1000https://i0.wp.com/i.ur.com/teVBLG5.jpg?zoom=2 The postapocalyptic genre has been quite popular due to new mediums pulling their spin. So very few manage to do the genre justice with how vast the genre generally has to go for it and most writers dont have the most competence to write out a competent narrative. Whether or not they are about a nuclear holocaust zombie invasion ecological disaster divine judgment or pandemic reasons there are so many possibilities for story writers to come up with brilliant ideas for the genre with some great results and ones that are not so great. Our little anime Coppelion falls into this category that fails to provide a meaningful narrative and a dull melodramatic story that severely cripples it from being an intricate show during Japans nuclear fallout disaster into one that completely mocks it. Most people are in unanimous agreement that the artwork is pretty spectacular. To which it is backgrounds really do look fantastic and fit pretty well to the tone of the postapocalyptic setting with the dense watercolor backdrop on the dead grass that inhabits the concrete buildings and roads. However with that said theres still a problem with the consistency of the character art designs to the worlds art design. When you look at the characters they look like they belong in your typical highschool anime with their sleek clean looks and schoolgirl outfits. If they were to be taken seriously as consistent designs Id imagine them not being the glamorous pretty girls they are if they lived in this environment for so long. Not only does it not fit very well in a postapocalyptic setting because of its distracting nature but it also doesnt fit well with the shows tone. It would be like watching a movie set in the Middle Ages during the Black Plague era and everyone else looked like they were. Animation does fair more than the consistent artwork but these awful CGI techniques are used constantly throughout the vehicles and fight scenes. 1000https://i0.wp.com/i.ur.com/sq00V93.jpg?zoom=2 Of course this straightforward construction of the enormous points of the shows problems is the writing. Following a 1st personal narrative from the eyes of the three girls the show follows several plot arcs where we meet certain groups of people trying to survive out in the nuclear wasteland of Tokyo. However if youre expecting something that is a similar type of story to say Mushishi you will be sorely disappointed with this. The characters we meet hardly get any deep characterization. The ones that do come across as lazy cliches that become predictable and unfortunately delve into bland melodrama that comes across as laughable than anything else. What does kill the show overall comes from the erratic pacing that goes on. From left and right characters crop up in many places with each episode having agendas and personal vendettas toward others. With a show that is only 13 episodes something like this couldve worked in a much longer season. Because of this the pacing regularly suffers immensely in hopes of moving things forward without putting a lot of the plot points into clarification to the audience. They might have trouble with what the main plot is supposed to be besides just three girls walking through point A to point B in a postapocalyptic setting. In one episode they are desperate to find this granny that theyve been building upon a lot and then in the next episode the granny character is not spoken of ever again and they move on into a new mission. Almost as if these events dont feel connected whatsoever very well that cripples the worldbuilding as a whole. When it finally does get to that specific point where you do see where the plot is trying to go it doesnt go anywhere. You almost cant feel any emotional impact from the constant cliffhangers because theres little development to the story and characters. 1000https://gonzonyan.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/x02aoiibaratakeo.jpg Very few characters make a considerable impression apart from the main characters but they suffer bland stereotypical fates. Only Ibara Naruse seems to have a brain in her head while the rest seem only to have screaming and whining as their only two reactions and become more like cheerleaders for Naruse most of the time. They even sometimes screw up certain things that almost jeopardize their whole operation which begs how they even got the job of being these operatives in the first place. If anything they come across as mere mindless pawns that dont offer anything other than pure annoying schoolgirl service that isnt charming or funny because of their outofplace nature. There are logical inconsistencies that cant be taken with a grain of salt in some action scenes such as breaking the laws of physics. In some action shows viewers can ignore these problems because of their outlandish nature of defying physics just for convenience. Still Coppelion is portraying itself as a realistic setting. You cant just toss out these laws to see pretty action sequences because it will go against odds with the shows naturalistic atmospheree and we wont be able to take it seriously as we did in the beginning. Examples include: 1 People can survive a rocket launchers backblast from inside a building. 2 Someone can survive an anesthetic bullet from close range even though a bullet can still kill someone. 3 How can someone survive from a shell exploding next to them even at medium longrange? None of which are given any context whatsoever due to the hack directing. 1000https://i0.wp.com/i.ur.com/yu0L7T1.png?zoom=2 The antagonists they face dont come across as anything memorable with all of that aside. Not even the Ozu sisters with their very eccentric personalities. The main antagonists reasons for trying to take over Coppelion arent given enough context so we dont even get enough out of them whether we are supposed to be sympathetic or hate them for their reasoning for doing the things they do. In reality they dont have much reason to respond other than that they are just evil people because theyre just cruel and whatever reasons the show had written for them felt muddled and contrived. Their archetypes are the typical big lousy government organization that wants to rule over the landscape to gain control over Tokyo just like every other story like it. I never thought I would say this but Aoi would be the first character in an anime that Kana Hanazawa that I constantly couldnt stand at all just from her voice alone. Usually Hanazawa can pull off a good performance even when her characters arent exactly likable. But with her character Aoi theres absolutely no positive outcome from the fact that the only tone of her voice that she seems to put into Aoi is highpitched whining. The other cast members dont stand out either but they are listenable unlike poor little Hanazawa. For the music aspect for what few standout songs there are for the show itself the opening and ending themes are okay songs that fit somewhat to Coppelions setting with lovely dark guitar tones in the OP by the band Angela. 1000https://i0.wp.com/i.ur.com/QndlNeI.jpg?zoom=2 Calling Coppelion an abject failure would be taking it lightly. It couldve been a solid show to be experienced if there wasnt the atrocious pacing poorly developed characters and horrible melodrama underneath it all but we couldve only hoped that it would be entertaining from a funny standpoint once it stops being funny and steps into a mindnumbing boring anime the entertainment stops and the dull mediocrity sets in. Id rather watch a show be entertainingly bad than be boring and this managed to do both. To this I must now let Coppelion sit on the throne as one of the most disappointing failures of the year if there was ever a throne in the first place. Grade: D