erna47 - 2014-07-03 22:53:06

It's great to have mystery in a show, it helps to build anticipation and intrigue as the plot progresses. Sometimes however, the secrets can be held for too long and the plot can lose the interest it needs to keep pulling the viewer in for every episode, as is the case with Mekaku City Actors (メカクシティアクターズ).

Based off of the Vocaloid song series known by its fans as Kagerou Project (カゲロウプロジェクト), Mekaku City Actors already had a large following even before it's debut, as fans eagerly awaited the anime adaptation. But almost everyone knows, things can be lost in translation.

The most blatant issue with this show is just how sporadic the show feels. Often the show shifts focus from one of its many characters to another, never really finding the focus it so desperately needs. As a result, in one episode it can be in the present time while the next episode can be in the past with little to no transition whatsoever. This often led me as a viewer into confusion as to what I was exactly watching, which would be fine, if background was given appropriately but often these shifts in the story felt random and placed inappropriately, which made the whole flow of the series feel very inconsistent and convoluted, to the point where the plot became uninteresting as it felt as though the plot would never be fully realized within its 12 episode run time. And that is exactly the case, as by the last episode, very little is fully explained and tons of information is dumped within the final episode, making an ending that feels rushed, sloppy and quite honestly bad.

However, Mekaku City Actors has a few redeeming factors that save it from being entirely unsatisfactory. One of Mekaku City Actors arguably greatest strengths is in it's music. Given that the series is based off of a music series, it's no surprise that the music in Mekaku City Actors is one of it's best points, as the songs the series is based off of are incorporated in ways that sometimes feel fitting but then other times feel lazy and just thrown in for the sake of being there. In addition, the art style and animation takes a more surreal approach which can be refreshing for some, but also somewhat routine for those who have seen other shows made by the animation studio Shaft. It should be noted however that there are often sharp dips in animation quality where some characters are drawn just simply awful, possibly due to lack of time or budget, but it's still quite apparent.

In terms of characters, despite having so many, it also feels like so little, almost all characters lack any depth at all as the series just doesn't stick with any character long enough to develop any of them. This makes every character feel like a bland cut out, serving no purpose other than to drive the plot.

So overall Mekaku City Actors is generally an inadequate show. It lacks a good plot, the characters fall flat and the animation and sound only sometimes hit the mark. Don't prioritize this show over other series as you'll be somewhat disappointed.

uauer - 2014-07-03 02:50:04

Mekaku City Actors Review

With how popular this anime seemedthis season, I can only wonder why it got any praise at all.

NOTE: I have not read the source material for this adaptation, I amreviewing the anime standalone.

Story:

The story begins from the point of view of Shintaro; a NEET harassed by what isseemingly an artificial intelligence. The 1st episode sets itself for highexpectations. Lots of back and forth between Shintaro and Ene made this episodea good one. I was chuckling to myself quite a bit at how much pain Shintaroseemed to take from just going to the store. The tone of this episode changesquickly when Shintaro is taken hostage by robbers, and the story changes intoan upbeat thriller. I left the 1st episode with a ton of interest and couldn'twait for the 2nd episode.

Unfortunately, the shows biggestshortcoming is its pacing. After a tense hostage scene where Shintaro justbarely saves the day with the help of Ene, we get swapped to a somber 20minutes with some new character who we have no interest in. She gets developedlater but it is honestly just 20 minutes of her wishing she wasn't so popularand running into other new characters we don't care about. Mekaku City Actorsstarts on full speed after the hostage scene and then hits the brakes so hardit’s a wonder I didn't get whiplash.

While the difference in pace betweenepisodes 1 and 2 are the biggest offenders, this anime has problems withswitching between too many POVs, where we sit in the timeline (timeline jumpingseems to be common of Shaft...it may not be the source materials fault?) andoverall swapping between slow and fast pacing, wrap it up with a friendshiptrope ending and you have a recipe for a mediocre story.

It's unfortunate because the showhad a lot going for it in the mystery of its story. The mystery of theantagonist(s) was interesting, and so was the mystery of the mysterious eyepowers. But I found myself being incredibly underwhelmed by the reveal of allthe questions I had, so much to the point that I wish they had never revealedthe source of their powers to begin with.

