Tuesday, January 19, 2016

[Anime Review] Mekaku City Actors


“I'm not the one who's so far away
When I feel the snake bite enter my veins.
Never did I wanna be here again,
And I don't remember why I came.” 
-Sully Erna

I have to ask: "why the head-tilt?" Studio Shaft, the animation studio behind today's review, is known for their "avant-garde" style of producing anime, materializing in their works having quirky cinematography, pragmatically enigmatic dialouge, viscerally surreal coloring and/or animation, and their characters, in almost all of their works, do a signature head-tilt at seemingly random intervals. Now obviously, the head-tilt itself is sort of a product of the art-style that the studio has been persuading for about the last decade, heavily influenced by the yearnings of director Akiyuki Shinbo, a man whose "out-of-the-box" style has been prevalent in almost every single Shaft work since he and Shaft began to collaborate in earnest, almost to the point of over-saturation. So, again, "why the head-tilt?"

     Shaft's constant eccentricities could be argued to be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask, and trust me, I can provide plenty of examples of when the "art" is either enhanced or ruined by the presentation regardless of the actually content. And sadly, Mekaku City Actors turns out to be the equivalent of walking into a modern art gallery where the painting themselves are only barely finished. I applaud Shaft's efforts to create their own unique style in a medium where everything is looking more and more like Kyoto Animation's revolutionary moe anime K-On!, because that's something to strive for, to be different, to try new things. But today's topic mostly brings up the conversation when a studio's art-style becomes too bloated and overly-handled due to what I can only assume is habit, and doesn't concentrate enough on what actually gives the art-style value: the narrative. And to say Mekaku City Actor's narrative is one that has been completely lost underneath the layers of Akiyuki Shinbo's derivativeness, would be me holding back much of that statement.
     So, hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and welcome to a brand new anime review. Today, we'll be looking at the mess of color and ideas called Mekaku City Actors. Let's begin.

I know I pretty much already went over the studio and director in the intro, but for just for format's sake, let's just do it again. Of course the animation studio and director behind Mekaku City Actors have collaboratively created such anime over the years as Nisekoi, Madoka Magica, Bakemonogatari and its many sequels, ef: A Tale of Memories and Arakawa Under the Bridge just to name a few. The script was written by Jin, who actually also wrote the source material of this anime. See,  Mekaku City Actors is based off a series of vocaloid mixed-media project by Kangerou Project and written by Jin himself, whose songs' and short videos' ongoing narrative was adapted for this anime, which probably explains a lot more about why the series is fashioned the way it is then I care to research, Finally, Mekaku City Actors was released its modest 12 episode run in the spring anime season of 2014. Now then, I think I've covered everything worth noting. Let's get started.

Story

This part is going to slightly harder than usual, so stick with me a moment. The story of Mekaku City Actors takes place in a roughly 48-hour period stretch from the dates August 14th and 15th, and details a series of seemingly unrelated incidents that pull together a group of seemingly unrelated people, whose, unbeknownst to them, strange random powers that somehow involve their eyes may be more connected to the crazy goings on around them than they could possibly imagine. Told in a series of flashbacks, fast-forwards, and changes in perspective, the narrative of Mekaku City Actors begins to uncover the interesting yet extremely convoluted tale of a organization named "Mekakushi Dan" the organization that this group of people has formed, as they attempt to discover the truth behind the events that drew them together. However, as the group dives deeper into both the conspiracy and the back-stories of their comrades slowly come into view, the truth, and by extension, their fate, may be something that nothing will be able to stop. An entanglement of actions and reactions is about to unfold; a handful  of motivations have set an unstoppable series of events in motion, motivations that somehow or another, can be traced back to a mysterious girl from the past, a tragic fire, and an old children's story that may hold the key to understanding everything.
See? I told you. Head-tilts. Everywhere. 

