Pacific Rim: The Black

Binged this series of one of my most favorite franchises. In my opinion, it surpasses both the movies. It is really complex yet fun to watch, and the characters are very memorable. I had a blast! Can't wait for season 2!

As a massive fan of Guillermo Del Toro's first Pacific Rim who was then let down by the disappointing sequel Pacific Rim Uprising, I quite enjoyed The Black. It is a solid step back into the world of Pacific Rim.

The Black is refreshingly told from a civilian's perspective. So far, we have only seen stories from the military's perspective. The writers do keep the stakes high and the characters consistently disadvantaged to keep the story interesting. Civilians simply do not have the same resources as the military and that naturally freshens things up story-wise. The situation feels less Top Gun and much more Mad Max with a touch of A Quiet Place. The dramatic moments the characters spent out of the Jaegar were equally enjoyable as when they were piloting the Jaegar brawling with the Kaiju.

Taylor and Hayley, the main characters, are teenagers and are angsty. Normally that would be annoying. However, the writers rightfully take advantage of this by having them convincingly make mistakes as any teenager would in these overwhelmingly epic situations, which have real consequences. Even though it is about giant robot fighting giant monsters, the overall approach in how the story deals with its character is realistic and grounded.

What's gone from Pacific Rim: The Black is the sensation of scale. What was fascinating and mindblowing about seeing the first Pacific Rim in theaters was Guillermo Del Toro's sheer commitment to selling how hulkingly huge the Jaegars and the Kaiju were in every frame. It was nail-biting how slow the Jaegars moved and you could feel every gear inside the Jaegar straining to make it through the fight. Every punch mattered. Every punch that landed felt like a World Cup championship victory.

This sense of scale was completely missing in the disappointing sequel Pacific Rim Uprising and it comes and goes throughout The Black, where the Jaegars occasionally move with the dexterity of Olympic gymnasts, but in other moments, that sense of scale and weight is there and that sense of awe comes back, even if it's half the time. I wish this was more consistent throughout the show. There's real cinematic magic when that works and it just raises all the hairs on my arms.

My quibbles aside, the fights are still pretty darn fun. They are well choreographed and rightfully build on details from the Pacific Rim films. There are some exhilarating action moments that will make fans cheer. I particularly enjoyed how the writers further explore the Drift and like the first Pacific Rim, uses it effectively as a story device to develop the relationships between the Jaegar pilots and intensifies the battles.

The first season for The Black does end abruptly, as if a producer came in andlopped off half of the show with a machete and deemed a mid-season cliffhanger as the new shortened season finale. When it happened, it had me doing a triple take going, "Wait, what? That was over?"

Regardless, I do intend to watch the second season to see what happens. The show was better than expected and it did win me over.

Overall, I'd recommend The Black to Pacific Rim fans. Fans who enjoyed the first film and was let down by the second and still have unfinished business in this universe are keen to enjoy this show.

I almost didn't watch this because I have found most Netflix Anime disappointing. However, I am really glad that I did. This is what the second movie should have been! The anime is good, and obviously anime-ish with many of the standard tropes. Also, I grew up on Robotech in the eighties, watching the anime and reading all of the books. This reminds me of what I remember Robotech being (I went back and tried to re-watch it a few years ago and it disappointed). There is a good balance of mech vs monster, character development, and plot advancement. Well done and I am looking forward to season 2.

This series is an intriguing attempt to find the sublime in the ridiculous. What we have to remember is that Pacific Rim was, by design, frivolous and almost a self-parody. It was a knowing wink at the ludicrousness of kaiju and the fancruft that have grown around them, with "no alloys" and "50 diesel engines per muscle strand" as standout lines signalling that everyone involved was revelling in subverting and almost-but-not-quite mocking the source material.

The Black plays it all far more seriously, trying to show the consequences for squishy humanity of the "kaijufication" of earth - or more specifically, Australia, but best not to dwell on that detail, given that most of the voice talent are resolutely North American. There's loss and tragedy, there are merely elephantine kaiju-hounds to give a human sized threat, there's genetic experimentation, there are Jaegers that aren't quite Jaegers: all sorts of ideas that are well worn tropes in themselves, but fresh to this milieu.

The animation is entirely CGI, there's not a hand-drawn cell to be seen. It's very well done though, at least for the human characters. Surprisingly, it's not so great for the kaiju and Jaegers, which are fairly generic grey-and-blue vs grey-and-red over-shadowed blobs, with little sense of size or mass to them.

What really shines through is that the lead voice acting is outstanding, and for once they're given half decent lines to deliver and they're not phoning it in. Gideon Adlon does a compelling turn as Haley, bringing an appealing warmth, range, depth and emotion to the role. Erica Lindbeck also plays it pitch perfect as a passive-aggressivly sardonic training AI, introducing just the right amount of levity. Calum Worthy is the straight-man, and given a bit less to work with, but he takes a damn good swing at what he's given. This is highlighted by contrast with the cast extras, who turn in fairly generic anime performances.

