Review of Schwarzes Marken

WARNING: MAY BE LONG AND CONTAIN SPOILERS review proper starts in the third paragraph Schwarzesmarken (or Black Mark as I'll continue calling it in this review) is an anime I watched to try and get my action-thriller fix, nothing more. I had no expectations going into it as just a cursory glance at the plot synopsis immediately brought horrible flashes of awful mecha-action war stories that attempt to rip off gundam series. Wouldn't you know it Black Mark became one of my personal sleeper hits of all the anime I watched this year. It has a surprising amount of competence in writing, production, and characterization andit now serves as one of my go-to examples on how to write conflict. I'll try to convey my pleasant surprise in this review. On a side note; this anime is part of the Muv Luv franchise which I did not know until after I watched it and was somewhat surprised then I compared the character designs to KimiNozu and everything made sense. But anyways you really don't need to know anything about the Muv Luv franchise to get into this show.

Black Mark takes place in an alternative history setting where soon after World War 2 ended the planet got invaded by some ugly ass aliens called Beta who started a war with humanity forcing them to come together in a time where political and social ideologies between the greatest powers in the world could not be more in opposition with each other. Germany has been split as it did in the real world and, like in reality, East Germany plays host to the Stasi, or secret police, whose job it is to eliminate any traitors to their ideology. We follow the story of several mecha pilots (of course we developed advanced mecha suits in the mid-20th century because why not?) from East Germany who compose an elite team that exterminates Beta in close combat missions. While on a mission the MC Theodor and comrades find and rescue a West German mecha pilot Katia and soon after, under Katia's request, they allow her to join their elite unit going against their supposed political principals. This among other things brings them into direct conflict with the Stasi and the anime continues with them struggling against both the Beta invasion and their own countrymen.

I'd say the strongest aspect of Black Mark is a simple yet strong sense of storytelling. Being a war-action story, this show attempts to tackle many different themes such as strength in unity, familial bonds, keeping hope against great odds of despair, etc just to name a few. And you know why I can list them like that? Because this anime perfectly manages to lay the frameworks for such themes very early on and dedicates a good amount of time building them up through the actions of our characters.

It's easy to invest in the story and characters of Black Mark because it's so simple yet effective. There are clear stakes and end goals in the story. And I emphasize these stakes because it's what drives the story. Why should we care for Katia, Theodore and the rest of the 666th squadron trying to bring down the Stasi in the first place? Because if they don't they and everything they care for will be destroyed. Why should we care for them and the things they care about? Because we are shown in good detail why they do the things they do. Katia desires to unite the different worlds to fight against the Beta. Theodore wants to protect his sister and avenge his family who died at the hands of the Stasi. Irisdina also wants to avenge her family and protect the new one she gained in her comrades. Each character has clear motivations that drive them and the anime does a very good job emphasizing the pains they went through. Everything they do done to fulfill their goal. This makes each victory they achieve all the more sweeter for not just them but for us as well. The anime has some very well written dialogue at times that gives a clear picture of the situation the characters are in as well as what they think and feel. If you ever watch this anime it's good to keep asking "why" the characters are doing things and you'll very likely find an answer.

Well after all that praise how come am I giving this anime a "6" score? Well, the biggest problem this anime has is it's extremely thin characterization. Whilst the characters themselves aren't badly written and are, in fact, quite compelling, they just don't have that much going for them outside of one-note traits. Katia, Theodore, his sister Lise, and Irisdina easily make up the most fleshed out characters in the show and even they struggle to get much characterization so you can imagine how little the rest of the fairly large cast gets. Theodore doesn't really become more than the generic edgy war orphan we've often seen and Katia doesn't change much from being the idealist. Irisdina is probably the most interesting character with the most interesting backstory but she is unfortunately given way too little screentime to properly flesh out the details. She's still my favourite character though. Lise, despite being such an obvious villain, is unironically the one that changes the most as we see her struggle to get her brother to go off with her and leave everything behind. She's a great character as she serves as the antithesis to our characters- having lost all hope in herself and her ideals. However she also doesn't get much of a fleshed out background until nearly the very end and I find it unfortunate since she made for a compelling and understandable villain. Some of the character development also feels a bit forced at times especially early on when the anime goes for the "war is hell" route and it gets pretty predictable. Thankfully this doesn't happen often and Katia and Theodore get some great development in the second half. As for the rest of the characters, they don't get too much but I like them. Can''t go wrong with your jaded, silent veterans and they feel like a genuine team and family to our characters which is the point. The Stasi themselves are pretty good villains in what they do but they also don't get much characterization themselves. An interesting and appreciated point though is that the Stasi orgnaisation in the anime is strongly divided with factionalization in contrast to our protagonists' strong bonds and desire to unite the two different Germanys.

The show is often interspersed with various action scenes where the squadron fight the Beta. The Beta are all CGI monstrosities which look incredibly ugly and jarring even amongst the mecha suits the characters' fight in are also jarringly CGI. The fights all look mostly the same because they're always look to be fighting in the same snowy tundra. And I suspect there was some repeated footage at times. The fights aren't that badly directed though and they have great orchestral choral music that really rocks. Honestly, the music is such a highlight that the fight scenes are an unfortunate distraction from them. If you do watch then try listening to the absolute banger music during an action scene like in episode 4. There's so much tension and desperation in it to highlight the scene that it almost feels too good for the show. The rest of the animation is fairly alright. Nothing to right home about. It's got a lot of dull greys, whites, and browns that characterize the time period the story is set in. I didn't notice too many animation errors and I could tell this was well-produced. The direction and cinematography doesn't really change much throughout the show. If there isn't an action scene then the characters are mainly just standing around and talking. Oh yes, that was another small problem I had with the show. It doesn't really know how to convey information in ways other than pure expositionary dialogue. At least the characters and dialogue itself is surprisingly engaging and relevant but this anime has a pretty big "tell don't show" problem which just makes scenes feel samey throughout. Like, I think I've seen them talk in the same church like five different times in three episodes.

The OP and ED are wonderful to listen to and the classical BGM works very well. They almost sound like period pieces from the Cold War. The voice acting is alright. Nothing too outstanding. The cast is made up of a lot of seiyuu I don't recognize but they're pretty okay. Irisdina's voice acting was probably the best but she doesn't get too much screentime unfortunately.

Overall Black Mark is s surprisingly competent anime that is not only good at telling a war story but a story in general. They present easy-to-understand stakes and motivations for our characters to drive the plot and they execute their themes very well. It is hobbled a bit by thin characterzation and too much exposition scenes but this anime's story is one I enjoyed following with it's characters and I'm glad I randomly picked this up. I highly recommend this show if you want a simple drama story that is told well.