Animation:

Mekaku City Actors is animated bySHAFT, and if you didn't know that you certainly will after the first episode.Shaft borrows a lot from the Monogatari series for certain, and while theirability to draw things is still good the amount of recycling they seem to domakes it very hard for me to praise their ability in this anime.

Also one of the later OPs has one of the weirdest animations I've ever seenthem do and it’s entirely disconnected from the rest of their drawings.

Sometimes I don't know what goes onat Shaft and I probably don't want to know.

Sound:

The music is okay. There's verylittle praise I can give to the music besides 'functional.' The OP is well doneand upbeat, getting us pumped for the show. And the ED winds us down after theepisode. It's too bad the story isn't good enough to follow the upbeat OP orneed winding down after the episodes in question.

Beyond the first OP, the OST is entirely forgettable. Good, but forgettable.

Character:

The characters aren't particularlynoteworthy, either. The men all seem to be perverts that are scared ofeverything and the women all seem stupid and air-headed. The anime even notesthat two of the female characters are actually 'not that smart’ and it doesn'treally have many good things to say about the rest of the women they don'tbother noting either. They reveal that the leader herself is secretly acrybaby, and I just can't find myself caring about anything that happens tothese people in the show.

Enjoyment:

While the 1st episode was good, Ifound that the fewer questions I had about what was going on the less I enjoyedit. The pacing really took me out of it and by the time they answeredeverything about what was going on I found it really hard to care at all. Ifelt like I was completing this anime out of a sense of obligation, not becauseI wanted to see the story develop.

In Conclusion:

Mekaku City Actors had the potentialto be good, but when you take away the smoke and mirrors you have to make sureyour story can stand without the mystery. It turns out that Mekaku City Actorshad very little to stand on after all was said and done, and the show justscreamed mediocre.

bprice - 2014-07-01 21:34:19

This is an anime which I consider as smart, in addition to having very suspenseful, reveals the information given in the first chapter only on the last episode. The characters make the story good and funny, in my opinion this is one of the animes I can get on my list of favorites, because it causes you to be forced to watch every miserable detail and speaks, why in the future this information will be important for your understanding.

boyer.nelle - 2014-07-01 16:04:19

A disappointing mess of an anime.

I wasn't a fan of the source material. I heard a couple of the songs, but that's about it. So I didn't really pay much attention when I first heard about the anime airing. It wasn't until a friend of mine told me that shaft was producing it that I finally went around to picking it up. And boy was I in for a ride. 

The Story

I'm going to be honest here, the plot was all over the place. At multiple times, I got lost because they don't explain anything. It's like they throw everything from the source material at you expecting you to understand. The whole plot is just really, really hard to follow at times. At multiple points on the anime I had to pause and google explanations just so I can understand what the hell was going on. Everything feels so rushed. I feel like this could've been a pretty good show if it was atleast 5 episodes longer.

The Animation

It's just the usual shaft animation. Nothing too special, though it does get kind of iffy at times. The last episode though, ugh. The final battle scene was so awkward and poorly choreographed it was really hard to watch. It just seems like they ran out of budget for the last episode. Overall, there's nothing special about the animation and even for shaft's standards, they could've done better.

And that cgi part... ugh

Sound

The only redeeming factor for this anime aside from the characters is the music. I really liked the anime's version of the songs rather than the vocaloid ones. Overall, the OST was well done for the most part, the voice acting was really well, and everything fits the theme of the show. 

Characters

Not much to say about the characters other than the fact that they are all pretty interesting. The interaction between them was enjoyable to watch. They are just plain likeable. I can see the motives behind all their actions, but it's really a shame that they didn't get enough episodes to really develop.

The Verdict

Overall, I think this show is really disappointing. I didn't enjoy watching it at all, aside from some couple interesting interactions between the characters. I wouldn't recommend watching this if you're not a fan of the source material. For me, it was just a ridiculous rushed mess. Definitely one of shaft's worst works. 

vivien76 - 2014-06-30 00:53:38

Shaft-a-PieceSeason #1 (Madoka★Magica,SayonaraZetsubou Sensei, Bakemonogatari)
Shaft-a-Piece#4 Mekaku City Actors

Prologue:
Mekaku City Actors (Mekaku for short) is a series that had stewedmore controversy then more recent SHAFTentries, the question is though is it deserved or not? Mekaku had alot to live up to, being Studio Shaft's entry for the spring 2014season following up the fan beloved Shounen Nisekoi and the continuedsuccess of the Monogatari series one would have to the question maybe fanexpectations were too high or it was the wrong timing for thisseries. Well lets discuss the highs and lows of the controversialMekaku City Actors.

