500https://i.ur.com/381MPGk.jpg Hi. Im TGG. But not present TGG. Im future TGG. Ive time traveled from the end of this review to warn you to not watch this series. Or to even continue reading this review. Leave. Run. Escape with your sanity intact Quick Before its too lat HIS REVIEW IS A FULL SPOILERS REVIEW. BECAUSE I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW I COULD EVER TALK ABOUT THIS SERIES WHILE GOING INTO ALL OF MY PROBLEMS WITH IT WITHOUT SPOILING IT THIRTY TIMES OVER. My ultimate but brief opinion of this series is that its not worth watching. Its not entertaining enough in a bad way and it most certainly isnt good. Overall it just kind of made me feel sad. And bored. And frustrated. This will be a slow burn as I gradually break it down entirely and again I will end up spoiling the entire show if you still are considering actually watching it. 440https://i.ur.com/m04HVmR.png Yoshitoshi ABehttps://anilist.co/staff/96991/YoshitoshiABes Return to Anime Hes finally back Serial Experiments Lainhttps://anilist.co/anime/339/SerialExperimentsLain/ 440https://i.ur.com/AFIAR1r.jpg NieA Under 7https://anilist.co/anime/800/NieAUnder7/ 440https://i.ur.com/uFqq7r1.jpg Haibane Renmeihttps://anilist.co/anime/387/HaibaneRenmei/ 440https://i.ur.com/MqJEjJo.jpg Texhnolyzehttps://anilist.co/anime/26/Texhnolyze/ 440https://i.ur.com/ibZzR6R.jpg Although only the character designs for Texhnolyze Desperahttps://anilist.co/anime/6504/Despera/ 440https://i.ur.com/CsF4aQW.jpg ...Nope just kidding 440https://i.ur.com/NrOsjC4.png Over fifteen years and ABe has finally gotten involved in an anime again. RErideD 440https://i.ur.com/TL0ePBv.jpg Probably a bunch of people approached this show as a result of his involvement in it. I am most certainly one of those people. Certainly with what the show ended up being you could immediately assume Im going to be horrifically negative towards this series in this review as a direct result of being disappointed because I let myself think that this might be good because of ABes involvement. Well no. I believe this series deserves everything Im gonna give it. But more importantly I need to stress that even though ABes involvement was the primary reason why I watched this series in the first place there really isnt much ABe in this at all. 440https://i.ur.com/136Crn1.png Theres like a handful of things apart from like whats in the OP ED and the preview images for this that are in the actual show that seem to be from ABe. But other than that thats basically it. In an interview with himhttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/20180907/premierereportyoshitoshiabererided/.136451 he basically stated that he mostly just did designs for this series and he would give his drafts to the actual character designer for the anime and then they would do their designs and of course they ended up looking different. And that was basically the end of it because ABe figured they would end up in an endless loop of them exchanging drafts if he presented criticisms or suggestions beyond what he originally gave to the designer. ABe also said he played a part in writing the screenplay and some of the story somewhere between when it was originally just going to be a straight adaptation of someones time travel novel to a full original series. ...I really want to personally believe however again given what we were presented that his involvement in that aspect of the show was as minimal as possible. 440https://i.ur.com/NjdVK64.png 440https://i.ur.com/DGXr4V7.png A Worrying Start 440https://i.ur.com/jUhyRiQ.png This show essentially went fully down the drain for me by the end of the very first episode. What followed was a Frankeinstein monster shambling about aimlessly and I just had to watch until it reached the end of its journey all while pondering why apparently nobody involved in its creation realized the mess they were shaping with their own two hands. The first episode seemed simple enough when I first watched it but now having seen the whole thing and am rewatching it I see now that the whole thing was rotten from the very start. It wasnt some sudden or drastic turn. This was planned from the very beginning. And that is just so baffling to me. 440https://i.ur.com/mveBjzD.png Like its supposed to feel like at the end of the show everything is... wrapped up in a bow and satisfactorily concluded. Theyre making robots but a bug happens and isnt fixed and then ten years in the future the world is basically suffering a semirobot apocalypse. But theres also time travel stuff so lets go back into the past and... fix it Thats what this show is or should be but theres just... so much... Its just handled so goddamned poorly. Like the only two episodes of the entire show that actually matter is the very first one and the last one. Almost everything in between is just nonsensical basically filler and bad action. Like the reason I put a full spoilers warning for this review in particular is because... 