In the distant future, the cities of Japan have been walled off and isolated from one another. Tourism and immigration are heavily controlled—if not impossible. Each region is overseen by an AI moderator that maintains its domain as it sees fit. These clusters are refined into a single ideal, with every citizen fulfilling their role in preserving the moderator's creation. But not everyone is satisfied with the narrowly focused vision of the city they were born in, and thus, they require some under-the-table help in relocating to a more appropriate cluster.
During the day, Equa, Ferres, and Martese are ordinary high school students; but at night, they act as Extractors—people who illegally smuggle civilians between the city borders. Transporting those brave enough to leave everything behind, Equa and her friends risk their lives in order to give their clients a second chance. But the dangers of extraction begin to intensify when the cluster moderators become increasingly aware of the group's actions that threaten their perfect utopias.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
SanaeK10
My favorite genre is the "Cute Girls do Cool Things" genre, which usually has a predominantly female cast engaged in badass and over-the-top action scenarios with little to no regard for melodrama, and every season I would search high and low for a show that meets that criteria. Usually 3Hz would deliver in that regard, but while expecting a show titled "Healer Girl" to have guns-blazing action is an exercise in futility, I somehow stumbled upon Estab Life, that has absolutely everything I wanted, and then some. Estab Life is what you would call a "multi media franchise", or in less flattering but more accurate terms,a "made for mobage" show. And in my experience, usually failure or high likelihood of failure mobage would generate some of the best original anime out there (see Kotobuki, Akanesasu Shoujo, and of course Kemono Friends). Estab Life is no different. Right out of the bat it is supremely confidant on its premise and themes, and is wildly imaginative in its depiction of the Tokyo clusters. I'm actually reminded quite a lot of Rolling Girls, though more restricted to a single location and with less drama.
And by imaginative, I mean, wow. Communist Penguins, Mahou Shoujo Yakuza, No-pan Theocracy, Prison Horse Races, and much more are featured in this show. And bizzarely they all make sense given the context they are set in (Fucho is famous for its prison and horse races, for example). It never feels jarring nor is there any whiplash when going from episode to episode, part of the joy is seeing what crazy situation the girls will end up in.
Equa-senpai is quite possibly my favorite MC of the season. Most of these Cute Girls do Cool Things shows would usually cast either a genki-baka type or a cool-but-silent type as their protagonists, and, while fine enough, are overly played out. Equa's personality in being a kind and easy-going onee-san type is wildly out of place, yet a very fresh take for a genre like this, and her interactions with the cast and everyone, as well as having actual shortcomings, makes her an endearing character to follow. The rest of the main cast are pretty good too, though I would have liked if each of them had their own spotlight episodes.
It's not just fun wacky comedy either, out of all the shows this season, this is the last show I'd expect to have actual heart in it, but goddammit it does, and the superb direction and music all make you feel emotional in ways I never really got for a show of this type of genre.
Special mention to the music. Fujisawa's OST, while very similar to most of his own previous works, all complement each moment so effectively and can really make you feel emotional for a scene that is otherwise farcical. Like, it's a testament to the entire soundtrack when it can make you feel genuinely sad for one of the characters despite that one predictable tragic event that you know happens actually happen.
The whole show has been a wild and fun ride, and I will eagerly await the film (I don't know why or how, but thank you Square Enix for funding weirdo projects like these) once it releases stateside.
You were the first and last friends I've ever made!
8/10
lamaraptor
There are good and bad elements to this show, but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would after the first few episodes. It's one of those shows that on the face of it should be really stupid. The fun kind of stupid, but still, very very dumb. It's the kind of show you can be trying to describe to a friend and realize how ridiculous that sounds on the face of it, only to realize the execution was far more mundane than the setup made it sound. For example the fact that it has a yakuza boss who wants to runaway from crime city and become a magical girl, or the hot spring city where panties are illegal. It throws a bunch of really comedic sounding ideas at the wall, and then executes them like you're going to a business lunch and don't want to stand out too much. All of the potential is there for it to be a crazy high-concept comedy show, but it plays it straight like I'm meant to take any of this seriously.
However I found myself enjoying it anyway, if you just embrace the stupid high-concept nature of the world and focus on the character interactions you can have a good time with it. I don't think it's a very memorable show, but if you decide to watch it there are worse ways to spend your time. The 3D animation was decent and not too distracting, I've seen worse. If 3D is a turn-off for you just on the face of it then I guess stay away. Overall I'm feeling a 7/10
SenpaiLuna
Despite the show's shortcomings, it is incredibly memorable. I absolutely adore this show. The side characters and the girls in the main cast are awesome and lovable. They do lack depth tho. Also, when you encounter a part of the show which is fleshed out, the show is amazing. However, this can sometimes be the exception plus it is lacking in many parts. For instance; it can be somewhat boring at some parts and the action never makes sense and is only there for plot convenience. This often made me feel like "why didn't they just go in guns ablazing in the first place". Idon't know. It definitely one of a kind. Just wished it was fleshed out a little more.
