They’re not exactly stealing the moon, but they are liberating it.
“Pursuit”
What They Say:
In a not-too-distant future, humanity has established a loosely organized world government with everything managed by an international AI network called Sapientia. People live peaceful lives by loyally obeying their rational decisions. However, Sapientia’s lunar development project, which sends criminals and pollutants to the Moon to maintain Earth’s peace, creates disparity and poverty on the Moon, sparking a catalyst for war. Jacob “Jack” Shadow gets caught up in this conflict after losing his family to a terrorist bombing by the Moon’s rebel army. Vowing revenge, Jack joins the Earth army as a scout on the Moon, only to discover an unexpected leader among the resistance forces.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I’m always somewhat wary of Netflix anime projects for a few reasons, but my curiosity inevitably draws me in. Moonrise does what I don’t like in dropping a complete eighteen-episode run at once because it’s just kind of overwhelming and kills weekly discussion. But this is a big project that I do think works best binge-watched – and talking with a friend who did binge it, it definitely did work for him. It’s certainly a passion project as it’s written and directed by Koizuka Masashi, who worked on a ton of Attack on Titan and several other projects, including The One Piece. It’s also from Wit Studio, which means it looks pretty slick across the board, but part of that is just adjusting to what it’s trying to convey with its style and getting into its rhythm. There are still things in so many anime projects that I wish they wouldn’t bother with 3DCG for and just animate it traditionally so that it blends better, and that happens a lot in science fiction anime.
After taking a detour out of the way to take care of Inanna, a worthy cause indeed, the team is back on track and closing in on Agarum city. The show does engage in some upper-level politicking and the like on the bad guys’ side at first, but I do struggle with a good chunk of this because I don’t think they’ve coalesced well on this side to make it feel both coherent and cohesive. So it’s good when the show leans more on Jack and his team as they get closer to the city, but are finding it to basically have a blackout to the outside world due to a blockade running in it. Agarum is certainly big and impressive in its size and starkness as they get there on the outside, but discovering it’s basically closed and with dark threats to leave is certainly unnerving to the team. Jack, of course, acts as Jack does and just barrels through it because he can’t believe an operation is being run within a city like this, much to the dismay of everyone else.
While in the city after that, his main encounter is with Dr. Salamandra and there are some interesting bits that come from it since she knows that he didn’t report his encounter with Phil, who Phil is, and basically works to intimidate him until the larger forces arrive to try and eliminate everyone – essentially putting the two on the same side temporarily. It’s a solid action sequence that really delivers and Salamandra has a look that definitely stands out in this, that’s fun to watch with her sense of power. The fight and their escape is a pretty fun piece overall and sets the tone for the episode, while the remainder tends to just show how people are operating under the way the joint army is running the city at the moment. Since they’ve got civilians of their own here, and the team isn’t supposed to be well-known, it adds its own complications, especially when Zowan kind of unlocks their abilities in a big and public way.
In Summary:
There are interesting moments throughout the episode, but I keep coming back to how the show feels ill-defined in its larger goal. I really enjoyed the quality of the fight between Jack and Salamandra, and that we get two instances of it playing out. It just has some strong choreography and a sense of power to it that lets it deliver. I also really liked seeing Zowan cut loose and the impact on her while also enjoying the way the city looks under siege as it is, particularly just at the entrance, where it’s so still. The visuals for the show continue to be fantastic, and the characters all have potential, but it feels like it has fallen short on really giving us a good narrative throughline to follow within each episode.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Netflix