Still with me? Because if you couldn't follow that paragraph, this show might not be for you. Chaotic story-telling isn't inherently a bad thing, as long as the story can keep the central pieces of the narrative in focus and provide adequate reasons for the cluttered plot-threads, it's typically those kind of stories that tie together brilliantly the loose-ends of their story into one grand thematic point, which usually makes for my favorite kind of story. Anime in general seems to have a very adept way of handling this sort of narrative; Baccano, Kyousougiga and Punchline are some of the anime that have been able to pull the trick off, just to name a few.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to shortcomings in the writing, Mekaku City Actors isn't able successfully juggle all of its ideas, and that's thanks to a few key things. The anime seems to have a lot of ideas, ideas that I honestly quite love, but it doesn't know when to stop adding to the narrative soup and simply concentrate on what it has, which, in the case of this extended metaphor, leads to all the ingredients being burnt at the series to the end of a run of 12 episodes which honestly wasn't enough to give everything time to breath. Whatever new concept concept the anime introduces is given a maximum of one episode to develop before it moves on to something else, whether that be a new character, plot-thread, or thematic element. Let's be honest here, one episode isn't really enough to develop anything properly, at least to the extent that my critical viewpoint would be satisfied with. This leads the conclusion of the whole show being sort of a hot mess, an entertaining one to be sure, but one that feels rushed and quite inconclusive, as all the things the anime didn't have time to explain are sort of left to interpretation. It never quite leads to utter narrative retardation like with shows such as Mirai Nikki did in their final episodes, but several leaps of logic and suspensions of disbelief will be needed in order to enjoy the show.
     Luckily, if you can keep everything straight to your head, Mekaku City Actors is at the best of times a rather entertaining ride. Most of the character's(which themselves mostly live on the rule of cool, but we'll get into that later) powers are stupidly unique and awesome, leading to several very memorable set-pieces where Shaft animation is colliding with super-powers from the characters, and it's just kind of awesome. It's at those times where I almost wonder if Mekaku City Actors was supposed to be a really out-there confusing superhero story. Once that thought occurred to me, I realized the central core of the narrative basically follows the formula you'd expect, most of the show's time is spent either gathering the members of Mekakushi Dan(or else explaining why they are part of the group), which is a easy equivalent to a really patch-work superhero team. Even the final episodes are dedicated to the recently formed band of "heroes" battling an evil, that while doesn't exactly pose a threat to the world, is sort of a dark barrier to the character's desire to be exist and be recognized as individuals.
      Like I said, it's easiest to enjoy Mekaku City Actors when you concentrate on the surface stuff. The superhero comparison makes everything seem bad-ass until you think about the situation a little deeper, and realize key elements of the story sort of contradict this sentiment. Sure, the anime is enjoyable on rule-of-cool standards, but thinking too hard about those said actions may lead to realizing several contrivances or stupidly convenient coincidence(though I have more to say about that in a bit) by the viewer. That said, it's not exactly good to go into it expecting a brainless show. The anime will expect you to think hard in order to keep track of the narrative, and, as I said, it's easy to get lost if you aren't paying attention.
The girl who may be the answer to everything.

The only thing I can really praise the plot for is a certain idea hiding under the surface, one I regrettably can't talk about in detail without spoiling basically the entire plot of the show. See, as I've said, the biggest reason that Mekaku City Actors is critically disregarded is the convoluted plot, a plot which at the best of times seems inconvenient and at the worst of times seems just kind of stupid, especially once the metaphysical forces driving the narrative are revealed in the last third of the story. However, I almost forgive it for that, at least in terms of a thematic sense. No, don't get me wrong, the plot is still a mess. It has a few bright spots, though those spots are mostly good due to my own bias, like certain story-telling tricks that I really like. But for the most part, it's the weakest aspect of the whole anime, an unfocused mess, a clutter of objects on the floor in no particular order, the kind of plot that makes it really hard to like Mekaku City Actors.
      But in that criticism is a strange, almost paradoxical element. See, though it may be schizophrenic and convoluted, but believe it or not, the narrative of Mekaku City Actors is actually written with extreme purpose, much of the incoherent nonsense is a clue to hidden narrative strands; and keeping that in mind, whether or not it is utterly a figment of my imagination, the convolution of Mekaku City Actors, the shaky time-skips and strange coincidences, actually play a bigger part in the grander, sort of meta-narrative. Again, I won't go into detail due to spoilers, but in other words, the story just kind of had to happen this way. I'm sorry if that is vague, but I hope you can see how that sort of places me in a strange place when I'm criticizing something that may have completely have been intended by Jin and the other creators. So, now I'm stuck in between the question whether thematic intention is justifiable to forming a very broken narrative. That question is something I don't really want to answer here, because I've been talking in this section long enough already, but whether or not the narrative is formed with a grander vision, there's still plenty of things about the whole plot that can be criticized and picked apart. So... that begs the question whether any of that really matters, because, even if that vision is even there, I think it is outweighed by the core problems of this messy narrative. I think it's time to move on.

The members of "Mekakushi Dan" from left to right: Kido, Seto, Kano, Marry, Momo, Ene, Shintaro, Hibiya & Haruka

Characters

I said this before, but the cast of Mekaku City Actors mostly survives on the rule of cool, which is just as well since the cast is so obtusely large. There are probably about 12 or so major characters in all that are relevant in some large way to the narrative, and since this anime seems to scoff at the idea of a main protagonist, we have no central point to bounce the other elements of characterization off of, leaving the character relations sort of hard to judge occasionally. To the show's credit, it does at least try to develop the entire cast, even if that is sort of impossible. As the time-line and perspective switches with every new episode of the show, so too does the character focus, and the anime has a range of success these episodes focusing on characterization. So, let's talk about some of the individuals players in this convoluted story, shall we?
"Mekakushi Dan" moves out.

