A project was launched where scientists discovered a mysterious substance that can interface directly with the human brain. This substance, called "Exotic Matter (XM)," has existed since ancient times, influencing human minds and the progress of humanity. In the wake of this discovery, a battle of powerful nations and corporate giants has been unleashed. Organizations across the globe have embarked on a secret race to exploit XM. It represents both an opportunity and a threat to humanity. Two Factions seeks to control the XM. The Enlightened view XM's power as a gift that enhances human experience and discovery. The Resistance sees XM as a hostile takeover of the human mind, choosing technology as humanity's best path forward. XM, and the mystery behind it lie at the center of this battle for the fate of humanity.
2018—Now, a new struggle is about to unfold in Tokyo and across the globe. Dangerous and powerful forces seeking to exploit the potential of XM will collide. This groundbreaking project will mark the beginning of an epic augmented-reality experience combining the three elements of animation, location-based gaming, and the real world.
(Source: MAL News)
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Comentários
Karhu
"Now that Netflix has released two garbage-tier cop shows with supernatural elements in a row, I wonder what they gonna do next..." Ingress the Animation is the third cop show with supernatural elements Netflix has decided to release this year, but it's not exactly as awful as the other two. I have absolute no idea who is greenlighting these, but please, stop. Characters: We have 3 main leads here and they are called: Jack Norman, but I will proceed to call him Jack Normal in this review because he is so Normal that even his first name is Jack. Sarah Coppola -- whose last name, indeed, is ofAmerican origin and which has the word "Cop" in it because that's the only witty thing regarding this show. There is also another dude here (third character in case someone lost the count) who has a token Japanese name to fill the anime quota, Makoto Midorikawa.
Jack Normal is, ironically, very typical middle-aged agent-person you, also typically, see in cheesy cop shows which main content after season 1 is relationship drama because they ran out of any real content to show. This is the emotionally dead partner that is introduced in season 3 when the writers try to balance the now-melodramatic cast members with confrontation. Perhaps my analysis of him is bit too specific and niche, but that's the first and last and only thing I can get out of him no matter how often he appears on the screen and no matter what he does. His presence is somewhat badass yet personality itself miniscule. I have seen worse decisions made so I will conclude that he is doing decent job doing the things he was designed to do. As a person, I can't say he felt like a real being or did something out of genuine behavior, but he did weirdly remind me of Agent Smith from The Matrix occasionally, so that's kinda cool.
Sarah Coppola is, from her character design to personality, a completely dull and boring person. She lacks characteristics and quality merits so badly that following her becomes quite fascinating in rather backwards-sense: seeing her trying to act this character makes her whole presence/appearance in the show resemble a live action actress whose agent managed to somehow get her in this show even when she clearly shouldn't have been in it. Perhaps another weird thing to say, but that's still highly accurate way of putting her persona in this try-hard western cop show/anime hybrid. She is also quite weirdly used as a narrator in the series as so often her dialogue/monologue seems to exist for no other reason than to give the viewers explanations and fill in some missing information, story-wise.
Speaking more of these anime hybrids, Makoto Midorikawa gives me the weirdest Major (Ghost in the Shell) and Shinya Kougami (Psycho Pass) vibes. His character design was at least inspired if not directly stolen from Shinya, while his personality is even easier to describe: any typical nice guy superhero jesus except now a "good cop" and doesn't suffer from moral yelling-issues because he can typically maintain his cool. The moral stuck, still, but don't appear pushy. The catch being this weird superpower that has made him some type of pseudo-outcast // given his character some type of "feel for me" factor the audience can relate to. Personally, I didn't really buy it, but it didn't annoy me either.
As a whole, the cast is passable. Not very strong, but not specifically terrible or impressive lackclustery either. Some basic things are added to make them feel relatable and some emotional sides are also put there to make them seem more "whole", and they all certainly have "their moments". Perhaps following the characters would have been more interesting if they had been worse and not so consistently mediocre. So often it felt like part of them exist just to please the audience with cheap-ey means and tropes.
