Overwatch: Genesis

It was the dawn of a new era for the world.  When an Omnic was given sentience, everything changed.  What began as an age of astounding achievement quickly descended into a nightmare no one could have foreseen.  As the Omnic Crisis reaches catastrophic proportions, new heroes will rise to meet them and push back against the darkness.  But this is more than just the story of how Overwatch came to be.  It’s the story of one lone robots journey that would change the world even more than that legendary team of heroes and birth a new Genesis for Humans and Omnics alike.

There’s an entire list of Video Games that are begging to be given the Anime treatment: Metal Gear Solid, Ace Combat (though I guess Macross kind of has that covered), any of the Final Fantasy games that aren’t VII or XV.  Overwatch is near the top of that list for me because there’s a ton of Anime influence flowing through the veins of the popular First Person Shooter.  From the eclectic cast to the dialogues to the usage of special attacks to its very pretty leading ladies, Overwatch has been ripe for an Anime adaptation for a long time (or a Pixar movie given how the shorts look about that level of quality).  Genesis is the long awaited answer to that demand.  And much like the current state of Overwatch as a whole, it’s a mixed bag.  On the one hand, it’s a very good looking and effective demo for a potential Overwatch Anime, be it a TV series or series of Movies or OVAs.  On the other, while the world of Overwatch is diverse and amazing, the origins of this world are extremely familiar and well…a little unoriginal if I’m honest.
 
This three part ONA miniseries, clocking in at just under 20 minutes, covers the early days of the birth of Omnics and the entirety of the Omni Crisis that led to the founding of Overwatch.  The story is told through a series of interviews with four individuals throughout: two scientists who were there for the birth of the first Omnic; a General who fought in the Crisis itself; and an Omnic Author who like wise did his fair share of fighting.  Three out of four of these narrarators all crossover when it comes to one particular individual, who could be see as the main character of the miniseries, Aurora. For being such a short story, you do feel a lot for Aurora and the journey we only get glimpses of.  Not only is she trying to find her own way in and understanding of the world, but she also holds the key to its salvation.  The moments when this becomes the forefront of the story is where Genesis is strongest.  While there isn’t much dialogue in the documentary outside of the interviewees, the animation does wonders for expressing weighted emotion, especially between Aurora and her creator, Dr. Mina Liao.  Theirs is a tale of hope, wonder and sacrifice that honestly leaves more of an impact than anything else, including when we do see the original Overwatch in action.
 
When things get into the Omnic Crisis itself…yeah I feel like its following a less graphic take on the robot apocalypse seen in Terminator or The Animatrix.   A grand evil AI takes control of all of the Omnics and unleashes them on Humanity…you know how this song and dance goes.  And I get it, it’s hard to do a story like this and not have it feel like its retreading very familiar ground that has been popularized and arguably done better by other media franchises.  For a world that felt very fresh and vibrant at launch, watching the actual grand scope of the Omnic Crisis play out is the dullest and most unoriginal portion of the Overwatch mythos.  There’s a nice punch up when we get to see Team OG Overwatch in action and its as awesome as you’d expect.  Finally, fan favorites like Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes and Ana Amari get to kick ass in Anime form and it makes you wish there was more of it.  Really a way to break up the “been there, done that” feel of the large scale Omnic Crisis battles would be seeing more individual missions with the members of Overwatch bringing their own unique character and flavor to the mix.
 
With such a short total runtime, yeah Genesis can feel like a long trailer or proof of concept for an Overwatch Anime project…and it is.  There’s no getting around that fact and whether or not you feel a longer feature is warranted will be up to the viewers.  I think there’s enough potential in Overwatch that it jumping into Anime has been long overdue and honestly, it couldve been more and maybe it will be.  As for Genesis, it’s fine.  The animation is pretty good and helps elevate the emotional, dialogue-less moments between the first Omnic and her Creator and you finally get to see the original Team Overwatch unleashing their fury in Anime.  I know that the Robot Apocalypse trope couldn’t be avoided because of the worlds backstory but there’s visually nothing new Genesis brings to that table to make it stand out from other Scifi properties with the same premise.  Maybe instead there could have been an Anime short for one of the many amazing members of the Overwatch cast?  Either way, Overwatch’s poster girl Tracer always says, “The world could use more heroes”.  Well the world could use more Overwatch Anime.  It aint perfect but this is a decent start to that idea.
 
6/10