
a review by Sheklon

a review by Sheklon
Should you ever watch Tokyo 24th Ward?
It depends on whether you're expecting something particularly good out of it or not. You should know that this show had severe time constraints which lead to serious production issues, to the point that even the key animation director manifested his pessimism towards the series on a personal Twitter account. Considering this context, the reader is invited to investigate the matter and I will not add another negative comment about the production to the existing pile.
Regardless, I will say I had fun watching this series and I was genuinely surprised at the amount of interesting concepts and characters they managed to include despite the aforementioned problems (though I'm a little biased towards the sci-fi genre). However, these same characters and concepts never get fully explored, and the show lacks in providing a strong or specific message about anything that sticks to your memory. Many of the themes revolve around philosophical issues that humanity will likely face in one way or another in the future, such as how accurately can we predict incidents or accidents within society; how preventable these situations are; and how should we ethically respond to that knowledge. Yet, the anime either never had the time to or was never interested in exploring these themes in a fulfilling manner — it feels more like an introductory class on philosophy and technology. The characters that participate in the story, while some likable and believable, are not very deep either, and will sometimes only act in favor of the plot, with no prior indication that their behavior was in line with their mindset or moral beliefs (this is because we never get to know those things in detail, or they are simply not there).
It saddens me that the show never got to seize its full potential, for it had enough good ideas behind it that it could make up a long and iconic series had it tried to be one. However, due to the rush of the current industry and most likely a lack of inspiration from low-spirited animators and writers, it was never meant to be something great.
If you like futuristic narratives and want to watch something off the genre for entertainment, then I'd recommend it as long as the sadly very unpolished animation and frequently off-model characters don't bother you (as well some other VFX issues, such as a low quality blur on the screen in various frames). But if you worry about good animation and expect to engage in a complex story or become familiar with three dimensional characters, this show will probably only disappoint you.
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