Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 9
Source: Webcomic
Episode Summary: 6 years after the apocalypse, Britain’s citizens live out a hardscrabble existence amongst the rubble and ruin. While most folks simply try to get enough food and clean water to live out their lives, this world is also populated by 12 individuals with certain psychic gifts, called the “Freak Angels.” Their benefits vary, but they’re all powers of the mind. Despite that, though, their users often find themselves bickering amongst one another rather than collectively joining forces for anything constructive.
After an encounter that resulted in the death of her brothers, Alice enters White Chapel in search of the Freak Angels – and of revenge. What she learns is that her memories were likely tampered with, and that a man named Mark, whose relationship to the Freak Angels seems strained at the very least, may be responsible. The Freak Angels call a meeting – quite the task considering that getting them to tolerate one-another in one room is a feat in-and-of-itself – but soon find themselves under attack and on the defensive. As their hideout crumbles all around them, it seems this issue with Mark may be an even bigger deal than it appeared to be at first blush.
Impressions: I recently mentioned that I was unsure whether I wanted to count this series as part of the regular Winter 2022 anime season, partly because its original author Warren Ellis has been accused of some nastiness, but also (and maybe this is the larger reason after all) its pedigree is a bit outside of what I’d normally talk about in this space – at least as far as seasonal first impressions are concerned. I think there’s still an ongoing debate about what actually constitutes an “anime” series, with purists arguing a very narrow definition of “Japanese animation” and those on the other side applying the label to all animation that has a similar visual and storytelling style to anime. To be blunt, I’m finding that I’m more the former, despite the fact that even Japanese animation nowadays has heavy contribution from animators outside of Japan. Coming from the viewpoint of someone who’s been in the lolita fashion community for a long time, the general belief there is that, if you disregard the basic rules – skirt shape, quality of construction, type and fit of pieces and accessories – too much then the fashion itself no longer has a clear definition (with the end result being that it ends up not existing any longer as a separate concept, making lolita fashion enthusiasts across the world cry, or something). I really like all types of animation, and that’s partly what drew me toward anime in the first place as a younger person. And here’s the thing – not all animation aimed at adults should have to call itself “anime” to be respected as “not cartoons for kids” (and heck, even some cartoons for kids are great). It’s a messy discussion that bothers me every time I have to have it.
Anyway, perhaps that makes it a discussion more appropriate for a separate post; if I continue it here it will likely look like a rant, and also like I’m trying to disrespect this series, which I’m not. Is FreakAngels anime? No, I wouldn’t say so. Is the first episode fun and interesting? Yes, I had a decent time with it. One thing I respect about the first episode is that it doesn’t attempt to infodump about what happened to lead up to the apocalypse that has so clearly and literally altered the landscape of England (at least). We join our characters after six years of learning to live in the aftermath of whatever disaster befell the world. Some of them have adapted through mechanical acumen, while others are more keen to try to grow plants and food. Some use their skills to scavenge items from the former world that can still be used. Some simply spread love to others in the ways they’re able to. I think the popular conception of post-apocalypse society is that it necessitates aggressively defending oneself from other people who are only out to pilfer what you’ve hoarded in preparation. There’s a whole community of doomsday preppers whose toxic mentality leads them to hoard guns and canned rations in underground bunkers. But what about developing the skills of diplomacy? What about growing food? Making clothing? Building things? Providing medical care? The idea that human beings – social animals through-and-through – can somehow live solitary lives without the skills other people bring to the table, is absolutely goofy. It’s the rare person who can develop every single skill they would need to live on their own, and I’m guessing most of those bunker-dwellers aren’t so rare as they may believe.
This episode shows folks living and working together. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows of course; the Freak Angels are like a big bickering family whose personalities seem to clash more than harmonize, and beyond that it would be silly to claim that all the normal people living around them are living carefree lives. But they’re seemingly living somewhat normal lives and interacting with others in ways that make sense, which I appreciate.
This episode isn’t necessarily what I’d call notable, but it’s decent and has some fun moments. I know some of the Crunchyroll Originals (a label that seems to indicate various things, from having some funding contributed by the company to being animated at their in-house studios like this one) haven’t always managed to hit in the way that they’d probably like, but this one seems like it could be a fun story, albeit one that sticks very closely to the sort of genre and age-focus that Western anime-like animation seems to.
Pros: One thing that I enjoy about Western animation is that, on average, it tends to feature more character diversity (though that still doesn’t always mean that it reflects reality completely). This series has a large cast with some decent racial representation among the characters (even more so than the original comic, judging by what I can glean from a minor amount of research). That said, there’s not a lot of body diversity; the spread seems to range from “slender” to “muscled” without much other variation.
I think this episode does a good job providing hints about its various character relationships without spending a lot of time elaborating on them. The various entanglements are expressed mostly through dialog. Being written natively in English helps with this; as an English speaker, it’s easy to understand the characters through their use of vocabulary and slang in addition to what’s visible on screen.
Cons: The type of dialog that this series features also boxes it in a bit, however. There’s been some… writing on disgraced TV writer Joss Whedon as of late, including some discussion about the stylistic elements he popularized in the series his hands touched. One of his major contributions is notably his tendency to have characters quip back-and-forth at one-another in lieu of more constrained or realistic conversation. While this has left us with a lot of memorable one-liners to chew on even in the aftermath of Whedon’s own struggle with being (allegedly) shitty and abusive to others, it’s a style of writing that seems to have also taken away from the ability of characters to feel like genuine people. They’re masked behind “too smart for the room” word-smithery and lack depth.
This episode’s writing seems to originate from that same mindset and thus struggle with the same related issues. The characters clearly don’t get along, possibly for some genuine reasons. Yet, there are many character-building moments that just feel clouded by the tendency to have those characters quip back and forth at one-another, attempting to out-smart-ass each-other with clever insults instead of having a regular conversation. It’s exhausting.
Content Warnings: Strong language. Violence, including blood from telekinetic mangling. Gun use. Mild nudity.
Would I Watch More? – There are things I liked about this episode, and things I didn’t. I still often struggle with supporting works of fiction from creators who have been revealed to be a certain type of asshole; while I’m sure a lot of media, including anime, I watch has contributions from people who have done inappropriate things, the accusations against Ellis were fairly high-profile and difficult to miss in the circles I frequent. Is he financially benefitting from this on an ongoing basis? I have no idea. But the knowledge of his involvement really complicates my feelings about it whether warranted or not.