Story:
This is the part where I won't be saying all that many good things. Minor spoilers are also included, mainly/only regarding short action scenes and not the grand scheme or plot.
The main idea behind this show is the effect of drug-like matter/chemical booster called XM, which "unleashes" the full potential of human capabilities (brains, senses, muscle-memory, reaction time, etc) under circumstances rather similar to the Luc Besson film "Lucy", the main difference being how chaotic its effects are as the series practically never focuses on linearly building the story nor showing the "drug's" effect on certain character or plotline, but instead, the entire XM's effect in the world of this series is in the spotlight. This is a huge concept to gasp on, and shows that can deal with such a big scale are scarce. Ingress claims to be much, yet it completely fails to be convincing, feel important or in generally, doesn't offer reasons to, well, give a damn about whatever is going on in the big picture, because, just to quote one side character, "all we want to do is save the world."
The actual events seen appear rather small-scale compared to the overall idea mentioned above, as one could expect from action series. The writing and overall execution of the action sequences is not very thrilling to say the least. For example, Jack Normal beats gun-using soldiers barehanded when they are already shooting bullet at him. Thanks to the power of sunglasses, he is able to dodge the bullets and beat these dudes. I didn't find it very believable thing to occur nor did it seem badass. As a matter a fact, it felt highly irrelevant and did a poor job demonstrating the "powers" and effects of XM seen in the series. The outcome could have as well been explained with plot-armor and the scene would have made as much sense. The driving motion in the series ends up being practically a cat and mouse play. I guess it could be worse, but "running away from the baddies" is not exactly a thing that gets all of my hype, and the cliches introduced *later* in the series are somehow even less impressive.
The dialogue is not exactly the most intellectual seen in anime, either. This is pretty good material for "weebs first anime to watch RAW" as practically the entire cast speaks anime-Japanese and their one-liners could as well be memes. It does contain some entertainment value when watched with humor, which I guess is okay, after all, it's pretty clear this show is at its best when not taken too seriously. The idea for this show is not very original, and as I stated above, its details and content, that can so often make average series high quality despite their week core ideas, are not exactly doing extraordinarily good job in terms of anything. Its writing is on thin ice, to put it kindly, and its directing, as logical and loyal to the game source material it may be, seems more fit to story-driven video game than anime. I, for one, would much rather play this story, the story of this anime as it is presented in it, than watch it like this. Were this a multiple-choice video game, I would forgive most of the errs in its writing and execution. However, this is an anime and it needs to do better to be "immersive" and believable.
Perhaps I would be more pleased if I really digged blockbuster action and were genuinely enjoying Netflix making anime of mind-numbingly mediocre action sets, but at least many live action series and movies that did highly similar things had decent banter, appeared more comical, and contained something called a budget. Budget that could make them more entertaining to view, which leads me to the next section I wanted to talk about.
Production:
CGI is the word of the day. Especially the character movements look awkward, cheap and relatively lame. Or at the very least require some time to get used to, if we are putting it as kindly as the Japanese-named main character would. This level of animation is only borderline passable in today's industry. I can somewhat understand cheap animation in, let's say, slice of life shows, but when an action-oriented series chooses this path, it can be taken as disrespect towards the audience, and that's what I am calling it, because I am not as nice as the Makoto dude.
To say one positive thing regarding the animation, at least the fps (frames per second) is not zero-effort stuff, but, on the other hand, 29fps "cheapness" is still cheap: one can make just about any shitty game run on higher frame rate, but it really doesn't save the outcome. One other thing I kind of liked, art-wise, was the use of colors in night time. Especially dark shadows and alleys and buildings during nighttime did some good job on capturing some atmosphere with the OST. Some of the more heavy contrast artwork, especially during XM scenes, and the use of different colored lights could even be called pretty to look at.