     Shintaro is probably the closest thing to a main character this anime has, and by that, I mean the narrative pretty much begins and ends with him. Shintaro is the first character we're introduced to: a reclusive NEET who inexplicably has an A.I named Ene downloaded onto his computer, and he is pretty much is dragged into the events of the show completely against his will as he goes to the mall to pick up a new keyboard. Though his personality is rather cliche, he ends up being one of the stronger characters of the show; I particularly found his eventual arc and reason for being a NEET one of most interesting character threads of the show. From there, as I said, the colorful cast we are introduced to from there are very inconstant in terms of their development. Kano is the resident joker of the group with one of the coolest powers of the show, who hides a more serious demeanor behind his cheerful smile. Ene is a mysterious(and sort of annoying) A.I with a mysterious past, who may not be interesting in terms of her personality, but is one of the few characters of the show that actually grew on me as time went on. Marry is a ditsy moe klutz who at first seems like she is just there for the sake of it, but turns out to have a greater role in the bigger narrative than nearly anybody else.
     Look, I could go on like this for awhile, but here's the bottom line. The cast of Mekaku City Actors certainty isn't the best out there, but it's far from the worst, There are many other anime who have attempted to juggle a large cast and ended up screwing up much more than this anime, so coming out with a happy medium in terms of characters, especially for a story this all-over-the-place, probably should be praised, if only slightly. Oh yeah, and before we move on, I should probably mention Tsubomi Kido, the shy leader of "Mekakushi Dan", a character which I have no personal bias towards, whatsoever. At all. Nope. Not biased.

back off bitches, she's mine. 

Presentation & Sound

The animation of studio Shaft is something the typical viewer usually loves or hates. I already talked about what makes their style distinct in the intro, so I'm just going to skip over that and go right into the actual quality of the animation. Now, Shaft are infamous for being under-staffed and only completing episodes hours before they are on the air, which plays a part in why their style is the way that it is; the constantly cutting cinematography and frames of either live-action or text hide the fact that there actually isn't a lot of movement going on. Despite that, I find their animation in anime like Bakemonogatari or Nisekoi to be very pleasant to look at, in terms of backgrounds and animation in general, so despite Shaft's apparently being understaffed, I, perhaps unfairly, have sort of high expectations for this studio. Mekaku City Actors was perhaps the first time I've been disappointed by them.
The surreal landscape of Mekaku City Actors.

     Look, I earlier compared the art-style of Mekaku City Actors to that of walking through a modern art gallery, and don't get me wrong that analogy absolutely still holds. The art-style used, combining a mixture of interesting tactics using many shadows and shapes give much of the environment a really cool texture to look at while watching, especially the one used in the hideout of "Mekakushi Dan". That's not what I have fault with, since Shaft's art direction has always been superb, and a low budget won't exactly change that. My complaints lie with the actual nitty-gritty of the animation, in movement specifically. Sometimes the animation is quite nice, but other times is flows rather awkwardly, and occasionally the character designs, which I do love, but the designs sometimes very poorly integrated into the world around them(espcially when said world is rendered with crappy CG), or else just look badly drawn. Look, it's not a deal-breaker; I prefer a mediocre integrated movement in a modern art gallery rather than just mediocrity all around, I'm just a little disappointed. Shaft's style works best when both parties are working: the movement and the art, and with one being sort of weaker than usual here, it sort of puts a bad taste in my mouth.

     Crafted by Jin himself and a variety of different artists as a sort of way to build on the original songs of Kangerou Project, the OST of Mekaku City Actors is sly, fast-paced, and filled with awesome electronic music(becoming of their vocaloid song roots), giving the music a slick, modern kind of feel, becoming of Shaft's art. It's one of the things about Mekaku City Actors that I find hard to complain about. While most of the OST isn't quite my cup of tea, I can't complain much about an OST that clearly has so much work and effort put into it, with nearly every main character having their own unique theme, which most of the time range from good to bearable, which makes it even cooler that Jin himself sings in almost all of the tracks. I also like that, while the music definitely all is the same style, the OST has a lot of different emotions going on, from the upbeat idol-style song "Kisaragi Attention", to the more jazz-like "Yuukie Yesterday", to the sadder-sounding "Ayano no Koufuku Riron". However, there are always stand-outs. The first is, without a question, the opening "daze", an awesomely bad-ass quickly paced song that, with rough yet still cool visuals that foreshadow the sh*t out of the plot, still ranks as one of the best OP's of 2014 in my book. Seriously, I could listen to this opening all day. As for a song from the actual OST, I'd have to go with "Lost Time Memory", a fast-paced, yet somehow melancholic song, that perfectly encapsulates the character it's supposed to be emulating. Oh, and before I forget, the Ed: "「days」" is rather lovely too. Don't worry, here's a link to the full OST on Youtube, just beware spoilers in the comments and the music videos. Happy listening.

