Review No. 86
The following couple of paragraphs will be copy pasted in my reviews for a while, so skip it if you have read it already (skip to where the bold starts) or if you don’t want to bother reading it cause for some it may seem long. On the contrary, imma try to keep the actual reviews of the show shorter than usual.
So, I recently presented my thesis for my master’s degree, and against my better judgment, you guessed it, it was about anime, history, retrospective etc. Now, I do not mention this to say that my opinion matters, nor to gain credibility and say that I am right about what I am saying, but none the less having read almost every word that has ever been written in English about anime that even has the slightest academic value, really widens one’s horizons and perspective about the phenomenon. Also, whether you agree with my opinion or not, whether I am bashing or complementing a show, I’m always making a case, I am using reasoning. I am also at a point in my life that I have the knowledge, experience and self awareness, to be able to state that something is good, is of a certain quality but even so I do not like it or that it is bad, it is trash but even so I like it anyway. That sounds really weird and contradictory, I know, alas that is what some people have to go through based on what they chose to do in life, for the vast majority of people what they like is good and what they don’t like is bad, simple as that. Anyway, where am I going with this, as additional research for my paper, I tried, keyword here is TRIED, to watch almost every seasonal anime for the last couple of seasons. Cause I had to make a case for some of my closing remarks about the current state of the anime industry. More or less what I said is that even though the industry is probably at its highest point in terms of popularity and finally it seems that it has solved the oldest and biggest problem that has been plaguing it since its inception, which has always has been for anime to be profitable, unfortunately it is at its lowest point in terms content, in terms of creativity, originality and almost every other quality that isn’t about the audiovisual improvements technology offers.
So, where does this Spring 2023 season stand, did it prove me wrong? On the contrary, it solidifies my argument. Another season filled to the brim with sellable, easily digestible shows that have been made dozens of times before with slightly different colors. Safe, unoriginal products that the customer will gulp right down. Now, you can say that has been the case since forever and the same goes for every industry probably. But it wasn’t that bad, those mass production shows were always there, but the safety of those productions, the bread those shows put on the table also allowed the studios to experiment on the side, for every handful of McDonald’s burger you would eventually bite into one with real meat, maybe a spicy silky sauce, some fresh veggies, something new, now you could probably have to go through 100 mass produced patties before you come across a real hefty burger. Also even those sellable shows, at least had some more variation, now it is just isekai after rom-com after isekai after rom-com after isekai after rom-com, it just never ends. I mean what is the highlight of the season? (apart from chibi demon in box and e=mc2 new seasons), Oshi no Ko? The fanbase actually went ecstatic over Oshi no Ko, if this show was made back in the golden era of the industry, would a single soul even remember it? You tell me… Hell even if it aired alongside Chainsaw man and Bleach probably no one would even notice it. But anime fans need to grab onto something, cause anime are awesome, they love anime, there can’t be a season without a so called masterpiece, they just can’t have it. But I am an anime fan, I love anime, apart from watching, I studied about them about hundreds of hours, I wrote 120 pages about them and another 80 or so that I had to cut to meet the length criteria which I still fucking went over. I love anime, but I can clearly see the current status quo, it is sad and it is getting grimmer by the season.
So, what you came here for, is this show good? Well, not really, it is not great, but you know what it is? It is way better than the insulting cookie cutter shows that comprise the majority of the seasonal production.
The story is not groundbreaking, yes it is convenient at times, its it definitely not bullet proof, some hiccups here and there exist because the plot said so, but you know, it is an honest little story. The murder happens right off the bat, you know who killed who, no fake suspense and cliffhangers about things happening off screen that could never know about, there is no mystery bait, you are just trying to see if the protagonist manages to get out of the mess he got himself into.
And here is the thing, it doesn’t really matter, cause if he gets caught, well he did kill a dude you know, whether he killed a scumbag or not doesn’t change the fact he is a murderer, but he did kill a scumbag to protect his daughter, so no matter the outcome, its kinda like a win win situation, you care about him not because he outsmarts people, or cause he is a bad ass dude cause he have read lot of detective novels, you care because he tried in his way to be a decent dad, so you don’t really care about him, you care about him caring to protect his family to the best of his abilities. Same goes for the mom, she does what she can to carry the burden alongside him, they are both trying really hard to do whats best for their family and their daughter, even though the daughter is a bum, she is still their one and only child. So, an unoriginal typical yet decent and not insulting story, is really getting lifted by some solid characters, their intentions, their actions and their struggles. It doesn’t really seem like it, but family, love, parenting and what you do for those things or even better what those things make you do, is the main the thematic core of this show.
What doesn’t really manage to lift the story though, is the at best average animation and music. Both are barely serviceable, they just barely work. At least the voice acting is decent.
So, is it worth a watch? Well, if you are looking for a great show overall, no, I would not recommend it as there are many way better thrillers or shows with similar themes out there, but, if I would have to recommend what new shows are watchable from the spring 2023 season, this one would definitely make it into the rather unexciting final cut.
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