Review of Texhnolyze
Short Review (spoiler-free) Texhnolyze is one of the most depressing anime I have watched, but it is the closest of what we can get to a solid anime adaptation of "Blame!" out there. For that alone, it is quite an accomplishment. The show is a slow burn and has a hard-to-swallow start. However, if you take patience with it and allow yourself to resonate with the city of Lux, the journey is going to be a wild ride that takes you to the lowest bottom of nightmares and highest peaks of trances. Baseline quality: 8/10. Recommended to: fans of Tsutomu Nihei's "Blame!" (especially if you havebeen disappointed with that Netflix movie adaptation) Fans of cyborg-enhancement and cyberpunk (especially if you want a really solid Deus Ex series).
Not recommended to: faint-hearted, those who lack patience with subtle worldbuilding.
Pros:
+ Took risks to be unique and surreal, yet not overly esoteric or technical.
+ Great atmosphere throughout. From the damp gutters to dream-like idyllic town, the show nailed every type of atmosphere it tackles.
+ Great worldbuilding. The city of Lux expands as the audience follows the main protagonist on his journey for humanity. The sheer scale of the world and some locations towards the end of the show are simply stunning. 20 years later and it's still a technical marvel. It is still the closest to what fans of "Blame!" or Deus Ex can get as an anime adaptation. Deus Ex 2: Invisible War which came out also in 2003 bears an uncanny resemblance to Texhnolyze in worldbuilding, underground environments, factions and conspiracies.
+ Well-handled ambiguity and subtle philosophical debates. The show never went out of its own way to dump philosophical lessons on you, but rather engrosses you in its themes with stunning images.
+ Even with its story being some of the most depressing I have seen, it is quite an engrossing ride. I think it beautifully and brutally captured the essence of "Flowers of Evil" by Charles Baudelaire.
+ Might have inspired Ergo Proxy which came out a few years later. Yet Texhnolyze is not half as hammy as Ergo Proxy.
Cons:
- The initial 2 episodes having little-to-no dialogue and lots of over-the-top gore and brutality, jumbled by puzzling camera angles and frantic editing. This avant-garde experimental approach to a beginning might have scared off many audiences. My initial estimation for its quality was a 6/10 due to the shocking start. Then again that's the price the showrunners were willing to pay for their experiment. Fortunately, things only got better from there, as the narrative stabilizes and the sci-fi elements start to make more sense. Towards half-point, the show became so compelling that I finished the last 11 episodes in a single sitting.
- Hard-hitting mature contents can be repulsive and honestly not for younger audiences or faint-hearted. There is a morally-ambiguous doctor who sexually abuse her patient. People were blown to pieces left and right. The main character is often called a "rabid dog" due to his uncontrollable anger and violent tendencies (though the show never expects you to like him).
- As the story goes on, it only gets exponentially bleaker. Senseless depravity and tragedies follow the characters in every step. Even slims of hope, as beautifully presented as they were, got drowned in an ocean of void. Then again, if we ever get a faithful adaptation of "Blame!", I'd expect the tone to be so.
- Certain aspects did not age too well. E.g. some awkward 3D CG visuals and UI design.
- Can be too nihilistic. This is, of course, a matter of personal philosophy and taste.
As much as I hate to admit it, our world in 2022 is getting closer to the ugly and bleak image depicted in Texhnolyze.