History:
MekakuCity actors started as series of songs titled Kagerou Project composed by Shizen no Teki-P or just Jin. Most of the songs in the series are song by VocaloidIA,while some of the earlier entries by MikuHatsune. A vocaloid isa artificial singer and though this trend is not as popular in thewest Kagerou Project was able to secure popularity for having anarrative to each song that would feed into the next. The series ofsongs had since secured a manga series by Jin and illustrated byMahiro Satou that was released in summer of 2012 and serialized inComic Gene. The series wasalso able to get a novel series with the first one being titledKagerou Days -in a daze- also written by Jin but this timeillustrated by Shidu who also worked on the songs PVs. The mostrecent novel Kagerou Days -the deceiving- was released in March of2014. Yen Press has licensed both the Manga and Novels for a NorthAmerican release in late 2014.

DuringMadokaMagica Rebellionfilm's US premier Shinbo announced that he was working on an animeadaptation of the song series changing the title from Kagerou Projectto Mekaku City Actors, the title change is a nod to the originallyintended title of the series Mekakucity Project. Directorial dutieswould be shared between AkiyukiShinbo (Bakemonogatari, Madoka Magica) andYūki Yase (Durarara!!) and produced by Iwakami Atsuhiro, with seriesscript and music being handled by Jin himself. The series would seeits premier on the 12^thof April, 2014 on TokyoMX, BS11, and Niconico. The series wouldfinish its run on the 29^thof June, 2014.

Plotand Characters:
The story begins with ShintaroKisaragi a NEET (No Education, No Employment, No Training) whom hadlocked himself in his room for two years. On a hot summer dayreceives a email from a mysterious source to discover that inside thefile is an AI program named Ene. Shintaro and Ene would one dayventure from the confines of his room to replace a keyboard that had beendamaged, only to be held in a hostage situation. Shintaro is saved bythe Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang) who have mysteriouspowers known as Eye Abilities that activate when their eyes turn red.Shintaro is now pulled into a life or death struggle to uncover themystery of a former teacher and the Mekakushi Dan.

Nowthough that quick synopsis may sound like this would be a straightforward mystery thriller, it is not. Mekaku uses a story tellingelement called In media res a Latin term meaning in the midst ofthings. How in media res works is that we are dropped into themidpoint of the story rather then the beginning. The strength of thiskind of story is that it hooks the viewer in with action and suspenserather then world building and character development. This can workvery well, series that you may be familiar with that uses thistechnique is Baccano! now unfortunately in Mekaku's case this mightbe to its detriment. Cause though Shintaro is the main character ofthe story he is not in it as much as other characters most of thestory is told from the point of view of the Mekakushi Dan and we areshown most of the story through flashbacks rather than first handexperiences. Now though if you are familiar with the mystery genreyou will enjoy this as you get to piece together the plot and haveinformation uncovered that will blow your theories away or confirmyour suspicions, but to the more causal viewer this can be confusingand seem drawn out. Though I personally very much enjoyed this partof the story and mystery with having no experience with the KagerouProject, some viewers may drop the anime thinking it is a pooradaptation and seek out the far more straight forward manga or theoriginal song series.

Nowthough the story may seem confusingone thing is true the characters are amazing. Lets start with ourNEET Shintaro, he is a bit of a buzz kill he gets barley anydevelopment and some viewers may find him unneeded, though the moreof the story is peeled away the more he makes sense and you canempathize with his state of mind and his out bursts of eccentricityand anger. Now onto Ene the AI program, I do not want to go too muchinto her as it would be major spoilers for some of the best episodesin the series are the ones that focus on her development. Her cruelteasing of Shintaro is quite enjoyable and she is just so much fun towatch and a joy listen to her banter with the other characters.MekakushiDan plays a major role in the story and you could argue the storyfocuses on them more then Shintaro and that would be true. TsubomiKido the leader of the gang is quite an interesting character onewhom is thrust into command and having to become the mother figure ofthe gang even though she is a very introverted person. That andShuuya Kano throughout the series you never quite know what side heis on as he is very devious and secretive, though when he gets tointeract with the other characters his outgoing nature makes some ofthe most enjoyable and comedic scenes in the series. Kousuke Setothough he does not get as much spotlight as the other character, hedoes play a big part in the series as he is a very caring person andyou can understand why other members rely on him and cherish him.That and Marry is a very shy and sweat character and you always getthis sense of joy when watching her on screen. Safe to say this a series that is filled with fantastic and interesting characters and I did not even talking about the entire cast.

