recent anime: an addendum

[rushthatspeaks]

I just finished a show called Subete ga F ni Naru (Everything Becomes F): The Perfect Insider, and while the show itself is fine, especially if you like detective stories, it has one of the best opening sequences I have ever seen on an anime, period, end of sentence, ever. It works as a very short film on its own, and if you like animation as an art form, or dance, or just want to see something really neat, you should absolutely watch this:

Watch on YouTube

These characters are all computer scientists.

I wish the show were as good as that opening, although honestly I'm not sure it's possible. As I said, the show is fine. I don't regret watching it. But that, though. That. Wow.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Oh, that really is nice! I love when the people transform into swirls and then back; that really captures dancing at its best.

[skygiants]

That's extremely neat! (There have definitely been anime I've watched all the way through in large part because of the excuse to enjoy the aesthetic pleasure of their opening sequences on a repeat basis.)

[malnpudl]

Wow. That 91 seconds could be its own Yuletide fandom. Now I kind of want that -- especially because I don't know what the lyrics mean. Visually beautiful, and takes my brain cool places.

[sovay]

It works as a very short film on its own, and if you like animation as an art form, or dance, or just want to see something really neat, you should absolutely watch this

That's really lovely.

Does it represent the plot or the premise of the series?

[rushthatspeaks]

It's the principal character dynamic, in which the two protagonists chase the... hm. She's not a co-protagonist, she's not an antagonist; I guess I'd say the character who is the cathexis of the series, the person on whom everything depends. And of course they never quite catch up to her, whether they're stumbling over each other or working together.

The opening sequence represents that dynamic accurately, it's exactly how it plays out, but the plot is nowhere near as good as it would need to be for the whole thing to be plausible, and chunks of the writing are frankly ludicrous. I think the problem is partly that the woman being chased is supposed to be a revolutionary genius of a computer scientist, and they haven't got anything revolutionary and genius to give her as an idea, so they can't actually go into it in detail. (The show title is about hexadecimal.) The other problem is that the genre is mystery, and they shouldn't have tried to fit the characters into genre constraints, in which they actually make little sense.

So the opening is representative, but also an extension of everything good about the series into what it should have been doing in the first place. Sigh.

[sovay]

So the opening is representative, but also an extension of everything good about the series into what it should have been doing in the first place.

I am so sorry they did not just direct an amazing dance piece instead of an anime.

[lokifan]

That is SO COOL. *dies of dance awesome*