I did it, but I'm not sure if I should have.
K
So I've finally finished my first anime series.
It burns quite a bit right now.
I don't outright regret watching it, but there were quite a few problems with it that kept me from wholeheartedly liking it. Before I get to that I will start with the parts that I did like.
I generally liked the art direction. While it wasn't groundbreaking, the futuristic cityscapes were nice and the character designs were fairly diverse and mostly palatable. I understand the complaints about the washed-out palette, but I figure that was done in order to hammer in the whole color coding of the factions. The plot did a decent job of setting up plenty of mysteries to keep me watching.
That said, that last point brings me to the main flaw of the series: There's not much sense of firm world-building or closure. There's a lot of elements introduced that aren't really used all that much or elaborated upon, making a sort of world half-finished.Such as:
Strains, or animals imbued with psychic powers. Only one is a participant in the plot and an actual character. Their only actual role is to explain that the psychic powers that exist in the setting were derived from a relic(which in itself is not explained) that was used on lab animals as a test and would eventually make its way to the human population.(It's implied that there experiments run in order to imbue the first kings with the relic's power, though how they made their way to future Kings isn't explained, and events within the story specifically rule out any sort of biological inheritance.)
There are 7 "Kings", basically extremely powerful psychics who accrue various people to serve under them for whatever ends they see fit. You only get to see 5 of them (Silver,Gold,Red,Blue,Colorless) and it's never explained how the Kings came to be so influential, particularly the Silver and Gold Kings, who were some of the people responsible for the creation of the strains and by extension the Kings. The psychics in the series are powerful, but with the exception of the Silver King are far from invincible and could be assassinated or subdued without a tremendous amount of trouble on the part of their adversaries.
The main antagonist, The 7th King's original identity (he possesses a lot of people), history and motives are explored in little depth."Yashiro" (the protagonist) is afflicted with the same problem. His life before being possessed by the 7th king is never explored, and any possible conflict between the boy and The Silver King who unwittingly inhabits his mind is once again never explored.
There are 7 "Kings", basically extremely powerful psychics who accrue various people to serve under them for whatever ends they see fit. You only get to see 5 of them (Silver,Gold,Red,Blue,Colorless) and it's never explained how the Kings came to be so influential, particularly the Silver and Gold Kings, who were some of the people responsible for the creation of the strains and by extension the Kings. The psychics in the series are powerful, but with the exception of the Silver King are far from invincible and could be assassinated or subdued without a tremendous amount of trouble on the part of their adversaries.
The main antagonist, The 7th King's original identity (he possesses a lot of people), history and motives are explored in little depth."Yashiro" (the protagonist) is afflicted with the same problem. His life before being possessed by the 7th king is never explored, and any possible conflict between the boy and The Silver King who unwittingly inhabits his mind is once again never explored.
In addition to the various holes in the world, there's also more than a few contrivances used to keep the plot running.
Lost in an unknown place with your memories lost
Good thing there's a strain right nearby that can make fake ones for you to you keep you from going nuts
I would have lightly enjoyed the whole shebang, warts and all, but the ending completely killed it for me.
The protagonist known as Yashiro is basically invalidated as an individual, unconvincingly sacrificed (remember, the Silver King is outright stated to be immortal) and does nothing more than restore the status quo.
That ending pushed me back down to being completely apathetic. Le sigh. I should have stuck to the rec list like a sane person. I haven't decided what I want to watch next yet.
