Review of Synduality: Noir

Can someone tell me: has the Mecha genre really grown over the past few years? And no, I'm talking about everything else other than those affiliated with the Gundam franchise. In my mind, certainly not. Mixed-media projects are always a big gamble for companies, especially when they're new ones looking to stamp their reputation from the get-go. One recent example that I can think of was of Square Enix's Deep Insanity project, which was collaborated with Ubisoft, and look at how that turned out: the anime was a douche of an embarassing flop back in Fall 2021; the manga adaptation, which had its own standalone timelineand finished its Nirvana serialisation in March of this year; not to mention that the PC and mobage Asylum game was released around the same time and ended service last October. It's safe to say that Square Enix risked it all on Deep Insanity, and for all intents and purposes, the project was yet another abject failure that failed to catch on in Japan.

The reason why I'm referencing Deep Insanity, is because of Bandai Namco's newest mixed-media project, dubbed Synduality. It honestly gave me the exact same bad vibes of companies committing to the same tried-and-true but oversaturated market of both AniManga and mobage, and overestimating their competition. As an example, take CyGames for one, their Uma Musume and Princess Connect a.k.a PriConne mobages that has now become mixed-media projects, have been very successful in Japan for a few years now. Most certainly, Bandai Namco is no stranger to this huge and illusive market as well, and this Synduality project of theirs, which has already spawned manga and LN adaptations in the form of Synduality: Ellie, until now, is mostly just mute on the newsfront. With the game console version of Synduality: Echo of Adam, soon to be released on major consoles (except the Switch) and PC, is Bandai Namco ready to gun for yet another success, or another failure...only time will tell.

This then brings me to the anime adaptation of the project, dubbed Synduality: Noir. Based on a story draft by the well-loved author Hajime Kamoshida of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and Seishun Buta Yarou Series fame, Noir is set in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi world where you have your usual mechs and monsters roaming around for survival and community. Please read the synopsis, which will give you the full story setting and its potential for world-building capabilities, of which there are many.

The issue with Noir, lies with the cast of characters. Spearheaded by series composer Takashi Aoshima, his line of past works is quite the detractor to whatever Noir has got planned out for itself, and it's sad to say that many of the tropes from past shows that he's worked on are brought out here. Simply put, the MC Kanata is the literal opposite of a "brains and brawn" guy. Being an engineer to the mechs (which are called Coffins), he's a rather hardworking young man who repairs and fixes Coffins for his people in his hometown of the Rock Town "Nest" settlement. He has good friends like Tokio, who, apart from being the womaniser, is a skilled mecha adventurer (who are dubbed Drifters) with his Magus of butler Mouton to power his Coffin; as well as the childhood friend of Ellie with her Magus of Ange, who has a never-ending crush on Kanata and is always afraid to pluck her courage and tell him of her true feelings. That whole "childhood friend" trope is made worse when Kanata picks up what seems to be a dead, inoperable, but beautiful white-haired Magus, only to find out that, as mysterious as she comes, she awakes with seemingly a blank state and can only acknowledge Kanata has her master. But just as this magus, which Kanata eventually gave her the name of Noir, can power the Coffins as normal, she is a rather special breed of Magus, dubbed Type Zero, which she was a prototype for all of the Maguses that come after her. There is no doubt that Noir acts as the supply to Kanata's demand of wishing to be a full-fledged Drifter; the tale of coincidences lavishes a destiny on which both of them will help to resolve the long-standing issue of humans and monsters, dubbed "Enders".

For the most part, Kanata is the same as any dense MC who knows nothing of love and romance, which, given his interactions first with Ellie and then Noir, pits each other in a pseudo-love triangle of sorts, where really, Noir is just the Kuudere character who needs understanding of what's going on in order to aid Kanata to the best of her abilities. Add in the various characters outside of his friendship bubble with Tokio and Ellie, with mysterious characters come either to thwart their progress or progress the story's plot, and Hajime Kamoshida's story expands to new levels that add more flavour of interest to the worldbuilding, which just so happens to be the only plus point that I can give to the anime overall, that sadly, the main characters being on screen for the majority of the time. dwindles the show's quality.

Studio 8bit is no stranger to adapting a variety of works, including action and fantasy. The closest resemblance that I can give is, funnily enough, this: yet another failed Bandai Namco IP — the ill-fated Zenoncard card game that combines AI elements with its long-running Carddass TCG franchise, which was active from 2019 to 2021. Ah, I remember the memories of watching the ONA, which was nothing more than an advertisement for the now-defunct card game. Under the directorial duties of in-house director Yuusuke Yamamoto, 8bit's production has seen better days, and they still hold up to the punch of delivering quality action scenes that are nice to watch with the surrealism effect. And that is also a plus point in my book.

On the music side, STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION's OP is just as techno-laded as their previous Anisongs, but as much as it seems to be a good fit here, the song is just decent and nothing noteworthy. That said, ARCANA PROJECT has once again delivered a great song in the form of the ED song, and I have loved their tunes since Mononogatari's Season 1 OP, which is a 2-for-2 favourite strike right to my eardrums.

So, why the low score? It's no doubt that Hajime Kamoshida's story plot is the only scoring point for which Synduality: Noir gets it right, but everything else felt stiff, unpolished, and unrefined, with the biggest sin going to the underdeveloped characters, which I am ready to write off Kanata and Co. at any moment. It's a good thing that this show, originally planned to be a 2-cour series, is now split-cour with Part 2 airing next Winter, so any hopes of this show turning into Dust of the Enders, remain to be seen.

For now, it's a mediocre start, and I hope that Part 2 can deliver on the potential lost here.