Music/SoundDesign:
The sound design of this seriesis top quality as of expected of studio Shaft at this point, thoughlets talk more about the far more interesting musical score. Theentire score is composed by Jin and that is a fantastic thing as Jintakes the original vocaloid tracks and redoes them with livingsingers and real instruments. This does lose a bit of the vocaloidcharm but it does give the songs a bit more life in this setting. Jinalso spices the tracks with more hard rock and traditional pop ratherthen the techno and synth-rock of the original songs. Some stand out re-compositions are Headphone Actor, Lost Time Memory and Kagerou Daze. The opening is also fantastic, as Daze is a original song forthe anime by Jin and sung by MARiAfrom GARNiDELiA, it isquite an enjoyable track and can be stuck in your head for weeks andit is quite effective at pumping you up for each episode. The endingtheme Days is not quite my cup of tea though for being the moreslower track is quite calming and is a very good closing song in itsown right.

Sound Track Sample
Opening

Subvs. Dub Asof right now there is no dub since as of this review the seriesjust finished. Though the series is a Shaft series so expect some ofthe expected faces to appear such as KanaHanazawa,Kana Asumi and so on. Though that is not a bad thing as with mostseries that they are cast in are fantastic and Shaft has a great trackrecord for casting the right person for the right role. (If there isever a confirmation of a NA release dub or not I will update thispart of the review with the updated info.)

Sample of the Japanese Dub

Artand Animation:
Though this seriesis a Shaft series some of their more distinct style and quality ismissing. Shaft is known for mixing in patterned textures andgradients into their work but Mekaku is the most none Shaft but Shaftseries post Bakemonogatari yet. Shaft's animators brought in a bunchof interesting ideas pulled from the original PVs by Shidu. Shaftuses far more uniform colors in this one bringing in a moresimplistic feeling though they also use contrasting colors to helpcertain things stand out. The use of gradients is still prevalent butagainst such strong colors does not standout as much. Shaft alsobrings a far more frantic animation sense this time around jumpingfrom shot to shot in a much more schizophrenic way then evenBakemonogatari. Though a similar issue does arrive that has not beenseen from Shaft since Madoka Magica and that is some of thecharacters do not seem to be properly rendered into their scene. Theydo not seem grounded and sometimes seem like they are standing on aimage of a background rather then being in one. The series also seemsto be on a far more strict budget as when things get hectic in someaction oriented scenes the characters do not seem as detailed andtheir proportions seem off. Maybe being a follow up to bothMonogatari S2 and Nisekoi this series was not able to enjoy a highproduction as some of the other series and being in production at thesame time as Hanamonogatari hurt it in more ways then one. One has towonder if this series was not as high profile as the others so maybeShaft felt that it did not need to be as high standard as some oftheir other work as they do cheap out in a few areas mostly withcamera angles that do not need as much work with characterconsistency and movement. Though when Jin's music gets to shine Shaftdoes put in great effort to make those look lovely but everythingelse seems flat and almost lifeless a quality you do not expect fromStudio Shaft.

Epilogue:
Overall did I enjoy Mekaku City Actors? Yes! do I feel that Jin tried too hardto make it fit in a 12 episode range and cut important informationout? Also yes. That and the use of in media res does hurt theexperience for some viewers. We also see Shaft at a low point intheir animation department relying on the style of PV like ideasrather then their usual stamp of quality. Though the series is savedby the fact that the story is enjoyable and the characters are verymuch a highlight. Jin's composition also help give the series a verynice audible experience. Overall I feel like Mekaku will be forgottenin a few years and may join Shaft's more obscure library rather thenbeing a stand out like much of their post Bakemonogatari portfolio.Overall I give Mekaku City Actors a 7/10 a good experience thoughdragged down by some less then desirable elements. Give it a streamif you ever have the time you will at least enjoy the series.

