Though they’re now free of false criminal charges, Shion
and the crew of the Elsa now face the full might of Albedo, an insane former
colleague of Juniors. As Albedo schemes
to destroy Second Miltia, Shion and friends hurry to save not just an entire
world but a captured friend as well.
It’s the eleventh hour as Shion’s team braves the toughest opponent to
date but will their combined strength be enough? And what about KOS-MOS? Can Shion find a way to trust a weapon that
has exceeded her parameters and caused her a great deal of pain?
I’ve been really trying with this one.
Like I said, I remember how cool and exciting
Xenosaga looked when I found out the first game was coming out and its
production history has been of interest to me.
But man, I just cant seem to give much care about the Anime adaptation,
especially in this final third of the series.
It hasn’t even been an Anime to watch, it’s a long history lecture by
characters who sound annoying as heck and whose personal stories don’t elicit
any kind of reaction other than “Please stop talking and give me a cool mecha
battle or more KOS-MOS please”.
So come
the finale, I’ll admit I was half paying attention because this show lost me
several episodes ago and I can see now why it never got a follow up and why the
games might have their fanbase but ultimately couldn’t give the franchise the
numbers it needed to see its intended six chapter epic through.
I feel so bad for Shion and KOS-MOS.
Between Junior whining about Albedo, Momo and
his past, I feel like she’s been lost in the shuffle of a cast that should be
rallying around her.
The real draw of
this show for me has been her and KOS-MOS and there’s a ton of drama to be
mined from this very complex relationship.
But KOS-MOS was missing from most of the second set of episodes and what
opportunities are there to delve deeper into her bond with Shion are never
given the time they need to properly develop.
At one point, KOS-MOS sacrifices Virgil while destroying a sea of Gnosis
just so Shion can have an escape route.
She explains her logic and Shion tries to argue with her but the scene
is over before you know it and not traction is made on the matter.
Then a few scenes later, Shion is all about
KOS-MOS doing whatever it takes to bring Albedo down and save Second Militia
without a second thought.
There’s no
natural evolution of this character dynamic because we never get to see them
together to see it happen.
The show has
been more focused on universe spanning exposition and Junior whining about
Albedo and wanting to save Momo that it sacrifices the best relationship of the
show in the process.
Let’s talk about Albedo and Junior next.
Albedo’s been nothing but a psychotic madman
who says a couple of lines before engaging in a fit of Joker esque
laughing.
Sure he hurts his young
prisoners and is a despicable being but he has no character beyond EPIC
LAUGHING.
I don’t even know what his end
goals are but if I had to take a guess it’s because he thinks Junior abandoned
him at Militia and wants to basically say “NOTICE ME!!!!”
And that’s just really sad.
It’s so sad that even Kirsch, the 100 Series
Realian who Shion met back during the Series Premiere, buys into his mindset
and becomes a secondary final boss in the last battle.
Then again, I’d probably go mad to just
listening to Albedo chuckle 24/7.
As for
Junior, God I cant stand him.
Of all the
characters in this series, Junior is less of a character and more of an
exposition terminal.
He can detail the
history of just about everything related to Xenosaga’s plot but he has no
character himself, thus I could care less.
So imagine my sarcastic surprise when he and Albedo meet for the first
time in the series and their back and forth consists of Albedo spouting
nonsense then laughing followed by Junior screaming his name at the top of his
lungs…this goes on for a solid minute, riveting.
Now to be a little fair, Junior isn’t the only one guilty
of explaining way too much about this dense universe.
I could say the same about every character,
including Shion herself.
By the time I
reached the end of the final episode, the only person I feel had any kind of
enjoyable character traits was Allen and all he did was pine over Shion and get
pushed to the side cause he couldn’t do squat in a combat situation.
The crew of the Elsa suddenly disappeared for
a while and suddenly having them back for the final push to Albedo’s base was a
sudden breath of fresh air, if only because these guys are a fun loving bunch
not giving history lectures.
I didn’t
come to learn much or embrace other characters like Ziggy, Momo and especially
Chaos, what the hell was his role in this series anyway?
He literally just stands around looking
important and doing nothing.
At one
point I think Allen even mentions how they don’t know much about each other…and
he’s right.
I know more about Momo and
Ziggy and Virgil than I do Chaos, who just wants to be Best Boy by just
appearing in a room and acting like he’s the best thing in Xenosaga.
The finale also suffers from one critical element that’s
been holding this Anime back: The Animation.
Last time I mentioned I was getting Pilot Candidate vibes from what I
was watching and…man did that kind of ring true.
Shion’s was the only character design I
actually liked while everything else didn’t look well drawn or animated.
The CG Mecha action felt so stiff and
lifeless plus it was rarely utilized effectively (save for a couple of cool
segments with the Elsa zipping around).
Now I get it.
Anime based on
Video Games hardly have the best track record when it comes to presentation and
production values (though some like Nier: Automata and Tekken: Blood Vengeance
have bucked this trend).
But if this was
meant to generate added interest in Xenosaga to boost sales…then I hate to say
it but the PS2 game graphics look far superior to anything I’ve seen in this
Anime.
Alright, Final Thoughts.
Xenosaga: The Animation spends too much time talking about why its
important that it doesn’t give viewers any time to experience why its
important.
What little action there is
has no impact, always feels underwhelming and is over and done instantly so we
can get to the next scene of characters standing around in a room, ready for
the next lecture about the History of the Universe.
Every character is guilty of being an
exposition machine in this regard and it comes at the cost of the cast being
fun or engaging.
I wanted Shion and
KOS-MOS to be more amazing than they actually were but the show fails are
exploring their unique dynamic and loses them in the shuffle of a needlessly
large cast and huge amounts of info being dumped on us about 70% of the Animes
run time.
Plus in an era when you have
nice looking Digipaint Mecha Anime like Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Vandread,
this show pales by comparison with how ugly it looks. This really sucks, I
wanted to like this one.
But as it is,
Xenosaga: The Animation is just an animated encyclopedia for the games that
could very well be superior.
But if this
is the best they can do for an Anime representation…then I don’t know if I even
wanna find a way to touch the PS2 trilogy.
1/10
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