One and done
(This
review contains minor spoilers!)
It’s become kind of an unintended
tradition for this blog that every time a new anime season starts I’ll review a
really bad first episode of a series before unceremoniously dropping it. I did
it for Drifters in Fall 2016 and
again for elDLIVE in Winter 2017. And
for the Spring season it’s happening again, this time with the massively
disappointing Sagrada Reset.
It’s a shame, because I was actually
really looking forward to this one. The premise sounded interesting, being
similar to stuff like Charlotte or Mekakucity Actors in that it focuses on
a group of characters with superpowers. The thing is, both Charlotte and Mekakucity failed
dramatically at creating a strong narrative, and it looks like Sagrada Reset is the final part of the
awful superpower anime trilogy. Unlike the previously mentioned Drifters and elDLIVE, this is the first awful pilot anime episode I’m reviewing
where I literally couldn’t make it through the 22 minutes.
The first thing you’ll notice upon
starting it up is that the animation is horrifying. I gave Alice to Zorokou a lot of grief a few days back for some of the
animation issues it had, but after seeing Sagrada
I’ve forgiven it completely. None of the characters have remotely
interesting designs. Because most anime have very similar art designs overall
(with the few exceptions being stuff like Nichijou
or Studio Trigger projects), I’ve always felt it extremely important to
make the characters look or feel unique in some way or another. A good example
of an anime that did this right is K-On.
While all the characters look pretty darn normal, their movements and designs
reflect their personalities well, allowing them to become very memorable as a
result.
Sagrada
does the complete opposite, because these characters barely move a muscle.
I’m not kidding, in the half-episode I watched I swear that none of the
characters ever blinked once. Their faces are so expressionless and soulless,
making you feel like you’re watching animatronics delivering dialogue than
actual characters experiencing a story. Most of the shots are just still images
with the mouths moving, like something out of a really bad abridged series
parody. Hilariously, at one point one of the characters jokes about them being
secretly androids.
So the animation doesn’t give you a
reason to care. How’s the story? After spending a good fifteen minutes
listening to this dialogue, I can honestly say that only someone with a high
tolerance for awful dialogue would even be able to make it to the story. I
swear, even George Lucas would look at this dialogue and call it garbage. Upon
meeting a mysterious girl on the roof, our hero asks her the most important
question: “What’s your favourite food?”
This isn’t a comedy, by the way. Just
thought I should clear that up.
They then segue into discussing their
different powers, and they’re a good reflection of the rest of the series:
boring. Main protagonist guy has the incredible ability of…remembering things
real good. Ooh, I can’t wait to see him use that to fight crime. Main protagonist
girl is a little more interesting, being able to reset time back up to three
days in the past. But as soon as she starts to become interesting, she explains
a laundry list of caveats about why she can’t really use the power that often
and how it’s more of a hindrance than anything. It was at this point I switched
off and watched the first episode of Sakura
Quest instead.
By the way, even though I won’t be
reviewing it weekly, I really liked the first episode of Sakura Quest. It’s got a very Non
Non Biyori feel to it, and I’d say it’s definitely worth a look if you’re a
slice-of-life fan. It’s better than Sagrada
Reset to say the least.
It’s safe to say I won’t be returning
to finish this episode anytime soon, nor will I continue on to see the other
twenty-three episodes this show apparently has planned. The animation is
lifeless, the writing is dreadful, and even the characters don’t seem
interested in what’s going on. How am I supposed to get invested in this
super-powered adventure if the cast doesn’t even care? At least Charlotte, as awful as that anime wound
up, had a pretty good hook to get started. I’ve seen a lot of bad anime, but I’ve
rarely seen one as awful as Sagrada Reset
right out of the gates. Avoid at all costs.
FINAL SCORE
1/10
Garbage
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