Koukaku no Pandora

Title:Koukaku no Pandora
Pandora in the Crimson Shell
紅殻のパンドラ
Overall:Unevaluated
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: FUKU Sanae
NUMAKURA Manami
TANAKA Atsuko
In an age when large-scale natural disasters frequently happen all over the world, when cyborgs and autonomous robots are beginning to appear on the market in technologically advanced nations, and major world powers compete for technology and resources, the divide between rich and poor grows and the future for the poor looks bleak. In this transitional stage, everyone wanders around in a self-indulgent daze and the way out isn't clear… This is the story of how two cybernetically enhanced girls meet.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

12 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3147#628]
(Three episodes watched):

This struck me as a wacky show, and I soon decided to watch episode two, but 'wacky' and funny aren't necessarily the same thing. I still had little idea after episode one what the basic conflict that all these girls are fighting about is. The synopsis above is basically news to me. And I feared the wacky effect would wear off relatively soon and there wouldn't be enough laughs for comedy to carry the show forward by itself. A lot of weird and potentially interesting stuff is introduced in episode one (which is one reason I continued watching) but I hoped we would get a solid explanation of what was going on soon and not just a continuing torrent of wild stuff. I doubted if anyone could come up with enough ideas to keep up this pace anyhow. But the characters seemed likeable, and I hoped that the show would tell a worthwhile story and wouldn't just melt my brain with inane jokes.

Episode two largely consisted of a big battle with an eyeball-like giant robot; whats-her-name, the blonde mad scientist woman apparently built this thing but somehow her assistants let it go wild. I think. Why was this fight-of-the-week sort of escapade included in the show? Does it have anything to do with what happened before and will happen afterwards? I don't know. I feel ambivalent about Pandora because it has a mix of stuff I like (Nene and Idiom) and stuff I don't like, like the plot which seems to wander aimlessly about. I was thoroughly confused during episode two, but I don't recall laughing much. In order to be funny, something has to make sense in an unexpected way, not just make little or no sense whatsoever. I wished that either the positive or the negative aspects of this show would grow enough to outweigh the other, so that I could make up my mind whether it was worth watching. I felt a distinct frustration that this anime was dangling some neat features in front of me, yet demanding such a high toll in the form of confusion that I didn't know if watching it was worth the trouble. I started watching episode four but again found myself painfully confused about what was going on. A good show has a clearly defined conflict while Pandora just seems like a garble of competing factions and odd people. Having fallen far behind in episode watching of all Winter 2016 anime due to technical problems, I ultimately decided to drop this show.

Last updated Thursday, August 30 2018. Created Saturday, January 16 2016.

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