440https://i.ur.com/RxGiQEZ.png The way the main character Derrida fixes the semirobot apocalypse which in turn was leading to a full on nuclear apocalypse is he goes back in time and says one thing different in a single conversation. And that alone completely prevents everything from happening. Every single time he jumped to the past before the final one was completely and utterly meaningless. It honestly felt like okay were at twelve episodes its time to end the series. 440https://i.ur.com/6mpGvCf.png My mouth was literally agape. Because it would have been one thing if like the actual meat of the show which is Derrida struggling in the apocalyptic future with his companions was like a meaningful or entertaining adventure that they were undoing to save the world but it wasnt. And it really gave the impression that they believed that it was. That the viewer would want to see where everybody would end up in the new future. You cant... like the reason Im talking about the ending in the section thats supposed to be about the start of the show is that like the very first minute of the entire series is actually of the fixed timeline... and then it switches over to the robot apocalypse timeline... Granted you have absolutely no way of knowing thats what the start of the series is unless you go back to it after you finish watching it but... like thats actually the worst possible way I can imagine starting a time travel show. You start the show after the problem solving retcon takes place immediately go back to the timeline with the problem where the majority of the show takes place in then the retcon happens that saves the day and the timeline is fixed and the poor and vague start of the show actually finally makes sense. 440https://i.ur.com/jmiQhCh.png But you know we need to back away from that sort of stuff for now. We have way more important things to talk about first before we truly tackle the... embarrassing time travel. The Elephant in the Room The main antagonist of this series... well one of them... or... okay the guy who originally causes the semirobot apocalypse in this series is none other than... 440https://i.ur.com/1d0U1LN.png 440https://i.ur.com/8YWdfcT.png ...a poor and obvious caricature of the 45th president of the United States of America. Donald J. Trump. 440https://i.ur.com/k24rhun.png Nobody can watch this show and look at this character and say thats not what this character is. Like they didnt even try to mask it as anything else. That is 100 supposed to be Trump. 440https://i.ur.com/opH3ppz.png Lets not even go into how silly or lazy the idea of making your villain just be Donald Trump is. For that matter lets not even go into anything political about this at all. I swear to god I will steer the course of this review straight into a goddamned iceberg before that happens. 440https://i.ur.com/8G8sXQH.jpg But like... putting aside who hes based on entirely... hes just an evil business man Like can we just retire that type of villain? Evil business man who is evil because he is a rich business man and he wants to make more money Greed Bad Im gonna fucking release robots with a bug that will just cause them to start going on rampages and just killing people because I fucking love MONEY 440https://i.ur.com/ULEH5ue.png 440https://i.ur.com/l66uXg7.png Oh no theres like two of my scientists and theyve found the bug and they want to patch it Fuck that How dare THEY I WANT A ROBOT APOCALYPSE SO I WILL HAVE ALL OF THE MONEY. 440https://i.ur.com/IppyZQP.png Who even cares if this directly leads into a nuclear apocalypse because all of the major world powers just end up saying well oh shit theres evil murderous robots everywhere I guess lets just solve it with nukes it doesnt matter as long as I GET MY MONEY. BECAUSE THAT IS 100 MY ENTIRE MOTIVATION TO BE DOING THE THINGS IM DOING. 440https://i.ur.com/7CFzICs.png 440https://i.ur.com/xDIyLS2.png 440https://i.ur.com/26ittOH.png 440https://i.ur.com/NM0I9Q4.png ...In truth you know what fucking bothers me about this the most? Hes like an actual serious antagonist in the first episode. You know if they had actually tried to keep that up throughout the whole show sure. Fuck it man. Trump causes the apocalypse. Fine. Itd still be super goddamned silly but okay. Instead every single scene hes in from episode one and on hes just a complete fucking buffoon. 