Any time I dive into a new anime that I have no prior knowledge or expectations of, I try to first of all figure out what its appeal is, not necessarily to tell if I can enjoy it myself, but rather to understand how others could potentially appreciate the show, and granted, if it happens to appeal to me in some way, I will try to think of the reason/s behind it. Sadly, when I finished watching all the aired episodes of this show up to now (4), I was left wondering, whom in the fuck could this anime honestly appeal to? Because as far
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as my understanding goes, I cannot say that I got the faintest grasp on how someone could find it even remotely alluring in any way.
This show fails to be even bearable, in every single one of the most conventional ways to judge the quality of an anime, It simply doesn’t hold its ground in any aspect; no consistency, no semblance of pace, no notion of purposes or motivations in its characters, no weight to the action scenes, total lack of spatial location sense, interaction of CGI models and 2D characters in the same shot, cheesy voice acting, dullest and most insulting character expressions I have seen in years... you name it, this anime has literally nothing going for it, and not only is that the case if judged under the most straightforward "rules" to enjoy anime.
Looking at it on a slightly different light, I can’t seem to understand how there are some people who are calling it a cult-show, an ironically hilarious show, a show that can be enjoyed for how bad it is, the usual stuff, the show’s incompetence and its flaws become the joke at which everyone laughs, it’s fine, I’ve enjoyed my fair share of shows in that same way, and I did see some potential in the first episode of Ex-arm to be enjoyed as some kind of awesomely bad comedy show, mostly because of how over the top the presentation of basically everything was and how hilariously awkward everything looked and felt, I mean, as a standalone creation, this first episode did seem endearing enough for me to at the very least keep watching until episode 4, however, in episodes 2,3 and 4 not only do they use exactly the same shit that made the first episode somewhat funny and endearing, making it feel old extremely fast, but they also completely fail at keeping up the flow of interesting things or at least goofy-looking shots that one could find funny, everything the show does in these 3 episodes is a regurgitation of what was presented in episode 1, in almost EVERY aspect, with that almost being what makes it even worse as they start introducing new characters that don’t really add any comedic value to the satirical enjoyment and just make it feel more tedious and exposition-filled than it felt in its premiere. I think that claiming this anime can indeed be enjoyed as a so bad it’s good type of show, just because the presentation and overall execution of essentially anything it tries to display is bottom tier, is deeply misguided and it kind of misses the point.
A show that can be enjoyed will always have to have a reason to be enjoyed, let us take for example, arguably the most important and well-known show in cult-following that exists in anime, Garzey’s wing. This show has such a huge cult-following, because it has something to offer, because it engages with the viewer in a meaningful way, because it presents you with idea after idea that denote a level of accidental genius that baffles me it even exists; its English dub is pure comedy gold, the dialogues are nonsensical, the pace is literally 10000xed and the characters are constantly talking over one another while throwing memorable quotes that I could never forget in a million years. Well, the point being that for an anime like this to work and to be hilarious, it must have something going on, it must keep you stimulated in a way that even if ironic or satirical, it first needs to exist at all, it needs to do as much as possible for you to at least have something to laugh at or to find not less than mildly WATCHABLE, and oh man, the first 4 episodes of Ex-arm, in my eyes, do not have anything to offer, the only dialogue we get is about its own made up bullshit, which I couldn’t give two shits about, the interactions between the characters, including action scenes, are as clunky and trite as they can get, and the line delivery is bland like no other, the show just doesn’t do anything, at least other shows that have this level of ineptitude in their execution, have the self-awareness and decency of trying to keep it simple with shorter episodes, just so they don’t make the viewer go through full-length fucking episodes that do nothing more than kill your neurons slightly faster.
I am nobody to tell you what you can or can’t like or how to and not to enjoy the anime you watch, I don’t think taste is objective in any way either, what I do think though, is that giving this anime credit just to make fun of something when there’s actually nothing to call so bad it’s good in it, at least in an already explored way, just comes off as a bit asinine, and it almost feels disingenuous.
Ultimately this show is transparently worthless, it is as bad as what people claim and even worse, I am sure, and this includes me as well, if you hate this show, I don’t think you hate it nearly enough. Ex-arm is mind-numbing, hideous to look at and makes my ears bleed, I am glad I won’t be having to sit through any more of this trash, and well, if you’re one of those people who honestly feel this can be enjoyed ironically, and you’re at a level of self-awareness where you can even make fun of the lack of fun things to make fun of, then I take my hat off to you, because that is something I currently cannot do, and will most likely never strive to do.
Hope you found this Rant interesting, and thanks for reading it, as it is not much of a review, there really isn’t much to review in the show tbh, so I thought I would just post this, coz I saw some people ironically defending the show, and thought I wanted to put forth my own perspective. I gave the show a 2, bc I did find the OP and the first episode relatively funny. That’s it for me, have a nice life.
DAMN YOU YAMATO TAKERU NO MIKOTOOOO
Jan 31, 2021
Any time I dive into a new anime that I have no prior knowledge or expectations of, I try to first of all figure out what its appeal is, not necessarily to tell if I can enjoy it myself, but rather to understand how others could potentially appreciate the show, and granted, if it happens to appeal to me in some way, I will try to think of the reason/s behind it. Sadly, when I finished watching all the aired episodes of this show up to now (4), I was left wondering, whom in the fuck could this anime honestly appeal to? Because as far
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