. I've read good postmodern books. I love the genre. You can fly through songs, bodies, and minds. For your own benefit and pleasure, I urge you to choose something better than this. You deserve it.