440https://i.ur.com/z65Q9Qh.png 440https://i.ur.com/J2BmtSk.png It almost feels like partway through they decided it was like a mistake and they wanted to back off. Like someone said alright no this was a mistake we gotta get rid of Trump because he eventually just stops appearing or mattering to the point where some brown hair guy becomes the main guy whos after and causing trouble for Derridas group. And in the robot apocalypse timeline Donald Trump just pointlessly gets killed by his own fucking mercenary who is just a complete batshit insane person for absolutely no reason. 440https://i.ur.com/uRtXCqo.png 440https://i.ur.com/Q0K97FU.png Donald Trump hired her to kill Derrida in the first place. There was like no moment motivating this. Like sure we the viewer have been shown that Rebuilds experiment is what screwed her up in the head. Like Donna already knew that the Yvains were her creators and Donald Trump was the head of Rebuild which created her so... Why did she suddenly decide to kill Donald Trump other than because the show needed Donald Trump to die? Also now that I think about it Donnas rampage there is probably like the goriest scene of the entire show. 440https://i.ur.com/19sMlbj.png 440https://i.ur.com/FYqsx2Z.png And its the scene of the murder of the character who is a caricature of the actual current president of the United States of America. In the fixed timeline they just oust him for originally wanting to actively cause a robot apocalypse for money. 440https://i.ur.com/9oukvpJ.png 440https://i.ur.com/dkUUQfu.png If I were Donald Trump I think I certainly would rather be in prison for wanting to bring about the complete global downfall of humanity rather than be brutally murdered by an actual insane person. https://i.ur.com/lXry3cM.jpg Weve evaded the iceberg... for now. Bland Characters You know whats even worse than outright making your antagonist be Donald Trump? 440https://i.ur.com/EJSQQ1l.png The fact that hes basically the most interesting character of the entire show. Everybody else is just... either bad or like theyre about as generic as you can get. Like theyre the characters you would expect there to be in a show like this. 440https://i.ur.com/BwpZhiq.png Main protagonist Derrida hes the guy from the past who awakes in the robot apocalypse not knowing what has transpired in the past ten years. 440https://i.ur.com/JtdiwIO.png 440https://i.ur.com/q5kvouF.png Theres Vidaux the mercenary who just happens to cross paths with Derrida and saves him and acts as his guide and protector in this new harsh world hes awakened to. Also he makes it a point that he wont help Derrida without being paid but guess what Derrida has no money throughout the entire show and Vidaux helps him through the whole thing. 440https://i.ur.com/26hjdjm.png He actively puts himself as well as his adopted daughter at risk numerous times for Derridas sake based on a vague promise and the hope that Derrida isnt just some fucking insane person making all of this shit up. 440https://i.ur.com/nBZ3nZN.png Hey Vidaux I need you to be the action hero this series needs again Im just the time travel guy I cant do anything about these killer robots What? Oh just put it on my tab again Because you know thats exactly how mercenaries work 440https://i.ur.com/zaC1Zh1.png Speaking of Vidauxs adopted daughter the entire purpose of her character in the show is that they couldnt just have the grizzled and rough mercenary. No there had to be somebody with the mercenary thats a bit lighter a bit friendlier and is willing to talk with and be friendly to Derrida until the reveal that Vidaux is actually the merc with a heart of gold because hes totally fine with doing all of this shit for Derrida for free. Then theres Yuri who is one of two girls that Derrida knew in his old life and her entire character is the camera. 440https://i.ur.com/ir9Ujr8.png 440https://i.ur.com/ckiDUn1.png She has a camera with her and she takes pictures. Thats her character. Dont forget you gotta have a bad mercenary for the good mercenary to fight After all Donald Trump isnt going to rely solely on the clunky and worthless killer robots to stop the good guys He hired Donna Who is totally just a cool badass evil mercenary character and there are no twists at all to her character 440https://i.ur.com/QOn0bgf.png Theres a twist to her character. Then theres the standin antagonist who of course replaces Donald Trump after a while bizarrely because again we have no fucking idea who this guy even is. I think at a point hes actually even given a name but I dont think we ever find out what his actual position is. Like is he from the government? Is he a subordinate of Donald Trump? Is he actually in a position above Donald Trump in the crazy killer robot company??? 