Jackson Barrow

This movie was an atrocity. I knew it was going to be bad as soon as I saw Tencent Pictures was responsible. Tencent is one of the largest Chinese companies in the world akin to Microsoft or Amazon but tied to the Chinese government. Every sci-fi doomsday movie cliche is present. The astounding number of ads for Kaspersky Internet Security is pretty horrible. FYI they’re worse than Norton so don’t do it. The character development is terrible and some of the acting even worse. The premise had potential. It is ruined by bad acting, bad writing, promotion of Chinese propaganda, and kaspersky ads. Pass on this one and go watch some of the better sci-fi doomsday films there are plenty of them that do this better.

I’m giving it 4 stars because there’s only 12 episodes. As a stand-alone anime it holds up very well. I’ve never played the games as I generally do not enjoy this genre. However, the premises for the lore are very intriguing. If you are up late, can’t sleep, and need something to watch this is the show for you. It fits very well into the seinen noir genre occupied by the likes of Drifters, Durarara, Gintama, and Hellsing. The darker tones and almost noir detective like vibes are super real and dare I say relaxing? It’s a simple show. I have no context from the games but thoroughly enjoyed watching this. The music is pretty solid too. There might be some continuity flaws related to the video games. The artwork is pretty ahead of it’s time which I think I’d the greatest selling point for this show. If you want a comparison go watch a couple of episodes of the last season of Naruto. Do remember this was released in 2007 so games would have been on the PS1 and PS2.