Unnamed Memory
a review by swilldell
a review by swilldell
The first season of Unnamed Memory will be remembered for its blistering speed because there will (hopefully) never be another anime that grabbed my attention weekly where I needed to read the comments to remind me what the source material covered in the timeline between/during episodes. It's an entertaining anime, don't get me wrong - but the pacing will kill the show for a lot of people. The light novels will probably be the best way to experience the series (although I’ve heard the manga is faithful to the lns) and the anime is simply a visual for big plot points of the series.
For this series you have the male lead Oscar, the giga Chad prince who can both talk his way in and out of any situation and is a good enough (and eventually great) fighter to hold his own in any situation. I mean the first episode he has to climb a challenging tower just to get to the witch that could supposedly heal his curse. He’s not a power trope character or anything, but a series like this needs an Oscar because a weaker lead in his role would make no sense given that he’s the heir for his country and needs to hold shit down. Tinasha aka The Witch of the Azure Moon is the female lead of this series. She is given the most depth of any character in the 12 episodes and grows the most over the course of the show. She’s the best girl, is the most powerful of all the witches, but at the same time is such a tragic character that you can’t help but feel for her. The chemistry between her and Oscar is one of the highlights of this show and if you are a fan of “will they/won’t they” romance you would definitely enjoy this series as at the very least there is a resolution at the end of this season.
Every other character for this series does not have a picture of themselves on Anilist as of the time I am looking at this review and it is very telling of how the rest of the cast stacks compared to the two leads and it is very telling about how little they matter. First episode you have Oscar’s sidekick who might be the worst character of the series. I don’t remember his name, you won’t either, and you will know he is a bitch within 5 minutes in the anime. Worst thing is he’s the first man to cockblock Oscar in the series. The rest of the people in Farsas (Oscar’s kingdom) are either just kind of there or are his dad that relinquishes the throne because Oscar is just that dude. The villains of this series get no more than like 3 episodes to be villains so their reason for being evil is either kind of weak or they are just evil with no remorse. The one character that does not fulfill either of these sides is a witch who initially tries to mess with Oscar but she eventually becomes an ally and really has no more impact on the plot.
Combining both the plot and execution on this one - The synopsis is ambitious and requires a lot of time to explain everything, but this anime straight up cuts so much content it is unreal how this part of the story was not expanded into more episodes because it definitely needed it. But for the story we DO have, the overarching plot of the story remains intact for this season, specifically 11 out of the 12 episodes. There is a HUGE twist in the 12th episode where this could easily be a much lower score. However, a second season was immediately announced for January 2025 so it looks like we will see more of this story at hopefully a slower pace. Speaking of pacing, since you can never talk enough about it when it comes to this show; you NEED to read comments that give exposition on the light novels or you will truly be lost. I was lost about a quarter of the way through the anime and comments saved me from scratching my head for an entire series. This is a detriment to the anime and hopefully the director learns from the first season. The storytelling of this show COULD be great, the execution was just terrible in season 1. So I split the difference with this score.
This show might have had me lost but it is an accomplishment for me to finish something so I have to give credit where it is due. I always looked forward to watching Tinasha for 20 something minutes each week and the show always had something to offer. The music fit the vibes of the show so even during moments where no dialogue was happening I did not check my phone while watching the show. The fights were good enough to keep me entertained and even with the plot difficult to pick up on after a week without watching, the show would somehow manage to hook me back in. If season 2 gives the same vibe, I could see myself finishing that as well.
This show could have been special but what really held it back was once again, its pacing. I really liked the other aspects of this show, it had enough promise to get greenlit for another season. This score might seem high but its not because of how much material we were robbed of but it is because of what we did get - an okay romance with 2 really good characters, some good fight scenes with decent animation for this year, and an ambitious synopsis. Season 2 can really make or break this show but that is just copium for me (Tinasha enjoyer) and I want to be optimistic. I feel like if I wrote this review after everything was released this score would definitely fluctuate one way or the other but right now it’s about average.
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