Sounds-wise, the industry rarely does anything noteworthy in series that are below/approximately reaching the common mediocrity levels, but here Ingress differs a bit. For one, the soundtrack almost makes the series worth of watching, or at least listening to. The opening song is something that would not be expected of anime, and the ed is so damn catchy it instantly found a place in my playlist. Both of them are also English vocal songs by English vocalist. The generic yet efficient tension/action BGM all are of respectable quality, respectable as in they do not feel like an insult towards better series. Unarguably doing their job in the way the can be and is expected. The voice acting kind of just is there, but considering the nature of the series, it is clearly the best thing to achieve: when the seiyuu work doesn't stand out, you're doing it right. Very fitting choices, never felt out of place, or anything like that.
To quickly conclude this review:
Ingress surely isn't offensively bad. Perhaps on a more generous day and with more ironic/casual viewing I could even say it is even fine piece to watch. As it is, my expectations were at least surpassed and I can call Ingress and average series: it certainly is better than the other two shows, B the Beginning and AICO.
Numbers aren't typically my thing, but here are some references for once,
Story 3/10 If there is anything impressive about it, it's how generic it managed to feel.
Characters 5/10 With my experience, I would say this is the most common quality level of characters seen in anime.
Art 5/10 The good and bad sides kinda balance it out to the starting point of average.
Sounds 7/10 Some impressive scores and fitting seiyuu work.
Enjoyment 7/10 I am still uncertain why the show managed to be so highly entertaining.
Overall 5/10 About half of all shows I have seen are pretty much as good as Ingress.
Andreikun
Review might contain small spoilers/references. Watched this with the Italian sub. Also never played the game this is based on, so my review judges what I've seen animated and not if it follows the source material. This show is a mixed bag in my opinion. First, if you dislike fully CGI anime (such as Ajin) this might not be for you. All the characters are done in CGI, it's not bad, but not really good either. Sometimes the movement, especially during walking or talking feels and looks weird. Backgrounds and action scenes are nicely made, car chases care also animated nicely in CGI. Plot iswhere this show is a bit bad, contains some cliches like Chinese character is bad guy planning to take over the world. Worse is that characters seem to die /sacrifice themselves in impossible to get out from situations but just spring out alive a few episodes later without any explanation as to how they did it. There are a few other inconsistencies all over the show like a scene at an airport where it's full of paramilitary trying to capture someone, yet the someone just walks out in drives off in a taxi.
Characters start to pop out of nowhere in different locations towards the end or enter different locations without any problems, although half an episode is used in the beginning just to make passports, these are largely forgotten later. There are other inconsistencies, and the "world mechanics" are constantly updated towards the end just to fit the plot somehow.
There are some references/similarities to Evangelion, a bit of talk about the soul and human nature towards the end, evolution of mankind, but nothing very deep or that brings some novelty. For example, Darling in the Franxx's commentary about immortality spanning an episode is much better philosophically than what it is presented here.
Characters have little development, they are just there to fit certain purposes. There is no fan service, there is just one female character anyway. The attraction between the leads seems artificial, there is nothing to make you root for them, feel happy or sad in certain moments.
To sum it up, this show tries to be a global conspiracy (similar to Dan Brown's novels or Jason Bourne), involving different nationalities, locations around the world, viewed from a Japanese perspective and using Buddhist references like soul rather than Christian ones. Where it fails is because it relies on ass pulls to move the plot forward (similar to the Rin Tohsaka knife scene in the 2006 Fate, but on a larger scale here) and tries to use the global scene as a backdrop rather than being Japan centric, but the use of it doesnt make any sense especially that towards the end. Action scenes are cool and engaging at ties, car chases, shooting, all done in CGI and with nice sound.
