Silent Mobius Review

story 8/10

First, if you'd like information on how this fits in with the movies, please check out the AniRec Database entry, and click the yellow question mark.

Silent Mobius is a gripping sci-fi cyberpunk thriller about a group of women, with their struggle to destroy the merciless beings known as the Hawk. In general, the storyline is unique and interesting, with a great deal of story that isn't revealed until later in the show.

But the part I liked about the Mobius plot the most, was how it was executed. The series starts out how it should be, alternating bits of plot with character development, or story development in general. For example, one episode early on acquaints us with the present state of Tokyo, and how the city is. This is shown to us during the entire show, actually, which makes you feel a lot more involved in the environment, not just the characters and their plight. And as far as the character development, I'll discuss that below, but I want to make a special note of how well placed I thought the major character development episodes were. Honestly, the plot reminded me a lot of Xenogears in a strange way.

All this praise, so why the 8? Namely, because it seems you are expected to know too much from the manga (or need to read it afterwards) to understand what is going on. Although most things are explained in a fairly easy to understand manner, by the end I still had many, many unanswered questions. In addition, the story did get a bit awkward in the last few episodes. Granted, it wasn't like anything was done wrong, the story just didn't seem to flow as well.

Regardless, the plot was fantastic, and succeeded in creating a very dark, moody, and emotional sci-fi cyberpunk feel.

animation 8/10

Visually, Silent Mobius was beautiful... especially if you watched the movies prior, and saw the difference in style. The character designs definitely looked older, with long pointy faces and pointy noses, and hair that seemed to always look like a mullet. The backgrounds and cityscape shots were truly the most impressive, with scenes looking straight out of something like Dark City or Blade Runner. If this show did anything fantastically, amongst other things it would definitely be the attention to detail with the surroundings, and how well it portrayed the environment the characters live in. Occasional still scenes were used, but sparingly. CG was used occasionally as well, and was quite honestly pretty bad, but also used sparingly.

The character designs of the Hawk were especially amazing, reminding me a LOT of Blue Gender, in a way. One of the monsters looked like the final boss from Dragon Warrior 4! So that was a big plus also. ^_^

One scene really comes to mind when thinking about how well the visuals fit the story. There was an episode where one of the characters came to a realization. During the entire episode, it was black and white. Once the realization was made, it changed to color. This made the storyline at that time be incredibly powerful, and much more effective than telling the story with no visual aides. The camera angles, colors used, and everything about the visuals truly made this series a gem to watch.

sound 8/10

Easily one of the catchiest intros I've heard, which is unusual for me. Only Stellvia has captured my attention like so, making me actually want to listen to it when it happens. The normal music was a really great mix of all sorts of types of music. From the keyboard sounding techno beats, to the victorian gothic pianoish sounds, to live bands wailing. Usually this kind of thing annoys me, but for Silent Mobius, it did nothing but help with the mood.

characters 9/10

Such a highlight of the series. As previously mentioned, character development starts from episode 1, and continues on in a very realistic and rewarding pace. An entire episode is dedicated to each main character, spread out over the first half of the series. Katsumi's development is obviously more in depth, and many more episodes are dedicated to her. Not only are the characters mature emotionally and physically (all being mid to late 20s), but they develop very serious relationships and friendships, that are believable in every way. These help give rise to love, loss, joy, and tragedy in ways that petty high school dramas cannot.

overall 8.5/10

Silent Mobius was a beautifully animated, musically pleasing, wonderfully thought out series. I came into it expecting a good sci-fi viewing, and I was satisfied almost 100%. Had it been explained more, I probably would have given it a higher score. It had everything I was looking for: mature relationships and characters, a compelling, complicated storyline, and visuals that were a treat to see. If you like these kinds of shows, I highly recommend checking this out. It definitely is on my "good sci fi list" to recommend to people now!