Biases on the table first, I was hooked in by the cover image. Long dark hair? Trenchcoat? I'm in. I fully expected this to be a sketchy anime because I've never heard anyone talk about it; pretty magic, hot protagonist, but only enjoyable if that's what you signed up for and you've decided to like it regardless.
I was surprised by the quality of the animation, it shares themes with Akira and Steamboy, so if you've seen those I'm sure you'd enjoy it, though it had none of the cult following of the former, nor the budget of the latter. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Fullmetal Alchemist.
I'd rate it much higher as an undiscovered gem of an anime, but there are some serious flaws with the dialogue. I watched it in English, and the dubbing is excellent, but inconsistent with the subtitles. That makes for a very jarring watching experience. It's not that the dubbed dialogue is bad, in fact, they got some great voice actors. There's a bit of unnecessary dramatics (it's anime) but the dialogue is ok. It just lacks depth.
The subs are very basic compared to what's actually going on, and very different to the dubbed dialogue. I noticed even mild profanity is absent in the subs.
When you put both together you get a full appreciation, but you have pair lacklustre lines of audio with more eloquent the subs, or ignore subs that skim over a more poetic phrasing in the audio. If you could get the full script, supplement it with the better turns of phrase from the subs, and re-subtitle the entire thing it could be really good.
My recommendation is watch both the sub with the dub if possible. If you watch one or the other, you're going to miss out. A simple example is a character is facing away, no lip sync to explain the discrepancy, and he says to the repair crew "Don't screw up 'cause it's my ass on the line!" so you get a feel for his character. But the subs say "Be sure not to disturb the people's lives." Completely different angle. This is just one innocuous example but there's a few of these in pretty much every scene.
In some cases I'm hung up on semantics as a language lover, the difference between "redemption" vs "atonement" or "nice" vs "beautiful" are minor if you're not in a philosophical mood. But others like "I have regrets" vs "I'm sorry" change the feel of the scene. Even the main incantation "I challenge the law of logic and reason" vs "nature and reason".
Other than that massive issue, the magic is pretty, the gore is gorey; it's everything you'd expect. The chaotic elements of plot and character development detract only a little. It's like watching a movie of a long running anime that you haven't seen. You don't get the full immersion; you constantly feel like you're missing something, that there could be more.
I still rate it a seven because even though it's really a six star in my book, I'm shallow; Rayotte not only exudes that dark-and-brooding personality, he's attractive and has a nice voice in the English dub, which is the (un)holy trinity for a goth gal.
I'm gonna change my alarm tone to his enchantment: "I challenge the laws of nature and reason. EXIST!!!"
This could have been an 8 star anime, even up against the greats it still does very well. It just falls short of being amazing. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of this genre of anime, which is a real shame.
I was surprised by the quality of the animation, it shares themes with Akira and Steamboy, so if you've seen those I'm sure you'd enjoy it, though it had none of the cult following of the former, nor the budget of the latter. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Fullmetal Alchemist.
I'd rate it much higher as an undiscovered gem of an anime, but there are some serious flaws with the dialogue. I watched it in English, and the dubbing is excellent, but inconsistent with the subtitles. That makes for a very jarring watching experience. It's not that the dubbed dialogue is bad, in fact, they got some great voice actors. There's a bit of unnecessary dramatics (it's anime) but the dialogue is ok. It just lacks depth.
The subs are very basic compared to what's actually going on, and very different to the dubbed dialogue. I noticed even mild profanity is absent in the subs.
When you put both together you get a full appreciation, but you have pair lacklustre lines of audio with more eloquent the subs, or ignore subs that skim over a more poetic phrasing in the audio. If you could get the full script, supplement it with the better turns of phrase from the subs, and re-subtitle the entire thing it could be really good.
My recommendation is watch both the sub with the dub if possible. If you watch one or the other, you're going to miss out. A simple example is a character is facing away, no lip sync to explain the discrepancy, and he says to the repair crew "Don't screw up 'cause it's my ass on the line!" so you get a feel for his character. But the subs say "Be sure not to disturb the people's lives." Completely different angle. This is just one innocuous example but there's a few of these in pretty much every scene.
In some cases I'm hung up on semantics as a language lover, the difference between "redemption" vs "atonement" or "nice" vs "beautiful" are minor if you're not in a philosophical mood. But others like "I have regrets" vs "I'm sorry" change the feel of the scene. Even the main incantation "I challenge the law of logic and reason" vs "nature and reason".
Other than that massive issue, the magic is pretty, the gore is gorey; it's everything you'd expect. The chaotic elements of plot and character development detract only a little. It's like watching a movie of a long running anime that you haven't seen. You don't get the full immersion; you constantly feel like you're missing something, that there could be more.
I still rate it a seven because even though it's really a six star in my book, I'm shallow; Rayotte not only exudes that dark-and-brooding personality, he's attractive and has a nice voice in the English dub, which is the (un)holy trinity for a goth gal.
I'm gonna change my alarm tone to his enchantment: "I challenge the laws of nature and reason. EXIST!!!"
This could have been an 8 star anime, even up against the greats it still does very well. It just falls short of being amazing. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of this genre of anime, which is a real shame.