440https://i.ur.com/1BkOYnP.png I have no fucking idea and I dont give this series enough credit to say Im confident that Id find out with a rewatch. And finally the macguffin of the entire series the second girl that Derrida knew in his old life. Mage. 440https://i.ur.com/QrJLMYk.png In her ten years while Derrida was frozen she lived throughout an entire version of this show herself. Wandering about the robot apocalypse while seeking the knowledge to perfect Derridas time travel theory and put it to use and prevent the robot apocalypse from ever happening by preventing Derridas death and instead somehow causing him to fall into a cryostasis chamber in a random cryostasis facility he just somehow wanders into. Then ten years later he wakes up follows Mages path time travels and fixes the whole problem. 440https://i.ur.com/1kWPcxK.png ...I would have rather seen Mages journey That seemed like it would have been way more interesting and entertaining to watch. Seeing her trying to perfect time travel and trying to go back and fix the problems herself but failing to do so because her memories of those times have already aged ten years. Like the entire show would be about her ten years being in the robot apocalypse rather than Derridas... week? Actually I dont even really know how much time was supposed to have passed during Derridas journey of fucking around in the robot apocalypse. Then again I guess it really doesnt matter Mage aside they do actually try and give a backstory to Vidaux and his daughter but its like the most generic shit that I dont think its really even worth mentioning. 440https://i.ur.com/1WCW6JY.png Like Vidaux is really into being a cop and hes away from his family his family gets murdered as an act of revenge against him I guess hes prevented from being on the case because hes related so he goes full rogue and murders the guy who did it but oh no that guy just happened to have a baby and... its... way too late into the show for any of it to even remotely matter. 440https://i.ur.com/1eAnbGe.png But you know what? The evil mercenary is actually way worse than Vidaux. Im just going to skate entirely around the idea of how Vidaux just took the guy he killeds child and raised it as his own and he just got away with the murder because of the robot apocalypse... I wonder how Mayuka would react if she learned Vidaux murdered her actual father. 440https://i.ur.com/BBtEO5e.png Donna used to be a researcher for the company that built the evil bad robots. On top of the evil bad robots they were also trying to make robots that believed they were human and thought they had personality. I dont really think you should muddy the waters. Youre already doing the killer out of control type of robots. Does this evil corporation really need to have robots that can infiltrate humanity disguised as other human beings? Do we really need to actively push towards a robot apocalypse this hard? Look We made our robots practically completely indistinguishable to humanity You better have your entire life savings wired to our company by tomorrow unless you want to be replaced by one of our robots Your family will never know youre gone and then we can flip the switch to turn the robot into the convenient KILL EVERYTHING AROUND IT mode we already had installed into all units. 440https://i.ur.com/BBtEO5e.png And Donna was in fact one of the researchers for this experiment. Back then she was named Angelica. But then the experiment robot began to apparently evolve on its own ??? and started making itself I think it was the company just fucking with her actually resemble Angelica more and more. And for some reason this supposed researcher somehow lets this robot talk her into what the robot is saying. That Angelica is not Angelica. The robot is Angelica. Angelica is Donna. The former Angelica who is now Donna is a robot. The robot who is now Angelica is human and shes the researcher in this experiment. 440https://i.ur.com/yyPDYkl.png ...I really feel like they thought this was a super cool episode and character. But I was just completely fucking baffled in trying to make sense of it. Like she just basically lets a robot talk her out of her own fucking identity and humanity completely fucking snaps burns down the laboratory and becomes Donald Trumps psuedo robot badass mercenary...? 