Pros
+AnEnjoyable Mystery
+FantasticCharacters
+Usual Suspects of VA
+Out of this WorldOST
+Fantastic Sound Design
+Gorgeous Musical SegmentsCons
-AUnderdevelopedLead Character
-Inconsistent Animation
-A Story that is Hard toFollow

Wherecan I watch or purchase Mekaku City Actors?
As of right now no NArelease is planed physically or digitally though this may changein the near future.
Where might I steam this series?
You cando that over on Crunchyrollor Daisuki

Forthose who enjoyed Mekaku City Actors check out either
Baccono!(2007, Brains Base)
Durarara!! (2010, Brains Base)

zachery53 - 2014-06-29 06:44:59

Every iteration of Kagerou Daze differs in some way from the rest. This is intentional, but also frustrating.

Trying to explain the plot will ultimately end up ruining it for you, and it isn't something that can be described in simple words either. Let's just say it is an experiment in non-linear storytelling and for the most part it is pretty awesome.

It jumps around in time and place quite a bit and switches focus more often than you can say "headtilt". But it's all interesting and ends up coming together nicely at the end. It's one of those stories where for a while you won't understand a thing, but then the pieces start adding up and you begin to have a vague understanding.

You never truly feel like you completely get it, but you understand it enough to appreciate it. In a way, it's kind of beautiful like that. This is definitely a show that anyone who can appreciate innovative narrative should check out.

Every character has a part to play and I was surprised how well they managed to squeeze everyone in. It wasn't perfect, as some character still felt shafted (no pun intended) in favor of others, but overall it was well enough done.

The script was written by the creator himself so I guess I can't say someone else came in and ruined everything. 

Whenever you judge an adaptation, you must ask yourself two questions.

Is the work functionally good? (As in it stands on its own merit)

Is the work contextually good? (As in it is true to source material)

And the second one is where Mekakucity Actors falters. It leaves out many details of the plot in order to make it seem more mysterious, and it simply doesn't have the time necessary to REALLY flesh out the cast. The plot moves at a breakneck pace, there's almost no point where it slows the fuck down and lets us BREATHE a little bit.

It's impressive that they were able to cram the plot into a 1-cour show, but it came at the cost of sacrificing all the little things that made Kagerou Daze special to begin with. I can see this adaptation is already becoming divisive. 

Either you accept it as being solid for what it is, or you hate it for not living up to your expectations as a fan. I'm honestly torn here, but I think I'll make the same call that I did with the Disgaea anime years back.

It's not the most accurate adaptation of the source material, and it isn't the ideal method of experiencing this story. But for what it is, it's pretty damn good and can stand on its own if you weren't familiar with the source to begin with.

Akiyuki Shinbo of SHAFT directs and holy fuck, did he turn this show into his personal playground? All your favorite SHAFTisms are present in droves and he made many changes to the aesthetic of the series.

Background look much different from their manga/light novel/PV counterparts and the character designs changed too. They all look older and more seinen than before. It's not a change I like but I eventually got used to it.

The animation isn't great. The show clearly suffers from a lack of budget. But SHAFT turned it into almost a style of its own. There's enough artistic flair to make up for technical faults to a degree. Though it might come across as pretentious visual overload to some viewers.

The music is fantastic, as you might expect from an anime based on a series of music videos. The re-recorded insert songs are a lovely touch that add to the experience greatly, especially if you're a fan. 

In the end, it's a great show. But not the best adaptation. It could've been done a lot better if it was longer and had a bigger budget. Though I suppose that's true of many things.

Alternative Recommendations: Durarara!|Madoka Magica

Rewatch Value: Yes (Based on a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

darien.dare - 2014-06-29 06:13:20

I didn't enjoy this very much. I was expecting a lot because I've been hearing a lot of raves, but I think this is just not for me. Lots of times I was bored and the only thing that got me going was well, there were only 12 episodes. I might as well endure it while I could. Aside from that, I loved the music. It's probably one of the best things in Mekaku City Actors.

The animation is amazing. Almost surreal, even. But sometimes I still can't help being bothered by it because I'm not accustomed to Shaft's animation yet. I mean, there were some weird shots and fairly weird angles and posing for the characters. Also, the background scenes were a bit too exaggerated in my opinion.

