FIF#241-Moonrise

Jacob “Jack” Shadow’s carefree life on Earth comes to a cataclysmic halt when a group of rebels on the Moon send an orbital elevator crashing into Los Angeles.  What’s more, the authorities think that Jack somehow had a hand to play in this terrorist act.  In order to prove his innocence, Jack volunteers to join a secret squad of soldiers made up of Los Angeles survivors, and his closest friends, to travel to the Moon, in the middle of an all out war with the Earth, to terminate the leader of this chaos: Bob Skylum.  Along the way, Jack must confront his distorted past as he may be the only hope to ending this war once and for all.

 
Moonrise seemingly came out of nowhere onto Netflix and, from the trailer at least, looking like an exciting new scifi action Anime set on the Moon with some promise.  Ngl after the first episode, I’m somehow not surprised this one hasn’t made waves in the community.  Even with a powerhouse studio like Wit (Attack on Titan) and Tow Ubakata (Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Psycho Pass 3) writing, Moonrise’s premiere instantly fails when it comes to setting up the main conflict or giving us a reason to care about its main characters.  In short, it’s kind of a mess and here’s why.
 
While I get starting a series with an exciting action sequence, nothing about Moonrise’s opening train battle looks appealing and is more confusing the more it goes on.  How can these guys breathe in space?  What’s with those space cloaks, are they the source of their superhuman abilities and weapons storage?  Ignoring this is just a teaser, it’s not very exciting either.  The more we get into Episode 1, things somehow get worse.  I get what Ubakata is going for, showing the privledged lives of Jack and his friends before everything goes to Hell.  But Jack is kind of a barebones with Guel’s haircut from Season 2 of Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.  His friends don’t stand out save for one guy who looks like Ida from My Hero Academia and Rhys, who’s there just to look pissed off at Jack 24/7 like any poorly generic love interest usually is.  The world setup isnt any better either.  It’s time like this where the constant rehash of “Previously On” segments of Gundam are welcome in hindsight because at least they tell you what the hell is going on, whereas Moonrise establishes nothing.
 
Honestly the rest of this First Impression could just be ramblings about how nothing makes sense and is kind of just dumb and silly.  Let’s see…first off, the English Dub is pretty bad.  Line deliveries are done in a manner befitting “I’m getting paid for this regardless”, to the point where an entire base is burning around two kids but their dialogue is delivered like theyre walking through an alley reciting that famous “You ever wonder why we’re here” dialogue from Red vs. Blue.  The tone of the show is also notably inconsistent.  If this is supposed to be a serious scifi epic, why is Rhys constantly making exaggerated reactions like she’s in a Shonen action comedy Manga?  And then, oh boy, the villain…who the hell would ever follow a maniac named Bob Skylum?  Bob, Skylum?  You might as well just call him Bob Evil, I cant take that name seriously and just laugh everytime I hear it.
 
Well if it hasn’t become clear after two paragraphs of unorganized ranting, I’m gonna pass on Moonrise.  It may come from the Studio that did Attack on Titan but it pales in comparison.  The world isnt well established, nor the rules of it combat or anything like that.  The characters are generic, boring, badly handled in the Dub and have names that instill laughter instead of serious investment.  If this is supposed to be a hidden gem of a modern classic, remember they said the same thing about Aldnoah Zero but at least that got the ball rolling with all rules established by the end of Episode 1.