I'm sure we’ve all done it before. We’ve all wished we could turn back time just to fix something we did, or think twice before walking into something terrible, or otherwise take precautions we wish we would've done in the first place. Tragedy and mortifying actions occur all the time. However, in this reality, we know we can never do so, as much as we wish otherwise.

Chronos Ruler is a look into a fictional consequence that can come about of this wish, and it's borderline depressing, less so for the grim reminder and bittersweet message, but more so for the lack of quality in its writing. That's not to say this concept is entirely easy to do well, in fact, as I'll demonstrate later, it's very easy to screw up, it's just that it definitely loses balance on that tightrope rather fast and spends the rest of its time plummeting while grasping.

S: 2:10 AM

When it comes to stories involving the manipulation of time (especially when that's the main focus), an insane amount of detail is required. Time is in and of itself, something that while manipulative, is still not something that can be broken or contradicted. Therefore, when it comes to stories like this, the devil is in the details, and when you mix other paranormal things into it, there’s a lot you have to explain that way everything makes sense. Not only is there the how and why like with most stories, but especially in this particular case, to what extent. It's very easy to screw this vital step up, as the series demonstrates. I'm aware that I'm saying an absolute and that rarely is a storytelling “rule” absolute but well, not every rule has to have an exception. Let me give you an example of this show’s failings, or rather two side by side:

In episodes 1 and 2, there’s a huge disparity in the number of Horologues present in episode 1 with the clock tower rumor compared to the 8 times that amount present when one man willows in the streets over his life being ruined by gambling. Why does one cause more of these things to spawn than the other? How does this all work and how can they all absorb his time at once at this rate? What is the extent that these will appear and what scenarios cause more or less to appear? The show doesn't answer any of this. It's too busy playing with time for admittedly inventive and interesting attacks and effects, as well as using that for convoluted character drama that falls flat due to how ravaged the narrative is by stuff like this. You can apply some of this to multiple scenarios in the show, like with Mrs. Emily’s time being reverted in episode 1 and how it really speeds up way too much between the time she left to the time she died by comparison to literally everything else beforehand. You will not believe how many times you can do this and what it does to the narrative (less than 10 but still way too many), it's that bad.

Another thing that sinks this show (not as hard mind you) is the forced comedy tone shifts. What is it with both manga and their adaptations in particular that do this? Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood did it, Fairy Tail did it, Drifters did it, I mean come on! It's always jarring and distracting. I get that sometimes we need to lighten the mood and that it's realistic to try but even still, they never handle it right. It is always very abrupt and shifts from one emotional extreme to another. It's not as egregious as Drifters with this, but it's about as constant with it, which is a real pain since it's going from drama to slapstick in a instant; that does not work. Regardless, it's clear from all of this that the narrative of Chronos Ruler is a mess. That's putting it lightly. This isn't even covering the other holes, asspulls, and contradictions heavily present in the narrative with the way the Chronos organization is constructed and so many moments filled with these things, but I honestly don't have the patience to try. It does manage to make sense on occasion and use its interesting concepts to interesting and good effect, by it's surrounded in the slime of what I mentioned earlier.

That being said, this show does try. It tries really hard. It wants nothing more than to be a good, poignant show, and in some cases, like the actually pretty good episodes 8 and 12 (less so everything in between), and the buildup to and emotional climax of both, it actually succeeds. It shows just how deep regret can be, how people can be so awful to those who care for them and still mourn them and regret everything once those people are gone. It explores how those loving ones feel about their children who don't appreciate them at all. If nothing else, this show succeeds brilliantly at showing all of that. It shows the potential this show had of being great when it can pull this off so well. Too bad it had to shoot its foot so much early on, because now we can't fix that.

C: 4:10 AM

The cast in and of itself isn't really terrible per se. For most part, they're just rather meh beyond some truly bleh archetypal villain characters. The main characters are exceedingly childish though, which is aggravating. Not to mention that they're pretty comfortable in their typical character roles for most part, such as “girl” and “dumb brute”. Next to no one is particularly well written, which is a shame since some come close. Victor becomes a surprisingly good character in the second half of the show with his particular hang-ups. The antagonist that truly reveals himself in episode 10 is interesting as well, trying to find out why humans are so weird and capable of doing things that go against what he thinks are their personalities and morals. These were executed sort of well, so the fact that the cast is otherwise pretty bad is a letdown. Mina is especially repetitive with her “darling” shtick and so is her and Victor’s shtick of mocking Kiri for being a virgin. The running gags here suck and they hinder the already poorly written characters, as if the fact that they constantly beat us over the head with their shtick and this show’s themes didn't do that already.

A: 3:10 PM

Project No.9 was in charge of this show’s production, and they did not do very well here. By 2017 standards, the art looks decent overall despite some brilliant moments here and there. Character models are not always consistent and neither is the overall art quality. Animation-wise, it fares little better. The fights look ok at best despite the interesting powers at play. Unfortunately, they cannot always composite the characters well enough to the backgrounds because on rare occasions, they do a hideous job with the backgrounds during movement. The CGI makes that even worse. Honestly, the CGI kills any chance of the production values aspect being good. The CGI plane in episode 7 looks horrendous, the crazy Horologues are sometimes rendered in weird CGI that does not work at all in this context, and when they use cards or especially debris as CGI assets, and trying to play around with backgrounds in CGI for dynamic camera movement in fight scenes works about as horrendously as you'd expect, and it give me flashbacks to a series that will continually haunt me. Shame since the OP visuals look striking and visually ambitious and interesting, and without too much motion, the show can often look ok. Alas, this is what this show leaves us with at this current time of televised release, and it is not pretty.

S: 6:10 PM

The OST is weird. The tracks are often repeated ad nauseam and in many cases, they wouldn't fit. However, sometimes the tracks were actually good and worked well with the scenes. It's a similar case to the Big Order OST (especially with the jazz stuff that seldom fits), except this doesn't have a real standout track. The OP, "RULER GAME" by Fo'xTails, is a pretty good OP and the standout piece of music for the show. It is fun and catchy, getting you pumped for the admittedly weak at best journey ahead. The ED, "Jikan wa Mado no Mukougawa (時間は窓の向こう側)" by Nagi Yanagi, is as weird as the OST. I am not a fan of the first half but the second half is pretty decent all things considered and made an especially good send off to episode 1. Lastly, the track "One More" by Tea, in episode 12, which plays in the best moment of the show, is a brilliant emotional piece, far better than the rest of the OST in the show. The music in this show is overall a mixed bag, and given how it was great at times, that's a real shame.

E: 5:10 AM

This was a weird experience to be sure. It was often mildly annoying and its constant holes and asspulls got on my nerves. However, that Halle's me celebrate even more when the show manages to do something right with a twist or a particular plot point. It was a mediocre time all around with everything else leaving little effect on me on the whole. Regardless, this is one I cannot safely say I enjoyed too much despite a few great moments and an all-around superior second half.

O: 4:10 PM

There is a good show buried underneath this. There really is. It's a shame that it undercuts itself with a lot of stupid decisions early on that poison the series as a whole, because this was definitely trying to be a worthwhile show. The feel of it is comparable to Big Order and Hand Shakers, but let it be known that it is nowhere near as awful as those to shows at all, not in any department. Regardless, I would not recommend this show to people unless they really find the concept interesting and don't care too much about blatantly bad storytelling. It's some sort of tragic irony that it ends up in a desperately poor state due to stupid decisions that led it down the wrong path, just like many of the grieving characters in this show that wish for their time back. Regardless, it's time we look to the future with even better (or worse) anime headed our way. With all that said, I bid you adieu.