| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| A rather original show this, and it's able to grab your attention and hold it for a long time. Unfortunately, Bones did screw up a few crucial points.
The animation is very simple. A post-WWII era is depicted and everything is in style. However, there are quite a lot of animation flaws. Moving cars for example, turned out to be a problem for the animators. Animation simply isn't always fluid and certain scenes could've been animated way better. It's as if violent scenes are deliberatly left unanimated. This makes the show more appropriate for a younger audience, but in regard to certain other details in the anime, it could've been animated just the same. To sum it up, coming from Bones, the visuals are actually a bit disappointing, still, I'll give a 7 for the coherency in animation style (backgrounds, character fashion, cars, atmosphere, etc.)
Regarding sound, the anime features an OP that I just can't get used to, but it's far from an awful song. The END song is quite catchy though. The voice acting is somewhat sub par. This is different for each seiyuu though. Most characters were sufficiently voiced, but the script gave no challenge or oppertunity for any seiyuu to really show off. The seiyuu for Twenty Faces himself is actually god awful and very monotonuous and the seiyuu for the evil scientist(tm) at the end is just horribly miscast. BGM was scarce, but always complementing. Nothing special though.
The story of this anime is quite something else though, one with seemingly limitless potential. Much of that potential is somewhat discarded, but what is used is quite impressive nonetheless. Watching how Chiko is trained to use her wits is probably the most fun part of the story, but the search to create plasma (latter part of the story) is certainly the most intriguing one. Unfortunately, the execution of the latter part of the anime somewhat falters. Most of the drama is simply gone at one point. Still, in terms of originality the anime delivers, and the first part of the anime is executed quite nicely. One thing that really hampered the story, was the sci-fi element. Portraying fictional unfinished military war machines that would've meant victory for Japan in WWII is one thing, i can live with that. But villains that have undergone impossible bodily transformations and such is a bit over the top for this otherwise very realistic anime. If the sci-fi elements were traded in, the anime could've focused on the mystery aspect much more.
Something else where this anime fairs quite well, is the character department. Both the identity and history of Twenty Faces are a huge mystery and discovering them makes his character more than a stereotype Robin Hood variety. The resourcefullness of Chiko is also quite fun to watch and she undergoes some metal stages during the anime. She also happened to be the only character that I remotely cared about, aside from the initial henchmen of Twenty Faces. The rest of the characters are side characters and thus recieve little background and even less development. Do know that Bones isn't afraid of killing off many characters wihtin five minutes if you've grown to like them.
I have little to say about value. At any rate, the show isn't very rewatchable and the way the anime concludes, I don't really have any intention of rewatching anything. The show doesn't really have any hidden message, nor does it throw one in your face. What you see is what you get, and once you've seen it, you've actually seen it. Just a little more suspension here and there would've fixed this, but alas. Bones is one of my favorite animation studios, but this just isn't one of their better projects. It's in no way bad, but look at other works of Bones and you'll realize that with this anime, they've should've done a better job.
Still, I quite enjoyed Chiko's adventures. Wether she tries to please Twenty Faces, or is looking for him, Bones managed to keep it all quite entertaining. The final eps somewhat bring the series down, but other than that, it makes for some nice entertainment. If you're into simple mystery then this might be worth checking out. I wouldn't put this in the "reccomended" basket though.
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