In 2035, an incident known as “The Burst” occurs at a Japanese research facility, giving birth to the rapidly expanding, consuming, and self-replicating "Matter." Snaking its way through the remains of dams and military facilities in the Kurobe Gorge, the hostile Matter is besieged by task forces trying to prevent it from reaching the ocean and mercenaries seeking the truth behind its existence.
Aiko Tachibana lives under constant medical surveillance after being rescued from the Matter. She spends her days waiting out her recovery by making paper planes. Soon, her daily life at school is disturbed by the arrival of transfer student Yuuya Kanzaki, who proceeds to point out a number of inconsistencies regarding her body. Why is she never injured, and why does she suddenly no longer need her wheelchair? He claims that there is more to her existence than she has been led to believe, and that she alone holds the key to ending The Burst.
With many factions now interested in Aiko, she and Yuuya must gather allies and embark on a dangerous pilgrimage into the heart of the infested gorge before the net can close around them. To escape the conspiracy moving against them, the pair must face off against the Matter—an enemy that flows like water.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
harunist
A.I.C.O. Tells the story of Japan being overrun with "matter", a sort of abstract material that destroys everything in it's path. The story is a bit generic but the pacing make's up for that. The biggest issue I had with this anime was the main character; Tachibana, Aiko. it's not that she lacks depth, it's the way she reacts to every situation. It's like she was made to be shocked at every turn. And it gets tiresome fast. The best aspect of the anime is the artwork. The elegant animations and fast pace of the series is what kept the two dimensional characters in checkand made the series watchable. I did like the small details that made the world of A.I.C.O feel more authentic, e.g. the artificial suits that needed to be fed in order to function properly. I wish a little more thought was put into the world building of the series, it felt like I was watching a CW series with good visuals. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but it does make for a good popcorn anime.
Scarlet_Fairy23
This show is a good example of how important good characters are. A.I.C.O.: Incarnation is visually fantastic with an intriguing story, but it falls flat when it comes to characters. Not only does it fail to properly introduce them, but each and every one of them are so badly written it's pathetic. For starters, we are given no reason to care about any of them. There are a few "emotional" scenes in this show that are clearly supposed to be tearjerkers, including a death and some drama. But, listen, nobody's going to cry over a character they don't care about! "Oh no, this character that I forgotthe name of and I can't describe to save my life is dead, so sad."
On top of that, there were a considerable amount of scientist side characters that they never introduced and I just... I honestly never knew who they were. Specifically this pink-haired scientist lady that ended up being semi-important.
You can't just.... throw in random characters and say "they're important now" without any introduction whatsoever.
As I sat watching the credits of the final episode, I came to the realization that I never found out who she was or why she was there.
Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Our main characters, the ones that I previously said give no reason for the audience to care about them, are horrible.
You see, they had to get to Primary Point, the end goal/location of their mission, quickly. They kept saying how they needed to hurry up, like there was some sense of urgency.
"Like there was some sense of urgency" ... well, there didn't seem to be for the characters themselves.
They kept saying how they needed to go faster, get to Primary Point sooner, and it was urgent...! And then they took breaks that lasted basically almost full episodes every episode.
YOU CAN'T DO THAT. YOU CAN'T KEEP REPEATING THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE TO HURRY UP AND THEN STAND AROUND NOT PROGRESSING AT ALL FOR SEVERAL HOURS.
They weren't even doing anything important! They were just bickering and joking around! What? Like, w h a t ? !
Because of this, the middle episodes ended up being incredibly repetitive. Some scenes of them fighting Matter, supposed character/plot/lore/I-don't-even-know development, then more scenes of them goofing around and not doing what they said they should be doing at all.
Yes, because I'm sure everyone wants to see a bunch of flat, generic characters talking to eachother instead of the actual plot progression.
And don't even get me started on the two MAIN main characters, Kanzaki and Aiko. If I elaborate on Kanzaki, I'll reach spoiler territory, so I'll just say this about Aiko...
I don't think anyone working on this anime knew what her personality is supposed to be like. She changed sides and opinions every 2 seconds, got super emotional and caused trouble for the sake of plot progression and only for the sake of plot progression, and just in general had no character whatsoever. Long story short, I really hate Aiko.
Moving on, I wish more things were explained in this show. Some things were painful like, "HERE LET ME TELL YOU MY ENTIRE BACKSTORY AND FEELINGS FOR THE SAKE OF THE AUDIENCE TO INTRODUCE MY CHARACTER, POINTLESS BEST FRIEND WHO IS COMPLETELY UNIMPORTANT" while others were left so unexplained I was very, very confused.
A.I.C.O.: Incarnation has such an interesting world. One wrapped in mystery and sci-fi that I wanted to know more about. But, no, no. Obviously focusing on the idiot characters and their adventure was more important, right?
It's not only the world. There were so many characters that I just. I don't know who they are. At all, actually. There's a bunch of different sides and organizations and groups and goals and I...! It was so very confusing.
And now for a brief list of the good things about this anime:
- Some neat plot twists.
- Quality BONES animation.
- Beautiful character art. I love the eyes.
- Amazing Opening theme.
- A legitimately interesting world.
- Very bingeable. Thanks, Netflix.
- I genuinely enjoyed it.
Yes, I enjoyed this show. I just ranted about it for 10 minutes, yet I enjoy it.
I guess trash can still be entertaining.