Story: 6
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Character: 6
Enjoyment: 7
TOTAL: 6.6 = 7
Kukker
Hello there - as Danish Netflix finally decided to put Ingress onto its page, I decided to go watch it for fun. Before starting on the review I want to note that I have played the game for a couple of years and therefore have some knowledge towards what's happening and how the game works. Even so, I went into this with low expectations and sadly the anime didn't do much to make me regret my expectation level. On to the review: Story and Plot: 3 The anime is set in an ordinary world, where a game Ingress flows around. The game contains certain portals for different factions enlightenedand resistance that can be fought over between the 2 teams. The series do very little to explain stuff early on so it seems like a big mess, where we just see a lot of chaotic fighting scenes and people being chased without really knowing why. Anyway, apparently the world isn't completely normal as first assumed (surprise it's anime), there is some matter called XM, that gives certain people powers. The XM is not something most people can see nor feel, but it is there around everyone. I believe the anime is trying to be mysterious in a way, while also making one of the main characters powers very mysterious, however we are not ever really explained what exactly they are. The story in generel seems very ordinary with a guy wanting to take over the world, using some of this XM to create a new world.
Ingress ends up having a very generic story, with a lot of plot holes and poorly executed within the mystery genre it wants to be in.
Art: 3
The animation for this anime seems very weak all things considered. The CGI isn't the worst I've seen, however the character designs and the movement in fighting scenes are first boring and secondly choppy at times (feels awkward)
Sound: 7
The soundtrack seems rather decent, got some good timings with great music, and both opening and ending seems fairly good. This is one of the best parts of the anime sadly.
Character: 4
The characters are very genuine. Without spoiling too much, the main character is a typical shut-in who discovers he has a strange power in the "not so ordinary" world. He gains big interest in a girl who has some mysterious power around her, and basically just tries to reach her all anime from start to end. The villains and other mains aren't much better. 11 episodes doesn't make for much development either, so I cannot say this was a strength either.
Enjoyment: 4
Overall the anime was fairly easy to watch, all things considered. I didn't enjoy it too much, but I wasn't dying watching it either. I do wish however, that it wouldn't have been as predictable as it was.
Overall: 3
Overall I have to give it a 3. The story was a big mess, even though it tried being very basic with everything. The only thing making this anime worth your time is if you are a big fan of the game franchise and just want to watch it animated. However, I really do not recommend it for people who have no knowledge of the game, and even if you do - maybe you are better off playing some more, as this provides nothing but dissatisfaction.
OG_Otaku
A typical complaint from me is that a beloved story or a well-crafted plot gets a poor anime production, or the anime just doesn't live up to the hype. For Ingress the Animation, I felt like the animation part was fine, but it was in dire need of a better story. And there you have a basic problem for any movie or anime based on a video game. What makes a good video game does not usually make for a good anime or movie. I don't play video games, and I've never heard of Ingress the Game. But I do watch anime. This anime is abig tease. They tease us with outlines of characters that look great, and the animation itself is fine. But the story is kind of one big letdown after another. It's not intentionally bad, it just doesn't have anything to make you glad for the time you spent on it. The ending suggests a sequel, but it isn't worth it. Please don't make a sequel.
Watch this if you already subscribe to Netflix and you just can't find anything better to do.
Sasori_Nagashi
I know little to nothing about the history or production of either Ingress the Game or Ingress the Animation so my assumptions may well be off, however this anime reeks of a soulless promotion piece. A piece of animation made with no intention of actually being good, with no passion to tell a tale. A piece of animation made solely to promote a video game, which I never played. Ingress the Animation is really unique... It's rare to stumble upon something with this much raw suckage. This anime features truly horrendous CGI in a time where ugly, cheap CGI is becoming commonplace with the only animeI have yet seen holding it back from the throne of ugliest anime of all time being Berserk 2016.
The main cast are made up of extremely by-the-books cliche characters such as the hardened bodyguard who mostly keeps to himself with questionable methods and motives, the greenhorn rookie who constantly fumbles his way through things with luck and occasionally quick thinking despite his lack of experience and lastly the love interest, the brilliant female scientist who wants to change the world for the better. The extended cast does not fair much better, featuring le evil corporation #3908, a damaged man seeking to turn the world into a paradise for himself after growing disillusioned with it due to personal traumas others inflicted upon him and a parallel to the main female protagonist, a brilliant scientist with good intentions who went down the wrong path.
