MekakuCity Actors, a 2014 summer anime produced by our famous company Shaft, started as a story song series named Kagerou Project produced by Jin. This story revolves a teenage clique/group named the Mekakushi Dan ("The Blindfold Gang"), which consists of 9 members, where each of the character have a special eye power. Each episode talks about the background of each character, which relates to all the other 8 members in the group.
For this, it is better to go straight to the point. Do I recommend it? It is better to ask, who do I recommend it to? For those of you who thought that the summary was slightly bland and confusing, I suggest not to try the anime, but stick with the cool and interesting songs that Jin thought up of, consisting each of these characters. Those of you who know Kagerou Project, I suggest this anime. And those of you who really like Shaft in general, please watch the song series first before diving in to the anime.
Most of you would be asking, "Why? Why is it important to follow these steps, LalakoKyubey? Can't you just watch it like a normal anime?" My answer to that is a eyebrow raise. All I can say to that is, "Maybe? If you don't want to understand it?" One of the weak points of MekakuCity Actors was the plot, and the impossible to understand story line without background knowledge.
Now all of you MekakuCity fans will probably go, "Oh my gosh. I will murder you!" But my reply is, "Did you fall in love with the song series, or the anime?" The plot was difficult to understand because there was no development, and only back stories. If you watched Kagerou Project series, you would have known the main point and the main conflict that each character had to face. But since each episode was focused on background story and actually no development in the actual world, they had to cram the climax in to the last three episodes.
Aside from the hard core plot, sometimes the art really shocked me. It was kind of a turn off when there is a beautiful drawing of the main character in a psychological setting, then all of a sudden, their theme song pops out with the music video. I was especially turned off by the way Shaft interpreted Ayano's Theory of Happiness. I mean, come on! Please, don't try the 3D effect randomly. You'll see if you watch the series. But aside from this complaint, I love Shaft's classic head turns, and psychological settings. They did a good job with shadow usage, and did an amazing job especially in this anime with prospective usage.
Head Turn!
Prospective Usage!
Did I like it? I guess so. I think I had too high of an expectation after watching Jin's amazing story line and music series, and after watching the anime, it wasn't as good as I expected. I wish that there could have been more, a more final statement from each character, but I do admit to having enjoyed the dark final episodes, and how the characters slowly realize their past and work together to mend the future. This anime is deep and thought provoking, and questions the thought of future and dreams.
The story seemed to revolve around the question, "What is your priority and goal in life?" Shaft and Jin tried hard to work this in to an anime, and I did enjoy this anime a lot. Although I had some sharp comments, I did fall in love with the awesome covers and songs that Jin made, and MekakuCity was a pretty good anime in general. Now on to the scores!
Plot: 7/10
Plot holes were the main deduction for this anime, and the unexplained rush climax development in the last 3 episodes. Besides from that, character development was very steady, and the back stories were quite interesting.
Art: 8/10
I liked the art, except for the music videos they screened at the end. I think they should have gone with Jin's music videos and art, instead of choosing other artists.
Voice Cast: 8/10
I agreed with everyone's voice except for Hibiya's voice, and especially Shuuya Kano's voice. I think that for Hibiya's voice, it should have been a little more childish seeing his age, and also more squeaky. It was way too deep for a twelve year old boy. I also think that for Kano's voice, they should have stuck with Hiroshi Kamiya's voice. I think that he has more talent and experience with manipulative characters, and would have been a better choice for Kano's character.
Music: 8/10
It was a good supporting music, but I felt like there wasn't enough. It wasn't as engraved in as other Shaft products that I have seen.
Although I was picky about this anime, I do recommend it to those who like Shaft, and to those who are willing to spend extra moments to see Kagerou Project first rather then jump straight in to the anime. Overall, good job to the producers, and congratulations to Jin!
I hope you liked this review, and I would be glad to hear your opinions in the comment box below! I am willing to talk about it, join me on my next review coming up in a few minutes!
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-LalakoKyubey
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