Get in the damn computer, HackaDolls!
What They Say:
A company’s fate lies in the hands of a huge project. However, with insufficient funding and an increase in bugs, this new operating system’s launch date seems hopeless. If this project fails, the company tanks. Then, the Hackadolls are inputted into the system…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a couple of odd yet interesting episodes so far, Hackadoll has largely worked for me just because of the animation and that they’re trying different things. It could have easily focused on a single character that they have to help out on Earth, but instead it’s shifting to different areas that mostly stand alone. And that makes it a lot of fun since you can pretty much eject any sense of real continuity or importance to it all. The reminder is that this is just supposed to be fun and that’s all. And in that area it’s mostly succeeding, though like any show doing that it can be pretty hit or miss. But when you kick off with NERV parodies, you’re going to get some attention.
This episode focuses on a company that’s struggling with a major project that will determine its fate – a project that’s riddled with bugs. The HackaDolls are brought in to deal with this, looking all professional in sharp suits, as they dig into fixing the problem. Going serious for portions of it works beautifully, especially with the balance of silliness. The episode plays to the girls sexuality well while also working up their position of power angle to really go big. But it also knows how to go utterly adorable as they mess with each other to try and get the legendary programmer at the corporation to really do his job. That it plays out in another Evangelion angle with the three main computers, all of which are adorable, just takes it to the next level as it plays out.
In Summary:
Hackadoll is still working to gain me as a fan, but episodes like this are what will help to do it. The show plays well to what it wants to do here and shifting its style from the previous two episodes definitely helps as standalone style storytelling is ideal here. The quality of the animation and the designs are still spot on and the gags and overall design of it works quite well. I’m still hedging my bets on it, but the best thing right now is that it’s not trying to be a frantic show, so taking some time to breathe is definitely helping to win me over.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