440https://i.ur.com/V4IHZS8.png And like she snaps a second time kills Donald Trump and goes after Derrida again but rather than because its her target its because she resents him for creating her because she thinks shes a robot. ...Like so much of this show just makes you want to throw your hands up in the air and say fuck it. Its not even worth it at this point right? Even so we continue on... 440https://i.ur.com/EPPIT9A.png 440https://i.ur.com/oSIYp7n.png 440https://i.ur.com/6tN1gU0.png 440https://i.ur.com/5uR6nvl.png 440https://i.ur.com/NR5BUIk.png Oh by the way... I forgot a character. 440https://i.ur.com/43BQi9A.png Thats right. Graham the Car AI. Best character of RErideD hands down. I will fight you. I MEAN JUST THINK ABOUT IT. WHERE WOULD THEY BE WITHOUT HIM? YEAH THATS RIGHT. NOWHERE. WALKING THROUGH THE FAUX WASTELAND HITCHHIKING. ...So of course hes one of the only characters throughout the entire show to actually die. Muddled and Terrible Writing The setting is a completely and utter fucking mess. And the writing is just generally unfathomably bad as well. 440https://i.ur.com/HijFOTh.png 440https://i.ur.com/9DRF3NW.png 440https://i.ur.com/7Bn4Tjz.png 440https://i.ur.com/JHK7bqT.png 440https://i.ur.com/BZFpMa0.png 440https://i.ur.com/1X1S2gq.png 440https://i.ur.com/dnE3ru7.png So hold on. A company builds robots and their robots go out of control on a massive scale destroying and killing whatever is around them. The government who paid this company... rather than taking action against them or even telling them to fix their dysfunctional products which are actively killing people... not only do they turn a blind eye to this because they dont want to shoulder their portion of blame for causing the robot apocalypse but they continue to pay and fund this company...? Even several years into the robot apocalypse??? How is anyone supposed to rationalize that in their heads? THE ROBOTS THEY BUILT STARTED GOING ON RAMPAGES AND THEY SOMEHOW BECAME THE COUNTRYS LARGEST DEFENSE CONTRACTORS? WHAT 440https://i.ur.com/MeeztmB.png ...I used up my one brain aneurysm per review too early. Shit. Anyways when Derrida initially wakes up from being frozen for ten years hes immediately tossed into some shit because he almost immediately encounters some of the killer robots. And we the viewers are immediately led to believe that oh okay so the entire world is now full swing into a robot apocalypse and these things are everywhere. 440https://i.ur.com/Rz4kGVo.png Except theres not. Theres entire functioning cities and settlements that are completely okay and make it look like a robot apocalypse never even fucking happened. As a matter of fact there is like an entire stretch of episodes where theres like no killer robots whatsoever. They start almost ENTIRELY appearing only when the plot really needs there to be killer robots. We gotta go through this old abandoned tunnel to sneak intoOH FUCK THERES SOME ROBOTS IN OUR WAY. DAMN IT. 440https://i.ur.com/OM3qpIq.png 440https://i.ur.com/sgooEr5.png But you know despite how actual few killer robots are throughout the majority of the show they just had to have an ENTIRE ARMY OF THEM in the very last episode. But hey there being an entire concentration of killer robots somewhere explains why it seemed like there were so little of them anywhere else. Its because they all just happened to be hanging around where the Derrida would eventually end up needing to go to fix the apocalypse 440https://i.ur.com/rzfQtSO.png Hell on top of this insane and massive army of killer robots the brown hair guy stops by and lets like a new drone version of the killer robots loose and its just complete and utter schlock because like Vidaux is just suddenly required to fight off an entire robot apocalypse BY HIMSELF. 440https://i.ur.com/HGlEdM6.png And you know what? This lone man who stayed behind so his friends could go on therefore sacrificing himself... against all odds against an entire army of the evil robots... 440https://i.ur.com/k1iA6nf.png ...is fucking WINNING. Even by the point of Derrida jumping back into time to finally fix the robot apocalypse VIDAUX IS STILL ALIVE. HE DIDNT EVEN SACRIFICE HIMSELF HES JUST STILL FIGHTING. HELL HIS DAUGHTER ACTUALLY WENT BACK TO BE WITH HIM IN THE LAST MOMENTS BEFORE THE COUNTRY GETS NUKED/THE TIMELINE IS FIXED. 440https://i.ur.com/5hcAFVC.png Like these robots are so bad they have to time travel rather than use the stupid patch file they also still have in the robot apocalypse timeline but they cant even kill one cop gone mercenary? Theres like a billion of them and even the new ones that can fly but its just not enough. But werent these robots being sold for combat purposes as well? And yet they cant kill one person whose role in the script for the final episode could have just been summed up in two words: HEROIC SACRIFICE. It becomes even worse when you add in the fact that the country is bombing itself. 