"If the story you want to draw is similar to something that is already popular, find something else to draw. I prefer to read a manga that is bad but something only you can draw, more than something good but similar to another artist's work!! Just try!!" -Eiichiro Oda
This anime's obsession with Oda's work is apparent, but I wonder if the original mangaka has seen what was done to tarnish his work and how now, the mention of Oda so constant, just draws attention to the devoid lack of quality in the piece we were given. I doubt it's a comforting thought at the very least.
When we begin the show there is an heir of ending, the main characters life is coming to a draw, his family doesn't admonish him as they once did and more-so find his presence a bother, to which more than anything he wants that semblance of love back and is scared as its all drawn away. This portion of the anime, and subsequently the following half of the series I think is quite well to the point despite its short comings. But there are still negatives, while he is reborn with this new body, undying and able to see through his change and place in the world through it, we often don't see the thoughts of his family as to where he is, his thoughts as to self doubt or a play up of hiding his abnormalities. For instance, the scene in the park when he is attempting to learn to fly, are we expected to believe that no one heard him? Especially as a family had just walked away, that no one - on their cell phone with the window cracked, thought to look out and see? Record even? The same goes for when the villain flies away after murdering the family, there isn't a moment where it seems Inuyashiki could be blamed, his car is parked outside for crying out loud, there is a woman dead with blood pooling around her head on the ground and his car is parked outside. It's absurd, though the brutality of the murder and other sinister depictions are very well done, too much so I would say as they can often be quite uncomfortable, but bring back the sense that care is intended - if only for a moment.
Pairing up our hero with the villain's closest remaining "family" is a good draw, but its never used in the way that the villain is always listening, able to hear and able to tap in - yet unable to see the two of them conspiring, unable to hear when his closest friend is crying out that he might die (Even if asked not to interact), and doesn't even suspect him for a moment as the 'material witness'. We're equally expected to see him as a sociopath that is stable enough to act like one (That being their chilling factor), yet he swaps so carelessly between emotions on the dime of just looking for someone to ask him to stop, unable to ask himself to, despite saying as a child that he doesn't care for external lives and "has always been like this". Poor writing is something of a plague that we have come to dull numb to, but in doing so, aren't keeping accountable these writers for their garbage ruining the outcomes.
Now onto the most important piece of why this puzzle fails to deliver, choreography and animation. Animation goes without saying, studio MAPPA has often become an overworked shell of what it once was, only able to deliver the poorest level of animation with the same stiffness and low framerate interpolation mapping of real actors that looks hilariously like a classic of my youth, Drinky Crow, from adult swim in the mid 2000's. They should be ashamed, not as artists, but as management for overworking and underpaying their staff so much that the outcome is this piece of shit. Just look at it, I understand using it as a basis to make sure all the mechanical parts remain static as the camera pans but this brings me onto the next point of choreography. How are we to give them the benefit of the doubt on it being for consistency when they barely even use the camera to draw you in, usually the benefit of 3d can be leveraged for sweeping shots like Levi swinging through the air in AToT, which is then animated over top of and composited further. Why when he fights do we get motion blur and close crop-in's with terrible physics, as well as aforementioned - stiff character movement. Then the most compositing we get after, if there aren't even a single brush stroke over top, is some shitty bloom which looks out of a playstation 4 game.
In rating this show, I struggle. On the one hand I see its potential and want to say it's definitely an enjoyable watch, even with a dull and naive villain written to be like Light Yagami's mentally challenged younger sibling, and all the other issues stacked beneath its grave. On the other hand, I think to the fact that we've come to dull our senses to piss poor garbage slop like this and want to drop it on its head at a 6. Definitely a more enjoyable experience than most the shows I've given a 6, but when I look at the animation of those shows, they blow this FAR out of the water. So then what does this show have? Pity.
6/10
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