B: The Beginning feels like a show thats extremely promising in concept but poor in execution. Almost everything in the show is a cool idea but put into motion poorly. Ill dive more deeply into those issues later on but the most obvious thing you can point to is a simple question of who the main character actually is. We look at the cover and say Keith but we start the show and think Koku but they end up kind of sharing the main character role in what feels like two entirely different shows that only collide occasionally and make very little sense when they do. Its a bit of a shame because I actually bought into the premise in the first three or so episodes but quickly was let down by the poor direction the story took. The result of B: The Beginning is frustrating because of how much promise so many of the themes show if they were properly fused together. It could have been this weird mix of Psycho Pass and Tokyo Ghoul but instead only mixed together the worst parts of each. As always spoilers in the sections between favorite character and the last paragraph. B: The Beginnings soundtrack was actually really good. Most of the music choices were tasteful especially the Koku scenes. The police music was mostly forgettable but that isnt necessarily a knock because its not like the show would want you distracted by the music during those scenes anyway. I loved the short but impactful opening sequences music and especially loved the ending The Perfect World which was quite the banger. The voice acting was excellent as well. I watched the English dub and was pretty impressed with it. Honestly nothing to knock here music and sound is one of the most solid things that B has going for it. Perhaps the greatest strength in B: The Beginning lies in its animation. The fights are an absolute treat to watch especially the Izanami/Koku duel early on. Admittedly this fight is also an early peak for B as it never recreates something of that caliber again. That being said the following fight scenes are still enjoyable albeit not as impressive. Visually B is beautiful. The backgrounds are stunning the character designs are done really well especially the Reggies and Koku. One small issue I had with B visually however is that the CGI blending wasnt done particularly well and it really breaks the mood of the story a lot of the time but thats a fairly personal complaint. Favorite Character: Izanami https://i.pin.com/originals/fe/2a/e0/fe2ae08b3b6516b694f7b22a5a13ada8.jpg As much as I desperately wanted to put Yuna here I had to go with Izanami who absolutely stole the show in her scarce screen time. I just simply couldnt get behind any other major characters enough to really support them more than Izanami. For instance Koku is barely a character and has zero personality Keith is rather unlikable Lily is annoying and everyone else is too minor to mean much except for Kaela what a champ. Its simply an issue with these characters: their lack of personality development. Lily has perhaps the most defined personality in B and she just comes across as nosey and annoying most of the time. Koku is the biggest victim of this as he gets no development until around episode 8 after which its way too late but that ties into another issue with B that Ill get to shortly. To put it simply Izanami might just be the most developed character in the shows first half which is incredible since shes in the show for all of three episodes. So what did I like about B? Well I liked most of the concepts and ideas that B put forward. The supernatural/scifi blend with crime drama was a really cool idea that could have worked if it was more tightly woven together as a whole instead of feeling like two separate stories that somehow ended up in the same show because lets face it Koku had nothing to do with the ultimate resolution for Keith despite the fact that they should have been a part of each others stories. I actually really enjoyed the supernatural bits and wished that they had spent more time fleshing that side of the story out. As it stands now the supernatural elements feel insanely hamfisted into the overall narrative. Again there was absolutely no part of the supernatural storyline that affects the cop drama. The two storylines are sort of parallel at the beginning of B but quickly separate and do not come close to connecting again. Lastly I loved Gilbert mostly because he gave me Shogo Makashima vibes but he was a fantastic villain for the crime storyline. https://www.monstersandcritics.com/wpcontent/uploads/2020/10/BTheBeginningSeason2releasedate2021SequelNetflixBTheBeginningSuccession.jpg I touched on most of the things that I thought were poorly done about B already but Ill mention a few more here. I didnt like the writing too much it felt too weak and a lot of the big shocks fell flat because the writers didnt want to kill anyone for example why didnt Brian actually die? What purpose does him living serve? There are a few more examples of this but enough on that front. This is sort of a facet of a bigger problem that B has which is a horrible lack of focus as Ive alluded to previously. Theres so much reliance on info dumping and expecting watchers to simply follow along and suddenly understand what Reggies are and why 13 and 4 are different in addition to many other plot points. Theres more nitpicking to be done but Ill leave it at that. Despite tearing into B like this I really enjoyed watching it thus the higher score than youd expect. I loved the themes and the suspense as you got jerked back and forth on the twists and turns the story took even if they ultimately werent the most effective twists and turns. This is definitely a show that shows more and more cracks the more critically you think on it but as a simple one night binge you could watch worse. Im definitely interested to see where season 2 takes us where it hopefully cleans up a lot of the mess that this season has left behind. I would hope that it makes this season seem more cohesive in retrospect especially if they can drive home some of their concepts and such. Either way I enjoyed B and will tune into the second season whenever that gets released due to simply being so entertained the first time around
72 /100
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