This review may contain spoilers.
The anime is about two outcasts who go to any length to make their society listen to their pain.
The anime shows the viewer that a government can be incappable in handling issues and that it may have an agenda which interferes with the happiness of its citizens.
The characters are interesting and their design is realistic.
The animation is great and a lot of effort is put in making their world look realistic.
The sound is good and has many good soundtracks.
Like
Nine and Twelve don't kill anyone throughout their bombings. They always make sure people can either escape before the explosion or the bomb can be stopped by solving a riddle, which is related to mythology from different cultures.
In the beginning of the bombings the police, a governmental institution, is shown as an incapabable group of people who do nothing but have meetings and do not act. At a certain point Sphinx also releases all their collected info to the public which is another nail in the coffin for the government.
The goal of Nine and Twelve their actions is to create enough media in their society and in extension the world to tell them their story. How they were used in an unethical governmental programme and how it messed up their lives. Their voices were heard and will never be forgotten in their history due to their final bombing.
Dislike
It isn't so clear why the American government is involved in the police's investgation. Something is mentioned about an interpretation of their constitution which leads to an atomic bomb, but it isn't clear. This may have been due to how the English speaking characters are hard to understand in the anime.
It is also not clear why the American military shows up at the end and kills Twelve or why Nine suddenly dies, since he doesn't seem to get shot.
Like
The characters look realistic in their design. They aren't drawn in a moe style, which fits the theme of the series.
It is amazing how Nine can come up with all the bomb contraptions and planning that goes into sphinx their actions. Despite his cold attitude he is actually caring person, who doesn't want to involve people in his business so they won't have to suffer with him.
It is nice that Twelve is the emotional support for Nine. He wants to help him cope with his flashbacks/nightmares by involving Lisa in their actions by setting up a similar situation as the one in Nine's nightmares and letting him make the choice. Twelve even wants to help Lisa even though he knows he shouldn't and it almost got him killed. He really is a good person even if he doesn't want to admit it.
It is interesting how shibasaki wants to understand why Nine and Twelve do what they do instead of just labelling them as criminals and trying to stop them. He gives of the same vibes as Kogami from Psycho-Pass who wants to understand the reason behind Makishima's actions, who in this comparison would be Nine and Twelve. Shibasaki also wonders at a certain point in the anime whether Nine and Twelve are somewhat justified in their actions and if their society has become too authoritarian, since in his younger days people would throw rocks at riot police and that was acceptable and now it is seen as an act of terror.
Dislike
It feels like Lisa could have been written out of the story and it would not have made a difference. She doesn't really do anything until episode 7, which is after half of the anime, and when she does something she seems to just get in the way or cause more trouble for the main characters.
The motivation for Five's actions weren't so clear. She mentions she wants to surpass Nine at the end of the anime, but she already did by finishing the special government programme that she was in so many years ago.
Like
A lot of detail is put in making the anime look more realistic by appropriate shading and the amount of detail in the environment of the characters. When the characters are in a city the buildings look realistic, the signs look realistic, etc.
There are also well animated parts where something happens in high speed which makes those scenes look smooth. It happens in the first episode during the snow scooter chase and it also happens when a character quickly runs down the stairs like what happened in the first episode when Lisa runs down the emergency stairs in a skyscraper.
The anime opening is cryptic which fits theme of the series and the backstory of the main characters.
Dislike
There are parts where CGI is used and sometimes it is done well, like in the first episode during the motorcycle ride in the city. It is visible that CGI is used for the cars in the background but due to how fast that scene is it doesn't really stick out, but there are times when it really sticks out like when CGI cars pass by slowly or when the detective and the chief of the police sit and talk in the park and CGI people pass by in the background. It happens a few times in the anime that people in the background stick out due to being in CGI. Nothing can probably be done for the cars that pass by slowly, but perhaps for the people that pass in teh background it would have been better to either not show them or to draw them static and further appart from the characters so they are still in the background but the focus is on the characters that are doing something.
Like
The opening song sounds so light and combined with the cryptic video you get the feeling you are watching a dream. Here is the opening song: https://youtu.be/g1ARRcK4LVs
Each time Nine has a flashback a certain soundtrack is played and it feels unsettling which is also the feeling the main character has. It sounds like a soundtrack straight out of a Silent Hill game. Here is the soundtrack: https://youtu.be/2esZCrgq5u4
The soundtracks are good overall and after summing up the ones that stick out I realised I summed up almost all of them and removed them from the review.
Dislike
The English which is spoken in the anime is difficult to understand.
Like
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