440https://i.ur.com/WByTQnt.png 440https://i.ur.com/U7dnTl4.png 440https://i.ur.com/93A6zSu.png 440https://i.ur.com/HqL2K4P.png Like the solution theyve come to ten years into the robot apocalypse is to just bomb entire communities and stretches of land indiscriminately and randomly. What in the possible fuck is that going to solve. The company that caused all of this nonsense STILL EXISTS AND IS FUNCTIONING. THE GOVERNMENT IS STILL GIVING THEM FUNDING. 440https://i.ur.com/V9wU2r8.png In this universe does nobody have a functioning brain? Randomly bombing your own country isnt going to solve anything Its just gonna raise the death toll And the other countries I guess apparently bought this companys robots too and theyre fucked so in the final episode I guess everybody just collectively agrees to throw in the towel and push the big red button. 440https://i.ur.com/PobRIjS.png If we all decide to launch our nukes at the same exact time we wont have to worry about the robots anymore And like in the actual show the fucking brown hair antagonist is saying something along the lines of: YO DERRIDA. STOP BEING A FUCKING PANSY AND COME WITH US SO WE CAN LITERALLY WATCH THE WORLD BURN IN ATOMIC FIRE. 440https://i.ur.com/Q53aFs2.png 440https://i.ur.com/f8J9lnI.png 440https://i.ur.com/W6IcAo2.png 440https://i.ur.com/AYeC4fF.png 440https://i.ur.com/qOi3yQS.png 440https://i.ur.com/ETZ3Gfv.png 440https://i.ur.com/8XNkK2S.png ...I really wish I hadnt read that interview and learned that ABe apparently was involved at least partially at point in the story and writing of this series. Like I really wish I did not learn that knowledge. Maybe he was only involved in the writing when it was still supposed to be an adaptation of whatever time travel novel. Im gonna force myself to make myself believe that. ...Like its honestly astonishing that as I go look back through it all I keep on finding more stuff. When Derrida first wakes up and meets Vidaux and Mayuka they have like a device to check for a chip or something that apparently all the survivors in the robot apocalypse have to identify them by. 440https://i.ur.com/nbzutVF.png 440https://i.ur.com/W4Ufo82.png 440https://i.ur.com/j5dkPTe.png It happens so quickly and its never brought up again so I forgot about this but... the sole purpose of this moment is so Vidaux and Mayuka will actually believe that Derrida isnt some insane person lying about being asleep for ten years in a pod. Just think about it. Survivor IDs...??? So like you survive the robot apocalypse but your family doesnt. Your familys dead. You turn to the government hoping that theyll either offer you reparations for your loss which they are more or less directly responsible for or at the very least that theyll do something about these fucking robots that killed your family. Instead they look at you and say okay you survived? Please step into that line so we can insert a chip into your arm so we can easily identify you as a person who survived this ordeal. Like did they just not think about any of this? I just dont... understand... The Time Travel Finally were at the meat of the series. The robots never were the focus of this show. From the very beginning it was the time travel. 440https://i.ur.com/q7O7RB8.png So that brings us to the grand question how does the time travel exactly work? Well unfortunately before we even open that gigantic bag of worms we have to discuss how Derrida ends up in the future in the first place. The first episode ends with Derrida fleeing through a forest as Donald Trump wants him dead so nobody knows about the impending robot apocalypse he wishes to throw the country into. And then as hes running through the woods he ends up falling into a random cryostasis facility? 440https://i.ur.com/8FcuEEs.png 440https://i.ur.com/DTW7BvQ.png 440https://i.ur.com/y6ofsSx.png 440https://i.ur.com/80KDiGC.png He stumbles around and then ends up sitting in a cryostasis pod which immediately activated upon him sitting down into it. That is a fucking huge design flaw. 440https://i.ur.com/WHMu3F4.png 440https://i.ur.com/lHWEsaS.png 440https://i.ur.com/EeV2hCA.png 440https://i.ur.com/zxSadlb.png 440https://i.ur.com/J6zCJPS.png Its revealed at the end of the show that when Mage already used her time traveling once at this point to go back and somehow prevent Derrida from being killed by Donald Trump. But were shown that the time rides are basically you go back in time to an important memory and youre basically that version of yourself again at that point of time. But Mage was nowhere near there. At that point in time she was in the hospital because she tried a time travel experiment and collapsed as a result of it. Yet she somehow went back in time and caused Derrida to fall into a random cryostasis facility? The cryostasis facility is literally never fucking explained. Why is it there who built it how is it still functioning when it looked entirely abandoned? There are so many questions and so many of them are never answered. I mean I guess it just comes down to we need the protagonist to jump ten years into the future so THATS why a cryostasis facility is there and he just happened to fall into it. But anyway the time rides. 