I thought this was going to be nice when I watched the first few episodes, but boy, was I wrong. I was bored as hell a lot of times. The characters were nice, but not enough to make the whole thing better (because, as mentioned, other things were lacking). But I suppose it's worth a try. Who knows, maybe it's your cup of tea. Maybe you might see something I didn't. And it's quite a different experience.

jamie22 - 2014-06-28 15:08:44

I'm a relatively new fan. I've only been into Kagerou Project since January 17th, 2014. That's about six months. I had tried to get into it before then, but that was the manga. It wasn't until a best internet friend had a super fit about it, that's when I decided. "Let's see what the fuss is about..." After I gave the manga a second try, I loved it. I really loved the manga. And from there, I listened to all the songs, on REPEAT. Over and over and over and over and over again.

I've been into Vocaloid since I discovered Black Rock Shooter. Which, at first, was my obsession, that still is, but this is different.

Enough of my little squabble and rant about my history with this amazing project. Time to review!

Since I have/had an undying love for SHAFT anime, at first, I thought this anime would be eternal. Thought it would be the most amazing adaption ever. Of course, because of my bias, my opinion stayed. I thought it was a great adaption, but this is the problem:

SHAFT didn't execute a lot of things right.

Kagerou Daze, sadly, falls under this. I was expecting it to be a lot more dramatic. It wasn't at all. Also, all the head tilts just make everything worse, sorry. I know it's SHAFT's thing, but seriously, I have to count the amount of freaking head tilts they do each episode--that's how bad it is with their freaking head tilts.

Though, a lot of stuff was executed perfectly. And I loved how they did Kaien Pansermast which I didn't know existed until a friend told me it was background music in the Mekaku City Record album.

Of course, Headphone Actor, Konoha's State of the World were good, almost perfect, even.

Lost Time Memory, I thought would leave me crying. It didn't. Another example of poor execution. But...after Lost Time Memory everything became AMAZING again. I GOT HIT BY FEELS. INTENSE FEELS. SUPER INTENSE FEELS. SUPER SUPER INTENSE FEELS. I fell in love with Kano. I fell in love with the guy. I just feel so bad for Kano and all the other characters. Like, so freaking much, and that's why I think this series is amazing. The characters are so much fun. So diverse and different. That's what makes the anime nice.

Everything after Lost Time Memory was amazing executed, I learned things I didn't know before, and I just love how this anime gets better later on.

I feel bad for those who dropped this after Kagerou Daze. They don't know what they're missing.

Also, the songs in the actual episodes is what I FREAKING LOVE ABOUT THIS ANIME. You have no idea!! That's why I love the project! The songs!

I'm scared of how this anime will end since we didn't get Outer Science. :x

But regardless, this anime is amazing, just some things are poorly executed and SHAFT makes it hard to take seriously sometimes with their freaking head tilts.

Recommended for people who like SHAFT and anime based off of Vocaloid projects.

rocky12 - 2014-06-19 06:51:27

"You're all like, 'The story ignores the source material' and ''The voice acting doesn't match what I had in my head' and stuff!" -Ene

Ene might just be predicting my review, but I'll try my best not to base this review on source material, although I may make some comments about the original songs or the manga.

I'll be straightforward. Mekakucity Actors wasn't very organized. In fact, it was a complete mess. Previously, I had written a very optimistic review, but after mulling over the massive disappointment that this anime gave me, I decided that I must rewrite this review.

Mekakucity Actors is an anime that does not seem to deserve such a high score, yet is still decent after one's careful consideration.

I've realized that my greatest, and possibly only compellent in watching this series was that I am a die-hard Kagerou Project fan. Aside from that, I held little affinity for this anime.

Story: 6/10
Mekakucity Actors has an interesting setting. It takes place in your generic city, complete with malls, parks, skyscrapers, and suburbs, but this allows the watcher to consider that this story could occur anywhere, and gives the watcher a unique feeling. The story starts right off with an intriguing and complicated exposition, followed by a quick deceleration to a humorous showing of Shintarou's rather drab everyday life. This first episode was packed with information, and interesting enough for most viewers to continue on to the next episode. Throughout the series, each episode introduced new concepts, which to my specific knowledge, are interlaced with deep philosophical significance. To the ordinary viewer, however, it's a cluttered fiasco. Many ideas are introduced and then discarded, never to be seen or heard of again. I had previously expected for the producers to answer these in the last few episodes, but what we were left with instead was a rushed ending and a dissatisfied conscience. SHAFT took a gamble on its methodology, and it lost. Its lack of planning was more than just conspicuous. I cringe when I think about the two or three well-executed episodes scattered across the series, mixed in with stale episodes, and some that were plain miserable. While I do hold great disdain for ANIPLEX's decision to only make this series twelve episodes long, I commend the producers for their conciseness of the story's telling. They have done a model job in fitting such a huge storyline into a single cour anime. Unfortunately, they producers were only able to vaguely explain the central ideas of the story, and not the story itself. With that said, even the fundamental time loop aspect of the story was completely glossed over. This, in turn, leads the anime more into the Slice of Life department than it should. Completely disregarding any source material, the anime didn't have much of an explicit depth.

