Stickers are so interesting.
What They Say:
“Sumo Sticker”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
ChäoS;Child had two missions as it began. The first was the unfortunate reminder of what happened in ChäoS;HEAd, most lamentable as an indicator of its relevance in the story to come but so rushed that it would make even less sense to a completely new viewer than the original ChäoS;HEAd series and could easily turn off those coming to ChäoS;Child thinking that this is what they’re getting themselves into for the long run. The second was to establish its own new story with a foundation built mostly on connections to the events of ChäoS;HEAd, which was of course much better than not only its own super-speed recap of ChäoS;HEAd but that series as a whole, not that that’s saying much. Yes, for at least a moment ChäoS;Child looked downright worth watching, if only for the hope that it would progress in the right direction from then on.
After settling in, signs are pointing to that perhaps not being the case. Sadly, the episode that should have a great deal of engrossing plot exploration was exceedingly uninteresting, ending with a relatively dramatic but uninspired cliffhanger and otherwise slogging along with protracted discussion of points that seem utterly mundane and somehow still inefficient time given to character development that would surely make the coming events more impactful.
The episode is largely about stickers found around the crime scenes in question, which is about as fascinating as it sounds. The level of detail given on this matter is somewhat baffling, even if the series will eventually prove that such care was actually warranted. The general aesthetic of the series is likable enough despite some inevitable similarities to the design of ChäoS;HEAd, but the direction is too bland to spice up these scenes that desperately need it. A studio like Silver Link. was never the most promising for top-tier adaptation, but there have been a few previous titles that showed the potential for better execution. The most exciting this thread gets within an episode that focuses so closely on it is the protagonists getting their little video of exposition shared across a wide audience, but that hasn’t led to anything of significance yet.
That would be fine if it felt like there was real forward progress being made for these characters, but the tone feels too stagnant for a story with so much going on. Takeru is a hell of a lot better as protagonists go than Takumi, but his passions still don’t make for the best storytelling, and the deeper nuances of his personality are told rather than shown, via a group of characters going over these matters in his absence. In contrast, some of the supporting characters such as Mio seem like they have a bit more going on, especially given some of her similarities to a certain young genius scientist who worked in America from a previous Science Adventure property. Considering we’re two episodes into a series already derived from another series as well as a larger franchise, too many aspects still feel too half-baked and unpolished to carry its weight.
In Summary:
There’s little chance that ChäoS;Child as a series could ever hope to be as weak as its predecessor, but even with every way in which it has improved over that, it doesn’t stand up as strongly on its own as it needs to. What potential is lying within it feels largely wasted with an adaptation that, while serviceable in some respects, still leaves enough to be desired. There’s another hope for a quality semicolon anime outside of Steins;Gate dashed. The next will likely be Steins;Gate 0, which better be pretty great, but that doesn’t really count like the first five ones do.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