440https://i.ur.com/vBcmNyM.png They just start happening at a point in the show completely randomly. At the time you dont know that hes actually full on going into the past. Like his head starts hurting and smoke just appears and bam hes in the past. Its later revealed that this is apparently triggered by meaningful or powerful memories and Derrida basically realizes that all thats really needed to time travel is to just think really hard. 440https://i.ur.com/KbOnYg4.png If you think about time traveling super hard you will time travel. Because thats how time travel works. Because nobody ever thought of trying that. Like oh I built this super fucking complex time travel machine took years to make but oh okay what I really needed to do was to BELIEVE that I could time travel. But oh hey it does turn out that you do need time travel equipment to actually do time rides. Yet thats pretty weird isnt it? How come Derrida can just fucking randomly waltz into the past while theyre out doing other shit if he actually needs equipment? Well you see... thats because Mage is actually in a pod somewhere with the time travel stuff Derrida needed... 440https://i.ur.com/E4tmdiJ.png 440https://i.ur.com/nqq7dHy.png ...and she worked it to where the time travel equipment was linked to the watch Derrida gave to her as a birthday present ten years ago which she left for him on his cryostasis pod at the very beginning of the show and 440https://i.ur.com/DkoIgG2.png ...How how does this work exactly? Like apparently when you time ride it eats your memories as fuel ??? the more you do it. 440https://i.ur.com/OaYy4tm.png Also the young time travel magic version of Mage says that you cant apparently time ride to the same moment twice. So almost all of Derridas time rides are to completely random points and he is always unable to make any meaningful change. 440https://i.ur.com/5XWKKG2.png 440https://i.ur.com/As2A7jH.png So while hes doing all of this worthless time traveling that doesnt solve anything Mage is in a pod somewhere losing her memories because Derrida is unknowingly using them for fuel 440https://i.ur.com/eqCKiAT.png 440https://i.ur.com/Yup6LBm.png It genuinely almost feels like they were aware of you know when you do a time travel thing theres always gonna be that one guy who stands up and goes: Yeah but uh if they fixed the problem they went back in time to fix then wouldnt they not go back into the past in the first place because the problem would be fixed in the future? Paradox So they just said fuck it and made it as nonsensical as possible as if challenging those people to try and make sense of any of this. Like one of Derridas time rides I dont even remember what it was he actually went back in time and changed but it for no reason undid Yuri breaking her camera which survived ten years into the robot apocalypse yet broke when she fell one time. 440https://i.ur.com/FtejAay.png 440https://i.ur.com/li0076L.png 440https://i.ur.com/uXdZP4k.png 440https://i.ur.com/idlqIJ9.png Yeah okay. The camera has survived ten entire years including a robot apocalypse but it breaks immediately when she falls ONCE. Theres no real link to whatever Derrida did differently in the past to Yuri breaking her camera. And if its like the if you change something in the past the entire future is different idea then why is the camera being broken the ONLY thing that is different? And you know what thats actually one of his most impactful time rides. He saved Yuris camera. Good thing he did too because thats her entire character 440https://i.ur.com/iO3hpvp.png 440https://i.ur.com/4eriRMf.png DERRIDA. MY CAMERA IS BROKEN. THIS ENTIRE TIMELINE IS DOOMED GO BACK IN TIME AND FIX IT. The Ending 440https://i.ur.com/6k1cFla.png The ending of this show or rather the final time ride Derrida makes was a fucking slap to the face. Because its at this point that is very bluntly revealed that pretty much nothing mattered. Its not like all those random time rides he made in the past like eventually added up and he cleverly prevented Donald Trump from