Mekakucity Actors (メカクシティアクターズ) is a 12 episode super natural fantasy
anime derived from a vocaloid series known as Kageru Project (カゲロウプロジェク). The series originally aired in Japan in the
Spring of 2014.
Hikikomori Kisaragi
Shintaro has to leave the safety of his bedroom for the first time in 2 years
to replace his broken keyboard over the Obon holiday. Unfortunately for him the mall is attacked by
a band of terrorists. When two fellow
captives convince him to use his AI to help stop the terrorists his life of
solitude comes to an abrupt halt. He
becomes entangled with a group of kids who call themselves the Mekakucity Gang
who all retain special powers derived from their eyes. Shintaro is unwillingly brought into their
efforts to discover the truth behind their abilities and how they are all tied
together.
This ended up
being a pretty cool series. Initially I had
no idea what it was about, gave the first episode a try, still didn’t
understand what was going on. It wasn’t
until about half way through the series that everything started to fall into
place and it was pretty cool. The art is
meh, plain in the detail department and the characters strike some pretty
unnatural poses from time to time. At
times it seems like they producers were trying to capture the essence of Anno
Hideaki and his love of juxtaposed landscapes.
The series at times can be confusing as the story isn’t laid out chronologically. In the middle there are episodes that seem to
divert completely from the central plot, only to be brought in afterwards. Don’t worry, everything will start to make
sense as the show draws to a close, so sit back and pay attention to what’s
going on. Another integral part of the
plot is the vignettes at the end of the credits. I didn’t pick up on this until a few episodes
in though…
In the end this
was a surprisingly good series, which oddly enough is based on a series of
popular vocaloid that work as story telling devices. At times there will be songs in the show, pay
attention to the lyrics for help with plot development as well. The story is good, the characters are
interesting and they covered it all in a good pace and length. The biggest thing is the artwork, it’s a bit
bland but doesn’t hinder the series, in fact, and it adds an air of
disconnected reality to it.
The series was
simulcast on Crunchyroll but there is no word on a disc release in North
America. Vocaloids are becoming a
popular thing outside of Japan so this series may find a modest following off
of that.
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