InfinityKiyen
If you wondering what episode 12 try to tell you must be like trying to put in all the plot and stories that been happening so far to fully understand what it tries to imply. Episode 12 is like a puzzle that the creator lets you try to find out what it means by yourself. I won't tell you the answer, the true meaning of the ending cause it will count as a spoiler which I don't want to do that at all. The stories are kinda interesting. Some people will say it like Akira the movie but at the same time, it isn't. This isn'tthat kinda movie where they have a superpower like that. The stories will be like about the girl with a fake body try to stop the burst just as the synopsis said but when you watch the entire series it just adds even more than just that. They even use real biological logic in this series too. I will give it 9/10 due to how well made it is and just as the above to what trick it try to do. It explains you and at the same time, it gave you the solvable puzzle for you to solve for later on or it will be solvable in the future. At some point, they also somehow use some strong drama scene without any warning at the right moment too. Not just any BS one but some logical thing that should have to happen. I didn't even expect they would do a drama that hard without any warning too, to be honest.
For the art style, its kinda gave you the creep and find it hard to watch but its the whole point. Since this isn't some happy anime but its the near apocalypse anime. It will be a horrible apocalypse anime if it looks beautiful. Even so, I think they can do better than that by making it, even more, creepier but considering that many horror anime still can't reach to the point of true horror yet so it's understandable. I will give it the 8/10.
For sound effect, I think its only at the good lv. At least it isn't horrible but only just good so I will give it just 7/10 stand for good and just that.
For the character design, I will say that it's kinda fun enjoyable to see how they act and only just that until some episode of course that it somehow made us care about the character. I think this is one of the anime that can do like some instant drama without any warning which is also super effective to how they timing that.
This anime I find myself very enjoying it. I think it will be 10/10.
In conclusion, it will be 9+8+7+8+10 = 42 then 42/5 it will be 8.04/10. I will just give it 8/10 due to the math. It isn't something that you call nonsense. Its what you call "math"
Extra: To be honest I never expect that Netflix will somehow make a very good original series. This kinda goes beyond what I have to expect in this series. Hope they will make something with this lv of quality a lot more soon. Since most of the series Netflix has a bad hobby of doing the "Must watch more series to know how it will end"
I don't wang that JoJo reference like "To be continued" memes. Wait... Not another Fing JoJo reference... But yeah that's how they mostly do so this is considering one of the best they have ever made. There's a lot more then this but its just so rare but it won't be if they said this anime is with Netflix without saying that its "Netflix original series" when that happens it always end up really good. With good starting and the good ending that made you want to watch more without being forced to.
Tyrannicswine117
Warning possible Spoilers With the success of Devilman Crybaby, there were two new Netflix anime's to check out B: The Beginning and A.I.C.O.: Incarnation, I decided to watch AICO first and after finishing it I had definitely made the wrong choice. Story (5/10) The story is set in Japan 2035, where an artificial life form known as Matter has engulfed the Kurobe Gorge. A girl called Aiko lost her family to this and an unknown student says she is the key to stopping the Matter once and for all. Now AICO's story was a mixed bag from the get go, in fact after episode 2 I was actually thinkingof dropping it because it was so goddamn boring to watch and the characters weren't helping either which I'll get to in a minute. I wanted to be interested in the whole science and story behind the Matter, but the conversations and exposition about this whole thing just kept boring me and I almost lost complete interest in the show completely.
Yet somehow it managed to save itself a little when our group of characters decided to set out on a journey to fight through the Matter to reach the Primary Point, which is where it all started and from episodes 3-8 the show was pretty enjoyable to watch. It had some good action sequences, fairly decent character development and the journey getting through the Matter was pretty thrilling.
Then we reach the final episodes and then everything fell apart, not because it got boring, but because it shoved so much more exposition that it got confusing and kind of annoying to watch as all this new information just suddenly came out of nowhere.
The ending also felt rushed, we get to see like a 1-2 second clip our characters doing things I wasn't expecting them to do and I feel like they skipped out on having a sadder ending, but nope we gotta have a happy ending for everyone well except for that one guy who ended up dying.
So yeah the story is pretty mixed for me with a poor beginning and end, but a somewhat enjoyable middle section.
Characters (4/10)
The characters were easily the weakest part of the whole show, with such a huge cast you'd think that there would be something here amongst them. Surprisingly there was it just wasn't the main characters.
Aiko and Yuuya are the two main characters of the show and honestly they are so fu*king boring, I gave zero damns about these two as they showed zero personality especially Yuuya, who as a character would've been utterly pointless if it wasn't for the incredibly obvious twist that he was actually someone else. Aiko could've been a decent character, but she just didn't grasp me at all. Yeah she wasn't exactly human either, but that still didn't change my perspective of her and in the end I feel like she got off way too easily.
Now the diver crew consisting of Kazuki, Kaede, Yoshihiko and Haruka were definitely the saving grace when it came to the characters. Each if them actually had a kind of personality, it wasn't amazing, but it was still something and the chemistry between them kept me watching until the final episodes came along and kinda put them in the background and the development choices for them during the last episodes weren't really great, but they still managed to keep me somewhat entertained.
Of course there is a bunch of other characters, but they were so forgettable that they just aren't worth mentioning.