ushering in the robot apocalypse. No they find Mage and he time rides back into episode one and specifically at the point where Derrida told young Mage that time travel was impossible and he wasnt going to continue that research. He tells Mage that he will continue researching time travel and that appeases Mage and she doesnt proceed to do the experiment that sends her to a hospital and from that eventually it leads to Donald Trump being ousted for the clever and evil villain he is. 440https://i.ur.com/iPwqdKn.png 440https://i.ur.com/tRemoGW.png ...One conversation prevented the entire apocalypse and it was Derrida swearing that he wouldnt give up on researching time travel. Not only does it undo the apocalypse but the new future is actually 100 perfect. Vidaux is still a cop and his wife wasnt murdered Mayukas Vidauxs adopted daughter parents are apparently somehow a happy couple Yuris doing her photography Angelica/Donna isnt a fucking insane person Mage and Derrida are apparently together ??? and and this is the bow on top 440https://i.ur.com/Ft6QhIl.png 440https://i.ur.com/53kpySe.png 440https://i.ur.com/TL9ZKy1.png ...the AI of Vidaux and Mayukas talking car who at the end of the robot apocalypse timeline heroically sacrifices himself by launching himself into the secondary bad guys airship and selfdetonating in it is reborn in this new future as a small friendly happy robot. 440https://i.ur.com/xAHLOD9.png 440https://i.ur.com/Deep4lv.png EVEN THE MOTHERFUCKING CAR GETS A HAPPY ENDING. ...Its just embarrassing. Like this ending that is happy for all of the characters well I guess except for Yuri since she loved Derrida too feels just completely undeserved. 440https://i.ur.com/UeANvMg.png 440https://i.ur.com/MOpk5Kf.png Yes I know its a time travel thing and theres plenty of things where the catastrophe or whatever is prevented and therefore a bunch of stuff is just made to have never happened at all but the key is that The time travel/journey has to be either entertaining or meaningful. There has to be weight to the characters if Im supposed to care about one of them in tears swearing that they wouldnt forget the journey that led to the time travel that would retcon pretty much everything. But again the show was aimless bad and at its worst boring and dull as all hell. So I just sighed at the ending. Suddenly it was just over as quickly as it had began. And for that I am genuinely thankful. 440https://i.ur.com/M1kjhxp.png 440https://i.ur.com/vgHivM5.png Conclusion With terrible writing and horrifically bland/undeveloped characters really the only hope there was for this was if the action scenes were really good. But theyre not. Theyre a mix of CG car terrible sound effects and explosions. And the story is just after eleven episodes of wandering aimlessly in a vaguely dystopian future they manage to fix time and Donald Trump is stopped with no consequences at all whatsoever. Not to sink even further into time travel shenanigans but the ending is actually complete bullshit anyways because how in the fuck would Derridas change actually result in some of the differences shown? Like the whole thing with Vidaux and Mayuka happened before the robot apocalypse. Yet Derrida prevented the robot apocalypse so that meant Mayukas parents were somehow happy together and her father didnt kill Vidauxs wife...? Again the only explanation you can really go with is change one thing in the past and dozens of things will change but thats just fucking lazy. Absolutely nothing is lost and everybody but Donald Trump and the evil people supporting him get a happy ending. The happy ending is not there because the characters earned it through struggling or fixing the problem with time travel CLEVERLY. The happy ending is there because it SHOULD be there. It NEEDS to be there. ...So in conclusion my opinion of this show is that... maybe they should have stuck with the original plan of making an adaptation of an actual time travel novel. Perhaps this disaster maybe would have been averted if they had. All I know is if I was Yoshitoshi ABe and I was shown the final result I would have asked to have my name stricken from the project entirely. A 5 out of 100. 500https://i.ur.com/Hxpr6z6.png ... ... ...You know what this isnt right. This long of a review... for this? No. I cant get my time writing this review or watching this series back but maybe I can warn others to just not bother whatsoever Time travel will fix the problem as it fixes all problems as this show has taught me And all I need to do is think really really hard and I will go back in time Lets gohttps://anilist.co/review/3965 500https://i.ur.com/381MPGk.jpg