"These things are all style and no substance!" -Momo's Classmate

Art: 10/10
The character art is fantastic, and perfectly matches the original PVs. SHAFT's usual habit for creating abstract and unrealistic scenes fits this anime like a glove. The art both exemplifies and understates different aspects of the physical world that surrounds the characters, giving the watcher a state of mind that perfectly matches the scene--fully intended by the producers.

Sound: 9/10
Although small, the selection of background music is perfect for the anime. One particular track is played often, which produces a sensation of the hotness of summer and a feeling of isolation, mystery, and internal turmoil. Another track delivers a mood of lightheartedness and provides comic relief. Both the OP and ED, respectively "daze" and "days", are spectacular songs by Jin. The voice acting was well-done, too, although several characters had voices that I didn't particularly feel were fit for them. One downside of the anime, with respect to sound, is the rather poor quality of the song covers placed at the last scenes of certain episodes. The singing is sometimes unclear, and the lyrics are sometimes misinterpreted, which lead many to feel that it would be more fitting to use the original songs, or even some of the high quality covers sung by Utaite.

Characters: 10/10
I'd give this category an eleven if I could. The progression of most episodes adheres well with the original songs. With ten main characters and twelve episodes, I'm thoroughly impressed that this anime was able to so deeply develop every one of them. Each character has unique traits, and they are all extravagantly developed. Despite the unusually high character to episode ratio, Mekakucity Actors has some of the best developed characters whom I've ever seen.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Perhaps it was an illusion. But I enjoyed Mekakucity Actors a little more than I should have. Kano's sheer awesomeness, Momo's complaints, Ene's snide remarks, and Kido's remotely tsundere qualities all complement the anime with some satisfying humor. No scene comes to mind when talking about these humorous moments, but I do remember feeling glad that I was watching the anime several times.

Overall: 8/10
Mekakucity Actors was an utter mess. But I still enjoyed the watching the producers' attempts at interpreting such a profound storyline, while giving it a rather episodic nature. The progression of the plot was hard to follow, even for someone like me, who has spent years in admiration of the source material. Mekakucity Actors had fantastic character development and high sound quality. I would have given this anime a lower score overall, but the averages of the five said qualities justifies a score of 8/10. However, a large amount of the hype preceding the airing, due to the fanbase's enjoyment of the source material, was unqualified.

hellen.rohan - 2014-04-20 06:26:10

OMG my opinion of this show has completely taken a 180. I am so happy that it went up in story quality instead of down, which is what I was afraid of, that I am soooooooo sad it's only going to last for 11 episodes.

My favorite thing they did was introduce all the characters very quickly compared to the manga, and all their current situations. The ending of episode 5 made me jump up and down with excitement as that is something that hasn't happened in the manga and was an amazing suspense builder for me because I love character interaction circles.

They are doing so much better with the show now than the earlier episodes and they're toning down on the incredibly strange camera angles that I found very annoying and distracting. I also like that they are playing every song that goes with each episode at some point in each one, I just wish that IA and Hatsune Miku were the ones still singing them. Heat Haze Daze sounded strange to me with a guy singing it, but mainly because I'm so used to Miku that I guess anyone else would sound strange.

For anyone who doesn't know, IA and Hatsune Miku are the vocaloids who sing the original songs that Mekaku City Actors comes from. If you don't want any spoilers for the show I suggest waiting until it ends and you've watched all of it before you watch the music videos because they pretty much tell all the background story and current story of the show, but they are AMAZING songs/vids.

as for the animation, I'm getting used to the different character designs than what I'm used to from the videos. It's growing on me, but I still prefer the manga and music video designs.

There's nothing I can say about the characters other than I love them all. They are my favorite part of this show besides it's complex story, and I honestly couldn't pick a favorite one. There's like a four-way tie for first place.