Art (6/10)
Surprisingly enough for a show as mediocre as this, the artstyle was pretty good. The design of the characters gave me a early-mid 2000's nostalgic feel and the suits plus the weapons the divers used were actually pretty cool. There was a nice variety of weapons and each of the diver characters had a specific weapon they liked to use which kinda helped to separate them as individuals instead of making them random cannon fodder, also for weapons that exist in the 2030's they look pretty damn advanced for that time period. The suits did give me a sort of Halo, Mass Effect feel like this what you would get if you combined them and gave them kickass roller skates.
Now despite being CGI the vehicles still looked good especially the giant tank thing they had which kinda sucked to see get destroyed, yet I am kinda surprised the Matter wasn't CGI, well for the most part it wasn't, but I have to respect the animators for not making them completely CGI.
One more thing there was one scene where one of the characters was standing on a beach with sticks everywhere and I noticed how detailed that one scene was and it just impressed me to the point where I had to mention it.
Sound (6/10)
Also surprisingly the op and ed were fairly decent as well. The op had a alright beat, but it could've been better. It's mainly the ed that caught my eye or ears in this case, because I liked how it showed Aiko walking up the gorge before the incident happened and gave me the feeling this the journey she is going to experience just with a lot of monsters in the way and that it'll eventually lead her to her goal. The soundtrack was fairly forgettable, but the instrumental notes in some scenes that had some emotion to them were nice to listen to.
The last thing I have to mention and this is what completely killed my ears and brain throughout the whole thing which is the goddamn dub, now usually I'm pretty cut lose with dubs, but there have been a few in the past that I cannot defend them in any way or form because the dub here is absolutely terrible so for once I would actually prefer the sub instead of the dub.
Extras:
The action was pretty good and kept me entertained longer than I expected, the fast moving divers going up against an enemy that couldn't be completely defeated by their guns was kind of intense. But I am a little disappointed that only one character of the group died and it probably would've sucked seeing some of the other characters die too, but I felt like having a few extra deaths would've helped make the journey a little more emotional and would've helped develop the characters a little more.
Enjoyment (5/10)
Yeah the enjoyment factor was very mixed, one moment I'm hating it, being confused or just bored by it. Another minute there's a scene that was actually fun to watch and kept me going a little longer.
Overall (5/10)
Overall this was like I said a mixed bag of an anime, some people might like it more than I did, but word of advice watch this in sub and not dub (although considering the division between these two fan factions I doubt many will watch it in dub).
LegendAqua
How to NOT make an anime dub 101... A.I.C.O.: Incarnation is a very interesting sci-fi anime with a basic plot with some obvious plot twists along the way to make the plot have more bulk. But all things considering, A.I.C.O.: Incarnation is one of the more unique and interesting animes LA had seen yet why does LA feel like LA felt nothing in the process?. Anyways the plot revolves around Yuuya Kanzaki wanting to bring Aiko Tachibana over to Primary Point with a select number of Divers (those who handle and purge the Malignant Matter for money, so think of them as mercenary treasure hunters indangerous environments) helping both Yuuya and Aiko getting to Primary Point. On the surface the plot is a typical escort mission while we learn about Aiko, Yuuya and maybe some of the members of the Divers in the process. What really becomes interesting is once the plot twists comes into play and this doesn't become a simple "escort mission" more like a science experiment gone haywire and we find out the cause and cure for it with character development mainly focused on Aiko and Yuuya because "main characters" and the such.
There is a villain in all of this of course by the form of Kyousuke Isazu where his driving conflict with Aiko and Yuuya (but mainly Yuuya) makes Isazu a rather sympathetic but "wrong methods" kind of villain in the process of it. He's not evil per say as it's more or less his agenda conflicts heavily with Yuuya and his plans and he will take ANY measures to attain his goal even if his ulterior motives splurges into frame.
The plot twists were probably the defining things that kept LA interested in what really happened and it's the plot twists that really catalyzed the plot from mere escort mission to something much more. Now mind you, some of the plot twists were coming from a mile away due all the hints but still the majority of the time, the plot twists helped this anime massively into being almost something great from beginning to end.
Character-wise well thing is, we do learn much from Aiko being the central character and our audience surrogate along with Yuuya being the one to whisk Aiko and the Divers into the dangerous Primary Point and is the catalyst for the plot to occur thus it's rather obvious they get the bulk of the screentime and development what with the revelations and everything. The problem goes to the Divers, they are rather stock typical characters, like the genki carefree Kaede to the motherly Maho and the steadfast leader Daisuke but as much as they essentially guardians and protectors to our main characters, they didn't develop that much as characters and they more or less went with the flow of the plot to define their actions in the plot with little to no backstories about them but considering their mercenaries for hire in a ways LA thinks a backstory wasn't necessary for two reasons, one they aren't the main characters and the the plot isn't focused on the Divers and two, they had more chemistry as a team due to their camaraderie that that was all they really needed and no LA isn't saying they were dead weight as they did have some impact in the plot in some sense but nonetheless the Diver group weren't the central focus of the anime at all.
In terms of animation, done by Bones, well from character designs and the beautiful to fully desecrated places shown was GREAT all things considering. All the characters did have a distinct look to them while the background has either a beautiful look to it but mostly the desecrated look that looks like a science experiment gone wrong-look to it. Since this is Bones, the battles should look awesome right?, well LA will say 'decent" to say the least as most of the battles focus on beam spamming with the damages on the Malignant Matter shown in full force but since there isn't exactly "fighting" involved, the battle animations are "limited" to say the least. Nonetheless the animation was great, expected form Bones.
