Streaming: Funimation (the version I watched was the premiere version posted early on their YouTube channel, and includes a message from the Oral Cigarettes, the band who sings the theme song).
Episodes: TBA
Source: Game
Episode Summary: Yuito and his friend Nagi are about to join the ranks of the “Other Suppression Force” or “OSF,” who are individuals with psionic powers who defend the populace from invasion by Others, brain-eating entities that attack with little warning. Yuito was inspired to join because a member of the OSF saved his life when he was a child, but both his father and older brother are high-ranking members of the organization as well. As he navigates the entrance ceremony and meets the new comrades in his platoon, Yuito struggles with the knowledge that his psionic abilities are on the low end. Being the member of a well-known family certainly has its downsides when information like that gets passed-around.
As Yuito, Nagi, and the other recruits are sent out to handle an attack by several Others, Yuito is confronted by a situation that echoes his own so many years ago. He breaks rank to help rescue a straggling child, but when the situation becomes dire he’s rescued by Kasane Randall. Kasane feels very familiar to Yuito; they may have a history that Yuito just can’t put his finger on.
Impressions: When we first watched the trailer for this series, I joked to my partner that it seemed like the sort of anime that Funimation typically makes into a feature of their seasonal offerings. While Funimation licenses a decent variety of series and I don’t want to claim otherwise, when I think of the company the “type” of anime that comes to mind is “cool but vapid.” Action-packed but without a lot of substance. I realize this sounds insulting and I don’t actually mean it that way; I think one of the things that initially attracted me to anime was that is just felt really cool. Looking back, though, I can see a lot of the anime I loved when I was younger didn’t necessarily have a lot of depth or staying-power. In any case, what this episode has on offer is coolness, but beyond that I can’t say that it left much of an impression on me.
The series reportedly ties in with a game, and coincidentally as I was checking out the recent Steam sale (which I do not recommend unless you want to spend money on games you’ll never have time to play… or is that just me?) the trailer happened to be included in my queue for suggested games. To be honest, the game actually looks a lot more interesting than the anime. While it’s nothing new for an adaptation of something to fall short of its source material there’s no reason that it has to; unfortunately video games seem to be the last bastion of source material that comes bundled with big adaptation challenges. Think of it this way – I’ve often thought that the story of Final Fantasy VI might make for a good anime – it’s stylish, with a cool steampunk setting and memorable characters. Yet, multiple times I’ve spent somewhere north of 100 hours (I’m not sure how much, since the timer only runs until 99:99:99) playing through the game. Even though there are likely many things that could be trimmed out (there are several non-essential characters and many side quests that don’t contribute to the important plot beats), doing so would likely frustrate passionate fans of the source material. A streamlined story in a different medium then suddenly becomes a non-starter, and as an advertisement for the source it might do more to detract than to entice.
Scarlet Nexus does an okay job of shilling for its source material in that it at least manages to utilize its unique black-and-charcoal visual motif and quirky, grotesque monster designs to good effect. The first episode is a pretty fun watch, although beyond a couple of fun battles there’s not a whole lot to chew on. That said, do I think it makes for a good advertisement for the game on which it’s based? Yes and no. Having seen what the game looks like (at least as much as a flattering game trailer is able to showcase), I’m not sure that the series does a good job of capturing its anime-aesthetic charms at more of a surface level – that said, I have no idea how well the game actually plays, so I don’t have much else to comment on in that regard. But had I seen this episode in isolation it may have caused me to seek out the game on my own, and encountering both properties in that order may have resulted in a more positive feeling about the franchise as a whole.
This is, of course, my way of dancing around the point that I’m not exactly all that interested in either of them, and perhaps even the anime series being surprisingly good may not have ultimately made any difference.
Pros: The protagonist’s storyline introduces some interesting ideas regarding nepotism as they apply to elite organizations. His father and older brother have both made names for themselves in OSF and there are reports that Yuito’s own abilities are mediocre in comparison, yet he seems to have no trouble making it into the organization. A lot of anime protagonists deal with feelings of being unsure if they deserve to be where they are or to have what they’ve obtained – it’s our old friend imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head, even in escapist fiction. Yet I don’t feel as if this series is really equipped to interrogate that point beyond just stating that it’s a thing. I suspect Yuito’s abilities and competence will magically right themselves fairly quickly as required by the plot, because this type of story isn’t really one to let its characters struggle in the same way a more down-to-earth one might.
I also like the variety of abilities on display. While they’re not particularly unique as far as psychic abilities in SFF stories are concerned, each character who has an opportunity to utilize theirs does so in interesting ways. I’m suddenly struck with a memory of the series Tiger & Bunny, specifically the episode in which the heroes travel to a hero training school to do some kind of outreach, and the students there have all sorts of weird abilities, many of which might seem kind of useless in a typical hero-villain scenario. Yet, I think each talent has its place; it’s more a matter of people with those talents being given the opportunity to discover, refine, and utilize them. You know, just like real life.
Cons: Honestly? I just don’t really have any feelings towards any of the characters in the cast, which unfortunately is usually a death knell for me. I don’t think Yuito is a compelling protagonist, and while some aspects of his character development could be interesting, my spidey sense tells me that’s not the route that this story is bound to go.
I was also about to comment on the fact that the city seems frequently targeted by Others and yet outside of specific attacks the populace seems to go about its business as usual, but now that I think of it, I’ve just spent more than a year watching governments fail to take measures to protect their people and citizens blatantly ignore what safety regulations there are, so… I also think human beings have an amazing ability to simply reorient their sense of normalcy even in crisis situations, so the occasional alien attack ends up not being the terrifying novelty it once may have been.
Content Warnings: Sci-Fi violence.
Would I Watch More? – I’m trying to be a little more careful with how many new series I pick up this season, so all of them have a higher bar to clear than might otherwise be the case. I doubt I’ll end up watching more of this (but I might check the game out at some point).