Revisions is one of those anime series where you just have to accept the insanity and go along with the ride. It’s the best way to enjoy a series like this and judging from the kind of stuff that’s in this series, probably the intended way.

For a science fiction anime, the story is fairly original and not really anything I’ve seen before. I’ve always loved stories about groups of people being stranded somewhere unknown and fighting for their survival, and Revisions takes this concept to an extremely large scale. Instead of just a few people, all of Shibuya is transported into a post-apocalyptic future where dangerous creatures begin killing and kidnapping the residents, leaving only five teenagers with the ability to pilot mechs to stop them (can’t really get any more anime than that). Of course there is a larger narrative going on, but I don’t want to go into spoiler territory, and I would recommend watching it for yourself anyway. The way the story unfolds was done very well as each episode packs in just the right amount of story and character progression while still leaving an interesting mystery that’ll have you wanting more. Pacing is a big issue with a lot of anime, and thankfully, Revisions doesn’t suffer from poor pacing. In fact, the show is paced extremely well, which was something that I was really glad to see.

The story is only one part of the product though, as characters and characterization might be even more important. Thankfully, Revisions gets this right as well. The characters will probably be most people’s problem with this series, as I’ve seen other reviews call the protagonist, Daisuke Dojima, loud and annoying. I’m not gonna lie and say that he didn’t annoy me sometimes (very few occasions) but his characterization is far from a negative. I don’t want to spoil anything but his ‘hero complex’ that he has for most of the show is an important theme to the story and is something that is very important to his growth, so it is definitely not a detriment to the story. At least he’s not an annoying wimp or stupidly overpowered and boring like so many other anime protagonists now. The rest of the cast are pretty good as well, fitting their roles quite nicely.

Another big sticking point for people will be the animation. This show is a 2-D/CGI hybrid which threw me for a loop when I watched it. Most shows are either one or the other, but I’ve never seen a hybrid like this that relies more on 3-D. The only other anime I can think that does this is Inuyashiki from 2017 but that only uses 3-D for action and for certain scenes. This is far from a bad thing however as the animation looks quite good, especially in the action scenes where the directing really shines through. The animation wasn’t done flawlessly however, as the models are quite simplistic and their movements during most scenes are pretty stiff. It didn’t hurt the series for me in any way, but it is noticeable.

Just like the soundtrack, which will immediately catch your attention. Most of the songs are quite good and fit their scenes but the real standouts are the rap songs that play during a few of the scenes. Having really hip sounding rap tunes in this show fits surprisingly well as the show feels very urban, considering it’s in Shibuya. It was a really nice surprise to hear a rap tune in an anime like this and I am very glad they took a little more effort to give a smaller show like this some urban identity. Some sorely needed identity, I might add.

Shows like these aren’t very popular with the current anime audiences, which is a damn shame since a series like Revisions has a lot of potential to be big if more people gave it a chance. So, I hope I’ve sold you on watching Revisions, or at least sold you enough to give it a chance. Given that it’s a Netflix anime, it’s pretty easily accessible and it also ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, so a second season would do a lot to give this show some more reach. If you’re at all interested in this show, I highly advise you to check it out. As long as you roll with the punches, you should find yourself enjoying it.