Soooooooooooooooooo...LA watched the English dub for A.I.C.O.: Incarnation (which is why LA didn't credit the characters VA when it came up as LA usually does) and ohhhh boy if LA's first statement to this review isn't saying something well, before LA gets down to the voice work, there's a bit of stupidit- history to this dub. Well for one, Netflix picked up the anime but instead of handling the dub themselves or to a studio that knows how to do it, Netflix gave a Korean-based media group to handle it in which they gave most of the casting roles to...Spanish dub voice actors who had NEVER done an English dub before...no seriously. The thing is LA won't blame the voice actors because of this because the main cause was the terrible scripting and directing by newbie to the dubbing field Phil Raeymaekers. How bad is the scripting, well how about to the point they made the translations into English quite literal sounding from using "-chan", "-san" and "-kan" into the script instead of going into nicknames or omitting them like most dubs do!, the thing is they weren't even consistent with it as they yes DO use the honorifics almost all the time but they don't use it with "sensei" or sometimes were INCONSISTENT in using the honorifics with this, so they couldn't even get that right. LA was nitpicking there but next thing only gets worse, being the deliveries of ALL the voice cast, again LA doesn't blame the voice actors because they really weren't given any proper direction by the director giving us stilted dull monotoned with consistently small pausing performances and with no emotions to ANY of the lines showing it was quite a "literally translated script" and this quite obviously HEAVILY impacted LA watching the anime. LA doesn't know if felt like LA both was invested in or was up to date with the plot and characters but not WHENEVER any of the characters spoke, LA knew and followed the plot yet didn't care all at the same time and worse yet have emotionally impactful moments be reduced to dull monotoned performances and this happened VERY often considering the plot LA was talking about. LA thinks some of the worse dubs is when one, your taken off the experience in the world the anime made itself and two, if your invested in the plot and it's characters yet doesn't give a crap about what's happening because the vocal work is soo terrible. Like if LA would have sum up the vocal work it'll have to be like one of those dubs made TWO DECADES ago but somehow was released in 2018, this isn't Garzey Wing levels of terrible dubbing but DAMN it's close. Oh and one more thing is that LA did watch one episode that was in Japanese dubbed and it was fine, LA instantly knew the situation (even though LA already knew it), LA got attached to the characters much faster and LA kept up with the plot. Seriously A.I.C.O.: Incarnation's dub both taught LA how important voice work is to ANY media as well how NOT to make a Japanese to English dub. Since LA does this for every English dub LA comes across LA awards A.I.C.O.: Incarnation the first E Rank in terms of dubbing because it fricikin' deserves it!, seriously Netflix what in the fuck were you thinking?
*ahem* A.I.C.O.: Incarnation was one of the more unique sci-fi animes LA seen in 2018 with plot twists weaving together to make a VERY interesting story of a scientist redemption, to right his wrongs. Sure the character department is lacking in some areas and some of the plot twists were kinda foreshadowed and the god awful English dub didn't help to the point of not even being a "so bad, it's good" situation, it's just THAT bad, but all things considered with it's decent animation done by Bones and especially with the scope of the anime it was going for that for the most part delivered to tell a full story and this being a Bones original is quite something. A.I.C.O.: Incarnation isn't perfect let alone the "Best Anime of 2018" for LA but it came and gave LA's expected expectations of what kind of premise and story it had in mind and it delivered.
Note - If LA watched the Japanese dub instead then the Sound rating would have easily been a 7 or 8 (again aforementioned LA watched at least one episode in Japanese to gauge a comparison to it's English counterpart) but LA only gave the Sound a 2 because LA watched the majority of anime in English dub thus LA gave it a 2.
beeper2beeper
Story: 5/10 This story is pretty average. It asks the existential question of "how much of yourself can you lose before you're no longer human" but with mystery "matter." The story is a bit confusing at first but it gets better by the end. There are a few twists here and there, but if you watch a lot of anime you can see it coming. I do like that they tried something new in the genre Art: 7/10 You can tell there was some budget that went into the serie. It's simple, but there's a lot of panning shots and still parts for limited animation. It isn't MAPPAquality but there is a variety of camera angles and interesting shots every once in awhile
Sound: 5/10
The music is neat. The voice acting is what gets me. I watched the dubbed version and the girl MC voice annoyed me, so I couldn't fully invest in her character. The male MC voice doesn't match him at all. All the side characters and girl MC voices gives off teenager energy, whilst the male MC voice sounds like he's in his 20s.
Characters: 5/10
Pretty basic. I don't know any of their names except Gummy (the hamster like blob). I only remember its name because I like hamsters. There are scenes to give depth to the characters but it feels out of place and shoe-horned in. The characters aren't properly introduced and falls into archetypes. Makes it really hard to enjoy the serie when I dislike the MC so much.
Enjoyment: 5/10
I had little expectations going into this because it was made by Netflix. And I came out not a changed man. It added nothing to my life, but it was a good time-waster
Overal: 5/10
There are better series out there in the sci-fi genre that tackles existential questions and exploring the unknown. I wasted my time so you don't have to.
manu221335
Bones.. As always it was an atmospheric , generic anime that almost living you in. But somehow , in this anime , in this Bones anime there was not enough explanation about supporting characters, even a beatiful atmosphere tho. There was some mistakes taken in the art , story , Characters e.t.c Story , story telling , plot wasn't effectfive at all. all the scene transitions and timings was not good as the characters and role actings , ofc that's because of bad story and storytelling. Well Bones Tried to Create Bounen No Xamdou a like anime story , but yeah , if you donot stand on to the anime, that happens. After all , Bounen No Xamdou was a very good atmospheric anime that putted a lot work at anime.
