Review of Texhnolyze

My experience with Texhnolyze. This review covers my take on the story and why I like it so much. Texhnolyze tells the story of the man-made city of Lux and the big parties of people vying for full control of it; but not in the traditional sense. The only people remaining in the run-down city of Lux are criminals and people near the end of their time. It ponders what will happen when human evolution can no longer go any further, and it's time for them to naturally die out. Many humans in Texhnolyze are now looking to artificially prolong their survival, which is alsopart of the power struggle between the parties controlling Lux. The main character is Ichise, who in my opinion really symbolises the city itself - he's dark, empty, and broken both physically and mentally. The city of Lux gives a very unique feel to it - it's almost like a character in itself, like a culmination of how everyone in the city is living and feeling; empty and used, seemingly waiting to die. Texhnolyze explores this theme and looks into the city, particularly the psychology of the city. This creates an immensely dreadful atmosphere of emptiness and loss. It's a mastery of storytelling that is so immersive that it makes you feel like you're really living in Lux.

Going back to the artificial evolution of the human race, we get what's quite common in sci-fi - robotics. Texhnolyze explores the merging of robots and humans, rather than the addition of robots to society. People are modifying their bodies with robotics because the normal human build is simply not strong enough to withstand the trial of time. However, it doesn't feel as though they're being upgraded, but rather replaced. It's difficult to talk about this without getting spoilers, but Texhnolyze handles this in a way I've never seen before.

Texhnolyze focuses more on how humans will be responsible for their own extinction and how we will handle this rather than how it happened. It's a realistic look into how grim our future might be. It's relentless, and doesn't have any light-hearted moments to lighten the mood. It's 22 episodes of dark and formidable storytelling. If you can stick it out to the end, you'll be rewarded with one of the best endings of all time, which is ironically not filled with nihilism and instead shows that there is always meaning to be found in life regardless of your circumstances. The message here is raw and beautiful, which is why I hold it in such high regard.