My apologies for the brevity of this post. I’m actually away overseas at the moment and will be for the whole of July, so many posts are likely be shorter or later than usual due to scheduling issues. I’ll try to stay on top of the new anime season as best I can.
So, is it just me, or is anyone else getting some Fullmetal Alchemist vibes from this one? Maybe it’s the military focus, or that combined with the heavy ‘trying to regain our bodies and/or retain our souls’ kind of theme. To be more specific, I feel like Kemono-tachi is attempting to draw that kind of comparison, but doing so incredibly poorly. My biggest problem with the premiere is that it tries to cover far too much in far too short a time. There’s a ton going on here in terms of story but little to no real build-up to any of it; as a result, it’s like a good half a cour’s worth of content is crammed into just over twenty minutes of screen time, yet I’m given no reason to give a crap about any of the characters regardless of what side they’re on. Besides, it’s hard to get emotionally invested in a story when the world-building consists mostly of the “as we all know, Bob” variety of exposition, and when utterly random and out-of-context fanservice is shoehorned into the proceedings. Add to this the average (at best) production values, and any motivation I had to try a second episode thanks to the potentially fun storyline is completely lost.
Question of the post: What are your first impressions of Kemono-tachi, and are they enough to inspire you to watch a second episode?
OTAKU LOUNGE 
I’ll stick for another episode, although I did read the source manga for this beforehand.
(The source creators also made Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, if it interests you.)
FYI, Hank’s not the actual protagonist; the real one is the dark-haired girl with the pigtail braids at the very end. In the source’s plot progression, she’s the 1st character to be introduced and the POV character for later plot and emotional developments, especially on Hank’s past.
The source manga presented the war stuff and Hank’s army history (as shown in this episode) as flashbacks in later chapters after establishing his present day character, like in Violet Evergarden. The anime staff instead chose to compile this flashback stuff into a prologue episode, likely to reel in more action focused viewers, but can be misleading since the early stuff is quite emotionally charged.
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I feel like I might have watched at least a little of Dusk Maiden of Amnesia before, but given that I don’t actually remember anything about it, it can’t have made much of an impression on me either way.
Honestly, I don’t really care who the protagonist of the show is – I don’t have an issue with the world/story or even the characters who inhabit it, but rather with the storytelling itself. If it’s bad enough that what was intended to be a compelling first episode ended up feeling unnecessarily rushed and awkward, and with zero emotional impact, I can’t see myself investing more time in it when there’s other stuff I’m a lot more interested in this season.
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I liked the first episode and I’ll least apply the six episode rule. Sound and art weren’t that impressive to me, but I’m not super knowledgable about those things. I liked the story concept and I felt reasonably connected to characters, as much as possible in a single episode. Too much was covered, you may be right, but I don’t mind that kind of thing at the beginning of the episode, as long as they don’t introduce random differences in storytelling, bad exposition, or time skips in the succeeding few episodes.
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*I mean the three episode rule, lol
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I just didn’t think the storytelling in the first episode was good enough to warrant a second episode from me, despite the fact that taken as a separate thing, the story itself seemed fine, albeit not terribly original.
Haha, yes, 6 episodes might be a bit much just to check whether you like something enough or not to continue watching. XD
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I was fine with this episode. I liked the framing of the opening through a random soldier; the scene drove home how unusual these troops still are.
I didn’t think of FMA, and I still have trouble making the comparison, though I can definitely see the thematic overlap. This seems more like cheesy action than anything. The quality of the writing? I can’t tell just yet. One thing: the first time we see someone lose control it feels like an inner conflict where the rational self is kept prisoner, but the second one we see looks more your regular guy whose power went to his head. And Hank doesn’t seem all that different given his immediate reaction. Whether that’s incosistent and shoddy, or a deliberate range will make a difference going forth.
This is definitely no master piece, but I’m comparing it to the recent Fairy Gone, and, well, it does emerge favourably from that comparison.
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I honestly didn’t see much to compare to Fairy Gone. That said, I only watched one episode of that too – so yeah, pretty low bar to set there.
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Supernatural science soldiers have to be taken care of after the war. There’s some overlap. I mostly compare the shows because one followed on the heel of the other. Yeah, not a high bar.
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