Story -8 Art -7 Sound -7 Characters -8 Enjoyment -7 Over all -8
So there were not good enough story , but yeah its a bones anime after all go n check it,
That was a review Have a good time..
scrybaby
Spare yourself some second-hand embarrassment by watching this with it's original Japanese audio and subtitles. Seriously. The English dubbing is awful; near-excruciating. Nothing dumbs down an otherwise decent anime like the use of Japanese suffixes in English speech. Translate in full, or not at all. I couldn't even make it through two episodes before adjusting my audio/subtitle settings. That said, it's worth the watch in its intended format. Nothing special, but I enjoyed it. ... The character minimum for these reviews is ridiculous. Some things can be said in less words. Below is some nonsense to help me reach my count: shjdgajsdg asjdhg asjhgdj asgjhsdg jhsdg jhsdg jsagdjhsdg js dgjhsa shjdgajsdg asjdhg asjhgdj asgjhsdg jhsdg jhsdg jsagd jhsdg js dgjhsa shjdgajsdg asjdhg asjhgdj asgjhsdg jhsdg jhsdg jsagd jhsdg js dgjhsa shjdgajsdg asjdhg asjhgdj asgjhsdg jhsdg jhsdg jsagd jhsdg js dgjhsa shjdgajsdg asjdhg asjhgdj asgjhsdg jhsdg jhsdg jsagd jhsdg js dgjhsa
stonelike
Episode 1 is good, and really served to pique my interest. The Divers are given an exciting opening, and Aiko's slice-of-life intro works pretty well at giving us a sense of her character and some of her immediate life struggles. Some genuine mystique is built up around the Matter and its' role in the world, and the pacing works well. After that, though, I think my final impression of the series gradually turned into something a little above average at best. There are some solid parts to the series overall. The mechanical designs of the vehicles are pretty good and are well-animated CG, and there wassome nice effects work on the synthetic suits and other technological elements. They also picked really fun intro and outro songs, I enjoyed those a lot.
For a while, I watched with the impression that the story was going to turn into something interesting, and say something I hadn't heard on the subject of human-machine coexistence. The setup of the Matter, artificial organisms, and the emphasis on medical technology and life-saving surgeries seemed novel in its' treatment, at least at first. But all the payoffs fell short of my expectations, and the story gradually unfolded into a much sloppier and more generic take on the subject.
There are three big problems with the storytelling in this show.
One is the confused morality it attempts to use throughout when talking about the moral rights (or lack thereof) of synthetic beings, which feels more pedantic and poorly defined the more the story tries to explore it in any depth. This is most clearly seen in Yuuya's character, especially in the latter half of the series, and the main justification for his disregard for the rights of artificial life seems to be the fact that he's a smart cookie scientist so shut up. Conversely, anyone arguing for the intrinsic value of said artificial life exclusively does so through the "but I like them and my feelings are real so they must be real too" empathic argument, which, again, is sloppy and unsatisfying. So it strikes out on both counts, in my opinion. In the end we *mostly* get the lazy light/dark bio/artificial we-cannot-mingle apartheid mentality, which was just a disappointment.
The second is the way the story executes its' attempts at thrilling twists, which often *almost* succeed, but which either rely on narrative ass-pulls, or - in one very important case - confuse things to the point of near contradiction, only to be (mostly?) patched by borderline retroactive storytelling (e.g. Aiko's eyes; you'll know it when you see it). The result is that there is no point where these twists directly build off a past hint or event without introducing outright new information that was previously hidden from the viewer, and impossible to obtain beforehand. The result is that I basically shrug and throw my hands in the air whenever it happens - because how am I supposed to even try to predict a twist that only the writer can see coming? (This is a classic mistake in bad mystery story writing. The reader should *always* be given just enough information to figure out who killed who with what and when, IF they care to put in the effort before reading what the protagonist detective thinks. That's part of the fun. There's no point to this, however, if it turns out that the real killer escapes all detection by everybody until the final act, and only appears at the very end, impossible to predict beforehand. That's not a mystery; that's a joke. Or cell assembler #3.)
The third is the fleshing-out of the technology. Most of the story is grounded in the concept of the "cell assemblers", which are basically synthetic biological cells which mimic their biological counterparts. At first, things seem to tick along pretty well in the story. The most outlandish thing we see is the "Matter", the uncontrolled bio-hazard which coats a good chunk of the local landscape; but it behaves in ways that seem plausible despite its' alien and uncontrolled mystique. However, as the story progresses, things become increasingly murky in terms of how things work or what we can even expect to be possible, and the show dabbles in random telepathy and spontaneous clairvoyance that have NO clear or even attempted explanation other than "synthetic biology did it. somehow.". This means that the stakes and the dramatic tension become increasingly murky as well. And that's half the story right there, really. I think the most blatant example of this is the entire subplot for Isazu and his daughter, especially right near the end. What starts as a tragic bond between father and daughter becomes an increasingly scattered and cluttered mess of a dramatic subplot that really comes out of left field, culminating in some borderline nonsensical biotech megalomania that feels awkward and shoehorned in. (In fact, a lot of the final conflicts in the last four episodes feel awkwardly bolted-on in this way, rather than clear logical extensions of what came before.)