Still I'll recommend you give it a try because there isn't another show like it 8.5/10
bboy_OatsnRice
Saying this show subverted my expectations is an understatement. “Then why is it so middle of your list then?” Because I wish it had gotten more episodes, but we will be forever stuck with 12. It’s a shame that this series is largely ignored due to a variety of reasons that almost turned me off from watching it. For starters the show is CG, yikes. But after watching the first episode, I was surprised how decent it looked and how natural it felt. It wasn’t anything bad like Berserk or Ex-Arm, nor was it on a level like HnK or Beastars. Its CG worked verywell for the show it was, it did not detract my enjoyment of the show like I thought it would. Secondly, it’s a Gacha advert. Many anime adaptations of pre-existing or soon to be made gacha games are usually pretty forgettable. Takt.OP from a while ago comes to mind. But once again I didn’t get any impression of an “epic secret cameo” being shoved in my face for the sake of commercializing the upcoming Estab-Life game. And lastly there’s a furry in the main cast. With all those strikes going against it, why do I like it so much?
Simply put, it’s fun. Yeah, I know it’s rare to hear someone say that as a legitimate reason for enjoying a show or any form of media these days without forced nuances or a deeper analysis. But truly, I was engaged with the silly action, character interactions, the world and the clusters we’re introduced to. Also the story as well, since we’re given very little to work with in terms of story at the start and it doesn’t start elaborating on the story until much later into the series. But firstly a brief synopsis. We follow Equa, Martes, Felles, Alga, and Ulula, who are extractors. The mission of an extractor is simple, someone does a silly dance as a code for wanting to escape their current life, uploads it to the internet and from then on, it’s up to the extractors to give them an escape into another cluster(world) where they can enjoy life again.
A simple concept set in an odd world, or several should I say. Clusters are these areas contained in their own bubble/ecosystem, each have their own unique set of rules, population, and ways of living. Though once you’ve been born into one cluster, it’s impossible to leave yours(prison cluster exempt), that’s where the extractors come in and do just that. Long story short, clusters exist because there came a point where humans could no longer survive and prosper. So they created an AI that birthed a new era of humanity that spliced human living attributes to animals, robots, and everything else in between, each given their own cluster to flourish in. Weird concept, but trust me it works somehow.
What makes this show for me is the main trio we follow and how they tackle each situation they’re in. In fact, a good bunch of the issues they run into aren’t a fault of the cluster’s resistance towards extractors, but turmoil they have with each other, or something personal going ary within themselves. Equa is a kind and compassionate leader. Too kind in fact, the creators made her so kind to make it off putting. I think they failed in that regard since I don’t think she was as scary as she was fake. Feles is the straight man, usually the one who’d rather be at home then putting her life on the line extracting others. It’s probably due to her down to earth nature, but she was my favorite. Finally there’s Martes, a slime who takes on the form of a cute girl. She is obsessed with Equa and will lash out at anyone getting too close with her, namely Feles. Her character grew on me, at first she was annoying but after seeing her actually care for Feles-san I too started caring for her as well. Oh, and there’s Alga and Ulala, a robot and a furry respectively. They don’t add too much to the story, but round out the cast. I preferred Alga since his inclusion felt more warranted than Ulala’s, being a robot of course.
The show tricked me, not only in managing to be rather enjoyable, but also because of the twists the story takes. I started this series thinking it’d be no more than a cluster/weirdo they have to extract of the week, but about halfway through it shows its true colors. After an episode where they have to extract a preacher from a cluster where you’re not allowed to wear underwear, we see Equa’s emotion dimmer than her usual up-beat self. Odd, we then get an episode of the team handling a situation without Equa, due to an illness that came over her and another one about her cafe that she runs, aka, their HQ. But then we reach the best and most emotionally heavy episode where they have to extract a butler who loathes serving this bratty young girl. And with that episode, I'll just say that I was not expecting these kind of feels from this kind of show. It’s a great episode because we really come across some spectacular character development for the character the episode focuses on.
I got into detail about that episode because it exemplifies everything I love about the show. The characters, the world, the unpredictability, and the drama of it all. As for what I didn’t like about the show, well although the CG didn’t bother me personally, I could imagine it being much more successful had it gone 2D. There are moments where we see clones, twins, and reskins. Even the final episode has the master Manager taking on the form of the rich girl (Cindrillion) despite not being her. I chalk this up to artistic merit and don’t knock it for this reason, she’s rather cute anyways. As I mentioned earlier, I felt that Alga and especially Ulala were unnecessary. It doesn’t help that we learn hardly anything about either of them aside from what I’ve already mentioned about them. At least Alga can talk and provide interesting banter with the main trio on occasion, Ulala just grunts and barks. Very forgettable and I’m sure a furry also detracted some viewers from picking it up. The score is nothing to write home about either, and everything else from a presentation standpoint is just serviceable. Though some of the backgrounds and locations are nice to look at, such as the prison or panda clusters.
So in short, what makes this series so good is how much it does right despite having so many strikes going against it. I found the characters, situations, designs, story, dialogue, and voice acting all fun to invest my time into. I might just say this is my AOTS, and if this anime has taught me anything, it’s that you should not judge a book by its cover.