The pacing is also a strong point, with decent story arcs and few flat spots. You won't find much Japanimation budget-stretching scenes here of composed of 2 minute still frames with trembling eyes and meaningless ejaculations of "Oh! Ah!". It's all dialogue here, lads. The score and foley are also well done, adding to rather than distracting from the animation and voice talent.

I'll be honest, I was ready to dislike this, but it won me over. It's a bold and well realized series with its own strong vision, and it delivers it competently and confidently. Definitely worth a try.

Sometime after what has become known as the Uprising War from the last movie, a third Precursor invasion happens in Australia decimating the continent and forcing the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) to abandon the continent and retreat. 5 years after the invasion, as Hayley and Taylor Travis (Gideon Adlon and Calum Worthy) await rescue from the PPDC in a hidden sanctuary with diminishing hope of rescue. After Hayley unearths a disused training Jaegar named Atlas Destroyer, the activation of the mechnisms inadvertantly alerts a Kaiju to the sanctuary's location destroying all but Hayley and Taylor. With their home destroyed and no rescue in sight, Hayley and Taylor must now venture through the ruins of Australia with their Jaegar venturing into the harsh wastes know to Survivors as The Black.

Back in 2013 Guillermo del Toro graced multiplexes with Pacific Rim, a fun take on Japanese monster films and super robot anime filtered through the lens of a big budget blockbuster. While the film garnered respectable box office numbers, it's digital footprint didn't translate to the level of success the studio was hoping for and most likely would've been written off as a disappointment had it not been for the film's massive success in Asian markets, particularly China, which eventually opened the door for the sequel, 2018's Pacific Rim: Uprising, with del Toro stepping back into a producing role and handing the reins to Spartacus and Daredevil director Steven S. DeKnight. Uprising is very flawed movie, it has some good elements in it and I like how it's tone is less apocalyptic (to a point) but without the gravitas del Toro added to the first one, Uprising came off in many ways like a big budget fan fiction including creating a previously unmentioned brother for Mako Mori with Jake Pentecost and not even addressing the previous protagonist Raleigh Beckett. Pacific Rim: The Black takes place some indeterminate amount of time after Uprising and while it does build upon elements from Uprising, it's not required viewing to understand or enjoy Pacific Rim: The Black. While the format may have changed for Pacific Rim: The Black, it still manages to deliver on the series' strengths while expanding the universe in new and interesting ways.

From the outset, The Black despite being animated is clearly taking its inspirations from the first film as many times the Jaeger/Kaiju battles are shot from street level views to give a sense of scale and weight to the battles and it's opening sequence where Australia is being invaded is very well done. The show also goes back to the first movie's themes of survivors guilt and carrying shared weight as it focuses on a brother and sister who've grown up in a world without their parents. Taylor is overly serious and no nonsense being a former Jaeger cadet prior to the fall of Australia, and takes a hardline stance when it comes to his sister's well being, while Hayley is more impulsive and brazen in her actions. It's a good dynamic that makes for rich familial drama but doesn't teeter over the edge into melodrama. The sequence where the Hayley inadvertantly activates the Jaeger and alerts a nearby Kaiju to the sanctuary has some absolutely haunting moments of terror as their friends and loved ones are massacred and the survivor's guilt felt by Hayley makes for compelling viewing especially in the friction it causes in their relationship.

While the characters are certainly rich and have some great exchanges, it helps that the world The Black creates feels unique (at least in terms of the Pacific Rim universe). Being set in Australia, it should surprise absolutely no one that there's more than a few passing similarities to the world of Mad Max with roving gangs of scavengers and marauders which surprisingly mesh really well in a world of monsters, giant robots, and other sci-fi gadgets. The show does a good job of creating an ongoing mystery as Hayley and Taylor search for their missing parents and introducing elements such as a mute albino boy, what seems to be a Jaeger/Kaiju hybrid, and many other dangling plot threads that are given just enough intrigue and answer to keep you wanting more.

What issues I do have with Pacific Rim: The Black are fairly minor, but I'd be remiss if I didn't address them. The animation is really good at the Kaiju/Jaeger battles, but the show struggles with the human moments every so often. For the most part the human models are perfectly serviceable, but being a CG series with anime aesthetics sometimes facial features will seem unnaturally flat or feel somewhat doll like in how they interact. There's also some situations where they attempt to do more dynamic and complex camera movements with the humans such as an instance involving a 360 degree arc shot inside a damaged Jaeger that gave the appearance the character in the fore ground was floating. As many have pointed out the show is only 7 episodes long. To the writers' credit the story never feels rushed or anything, but some of the emotional crescendo and dramatic payoffs may have elicited greater impact had they been allowed more time to develop.

Pacific Rim : The Black is a good addition to the franchise. While the compressed storytelling and somewhat rough animation at certain points can be distracting, the show continues building upon the interesting world built in the first tow films and populating it with interesting characters and compelling narratives.