Spiderus

Take Astro Boy and make it twice as tragic, mysterious, and dark.

STORY Jiro wakes up with almost no memories, but it doesn't take long for him to realize he's a machine - a special one that sits in limbo between being a robot and a human, as he possesses a conscience like that of a true human heart. This heart of sorts is incomplete however, and he and the children of the doctor who created him must work to complete this device before Jiro is shaped by more evil than good. It's a difficult task when Jiro is wrestling with so many emotions while also feeling like he's a monster unfit to even be seen by others and too unpredictable to be approached... He keeps being forced to fight his own brothers, other robots built by the doctor but under evil influence, without knowing why. Let the mysteries unravel and battles begin...

ANIMATION Nice unique character designs, but daaaang is everyone's neck extra thicc.

SOUND English dub was surprisingly alright!

CHARACTERS Jiro is melancholic from being both incompelted and confused about his current situation - he literally just woke up one day to evil robots trying to destroy him. His psyche is also still developing, learning from both good and evil as it can't distinguish the difference. He loses control sometimes and this makes him even more cautious to stop running away and return to the care of the siblings. He has yet to understand their love for him...

Dr. Gill is the antagonist who is set out to destroy Jiro. On the surface, and especially from his character design radiating "I'm a bad guy!", you'd think this was just a villain set on being malicious and violent,  maybe even on taking over the world. And you'd be right. But, he actually is a lot more intelligent and sinister than credit gives him - his schemes have gone back so much further than we first believed. He's done some pretty unthinkable tricks actually...

I can't explain much about the doctor, his wife, and the children/siblings without spoiling but just know that though they may appear shallow there's more to be revealed about their existences.

OVERALL This series surprised me! It had more interesting concepts and character schemes than you might be imagining from reading the synopsis or reviews here. Due to the intriguing mysterious factors you can handle the cliché good vs. evil tropes. For being so short I also thought this series would fail to pace the plot out well, but it was actually alright! Overall, this anime is a party sized bag of original Lay's potato chips -  you can easily finish it in one sitting, and it's tastey enough that you're glad you ate it, but you're also left wanting just a little more in the end.