DT Eightron is one of those “screw the budget, we’re here to tell a story”-anime. And really: why not? The plot of this one is excellent, so who cares about the unimpressive graphics?
Personally I loved how the plot of this series unfolded from a seemingly average post-apocalyptic dystopia into a story about survival. What sets this show apart is the huge amount of neat ideas that the creators put into this, all dedicated to flesh out the setting that the series takes place in. It really gets quite deep as the series goes on. It may just be that I’m a fan of science fiction and all (hey, I never claimed that this blog unbiased), but after watching the entire series, I really have to say that the back-story it created is impressive, well thought out and very imaginative.
This show also rocks in the way that it subverts or averts common-used character tropes and cliches here. The lead character actually isn’t in control of the titular “mecha”. Instead, one of his friends is. The lead character is a bit of a bland kid, but for once this makes full sense in the story, and the creators actually make optimal use of this in the story. They never force him to be some sort of stereotypical hero here (those roles are cleverly used for the characters with the most combat experience), and instead its his development that makes him into a worthy lead character. You’ll get what I mean when you watch the series, but I don’t want to spoil too much about it. Just do note that in order to tell its story, it does introduce a few minor plot-holes here and there. The most glaring being the origin of the titular mecha, Eightron, which unfortunately is just never explained.
Watching this series really got me thinking about how perhaps I’ve been a bit too focused on animation budgets for the past months. It’s series like this that show that even though the animation is unimpressive (really, there are too many distorted faces and still frames here), you can still kick ass with your story. While it’s true that a big budget would have made this series even more enjoyable to watch, it’s not something that should be held against it when the plot has so many interesting ideas, and it has been this good at developing its story and setting. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the series that partly inspired Ergo Proxy.
| Storytelling: | 9/10 – Slow, but atmospheric. Not realistic or believable, but excellent at developing its story and mystery. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Likable in the way that they play with quite a few tropes and cliches. |
| Production-Values: | 7/10 – Yeah, don’t expect eye candy here. Good soundtrack, though. |
| Setting: | 10/10 – Ah, why not? Great ideas, great development. It’s multi-layered, thought provoking. It’s really the kind of setting that I personally love. |
Suggestions:
– Ergo Proxy
– Zone of the Enders
– Argento Soma
Nice,I definitely must check this one.
Told ya you’d like it, and this is done by Sunrise!
Lol. I think everybody pays too much attention to production values, personally. I mean, aren’t ALL animes supposed to ‘be here to tell a story?’ Good storytelling will trump such factors every time.
You watched Kaze no Yojimbo right? I thought you mentioned it in your Gungrave review. Now there was animation so bad some parts stretched the definition of the word. Worst I have ever seen or hoped to see, and yet it was riveting. It just told a very engrossing story, and did it well. Just another proof to my approach. I’ll have to put this title on my list.
Here’s a torrent link. Grab it while it’s hot. We’ve got 6 seedes, and the speed is decent.
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=137784
Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely rewatch this one, since I’ve seen this series in English dub.
Liked the episode with Kaneto Shiozawa as the Robot Count. Hated everything else. Not-happening character development, filler episodes without any connections to the story, dumb protagonist. And know-it-all plothax Dr. Genesis.
@Adalbert: That’s what I keep hearing about this show. However, that’s also what I heard about an anime called Platinumhugen Oridan: it’s lame, confusing, the plot makes no sense. And I just finished watching it, and it was decent. So I’m going to check this out by myself, since I’ve come to the conclusion that most people are idiots, no offense.
PS: The reason people claimed that Ordian was a shit story was actually because of the subs. The infant A-Keep were the only ones to sub it, and the translation was horrible, missing key points of the plot. As such, people with no knowledge of Japanese missed like half of the plot.
Wow, you’re the first person that I’ve seen blog this series. (or I didn’t bother to look.) Was one of the first anime I watched – not in a kid’s POV, and I thought the plot was pretty decent.
Sadly I watched this story around 5 years ago and have forgotten most of it. But it was really nice! (alongside cyborg 009 that I watched around the same time)
excellent series, the animation wasn’t bad at all minus the distorted face and lack off aesthetically pleasing art. it had fairly decent amount of frame throughout the show. it definitely deserve an 8 in your scale in my opinion