ernestina.bernhard - 2017-04-17 13:47:35

This will be a short commentary, an impression. No spoilers.

I am so glad I gave this little show a chance!
I love the characters & got the impression that nothing was left to luck and chance, that everything the characters are and everything they embody is intentional = heavily pre-planned.
The protagonist is loveable. (And cute…)
The (many) characters we get to meet during our journey through the Kingdom, *all of them come with a unique personality and by that I mean, every character on the show would make a great first protagonist.
The first episode wasn’t much. However, before the 2nd episode was over I had found myself entertained and engaged.
I really had a great 3 months. ACCA is more than I hoped for! The story is well-drafted and depicts a detailed world with an interesting, intriguing and engaging story that opens up slowly but steadily; and it demands to be watched until the very end.

I had such an amazing time with ACCA, I am really sad it’s over. It is really, really, really sad!
Thanks to ACCA, I have been teleported back into the realm of intrigue, mystery, fun&chill time, and anticipation… Madhouse did a good job here. I want more of that genre!
Good that The Americans (TV) are back with a new season. And I can’t wait for GoT and House of Cards - I want them to give me my shows right now… gotta hold my breath and hope for the best.
I am not sure if that’s it for ACCA/the franchise. There’s a lot of potential for fast/slow-pace side-stories. I wouldn’t hold my breath though… an OVA would be nice!

Is this story complete? IMO, definitely, yes!
Is the ending satisfying? Yes, but underwhelming.

It is a 4 out of 5, for what it is.
I’m giving it a 5, because.

augusta68 - 2017-04-03 17:06:44

This is an unbelievably underrated show. I was surprised to see a score so low for an anime so good.

The show has this very ‘lax vibe where you get to see the main character exploring the country while accompanied by some very high quality music. This is not the only thing however, as each district the MC visits have something going on that is resolved either in the same episode, or in the one right after. This gives the viewer a thin line of engagement so you’re never bored about what is going on. As if that wasn’t enough, there is also a conspiracy plot revolving the royal family on the background, that is slowly hinted until the end where it becomes the climax.

The character designs are extremely good looking (and while you might not believe me from the poster, that applies both to the guys AND the girls!) and the backgrounds are beautiful, always managing to capture the location’s feel and identity. The only problem I really have with the art is that I wish it had more spurts of good animation, which I understand is hard when you have characters as detailed and good looking as these, but they do it so well when they actually do have these spurts that it feels a bit like a wasted opportunity.

The music has a very jazzy feel to it, which includes the OP (which was probably the best OP of Winter 2017). I’m not gonna hide my personal bias in favor of anything with saxophones, but even if jazz doesn’t make you erect I do think you will enjoy this soundtrack.

I was actually planning on giving this a 4.5* (or 9/10) rating, but unfortunately I did have some minor nitpicks with the story which made it go down to a 4* to me. Like on 70% of every episodic anime on existence, it pertains to the “main” plot (the royal line conspiracy). I won’t spoil the resolution, but let’s just say it was disappointing. The red-herring was too much of a red-herring as in it was too good to be true, and the true villain, while a surprising twist at first, had such cliched and one-dimensional motivations it pretty much destroyed almost all of my enjoyment of his character.

It would even be okay to have his motives be as they are, but I wish they would reveal them in a more discrete way instead of having him scream it like a generic shounen villain. I do understand why they would do this, as people would most likely come up with some “they left it unresolved” bullshit and give it low ratings, but I can’t help but feel it made the show worse.

There is also a character reveal towards the end which didn’t make much sense in all honesty.

Because of these few problems I found, I’m giving this a 4* or 8/10 rating.

wade97 - 2017-03-29 03:19:13

Summary

This is a very slow burning politico-drama. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the main character Jean was a welcome change, being a calm and collected head character, not a common personality for main characters in anime sometimes.

This does NOT contain spoilers (I have attempted to remove any major hints)

Characters

Jean’s calm and collected personality was a welcome change from the generic hot headed justice knight that is abundant in many shows, instead we had a character who just did his job, without the need for a moral crusade. The supporting cast of characters were fantastic, from Prince Schawn, Nino and the Chief Officers, whilst some character I felt lacked some depth, the more focused on characters were given pretty good treatment on screen and had some level of depth to their character, such as their motives, their reasons for being and acting. I found Nino was one of the more fleshed out secondary characters and he had some dedicated screen time showing his back story which was really interesting.

Animation

The animation was quite good, but there was a noticeable decline towards the end of the season, featuring more stills and often the animation and backgrounds lacking in a bit of detail.

Music/Soundtrack

Fit really well to the genre and mood of the series, the ED and OP were fantastic, especially loved the OP. The ED in the final episode was also rather nice. The music within the episodes themselves was quite well done too, it fit the mood of the scenes quite well and I didn’t feel that the music was ever really out of place.

Setting

The Dowa kingdom was quite a cool place to visit, from French styled 19th century districts, Midwestern style rural districts to the more modern and flashy Badon, it was interesting to look and see what each district offered and what it reflected. The structure of the world, with how ACCA, the Royal Family and the districts worked together was not expanded on too much, mostly enough to get an idea, but I’m sure if I went back I’d pick up a few more details. The worldbuilding could have been expanded, but it would require more episodes in order to achieve that, perhaps the manga might be a better place to look for that.

Final verdict.

8.75 / 10

Pro
- Interesting setting/premise
- Fantastic lead/main character(s)
- Top notch soundtrack

Cons
- Underwhelming ending (was still great though)
- Animation drop in later episodes (minor nit pick)
- Lacking depth in some characters

Watch this if you like:
- Slow burning dramas
- Non-violent shows (little to none)
- Conspiracy plots
- Suave main characters

uriah60 - 2017-01-11 04:49:11

Great series so far