Skip this, and forget it ever happened. Let R&M have a gap year.
There are plenty of reasons this show is getting very negative feedback from the public. And no, it has nothing to do with the intellect of the demographics that normally follow the two distinct art styles.
Let's start with pacing. The original is quite strict about this, though it may not be so obvious. There the pace is set and never drops, even in scenes where the characters are feeling depressed, they have almost given up, etc. In contrast, here we see a never-ending frantic jumping between "nothing is happening" and "not even the animators know what is happening, or why". Well, that's no fun. The action is dull, badly animated (not a ding on the art style, as it is portrayed so foolishly I am wondering why it even made it off the animator's scrap pile), and all in all not entertaining.
Then we get to the dialogues and humour. It is dry, has no actual content, the characters are purposely dragging their feet and not evolving. The plot keeps pushing for singular expression of everything, whether it is prolonged silent wandering shots, prolonged conversations needlessly repeating what has happened / what is happening / how the characters feel (as both the characters and the viewer already know), or aimless confrontations between characters that are on the same fricking side and already have been for multiple seasons around each other so they know each other, where the original's style involved concurrent sound, visualisation, stimulated the viewer by letting 2-3 actions happen at once, sometimes even out of frame, or in a moment filling in history that changes the plot and rebalances the past, present and future actions, that would make the viewer feel like an active participant through figuring out what "the plan" is. The anime takes that away and makes everything explicitly declarative, very boring, coupled with the bad pacing that kills any desire to watch the rest of the episode, let alone to finish the series.
To reiterate, this review is not negative towards the art style. There are plenty of animes that are perfect just the way they are. But you can't just push the pig into a prom dress and call it miss Universe... Not without making anyone that likes pigs and anyone that likes miss Universe contests both angry at you. And guess what, if you do that, you deserve the backlash.
In short, this is a very bad season in the Rick and Morty universe. It was bound to happen. Thankfully, it is inconsequential. Skip it at will. In fact, trust the thousands of reviews on all platforms and JUST SKIP IT - period.
Let's start with pacing. The original is quite strict about this, though it may not be so obvious. There the pace is set and never drops, even in scenes where the characters are feeling depressed, they have almost given up, etc. In contrast, here we see a never-ending frantic jumping between "nothing is happening" and "not even the animators know what is happening, or why". Well, that's no fun. The action is dull, badly animated (not a ding on the art style, as it is portrayed so foolishly I am wondering why it even made it off the animator's scrap pile), and all in all not entertaining.
Then we get to the dialogues and humour. It is dry, has no actual content, the characters are purposely dragging their feet and not evolving. The plot keeps pushing for singular expression of everything, whether it is prolonged silent wandering shots, prolonged conversations needlessly repeating what has happened / what is happening / how the characters feel (as both the characters and the viewer already know), or aimless confrontations between characters that are on the same fricking side and already have been for multiple seasons around each other so they know each other, where the original's style involved concurrent sound, visualisation, stimulated the viewer by letting 2-3 actions happen at once, sometimes even out of frame, or in a moment filling in history that changes the plot and rebalances the past, present and future actions, that would make the viewer feel like an active participant through figuring out what "the plan" is. The anime takes that away and makes everything explicitly declarative, very boring, coupled with the bad pacing that kills any desire to watch the rest of the episode, let alone to finish the series.
To reiterate, this review is not negative towards the art style. There are plenty of animes that are perfect just the way they are. But you can't just push the pig into a prom dress and call it miss Universe... Not without making anyone that likes pigs and anyone that likes miss Universe contests both angry at you. And guess what, if you do that, you deserve the backlash.
In short, this is a very bad season in the Rick and Morty universe. It was bound to happen. Thankfully, it is inconsequential. Skip it at will. In fact, trust the thousands of reviews on all platforms and JUST SKIP IT - period.
- pavlin-velichkov
- Sep 1, 2024