With such lazy characters surely they were able to double the effort into weaving a good narrative, right? Unfortunately not. The plot of this anime is all over the place, rapidly darting from point to point in overwhelmingly break-neck succession, leaving no time between 'twists' for anything to really sink in or have any weight to them whatsoever. It also is heavily predictable at every turn.
At the end of the day all I can really say is I cannot comprehend how any human could possibly find entertainment value in this anime.
MapleKoala
Having watched a variety of anime, I was interested in how the Ingress game could be adapted into its anime form. There are some spoilers below, but I have avoided the main ones. Story: I don't dock points from Japanese anime for being predictable so I'm not going to do it here either. Yes, the story was pretty predictable and not all that exciting or original. There are some interesting twists here and there but for the most part it's standard anime storyline. Art: Decent art, they definitely had a limited budget but they also have consistent action scenes that drive the story along. Those eat upbudget and they definitely did not slow down the story just to improve CGI in some scenes.
Sound: Great acting, didn't notice anything out of place.
Character: Here's where I like the show the least, as Makoto is insufferable and Sarah is mostly out of the action. However Jack carries the show quite well and makes the show watchable. Liu as well is an interesting villain, but I would have preferred if he sent more than just henchmen.
Enjoyment: I enjoyed this show quite a bit. Binge watched it and was hooked, mainly to see what they wanted to do with portals. It fell off a bit in the middle but picked up near the end. Other reviewers are biased against Netflix and that takes away considerably from the quality of their reviews, but this seems to be a show par for a 7/8. Enjoyable, interesting, with at least a few redeeming characters and decent storytelling.
shoxs84
Now this is a rather unique case of where i really wanted to like this show! As a sci-fi fan i thought this show could be something interesting ...and to be honest, it was and wasnt at the same time! It an anime with so much lost potential that i was rather disappointed with how they had produced the show. The world building was done really well compared to some of the other other sci fi anime out there with no "because its anime" logic. The premise and the stage was set, what failed sadly was the execution! the 3d gci was absolutely atrocious making thecharacter feel unnatural and rather charmless. Even though each character has their own unique traits, the animation is where this show failed to utilize the story line!
The concept was fascinating and i do hope they ditch the whole 3d cgi effect and go back to to a simple anime style for ( that is if there is) a second season!
enJ0Yable
At first two diclaimers: I am not a fan of 3D-CGI-animated series. And I didn't play the game Ingress, so I have no knowledge of the story in there. Story (6/10): World conspiracy is a theme that is used quite often in anime lately, so the story is nothing special. Some plotholes are there, but in general it's done quite fine. The last two episodes are a bit over the top, and I didn't like the end at all, but that's just my opinion. The plot twists were predictable, at least if you understood what's going on. Even the post-credit-scene in the last episode was no surprise...Maybe that's because I am already fed up with "hey, let's save the world all together"-plots.
Art (5/10):
Yeah, it's 3D-CGI. That means badly drawn figures and movements, but also really nice backgrounds and landscapes, and well-animated action scenes. I don't like it, but it did quite well in this department.
Soundtrack (6/10):
Music is there, the opening and ending songs are both listenable, and the sound effects are fitting to the story.
Character (4/10):
The worst point of this anime. In my opinion only Jack's characterization was done well, both Sarah and Makoto lack of backstory and motives. Well, it may have been kept unknown a bit to still be able to reveal something new in a possible second season, but even with this assumption it's not enough. And the enemies were quite flat, only focusing on their own wellbeing. Megalomaniacs, as always...
Enjoyment (8/10):
This is the point where the anime did best: the suspense and action was good enough to keep me watching and wanting for the story to unfold. Mystery, Sci-Fi and a bit of drama always are a good combination for me to enjoy something.
Overall (6/10):
If you're a fan of mystery and crime, combined with "saving the world", this is something for you. If you can cope with the 3D-CGI-animation and the mediocre plot and characters, I'm sure that you will have some fun with this series. It's interesting, suspenseful and a bit confusing sometimes. I'd like to see more of it. And as it's labeled as "to be continued", I'm quite sure that we will see more of it sooner or later.