Aside from those glaring issues, the action scenes were decent overall despite an occasional choppy shot, but I will admit that endless scenes of relatively samey Matter attacks did start to get old sooner rather than later. The voice work was decent, no real complaints there. The setting art was a bit on the darker and more unstimulating side, but I think it was serviceable.
One general complaint is that there wasn't much character development after episode 4 or so. Most of the characters don't really grow or change in significant ways, and most of their interactions are either cocky battle chatter or scared yelling, without much depth or insight into who they are or why they live the lives they do (aside from one rather awkwardly blatant scene on an outpost rooftop...). As well, for all the screentime Nanbara gets, I didn't really feel like her character contributed much to the story other than some occasional narrative convenience and a halfhearted take on political intrigue. Her stance on why the matter shouldn't be destroyed, which is practically her defining character trait, is never really clarified or challenged in any depth, and becomes moot to the story except as a means to buy time for other characters later in the story. She could have either been made more relevant, or cut near entirely.
The scenes that aren't mostly banter or battle cries are fine where the story manages to keep itself coherent and on the rails. But Aiko is a mostly passive and reactive protagonist who is literally shuttled through the story from start to end, and this is a serious problem in itself when most of the story is centered around her point of view. Many of the action scenes don't even involve her all that much, other than to show that she still exists and is struggling with the situation. The only active decision(s) she makes after episode 2 is to keep going on this field trip in the first place, but her only real strengths are that she's a nice person and has a high pain tolerance. That's about it.
In short, this show initially seemed to offer something fresh, but ultimately fails to deliver on that impression. If you want a half-decent scifi action show to burn through one afternoon, this is fine for that, but I don't specifically recommend it beyond the first or second episode. Skim through it if you want to see more of the tank and vehicle designs though, they're pretty fun to watch as they scoot around.
Thanks for reading.
DUCK-KING
Seeing all that meat move around so quick made me uncomfortable... The english voice actor for the main girl annoyed me at times and the pacing seemed to fast (like every netflix anime i've seen). The art and lighting was solid (like every netflix anime i've seen) and the soundtrack was ok nothing to special. Netflix has been real hit and miss with there anime, I think in a few years they'll figure it out more but until then we'll probably keep getting these iffy shows. Couldn't say i'd recomend this to most people unless they were into power rangers with a side of raw bloodthirsty sloppy joes.
rmremail
The story was well thought out, with interesting plot twists. The characters were likable, but something was off. This anime never clicked with me. Possibly the fact that it was 'story telling by info dump': way too much exposition. This anime was very dense in information. I had to pause the episodes periodically to try to process what was going on, and who was who and why they were doing what they did. the action was plot driven - you aren't going to see epic battles. Instead the fights are just there to help with the story. I usually like that, but it would have been niceto see the characters win through some special perseverance or creativity.
The art and the sound a decent
Overall, I would say give this show a try if you have nothing better to watch.
JakuTheSloth
Overall this is one of those animes I watched not because it was amazing or anything, rather it was ok. Lets start with how the anime actually looked to me. For character design there really wasn't anything special. For Kanzaki lookwise reminded me greatly of Inaho Kaizuka from Aldnoah Zero and will definitely blend in to generic anime characters in my memory. I think the diver suits with the different splashes of color were the most notable outfit of the show. The enemy in this show, the "matter", isn't anything to write home about either think along the fleshy blob that Tetsuo became in Akira .Honestly the first couple episodes before the characters venture outside the safety of the city is probably where the setting looked best. Afterwards most scenery is either blocked out by the matter's ability to produce mist or takes place within a research facility. The colors used often seemed dreary and bleak to me as well, and it was so rarely changed that it eventually felt visually boring to me. Also the repeated use of Aiko's memories throughout the show were a bit apparent as well to me. It never looked exactly bad, but none of it was exceptional or memorable either.
The story of this anime falls slightly to the better side. Thematically the focus seemed explore is there a difference between humans and clones of humans if they retain the same ability to feel and make decisions. The politics of the show between the organization responsible for dealing with the artificial organisms (the name escapes me) and the state government was able to interest me as well. There ideals of taking any means to progress your nation face off against respecting human lives. Automatic bonus points are applied too just for having a satisfying conclusion to the show, I've watched too many animes lately that finish the season never to be seen from again. The show leaves enough clues lying around where some of the "twists" were fairly predictable which isn't a mark against it. Enjoyment can still be had when the anticipations you have are met by the show.
I'll eventually get better at writing about sound track but I definitely enjoyed the opening and ending.
Finally I'll just lightly touch on the characters. For only 12 episodes it would be a very hard task to have deep characterization for the entire cast. Unsurprisingly many of the supporting characters don't get to shine at all. We definitely get to see the conflicts and growth of the main two, Aiko and Kanzaki which I personally thought was well done. Specifically Kanzaki's realization of what he initially started out to do and his inability to accomplish this was well done. We get to see minor character growth in Kaede and Kazuki, but really any characters outside of Aiko and Kanzaki are still underdeveloped imo.
