Originally Reviewed on Serializd
Hello there It is me once again back with another random anime to review that just so happened to have been released on Netflix........... seriously I dont know why I have covered so many of these things just go with it. Anyways the subject of todays review is Make My Day yet another series that I had never heard of before and one that I wasnt too excited to check out either. I didnt think it was gonna be bad or anything like that but from what I had seen it didnt look like anything too exciting or original just looking like your typical action monster show that took place on a snowy planet. But since I am willing to give anything the benefit of the doubt I decided to go ahead and give it a shot anyway and as it turns out it is NOT just a typical action monster show but instead it is more or less just a typical science fiction horror film that is stretched out to be 8 episodes long............ even though it really didnt need to be. Im not lying when I say that either as it has all of the markings of one of these typical kinds of stories that you can see all throughout but despite all of that I still thought it was a good enough show and one that does manage to give you a decent journey with some pretty decent characters despite all of its hiccups here and there.
The story is pretty generic being your typical unknown alien race gets unleashed and starts murdering everyone so now a group of survivors has to get out of there and/or stop them from killing even more people which is a decent enough setup that has worked in many other different shows and movies before but there isnt anything really unique or different done with it here aside from the monsters which is kind of a letdown the characters are decent with characters like Jim Walter Marnie and several others fitting the generic roles you would expect them to but they are made to be pretty likable thanks to getting more character development then we are used to for these kinds of characters although some characters like Howard and Boyd can just die in a ditch for all I care cause I did not like them at all the voice acting is decent with everyone doing a good enough job with the roles that they are given but this show does have a case of what Id like to call dubitis where the English dub sounds pretty amateurish and lacking especially when it comes to some voices that either try too hard or not hard enough the animation is also decent with the movement and overall style working well enough for the kind of show this is but the art style on the other hand....... Im sorry I just dont like it as it just looks really weird and unnatural making everyone look like plastic and making some of their facial expressions especially the ones that try to be more exaggerated look pretty bad the action is decent with there being plenty of action scenes against these alien creatures throughout the entire series and they get the job done with the final action sequence in the last episode being the only one that really makes you go Oh FUCK yeah and it all ends on a pretty satisfying and triumphant note something that I wasnt expecting from a show like this but one that I was glad to see nonetheless.
If I was to pinpoint any sort of problems with this show apart from the unnatural looking art style and some of the jokes and moments that get a little too animey sometimes it would be that the show heavily relies on tropes. When I said before that this show was pretty much a scifi horror movie that was stretched out into an 8episode TV show I wasnt joking because many of the things that happen in this show are ripped straight out of one of these kinds of films. One of the characters just so happens to be an excon? Check. Characters exist primarily to extend the conflict further and fuck over the main team at any given time? Check. A character just so happens to be pregnant and gives birth to her child in the middle of this entire nightmare? TRIPLE CHECK. All of these characters and story elements have been used SO MANY TIMES in many other shows and movies before this and if you think they do anything new or interesting with them here well sorry to disappoint but they dont. Although with that being said despite how cliche these plot points and characters are I will give them some credit.... I didnt hate them at all. Yes they are generic but I wasnt extremely angry or bored of them at any point and they manage to keep things moving at a decent enough pace to where I wasnt bothered by anything. Even if there was one or two scenes that did stop things momentarily to build up some kind of character development it usually feels genuine or it doesnt last that long to feel like a burden on the show. So if anything else I can say that while it is generic it is a competent kind of generic that I am able to get behind.
Overall despite its unnatural art style and many generic beats this still a decent show that I did enjoy my time with for the most part delivering a familiar yet simple story that many would be able to get behind full of plenty of decent characters that you want to see get through this and being short enough to where you could binge it in a couple of hours and be satisfied with what you just saw. I would recommend it for those who are fans of scifi type stories like this as well as those who somehow havent seen anything like this before because while this isnt gonna blow anyone away at any point Im sure youll at least find something to really like about it at the end of watching it all. Now lets just hope that the anime that I stumble upon next wont be one that was released on Netflix just so that we can break through this cycle............. that probably wont happen but Im hopeful either way
65
/100