Franconator

Who knows why they decided to make Ex-Arm, a CGI mess to the eyes, filled with godawful art and punctuated with dead air in between, as if the voice actors were all waiting on each other to speak before reading their lines. There’s a semblance of a story that drags Ex-Arm forward, but because the whole thing is so soulless and empty, the story is less a plot and more a list of bullet points that’s clearly meant to be run through as quickly as possible. Like your drunk uncle’s favorite C-grade action movie, Ex-Arm, a series set not even 10 years into the future, believes technology is bad and a curse to all humankind. So of course it follows that your main character has been reduced to a mere brain in a box, doomed to work alongside the Cops of Christmas Future to find the answers to his personal mystery.

Or at least that’s how I remember things. I wish I could call this a train wreck, but doing so would imply it left with some dignity right out the gate. But because Ex-Arm was already doomed the moment it started airing, it’s a train that’s already burst into flames on the tracks.

To watch Ex-Arm week after week is to suffer from a specific form of amnesia, where you specifically forget everything that happened before the episode you’re watching. You keep holding out for that “so bad, it’s good” factor to kick in, but instead, you get moments where you catch yourself feeling bad for making the show feel bad.

Was there any effort put into this thing? There must have been, if the voice actors are still delivering their lines in only half-dead tones like zombies reanimated against their will instead of actual dead carcasses. And even if they flail when they’re meant to swing a punch, or hyperventilate on screen when they’re meant to be dodging bullets, the characters at least turn when they’re meant to turn so I suppose that should count for something.

It’s hard to find something to justify the effort put into finishing all twelve shitty episodes, which I guess should be obvious in the way I’m still talking instead of finishing the review like I was supposed to about ten sentences ago. So you know, take it from me, the lousy guy who actually did put in the effort to find absolutely nothing of value: don't bother.

[This review was made for the Anime Lottery Game: Winter 2021 event. Okay, I’ll stop talking now.]