FIF#141-Pacific Rim: The Black

Five years ago, the continent of Australia fell to a host of giant monsters known as Kaiju.  Among the survivors of the devastation are Taylor and Hayley Travis, the children of two Jaeger pilots who risked their lives to save their home.  Kaiju still roam the land and there’s little hope of ever taking Australia back from them.  That is, until one day when the now grown Taylor and Hayley discover a training Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer, and activate it.  Now armed with the only weapon that can kill Kaiju, Taylor and Hayley begin a long journey to Sydney, where they hopefully can stop the invasion and find their long lost parents in the process.

For a while, Pacific Rim was the closest we ever got to a legitimate Live Action Giant Robot Anime (Transfomers doesn’t count for numerous reasons, mostly cause theyre terrible).  And it wasn’t even based on any pre existing Anime.  Guillermo Del Toro crafted a beautiful love letter to that genre and the Giant Monster/Godzilla genres that is still a kick ass movie years later.  Let’s put an emphasis on the “years later” part there.  Since it’s release in 2013, Pacific Rim has had one very crummy sequel (I reviewed it ages ago) and a slew of other media but never an Anime.  Yet, Netflix has taken up the task of correcting this…so of course it means using the one animation style I despise the most in Anime and giving Pacific Rim an Anime series that might’ve come too late to matter in a franchise that really was just a one and done special movie.

So yeah, CG Anime…not my cup of tea and I’ve done so many First Impressions on such titles that the second I see that artstyle in a trailer, red alerts go off in my head.  What might work for some giant robot visuals (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and The Origin might be the gold standard in that regard), doesn’t work for the human characters.  The Black’s cast all look so stiff and while the facial elements aren’t bad, they still just don’t work for me.  Doesn’t help that I’m not really feeling one half of this brother/sister duo of the series.  Hayley is alright but that’s kind of because I’d react the same way if I came across a giant robot in an underground bunker…going full on Otaku crazy.  Taylor seems your more generic full of angst and over protectivness that doesn’t exactly make him endearing.  One character I was surprised even existed in a Pacific Rim story is the AI Loa, who is quite the smart ass and has way more personality than either of the siblings.  Also this show is dark and I’m not just talking about the title.  Sure the opening moments of the Pacific Rim movie were a bit bleak but even that was still a lot of fun to watch.  The Black feels paint by numbers and incredibly gloomy by comparison.  The Jaegers aren’t all that visually impressive, though the paint job on Atlas Destroyer is neat.  Even at its darkest moments, Pacific Rim never not fun (Uprising was just a boring Transformers inspired mess save for John Boyega).
 
While Pacific Rim: The Black is a short enough watch at 7 episodes (with a second season confirmed on the way), I think I’m gonna pass on checking out more.  The visuals are my least favorite kind; the leads didn’t grab me and the dark tone just didn’t gel with me.  Maybe Pacific Rim was a once in a lifetime experience that should’ve just been that…or rather it should’ve been the opening of the floodgates for more movies about Giant Robots to finally happen.  Expanding on that one flick hasn’t worked out so well save for some cool mecha models you can buy in stores.  And Pacific Rim: The Black doesn’t seem to be helping to change my mind on that.