Kams335
*The first paragraph is about the game in which inspired this anime and how it relates to the original game so skip to the second paragraph if you want* As a fairly long time player of Ingress (The game that came out in 2013 and that i started playing in 2016) I have got to say that most people who haven't played the game won't get everything straight away or be able to understand some game terminology but it explains it in a fairly simple way. I liked the way they used sounds from the actual game as well as footage from the re-booted version ofthe game. The ending theme shows real life pictures which sums up the game's social aspect. It was basically like a hype thing for a in game event that aired in Japan before the event and *SPOILERS FOR THE END* basically summed up the event for everyone else in the last episode (I actually had a break for a few months as many players do and missed the event sadly). The funny thing about the anime and the game is that they advertise each other- the game and game's website advertise the anime and the anime advertises the game.
The story has some aspects relating to the game but other than that is is basically just a mediocre at best cop and sci-fi anime. It had the standard netflix 3D anime style. It had a pretty predictable plot and cliche scenes. It was ok but could have been better by making it easier to understand for non players or just targeting players and not both. To sum it up in a sentence- Kinda relating to the game but mainly an advertisement for the game.
1Ni1
Before i watched ingress i had never heard about it's game.So honestly i went in blind, not knowing what it was .It's a decent Anime for sure . The story isn't too deep or complex it's all out there. I tend to have fun instead look for my shows to be perfect because i know that most Writers try their best , and the Writers in this show did as well. Converting a Mobile game into an Adaptation like this comes with more challenges than we can imagine, but the journey that the characters go on is interesting to say at least.It's nothing special andi understand why people might not like it but it has it's good points,i sure as hell enjoyed it , it's nothing i'm gonna miss of course but it was fun to watch.
BananaFurikake
I just binge watched this on Netflix. I won’t repeat what others said but the storyline is “ok”- I did find it a little on the hokey side but I can forgive it somewhat for being based on a game. I did end up liking the characters though I do think that the portrayal of some of the “indigenous” folks was a little unfortunate in their one dimensionality. What really got to me was the translation of the subtitles. They were laughably bad to the point that there was sometimes zero connection between what the characters said in Japanese to thesubtitle text. To me it ended up distracting and disappointing.
_Koutarou_
Netflix is filled with very average and even under average animes. Because of my previous experiences with the so called "Netflix Originals" I honestly did not expect much, and yet this serie is worst that I thought. Story: 4/10 This anime is set up in a regular present world where certain groups found a phenomena which could affect the entire world. Basically there is a form of energy which some special people can use in order to improve unnatural abilities. This "energy" is divided in two fractions, the Enlightened and the Resistance. These two groups have different perspectives and opinions about this energy and how to useit, causing conflicts and fights between each other.
In order to have an advantage over the other fraction, a group has to conquer real physical places just like Pokemon Go. Normal people is not aware of this, however they use an application to conquer regions thinking it is just a game. The abilities of someone are stronger if they are in a region conquered by his/her fraction.
The beginning of the anime is kinda messy and hard to follow, it shows too many elements but they are not really explained, making them easy to forget. Later on it takes some time to explain a littler better what's going on, so I suggest to wait for at least 4 chapters.
The concepts and story are very weak and dumb. Some events where we get to see different fractions and their "war" just does not make much sense.
The story had potential at the beginning, however as the story progress it just became more and more generic and ended up very weak. I think they thought the final enemy would be interesting and unexpected, however it was just a generic smart guy crazy by his own power.
Art: 3/10
Visually this anime is not good, the scenarios are not very detailed and the characters look bad. This is a complete CGI anime, most of them look awful to me and this one specifically looks cheap and static. Maybe with a classic art direction it would had been way better. I'm not completely against CGI animation, Ultraman is one of the very few examples were the CGI looks more detailed and well used.
Sound: 6/10
Very forgettable and generic soundtrack, however it is not bad. The opening and ending songs are good, but please do not expect much.
