Make My Day

The basic premise of the show is 'big bugs discovered on an icy mining colony start eating everyone'.

The first two episodes were interesting. I thought it was some kind of animated spin off from the Lost Planet series of videogames and I was waiting to see bigger and more crazy looking bugs show up (which they never did). By episode 3 the plot had descended into badly written, non-stop, cringe inducing dialogue about emotions and how people should help each other with very little action to keep me entertained.

The bugs quickly became boring and each new character that the story introduces is more irritating than the last.

The animation is pretty good. Similar to Arcane but not as colorful and smooth.

After episodes one and two the series isn't worth watching. I watched the dubbed version because I was tired and too lazy to reach for my glasses. This was a mistake as the dubbing is possibly the worst I've ever heard. It might be slightly better with subtitles but not by much.

In summary, avoid.

It's hard to write a review that doesn't cover what's been written before.

This anime, like most, suffers from typical anime issues. A young person is thrust into the spotlight to lead a group (or themselves) out of danger. They're initially shy and awkward, and then an episode later they're running around like they own the world, being impossibly awesome. It also has the same basic issue of static images with monologue look like stills, and it's hard to know whether the dubbing has been extended from the original or not, with a single frame paused to provide the additional time to bore us all with exposition. Add to that the 'surprise face' that the main character has and the 'oh, uh, ooh, waah' that we're constantly fed, makes me wonder whether this person is a newborn experiencing everything for the first time.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, the art work is great, and initially drew me into the show, however the show is let down by almost everything else. Including the basic plotline that just doesn't make sense.

Like, why is there a whole civilisation living on a barren frozen planet just to mine some special rock? If it's a penal colony, does there really need to be a whole city? How did the city get built if the air is toxic? Where do they get oxygen/nitrogen from to breathe? If it's a barren rock, why does the main building have a massive defence system? How come the tardigrades start to explode outside but not when shot hundreds of times in the mine? Why make this special mineral into little cubes that need to be fed in to machines like coins into a slot machine?

The plot conveniences are numerous and just go to show that, sadly, people can not write TV shows anymore.

If you're bored and really need something to watch, it's ok, but it's not going to win any awards for excitement nor originalism. Ah Netflix, you've done it again.

Outstanding example of how to write characters and character arcs. Professional, committed English voice acting.

A well-written original story is the big asset here. Less violence and action than most animes. The very unusual writing highlights the redemption of several unsavory characters, using forgiveness without violins or abandoning its gritty sci-fi genre track.

The eight episodes don't culminate in a tight third act. The story was designed to continue if there was a second season. Still the ending works well enuf to satisfy.

I think this is computer assisted Blender animation, nicely done. Not flashy yet not trashy in any respect.

Congratulations to all who created this.

I don't get why they made this into an 8 episode series. There will be no season 2, there's A LOT of filler, even in the short 20-minute episodes, and whatever air of "mistery" there is at the beginning it's gone by the third episode.

From then on it's basically a survival video game sprinkled with lots of useless, nonsensical dialogue. Half the characters are basically plot devices and mostly everthing they say is exposition.

The pacing is really, really bad. Characters stoping to have long discussions about every little thing undermines all the sense of urgency and chaos of the events going on around them. After a while you just don't care anymore, as there are no consequences from any of this.

The premise is interesting, but it gets smothered in such bad writing it's a shame.

Ah where to begin. Two episodes in, I was like, oh yeah! Lots of military scifi action. Animation is bad. Not really my cup of tea. But the premise of the story/plot is interesting.

Then the next couple episodes. The main character is weak. Though has tremendous potential. As always in japanese animé. Then the huge drama that comes with the Marnie character. Boy! This girl can cry! Again, thats japan for you. Want to inject a much needed drama? Make one or more characters wail and scream as loud as she can an cry an ocean of tears in the longest possible scene. I hope she gets eaten. But nah. She's the drama.

Then the rest of the episodes. Which are just filler episodes. Not much fun for me. But if you're a fan of extended loud crying in a very dated animation style, still a big no.