6/10 score - Nothing revolutionary thematically, but it presents its thoughts well. Visually the quality was alright but I personally thought it was bleak and thus boring throughout the show. Plot was fine, enjoyed the main characters but side characters weren't shown much love. Fine to watch if you don't have anything better to do
If you made it this far into the review I hope you found it helpful, over time I hope I'll be better at giving insight into shows while also not having this read as a generic essay.
DarknessReality
I thoroughly enjoyed this series from start to finish. The soundtrack was amazing at building up scenes and I will definitely download it. The characters were lovable each with interesting characteristics to keep the series fresh. In particular I think Aiko and Kanazki were great characters and kept me engaged in the story. I loved the its apocalyptic virus outbreak setting which I hadn't seen in a while and its done perfectly here with its unique Burst. If your a fan of these types of anime you'll love A.I.C.O. This series is one of the most interesting and enjoyable series I have watched in a while alongside itsinteresting cast of characters and amazing soundtrack to create the atmosphere of the series I strongly recommend giving this series I watch.
10/10
rava
This anime is not breaking any records and ultimately it doesn't really have anything in particular to say. However, it is a fun sci fi adventure with some interesting characters and technology, and the animation is quite good. Also, there are lots of women in non-demeaning roles and the main character is a girl as well. As usual with anime sci fi don't try to look at the 'science' aspect of it too hard, but if I were to hold that against it I would never be able to watch a sci fi anime. (there's never been one that was based on anything close to reality).I binge watched this on a saturday afternoon when I was stuck in bed with back pain, and I suspect this is the ideal kind of situation for watching these 12 episode netflix anime. They're like very long movies rather than actual series. As such, characterization is what they can fit into 12 eps, plot is what they can fit into 12 eps, etc.
Okay so, pros and cons:
Pros:
-Great animation
-Great music (so rare now)
-Interesting tech and biotec
-Lots of good female characters
Cons:
-Very weird male protagonist who is ultimately lacking in personality
-Story is a bit simple and by-the-numbers
-Some plot elements are never really explained
Conclusion:
A nice weekend binge watch if you really like sci fi with biotec, and aren't opposed to a story with a lot of female main characters.
kyulix
In the year 2035, a biological research project went awry, resulting in an incident called the "Burst" that transformed Kurobe Gorge into a quarantine area infested by a rampant growth of synthetic organisms. Two years later, high school student Aiko Tachibana finds that she may have an unexpected connection to the lifeform that killed her parents, and resolves to solve the mystery with the help of fellow student Yuya Kanzaki. - A.I.C.O.: Incarnation wiki A.I.C.O.: Incarnation isn't another one of those terrible Netflix Sci-fi shows, It draws you in, and doesn't let go. This anime is by far one of my favorites of 2018, let'sget onto the review, shall we? :]
Story; 8/10
I'll try my best to not contain any spoilers, but this animes plot is seriously something. It's probably one of the best, yes, of course, there's some flaws and cliches, but that actually somewhat helps the plot in itself.
Art; 9/10
I'll be honest, when I first watched this anime I wasn't to keen on the art style. Then I actually started to get more into it as the series progressed. It was very unique and none of the characters looked the same, I loved it.
Sound; 8/10
I absolutely loved the voice acting in this anime, I don't usually watch dubs but I really liked it. (before you say anything, I watched dubbed and subbed.) Most dubs are pretty fucking terrible, but this one was actually very well done.
Characters; 7/10
Some of the characters were just well, annoying. But most of the characters personalities fit them very well.
Enjoyment; 9/10 I was on the edge of my couch with this anime! Like I said before this is absolutely one of my favorites of 2018.
Overall; 8/10
I loved this anime, very much. I can't give it a perfect 10/10, but I'll give it an 8, I seriously loved this anime. I can't wait to see what good animes will catch my eyes on Netflix in later 2019.
TheAstrophile
Character/Story: The characters in A.I.C.O Incarnation are pretty well written. There are many of them, but they all play off each other well and have decent motivations on what they want to do with their lives. I did particularly like the whole government vs the regular people going into the Burst. This is an old story beat of course, but there are some good ideas behind the specific take on the show and the motivations are done pretty decently as well. They are easy to understand and do demonstrate some character growth and regression (into a bad person) at times. The main character Aiko (or Aico)however has a few problems. Aiko is a little bit clueless at times. Now this is somewhat acceptable, as she is thrust into a situation that she has no clue how to partake in. But her level of cluelessness is a bit too much and at times, off putting. She constantly suffers from that anime trope of just repeating what characters say or explaining things too far and not letting the viewer come to terms with the scenery or situation. This is probably the biggest hinderance on the series, as the concept of the Burst and idea of how and why it spread is actually quite interesting. I did find enjoyment in the sci-fi aspects of the show, but the main character is extremely hard to root for at times, and her personality is extremely lacking to really dive into who she is and how her existence affects the show as a whole.
Sound:
The soundscape of the show is a bit lacking. This is partially due to the fact that there aren't many memorable tracks besides the opening and ending. This is fine, as there are a lot of shows like this, but for this show specifically, the extra feeling that could have been achieved from this soundscape would have addd so much more to the idea of dread and looming from the Burst. The opening is very well made, and the song is nice and reflective of the anime as a whole. The ending is one of those reflective pieces that rather than juxtapose, it helps to remind you of what you're watching and the motivations and end goal of the characters. The ambient sounds and incidental music do help to make the feeling more real, but they would have been largely benefited from actual reoccurring tracks, than just sounds and small ambient music that dots the score. The sound design is pretty good, with some believable sounds for the mechs as well as the Burst having some nice "goo-like" sounds that help to show how the Burst would sound to the characters as well.
