Mekakucity Actors

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.