Story: B the Beginning has a very messy and predictable narrative. It’s the equivalent of watching a whole bunch of tropes being thrown at a script to see which resonate with the audience. I can’t even begin to dive into just how generic this whole plot is. It couldn’t be more tired and stale if it tried. From the beginning the pacing felt completely off, the story coming at you all at once and then going at a snails pace to try and catch the audience up with its nonsense. Dialogue held your hand throughout the narrative. It felt as if the writers didn’t have the confidence that their audience would understand everything they were going for if it wasn’t spoon fed to them. Minutes would be spent on exposition dumps from characters about nonsensical details that the story would touch upon later on, making these monologues feel repetitive and unnecessary. None of the emotional reactions the writers may have been expecting were earned. Comedic scenes felt out of place and awkward, empathetic moments felt shallow, and reveals always fell flat due to a painfully predictable pattern in the writing of the twists and turns.
Sound/Music: The OP is rather short but I have to say it worked for what it was. Simple, short and elegant. As for the ED it was honestly the highlight of my experience with this show. I never skipped listening to it since it matched so well with the visuals of the closing sequence. Feels far too good for a show like this. The music during the fighting sequences was alright, nothing too outstanding. The voice acting for the most part was adequate.
Animation: Wasted. Production IG has talented staff but the direction of this show was uncoordinated and incompetent. I don’t know who thought the floating words indicating clues was a good idea. It’s distracting and stylistically unnecessary. We can hear the characters describing clues as words crowd the screen and is unappealing to look at. Character designs are generic, each character looking exactly as you’d expect their archetype to look. It’s boring. And these characters are just as forgettable in personality. It’s so frustrating because there are moments that the animation does shine through. Fighting sequences look nice, especially when they take the time to slow down the movements. There is some effort in bringing this world to life in the environments, with some nice details in some establishing shots. However, it’s not enough to carry this story and its characters.
I don’t even recommend giving this show a passing glance. There are much better shows out there that are worth your time.
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