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[series:4590#628] | ||||||
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(Five episodes watched): Well, at least this has some novelty to it; that was a thought that crossed my mind early in episode one of TO. But later on I got the distinct impression that this would basically be just another Idol-themed anime, except set in the future. There was an intriguing mention that in this future world androids often served as 'trusted partners' for humans (husbands and wives?) which was intriguing, but afterwards there was no additional mention of such a thing. Instead the family tries their luck in the Idol business. The scene where their first attempt to 'climb' a level flops made me LOL. We get some hints that something is missing from their relationships with one another and hence they don't really represent a healthy, functional family, but it was unclear whether this was a big deal or not in the plot. The family encounters Esora Shibaura, a human orphan who has been living with a friend of his late parents who has little time for child raising; the androids help him out and presumably learn something about family life. Somehow an idea for a second performance at Babel simultaneously occurs to them all and this one goes much better than the first. It was as if a pre-programmed act was downloaded to them all and they instantly knew how to perform it perfectly. Were they being rewarded somehow for their aid to Esora? Do they deserve credit for an act that just 'pops' into their android heads? I was feeling rather ambivalent as the episode neared its end; eh, this was not really all that novel after all. The main characters are only androids after all, but they still need some personality to be interesting. Then there was a startling final scene (after the credits) in which the androids witness something fishy going on, and this threatens to upset everything about this premise that I thought I had figured out. I had been considering dropping this show, but all of a sudden it looks like I will have to watch another episode. An android inspector, Bora, is assigned to investigate the bizarre murder-suicide that Cobalt and the others stumbled upon. But the tone of the show doesn't get nearly as grim and mysterious as I had expected. The four main characters are more interested in getting their Idol act in order than in solving this case, and even Bora hasn't found any leads as of yet. What he does come close to discovering is that these androids have no human master, which is forbidden. The four basically adopt their human friend, Esora, who comes to live with them. In episode three the four androids make another human friend: Nagi, a hospital patient. After she tells them about how she'd love to attend a live performance at babel, they arrange a performance of their own at the hospital. Nagi's brother, an accomplished Idol himself, hates androids (one caused the accident which crippled her). But he notices that these four androids seem to have an inexplicable ability to thrill and move viewers, something which he had thought androids would be incapable of. How did this happen? Have they been reprogrammed, without their knowledge, with some sort of AI app that allows this? At least one semi-mysterious person is shadowing them and might be responsible. Episode four is largely comedy as the androids take a job at an amusement park to raise money for their next Babel attempt. Meanwhile, Bora continues to try to make sense of the odd behavior of these four. Isaac Asimov's rules of robotics are employed, which was interesting. I found Bora's work to be the most intriguing and entertaining part of this episode. In episode five the androids deal with Nora, the cat that often hangs around with them, falling ill with little chance of recovery. There is clearly something special about their ability to feel emotions; at certain critical times we see some sort of diamond-like crystal that is presumably implanted within them and might be key to their extraordinary abilities. ...but I was running short of time and needed to jettison a number of less than stellar anime in order to wrap up the Winter 2023 season. I had grown impatient with TO to get on with the story. Maybe I will watch the rest of it someday if I find myself with the necessary time available. Last updated Friday, May 05 2023. Created Saturday, January 07 2023. | ||||||||