Art:
The art style is interesting. Its extremely cliched and does require some work, but stuff like the Burst are animated pretty well and do convey the venom-like nature of the disease. The movement of the mechs are pretty well done, but their use of CGI is a bit smooth. The characters have some good animation where the emotional drama and tensions are at highs, which helps to drive the scene or action as important, but scenes where there aren't many actions taking place, or are there for character development aren't being fully utilized by the animation team and just seem lackluster and out of place compared to the heavy action scenes in terms of animation. The art style is also an interesting one too, in which the anime falls victim to the "redness" when it comes to the joints of Aiko. This is a bit annoying to look at, as it is quite bright in this show and does clash with the dark muted colors of the rest of the show.
Overall:
A.I.C.O Incarnation is a pretty decent sci-fi action show that can be emotional at times. There are some good and bad parts to it. Honestly, the best way to watch the show is probably by foregoing any huge emotional ideas one would get from the show, and just watch it for fun. It is a good show to watch with friends and just enjoy, but when thinking more deeply about it, its flaws certainly show.
dimlion7
This series is one of many that are released on Netflix. It was an interesting watch, so here is my point of view on it. Story: 6 - A 6 is considered fair on this site, and this is what this anime deserved. It had an interesting, but overused premise, a girl who is the key to saving the world. This is actually a really generalized description of the story, but it's quite accurate. We've seen many shows with this sort of premise. Any fan would know what I'm talking about. But this show did it decent enough, it isn't anything revolutionary, but done well enoughto be understood. The story is fairly understandable, with reasonable development throughout the series. The pacing is a bit wavy at times, but it isn't anything to really touch on. The story to this show is fairly okay, which is something that I really can't say for most anime today.
Art: 7 - The art in this show is really good. The character designs might have been repetitive in some regards. But overall, the design of the suits, weapons, monsters, and technology were done very well.
Sound: 6 - You know, I really didn't notice the music during my time watching this show. It blends well in the background and sounds fairly decent. But it's nothing spectacular.
Character: 6 - The characters in this show are one of the weakest points of the show. The main character is...…….. You know, she is one of those protagonists that rely on a male character to save her. Also, Spoilers By The Way. There is an implied, or confirmed?, romantic or mutual feeling between the male character, who is like in middle school, and a boy. Who is actually an adult male, Yeah this gets weird. There was some good character development from the sides during the show. But there was also unnecessary drama and tension which only just brings this show down. However, the conclusion was fulfilling enough.
Overall, A.I.C.O is that show you could easily binge on a school night or Sunday Morning. It isn't highly memorable, but at the same time. It isn't inherently terrible. It's just a simple show that progresses its story. If you are a patient viewer or are open-minded. This could be a great show to watch when taking a break from the more important shows released.
andrew_r19
Minor, mid-plot, spoilers ahead Overall rating: 8 The strength of A.I.C.O lies in the scientific feasibility of the conflict, the basic premise of which is that malignant cell proliferation has occurred on an insurmountable scale due to an adverse bodily response to the surgical separation of an artificially intelligent brain from its body. The adaptive manner in which this cell malignancy is combated, essentially creating chemical antigens on the spot as the chemical and molecular composition of malignant matter develops continuously, as well as the theoretical concepts behind the creation of artificial intelligence, effectively ground and invest the viewerinto the very intriguing reality created by this anime on a scientific level.
Ultimately, what made this show interesting was not necessarily the element of looming death and viewer investment in the survival of the characters along their life-threatening journey. Because in honesty, if something is life-threatening in a show, you're going to expect people to die. It's not surprising. What made the show interesting, were revelations towards the science of "Artificial Intelligent Organisms" that bring about plot, as well as character development, leading in twists and turns that successfully surprised and countered my well-formed convictions towards the controversial solution to "The Burst." This is what engaged me as a viewer and had me binge-watching the show.
lostduckstar
A.I.C.O.: Incarnation has a very intriguing story, yet poorly developed. Maybe this is the case just because I like slow paced stories, but this one in particular seemed ran over time. A lot of the dialogues and storie development are plain boring. Just that simple. Such a great storie, great plot twists, are presented to us in the most simple of ways, whereas it could`ve been dramatized. While irrelevant moments are dragged with vain information. One of those unecessary moments, for example, would be dialogues or scenes with government agencies/scientists, talking about politics or projects with weird names/acronym. Don't think that I'm belittling just for being"politics" or "science stuff", saying that those things weren't necessary. On the contrary, they would make much more sense if were better elaborated or explained with more emphasis if they had the time (24 eps would be a good time to properly develop this world imo). Everytime they started talking about any project or politics, I wandered to other place, thinking to myself why on Earth we need to see this agencie if they have no effect whatsoever in the main characters. For a militarized city/base, those guys could kidnap pretty easily (from both sides). And what the fuck is that zone with only explorers? Anyway... Whenever new information was introduced to us, I just wish it wasn't so obtuse and shallow. Also, no need to scream at our faces what is going on, let us unveil it little by little.
The graphics and animation are superb. I confess that it was the biggest reason to binge watch it. Pure eye candy.
In the end, as I said earlier, the storie is great. Too bad it was served too raw. A.I.C.O. fails for wanting to throw their world at us before asking how we like it.