Character: 4/10
There are very few characters on this show and we have three lead characters. Usually I really like when an anime has multiple main characters because we get to see different perspectives and development. Sadly this show does not use them very well.
The real main character is very generic, awkward and annoying. He does get better later on, but nothing really good or outstanding.
The other two main characters are a little more interesting, I really enjoyed Jack and I think he was very good used. Sarah had potential, I really liked her personality and actitud, with a strong and good will. But she was not developed for several chapters.
The bad guy is just another generic egocentric evil person who wants to get power and control, very forgettable.
Enjoyment: 4/10
I attacked very hard this anime, however I must admit that I enjoyed some chapters. As mentioned above, Sarah is a good character and at some point she injected comedy and dynamic to the show. These chapters are my favorite ones. If you are not trying to find something smart or well elaborated, the remaining chapters could still be enjoyable to certain extend.
Overall: 5/10
Nothing of this show really stands out. This is just one of many generic animes extremely forgettable. It does work to pass the time if you don't have much to do or watch. It is also not horrible nor extremely bad, but I cannot really recommend it as, from my perspective it is dumb and nothing worth watching.
Fraell
This is a short review Art/Animation: 3/10 The animation is bad. It was made by computer. It is CGY and not good one. The mood of the sceens are often ruin because of the bad animation. Sound/VA: 7/10 It is nothing spectacular but it is not bad. Story: 5/10The story is simple and very straight forward.
Even if the story is a bit cliché it is still enjoyable.
Character: 4/10
The character are bland and never change in the series.
Overall: 5/10
You can have a good time watching this, but you will have forgotten about it tomorrow.
I will definetly nerver watch it again though.
Rain_Feather
Honestly, the first thing that came to mind watching this series was, well... the influx of cheap licensed cartoons that flooded the U.S. in the early 80s, like G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Transformers... mostly in the fact that this series was made, pretty much, just to sell the game and get more people to download it. The plot is pretty darn generic- pretty much Unassuming Local Bumpkin gets invited into this whole creepy underworld of Ingress, where he meets Plucky Blonde Love Interest who has some reason why Generic Evil Bunch is chasing her. Along the way, he has to fend off TsundereFrenemy Guy from the opposite faction, who is out for his own ends and decides to kill Unassuming Local Bumpkin because he's the opposite faction, even while on the lookout for his Long-Lost Bestie, who died in an accident that Plucky Blonde Love Interest was at. Lots of other things happen, but honestly... it ends exactly like you think it might. Why is that a bad thing? Because this plot has been done to death in so many other anime out there- in most cases, even better than it is here. There's mentions of the various factions and item names and things from Ingress: The Game, and truly a fan of the game might understand more of what's going on. But honestly? Like I said, switch around the words and the visuals, and this plot could be from any number of tie-in anime.
The characters... are just as bad as the plot. I mean, let's face it- you read the descriptions above and you could put faces to those descriptions just by watching one episode, because the characters are all just... flat. They're desires given form, if you will- because they don't grow. I mean, if there was some sort of growth they could show, some new ideas- but no, they just stay the same people they were in the beginning, and worse- they're just not memorable. You might remember them as the concepts they were supposed to represent, but as themselves, they just... vanish into a sea of faces you'll struggle to remember three days after you finish the series.
The sound is, well... pretty passable. It's nothing really memorable, but there's nothing that will remind you of a symphony orchestra going through a trash compacter, either. The art is the same- it's obvious the focus here was rushing the anime to completion so the show could be used for an advertising ploy to get more people to start playing Ingress. Just treat it like you would eleven episodes of G.I. Joe- maybe entertaining for a short while, but purely made as an advertising method.
In the end, Ingress: the Animation just isn't that memorable or something. If you were to compare it to food, it'd be the bologna sandwich- perfectly filling, perfectly serviceable, but bland and boring as all anything. Everything it does has been done before, and most oftentimes better, but if you absolutely have to, you could do worse than this to watch.
