If stuff like this actually occurs at some point in the future, I think the Good Guy Powers That Be should think more carefully about who they put in charge of giant mechs.
Note: Although the entire series has now been released on Netflix, the following review is based solely on the first episode.
I guess I’ll deal with the elephant in the room first. Yes, Revisions is all CG, and it’s… well, I don’t love it, but it’s really not that bad. Personally I think the CG looks at least competent for the most part, if not exactly good. Your mileage may vary of course, but it’s certainly no worse than, say, Ajin or Knights of Sidonia – probably even a minor step up from both, come to that – and the character designs in themselves are just fine, so Revisions is by no means unwatchable in this regard.
More importantly, director Taniguchi Goro shows that he’s still got the stuff when it comes to innovative and impactful sci-fi and gritty mecha/military-themed stories. He’s been in the game a long time, and though it’s been quite a while since I’ve watched anything of his, I still have a great deal of respect to this day for the likes of Planetes and Infinite Ryvius. Writer Fukami Makoto is comparatively new to the industry, but with titles including Gakkou Gurashi and the first season of Psycho-Pass under his belt, I don’t doubt his ability to help create an equally gritty yet emotionally hard-hitting story.
Unfortunately, the cast of Revisions, or more specifically the main cast member, has already done plenty to put me off. Not to put too fine a point on it, but frankly, Daisuke’s an asshole. He’s clearly obsessive about his perceived duty to ‘protect’ people despite the fact that they don’t seem to want or need his help. Incidentally, said people tend to be girls, and said protection generally means punching a guy in the face if he so much as asks her for directions. He’s also apparently spent the last several years amping himself up for a certain prophesized day to occur, and when that day finally arrives, he appears almost happy about it, despite the fact it obviously means a whole lot of carnage and general destruction. His preparations for this, which I guess involve a lot of manly pushups and weight training, do him zero good since he immediately freezes up when shit actually ends up going down.
While I’m guessing Daisuke will eventually get it together and start making himself genuinely useful at some point, he’ll probably do so not for any altruistic reasons but because he just wants vindication. All I see so far is a smugly self-important and annoyingly self-righteous boy who quite literally brings a knife to a mecha fight. I assume he’ll go through a ton of extremely steep character growth in the episodes to follow but in all honesty, I don’t think I have the patience for that. And since it looks like I’ll have no trouble filling the gaps this anime season with shows featuring main characters that don’t annoy me to this degree, I’ll be giving the rest of Revisions a pass.
OTAKU LOUNGE 
CGI is a serious turn-off, so I quit rather early, thinking I might give it another try later. But this post doesn’t really motivate me. A CGI show has to be a lot better than any other show to entice me (or so inane that the art doesn’t matter, like that Sega Girls anime, or Kemone Friends). I’ll watch the really good stuff, like Land of the Lustrous or especially High Score Girl, but merely good isn’t going to cut it. (Also, CGI in combination with unfortunate camera movement is lethal to my motion sickness, which is why I haven’t seen Knights of Sidonia, which I actually wanted to watch.)
I’ll probably pass on this one.
LikeLike
Fair enough. I think it would be a mistake for anyone to pass on this show if, for example, they were a diehard mecha fan or some other element in the plot really appealed to them, solely because of the CGI. But I get it, people don’t generally like the animation style, even if that’s not what killed it for me.
LikeLike
Thanks for the warning! Gonna be a “pass” for me, as well.
LikeLike
Fair enough. You’re welcome.
LikeLike
I notice a lot of vocal anime fans tend to hate on CG a lot. Granted there are misses, but at times they come off as grumpy old-schoolers pining for “the good old days” and resisting change.
And like you said, the CG here’s quite good.
Some reviewers who binge-watched Revisions say its better when watched all at once – the plot points all flow and come together nicely, and the MC becomes a better person by the end. (Apparently the ending is hinting at a potential sequel.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I agree that some viewers can at times come across as quite curmudgeonly, for lack of a better word, when it comes to CG over the more traditional anime style. Personally, I dropped Revisions not because of this, but rather because it just wasn’t really my thing in terms of overall story. But yeah, I don’t doubt that the series goes down better when watched all at once rather than a little at a time – it does seem the type.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Way late on this, but I agree with a lot of what you said. I finished watching it and….Daisuke does not get any better, in fact he gets a lot more annoying. Really the only reason he’s able to “protect” anyone even though all those manly pushups led to him freezing up, was because the mechs were made for him and his friends because… reasons, it’s never really explained why the time traveler thought 5 teenagers were the best pilots.
*SPOILERS!!!*
There’s one scene where he violates orders, engages an enemy mech, and causes a lot of damage to the city he’s supposed to “protect”. Nobody dies, but he’s tossed into prison for the time being, (side note. the police chief is probably the only smart person in this shwo), and all he does is complain that it doesn’t matter how many people he injured since he’s the one protecting them. He refuses to apologize, and what’s worse, is that glasses girl actually defends his conduct because apparently his heart is in the right place.
At least in Ajin where I hated the main character because he was a total a-hole, it was clear that his only motivation was survival while everyone else didn’t matter, so it made sense. Daisuke is supposed to be protecting everyone, but has a massive hero complex, and god forbid if you criticize him for causing other people to get hurt.
LikeLike
No problem, comments are welcome any time!
Yeah, I figured the series would go somewhere in that direction, and I’m glad I decided not to watch further. It’s not that I have to like the MC to enjoy any given anime, but their motives and/or personality still have to make sense and be used to good purpose – otherwise what’s the point?
LikeLike