
DAN DA DAN
a review by 2DKaps

a review by 2DKaps
My greatest frustration of all is that, despite the anime's focus on main character interactions, their personalities and relationships feel very underdeveloped and difficult to understand. Okarun and Momo may have a cute and fun dynamic together, but their individual personalities feel so shallow in comparison that, when Jiji was finally introduced to the story at the very end of Episode 10 (only two episodes to introduce and solidify himself? really?), his barely-introduced personality and dynamic still felt more compatible with Momo in a relationship than Okarun's compatibility with her ever was. I cannot resonate with them in a way the anime probably intended, and it feels completely out of my control.
The past few paragraphs were quite harsh, so I'd like to make up for them by highlighting the strong points of the anime! After all, there's still plenty of reasons people enjoy it, right? First and foremost, the animation is perhaps the greatest selling point of the anime for me and others. It's beautiful, impactful, creative, and truly shows the true passion of the animators that worked on the season from start to finish, even despite the weaker and blurrier scenes later on. The characters, despite their narrative weaknesses, have plenty of charm and feel pretty likeable once more is revealed about them (most notably with Aira and Jiji in the episodes following their introductions), though I still feel the strongest and best-written characters are ironically some of the aliens and side characters. The creative and storytelling genius of Episode 7 has been talked about several times over already, but it's impossible to overstate just how incredibly directed, written, and animated of a story it is as its own contained special. I also believe the soundtrack is heavily underrated (or at least, not discussed enough), as it's truly one-of-a-kind in anime and fits perfectly with seemingly every scenario for which it's composed. Finally, when the anime reaches an emotional point, it's executed marvelously almost every time. Besides the poorly-aged shounen tropes, like the SA and stripping and whatnot, the wit and comedy of the anime is perfect for a quick laugh when it goes that route, yet it also still strikes a beautiful emotional chord in the scenes where it remembers to do so (like, again, Episode 7).
Given all I've written above, it's safe to say i have very mixed feelings about this adaptation. It's not all bad, there's plenty to like about it, and it's perhaps the most popular anime of the season for reasons. On the other hand, its this superficial appeal to popularity that backfires on the anime and opens it to far too many flaws that never improved and only disappointed until the end. It is for these reasons, along with the triggering subject matters, that I personally cannot recommend the anime to anyone in its current state. The flaws are simply interfere far too much to ignore, and the conclusion to this first season only ends up adding more fuel to the already burning state of the plot. It's an incomplete and repulsive mess to me, desperately in need of a second season (which, mind you, is slated for release a full half year later), but unless it manages to completely redeem itself with this second season (which, again, was only announced AFTER the airing of this final twelfth episode), I don't see any reason or appeal to pursue this series any further.
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