Dec 28, 2024
Excellent! A return to form of classic anime!
Great animation, a refreshingly unique plot, and callbacks to anime of similar aesthetics make me question how it's possible that this show is not more popular than it is. It's like Bright meets Ghost in the Shell with a heaping scoop of Blade runner with a bit of The Witcher's "Conjunction of Spheres" thrown in for good measure. Furthermore, if you pay attention in the first few episodes, there are several direct nods to GitS in the dialogue. While there is comedy, it's not goofy, trope-ridden, or "dad humor" (though being a dad myself I can certainly appreciate
...
dad humor). There is betrayal, regret, mysterious people/groups moving behind the scenes for unknown reasons, begrudging respect, and even a bit of love and friendship sprinkled here and there to keep it from being total grimdark fantasy.
The MC isn't afflicted with the modern trope of the goofy or misunderstood "Demon Lord" and has a believable backstory and personality, the Hero is exactly who you'd expect such a person to be given his particular stressful circumstances and avoids both the "complete benevolent idealist" and more recent "drunk on power" tropes associated with many heroes, and the side characters all have well fleshed out backstories and personalities and don't all fit neatly into various "-dere" archetypes like many forgettable side characters in modern anime; they're genuine personalities who have different moods that affect their character.
The excellent writing, detailed plot, lived in world, stellar animation, imaginative mildly retro character design, and overall aesthetic combine to elicit a feeling of nostalgia for some of us older folks who grew up watching anime in the 80's and 90's, but it's still fresh enough to compete with many of the best modern anime. My only complaints can be easily explained by the time/content restraints of being limited by the standard 12 episode season format when it might have flowed a bit more smoothly as a 14 or 15 episode season, but maybe that's just me wishing there was more.
10/10 for me and I can't wait for a Season 2 should it ever come! And if it doesn't? Well, that's just a sad reminder that good things are not always popular things.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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