daze



Lost Time Memory


「days」


Verdict

Now, I've got a bit of a confession to make, one that you can probably guess from reading this review. Despite all the flack I've been giving Mekaku City Actors in this review, I actually really like this anime. That's probably because I'm a sucker for Shaft's artstyle, non-linear story-telling and pacing that I at least found addicting, but the fact remains that I'm very much alone on this matter. This anime was both panned by critics, casual viewers, and fans of Kangerou Project alike. This is because the show falls into a very weird area when the target audience is concerned; it's too sparsely constructed for critics, too convoluted for casuals, and sort of held in vendetta by fans of the source material, since it put the thing they love in a negative light upon its induction into a new medium. I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, Mekaku City Actors is way too over-hated by the anime community.
     I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve criticism, the anime is far from being good, but just because an anime isn't good doesn't mean it should be completely disregarded. The Fruit of Grisaia is far from being a good anime, but it still is a unique addition to the harem genre whose psychological exploration of its characters occasionally brought up some very thought-provoking ideas(even if it spent most of its time swimming in pools of its own bullsh*t). Kill la Kill is far insuperior to its older brother Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but I don't think a good experience can be completely skipped just because a great one that is similiar exists. And finally, the zenith of controversial School Days is arguably one of the worst written anime I think I've ever seen, but in one of the very first posts on this blog, I was able to write an entire essay on the show's thematic underpinning, stating how it could easily be viewed as a deconstruction of the harem genre or a criticism of the genre's tropes, even if I don't particularly believe either of those things. But again, just the fact that somebody can watch that show can end up hailing it as a great anime despite the objectively terrible writing just proves that a show that isn't good doesn't always intrinsically mean it doesn't hold value.
Precious gif is precious.

If that is to be my argument, what then, exactly, does Mekaku City Actors have to offer as an addition to both the anime medium and the legacy of Akiyuki Shimbo? Well, to put it simply... I just think it's an interesting show. Yeah, that basically the crutch of the issue. I admit it, I find it very fascinating that a group of music videos and other aspects through other mediums came together to make one single story, and I find it fascinating that that story was adapted for the anime medium into a very convoluted yet weirdly intriguing result, something that still makes me faintly smile when it crosses my mind. Because... you don't get something like this everyday. Especially recently in the industry, where half of what comes out every season is adapted from some light novel with a stupidly long name, the fact that this thing somehow grew unto a full-fledged production that resembles the art of a mad-man splattered against a story that seems to be doing everything and nothing at the same time,  fascinates me. And I'd rather have that than another mediocre comedy, or another generic shounen, or another predictable rom-com. Maybe it's a little superficial, but I'd rather have character doing weird head-tilts blabbering about a plot so loosely constructed that you need Detectice f*cking Conan to put it together into something coherent, than something where I don't need to do any thinking at all. Oh, and also Mekaku City Actors has Kido. So, that basically makes it 1,000x better than it would be. Nope, still not biased.

Final Verdict: 5/10

P.S: Oh. there go those silly kids again. When will they realize that this pain was there before?



Recommended Anime:
Concrete Revolutio

I talked about super-heroes for awhile, so why not recommend an anime interpretation? Now, I admit this is a blind choice, I've only seen the first three episodes of Concrete Revolutio, but for the quick version on why I'm suggesting it, from what I've heard, it's another story that skips around constantly in time only to tie together at the end, accompanied by an eccentric art-style, with a thematic point that seeks a new twist on a common trope.


Sankarea


But if it is more Shafty goodness you're looking for, well, my first reaction would be to recommended Bakemonogatari or Madoka Magica, two excellent shows you should definitely watch, but since I recommend those two nearly every other post on this blog, let's try something new. Sankarea is a strange but rather excellent fantasy romance, that surprises on nearly every level to give an experience that is way better than it should be. 

If I've convinced you to watch this show, you're in luck. Mekaku City Actors is available for legal streaming in its entirety on Hulu, if you happen to have access to that site, and on Crunchyroll, though if you live outside of North America, you may need to find alternate ways to get your hands on it. Happy viewing.

Goodbye for now guys.


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