Seikaisuru Kado was a title which caught my attention for a number of reasons. For one it’s visuals showed not a single teenager in sight and a cast mainly consisting of working adults. Another is that it deals with a premise not often tackled in anime, Philosophical Science Fiction. The story features an alien being who lands on earth and gifts humanity with revolutionary devices which could throw the economic, social and political climate into pure chaos. Our main characters are a Japanese Negotiator by the name of Shindo and an Alien being from something known as the anisotropic who refers to himself as ZaShunina. While I wouldn’t call the cast great, I do say they perform the needs of the plot well and are interesting enough to engage the viewer. Well up until the point where there characters are forced to change due to the direction of the story. There are examples of anime tropes which only cheapen the serious atmosphere of the stories tone such as a scientist girl who eccentricity is at a far too unbelieveable level. Though sadly anime tropes show up in other parts of the show as well, mainly in the rather rushed romance of the second half.
A positive aspect of this series is that it has some of the best CGI integration I have seen to date in a anime. In most series CGI is jarring and breaks immersion but here the CGI is included well enough to keep things looking natural. It does use a combination of 2D and 3D visuals and it is noticeable when it changes between the two. However I never had a moment watching this series where I was just taken out of the experience completely by shaky 3D work. The CGI also works wonders in displaying ZaShunina’s alien nature as his cube structure is a pure prism of visual marvel. The music likewise processes a grandiose and majestic feel which illustrates how this is the turning point of mankind. On the technical side of things I would consider Kado to be a success.
But when it comes to a storytelling standpoint this is where Kado fails. At first things look good as there is a focus on the diplomatic systems reaction to the sudden arrival of an Alien entity, while the Alien itself is slowly growing accustomed to human ways and learning about human culture. From the outset it feels like Kado is revving up to really dive into some deep topics but as the series continues you will find that these topics continue to get pushed into the background and not addressed. The series focuses more on ZaShunina introducing the amazing device and then implementing it. But when it comes to the long term ramifications to integration of such advanced technology, then this series instead decides to ignore it and move on to the next gift. You see the introduction and integration of the device, but never the conclusion. It appears as though the writer was never interested in these ramifications but instead in pushing some generic themes of humanity instead.
In the end Kado is a story that starts with a lot of potential and looks to bank on that potential within its first six episodes. However it moves away from a multifaceted issue to have a more black and white conflict instead. The story and characters suffer for it and it concludes in an ending that’s nonsensical, disappointing and terrible. As a result Kado is a series which most would likely regret watching as you see great ideas tossed aside to portray a stereotypical good vs evil conflict. Ultimately Seikaisuru Kado is evidence that just because someone is writing the story does not mean they know the best road to take it and in the future I hope there are those who see just what this series could have been so that they can fulfil its lost imaginable value.
Even with the bad direction the second half of the series took, Kado would be a solid ~75 series for me, if it wasn’t for the ending. I mean, yeah, you could see the series took a wrong turn, but even as late as episode 10 you had some really great scenes (I mean the discussion of the anisotropic beings while the universe was being created was kind of amazing).
I would have been fine with an anticlimatic ending. Maybe have zaShunina realise the error of his ways (which he sort of did, only to decide he wants to punch stuff later…) and just leave, peacefully. You could even have Shindo convince him reach a compromise. For a legendary negotiator, which the series kept telling us he is, he did very little actual negotiation.
And maybe zaShunina could leave some of the technology behind? Maybe take back the last tech (the temporal thingamagig) but leave the infinite energy and the no need to sleep ones. He could even have a couple of cheesy lines like “I’ll be watching over you”, or “I’ll be back in a few millenia”, as he leaves.
And then maybe spend the last ten minutes showing the effects of those technologies on humanity? I mean, I was waiting to see that the whole series. How did the world change now that there is no need for sleep? We never, ever saw that.
But no, zaShunina had to be EEEVIIIIL, complete with distorted facial expressions and calling people names, Shindo’s plan had to be nonsensical and all of the technologies had to be taken away, resetting the situation on earth.
It makes me angry again just reading it. Like you I still felt the series was about a seven up until the ending. Then that ending knocked it down two points.
I don’t remember being so disappointed with any series of any kind as I’m with this, it was so fricking hard to watch those last three episodes, and oh well it ended as I expected it to after episode 9. Gotta get the director’s and studio name so I can stay far away from their future works. I mean the slew of bad series we get every season are well, bad, but building up so much potential just to rape it with cheesy cliches is even worse, at least I can complete ignore those bad ones.
Anyways good review, keep up the good work on the site too, I don’t interact much, but always visit.
Well, what do you know, not only I liked the series but I LOVED it. Sure, the last 3 episodes went in a direction I wasn’t particularly fond of but that doesn’t mean that the rest was a beautiful, wonderfully written sci fi show that pretty much has been the best sci fi anime to have come up in the last 5 years (that’s when From the New World and Psycho pass came out)
I also think that that scene in episode 10 (I think?) of the creation of the universe is one of the most beautiful scenes to appear in the medium in this decade, so it’s not like the last 3 episodes were a waste after all…
See, I didn’t like Psycho Pass too much either. I thought it was kinda shallow. (I thought s2 was more ambitious in its themes, but was kind of a mess overall). But at least that series had a thematic consistency.
Saikaisuru Kado’s ending on the other hand (and I’m talking strictly about the final episode, I didn’t like the direction the last few episodes took, but I would be okay with them, if the ending was good, or okay), was like the creators were trolling us.
Because after painting everything in various shades of grey and presenting its themes neutrally, the last episode went, “THIS BAD and THAT GOOD, OKAY?” and I feel like that cheapened everything that came before it.
And it ruins rewatching the series. I rewatched a couple of earlier episodes after seeing the ending and instead of gaining new insight now that I knew the ending, I just felt trolled, because the neutrality of how things were presented now seems fake and shallow, since I know that the series concludes with “Well, DUH, of course that’s good and of course that’s bad, WHAT? DID YOU THINK OTHERWISE? OH YOU SO SILLY”.
I want to emphasize that I wouldn’t mind if the characters believed strongly one way or another. What I mind is not that the characters disagree with zaShunina, I mind that the series portray zaShunina as evil. I don’t mind that Shindo had an egotistical and stupid plan, I mind that the series presents it as a super smart heroic sacrifice. And while I do mind that everything reset, I especially hate that it was presented as a universally good thing, that our awesome protagonists decided for everyone and everyone should be glad they did.
In the end, I think, philosophy is more about asking questions and struggling with them and not really about providing answers. Kado presented itself as a philosophical anime and then ended up giving the simplest, rigidest answers ever.
“What if an alien came with technology that made us rethink our entire existence and our way of living?”
“LOL JK, ALIENS BAD, HOOMANS GOOD, KTHXBYE”
And once again the world is saved thanks to a Japanese man’s penis.