Review of Texhnolyze

Texhnolyze is a 2003 Madhouse original anime. Yes, Madhouse. The studio that can make anime as amazing as Monster, Death Parade and Rainbow and then turn around and make utter rubbish like Highschool of the Dead, X-men and the Final Fantasy OVA. Only time and viewing will reveal where this one lands. Story: We open with a young fighter named Ichise. the gang that runs the fight decides to get rid of him after he gets violent and he's left without an arm and leg. Fortunately for him, he meets an automail mechanic... I mean, a texhnolyze doctor, who gives him mechanical limbs. And then it'soff to a dozen episodes of him trying to find a purpose while members of different gangs scowl menacingly at each other.

Therein lies one of the major flaws with the series. It's painfully slow. And not in the "take time to develop characters or explore fun scenarios" way. No, it just features a lot of really slow scenes where we watch a character stand with an expression of dull surprise while taking in some new information. It's like every character in this processes information at the speed of old dial up Internet, and someone keeps picking up the phone.

Another element that contributes to the general slowness of the series is that it has a bunch of scenes that move at a crawl because there's some faux artistic symbol in them and the director really wants you to notice. It actually reminds me of that absolutely horrendous Tarsem film, The Cell. Both because that film does that a lot as well and because both this series and that film are really obvious about what they're going for in those scenes and they just fancy themselves far more clever than they actually are. I have bad news for both of you, the really obvious colour symbolism in All's Quiet on the Western Front is vastly superior to anything you have to offer. Subtler too.

Now, this is painfully slow and almost as full of itself as David Cage but it's not as bad as The Cell or anything by David Cage. Once it gets going, it has the occasional moment that's almost interesting and it does basically keep your attention. Which isn't much, especially when you factor in how long the build up to that point is, but it's better than The Cell or Cage could manage.

Characters:

Part of the issue is that the characters in this are really bland. They aren't obnoxious. They aren't completely one note. But they are very under-written, trope characters. Ichise is the hero with anger issues and a traumatic past. Ran is basically Cassandra from the Iliad except people actually believe her visions and just don't bother trying to do anything about them. Oonishi is the mobster who has a code of honour. We've seen these characters and we've seen them with vastly superior execution.

The biggest problem with them is that a lot of the interpersonal relationships really lack any kind of real connection. Take Ichise's interest in Ran. His interest in getting close to and protecting her doesn't have any coherent motivation and basically comes down to "he saw her flowers when he was in a tight spot a couple times." Ichise's loyalty to Oonishi really comes out of nowhere and never really makes sense. It's like the writers needed the pair of them to be together for the story to work, but they couldn't be asked to give strong character reasons or to develop their relationship.

Art:

I'm not a fan of the character designs in general in this. I think they just look boring. The series also has that sort of dingy, muted look with a lot of shadows and not much in terms of vibrant, bright colours. Which is just a boring aesthetic. In terms of animation, the series just moves too slowly to have smooth, good looking animation. It's not a bad looking anime, but it's very drab and not interesting to look at.

Sound:

The acting is questionable. They got Itou Shizuka. She's been very good in some other anime. The big problem with the acting is that the characters do very little emoting. So, everyone basically uses the exact tone you'd use when reading off the items you need for a recipe so you can add them to your grocery list. The closest you get to emotion in this are Ichise's grunts. And even those sound less emotive and more like he's having a stroke. The music is very lacklustre and forgettable.

Ho-yay:

One of the guys Ichise meets has gay sex to improve his position. So, there are some powerful gay men in this series and they're all shady. But don't worry, it's not a homophobic thing. Every powerful character in this is shady to some degree.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Speed things up. We don't need every obvious revelation to be accompanied by five minutes of Oonishi or whoever just standing there looking grim. Sure, it gives me time to get up, grab a snack and not miss anything but it would be better if it just flowed well.

2. Build up some strong character dynamics. Because giving the characters the relationship they need to advance the plot without putting any effort into it, is just lazy writing.

3. Give it some colour. Yes, we get it, your dystopian world isn't a nice place. That doesn't mean absolutely everything needs to look drab.

Final Thoughts:

Texhnolyze isn't a bad anime. It's slow as hell. Its characters have nothing compelling about them. Its world is dull. And it thinks it's far more clever than it actually is but it isn't bad. It's not good by any means. I wouldn't even give it high enough praise to call it mediocre. That's why I'm giving it a 4/10.