Watch or Drop? Rules
Rules modified for the Autumn 2021 season.
- The anime must be new (not a sequel or spin-off).
- I’ll watch as much as it takes to make a decisionas to whether the anime will be added to the watch/review list or dropped and forgotten. For good.
First Impressions of Scarlet Nexus:
I didn’t go into Scarlet Nexus with particularly high hopes.
Another anime about an enemy referred to only as ‘others’ attacking cities and teams of super-powered soldiers, lots of which are teens, fighting them off just seemed like it was going to get lost in the crowd and the messy visuals used to promote Scarlet Nexus did nothing to change my mind on that.
That the source for the anime was a game also didn’t do much to inspire confidence.
And so I watched the first three episodes and ultimately this isn’t the worst introduction I’ve ever watched to a story but it also didn’t do a huge amount to win me over.
Scarlet Nexus is kind of hovering kind of perfectly on average with no particular elements being dreadful but not a lot to really celebrate about this anime either.
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Scarlet Nexus Series Positives:
I think so far I’ve appreciated that Scarlet Nexus hasn’t been in over-explanation mode. Despite Yuito and Nagi just finally entering the Other Suppression Force (OSF) we really don’t get a lot of exposition and so far only one joint training session between to platoons which seemed more about getting Kasane some additional screen time as she seems to be a main character.
While this does mean there are some things about the world and the powers and the rest that still haven’t really been explained, I can’t imagine the plot would make any more sense even if they were. Do I really care why some people have more magic power than others? I just need to know that Yuito apparently didn’t have much.
Now could this become a problem later in the series if nothing ever gets explained? Absolutely. But for now I was kind of happy that the story just kind of flowed right along.
Equally, while a few different characters are introduced, they did a good enough job of conveying their personalities through actions in the first three episodes that you have a sense of who they are. While it would be nice to see them fleshed out a bit more beyond these initial impressions, so far all of the characters kind of work and seem to have enough of their own personality to stand out.
Scarlet Nexus Series Negatives:
Not so much a negative but visually this anime is hard to take seriously. Not just because the animation is kind of so-so but more because the ‘others’ largely look like overgrown pot-plants with legs and it is really hard to take a threat seriously when it looks that ridiculous. Larger enemies look even sillier and unwieldy and it is hard to imagine any government actually having to take this threat seriously.
Equally, while it is a positive they haven’t lectured at us and thrown so much jargon at you that you can’t even think straight, Scarlet Nexus has yet to explain why regular weapons wouldn’t solve the problem. Particularly when canons seemed to be used to bring down about 80% of the enemies at one point. So wouldn’t a soldier with a gun work as well as a psychic teen using a garbage bin?
We are lacking in context as in I don’t think it is clear when or where this is meant to be set or how we got to this situation. Not sure when the ‘others’ started showing up and why they became such a threat. Sure we might learn along the way but at this stage we just have to accept they are there.
Possibly the other negative is we’ve gone from joining the military to uncovering a vast conspiracy and being about to die in the space of three episodes. It might be nice if Scarlet Nexus slowed down a little and gave its own story a bit of room to breathe so that the audience could feel more like they knew where they were rather than feeling a little dragged along.
Verdict?
I don’t actually think Scarlet Nexus will end up being particularly good. But nor do I think it will be dreadful and Yuito and Kasane weren’t terrible characters so I’m kind of curious as to what ends up happening to them. There’s definite potential for this to fall apart but I think it is far more likely to end up being pretty unremarkable but watchable.
Then gain, it just might surprise me and turn out to be great. Guess I’ll find out at the end of the season.
Images from: Scarlet Nexus. Dir. H Nishimura. Sunrise. 2021
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Karandi James
The show isn’t that bad, the negatives you said get covered later on in the anime. Its also true that Scarlet Nexus starts off too quick with a bit of fast pacing, but it will slow down and all come together towards the middle of the season as the plot becomes clear. I also think that the first few episodes being fast-paced is just a way for it to make its introductions and jump straight into the action without prolonging it and making it stretched out. I myself have been binging this anime and I personally love it and don’t think its bad. Most of the time we can judge an anime and how it will become with just the first few episodes but not with this particular one. If you haven’t watched the newer episodes, watch them and you’ll see what I mean. Scarlet Nexus is an overall good show imo and I really don’t understand why it has a 5.6 rating on MAL.
While I did intend to get back to this anime, it isn’t high on my priority list at this point. Hopefully I will eventually have the time to do so.
Idk what it is that makes games so difficult to adapt into other mediums. There are some series that are well regarded in the community, like Danganronpa, Fate/Stay Night or Steins Gate, but those are all based on visual novels which are mostly text based anyways. The game Scarlet Nexus actually looks pretty fun (I’m a sucker for telekenetic powers). But if the anime doesn’t add anything new or interesting, you might as well just watch a livestream of the game
I’ve never really gotten into the whole watching other people play games thing. I would rather just play the game myself or watch a movie or tv show. But I guess we’ll see if Scarlet Nexus ends up being watchable or not in a couple of months once it has finished airing.
Agree with everything you said here. The worst part of the series so far, for me, is the Others design. They all look so dumb and it takes any sense of dread or suspense out of action scenes.
The design choices are just odd here and it really does make it impossible to really take the fights seriously.
Just about lasted the first episode, kept awake by counting the cliches and I lost count… Fair play to you if you enjoy this.
As I said, I don’t anticipate this one being good but it also wasn’t unwatchably bad and there is always the possibility of it finding its feet as it goes. Or it could just derail and be a train wreck. Either way, the first three episodes weren’t bad enough to make me want to run away so I’ll give this one a watch once it is done and see how it all ends up.