TEXHNOLYZE
Fullmetal mobster guy
Review by: M.H. "Technochocolate" Torringjan
Length: 22 episodes
Genre: Technopunk
Watched: entire series subbed
I am a typical male. My attention is easily drawn by shiny, colorful things. This was easily demonstrated by the commercial release of this series, with its shiny holofoil covers. My attention was instantly drawn to them, and I said to myself, "Oooo, these pretty colors alone would make me want to buy this series, if it wasn't $25 per disc." When I discovered batch file downloading of entire series, I decided that it'd be worth my time to look into the series with the pretty boxes, even if only on a whim. Now, I'm glad that I did.
Plot Summary: In the underground city of Lukuss, men toil their days away to supply the society above ground with the resource, raffia, a material necessary for maintaining peoples' health. The people below are ruled over by a group of people called the Class and the syndicate, Organo, an organization that coordinates the raffia mining operations and supports procedures known as Texhnolyzing, or replacement of pody parts with cybernetics. They are involved in a constant conflict with the Salvation Corps, who are philosophically opposed to the practice of texhnolyzing and the Racan, an underground army of youths. The balance that these groups maintain, though, is about to be upset by the arrival of two men, Ichise, a former fighter who was taken in as an experimental texhnolyze, and a mysterious man from above ground.
Artwork: The mood of this series is set very well by the artwork, which is well-done by Studio Madhouse, and the music. The gritty feel starts in the first scene and carries on for the entire series. The style is realistic, and the science fiction elements are portrayed very well in the artwork. The only problem that I have with the art is that the character designs were kind of generic, and I sometimes found it difficult to remember who I was looking at. Other than that, it was even more pretty than just the shiny covers.
Music: The soundtrack of this series was varied, at times sticking with the techno feel and other times, staying with a pensive jazz track. It fit the mood very well, and I wouldn't mind listening to it on its own, either. As for the openning, I'd recommend pulling out the Ecstasy and the glow-sticks and sticking that baby on a constant loop! It's the first time I've seen just a techno track as the opening theme, and although I thought it could have been a bit shorter, it seemed to fit very well. The ending track doesn't fit quite as well, with a slower track sung by a tenor. Although it did sound nice, and the singer was good, it didn't fit the overall mood of the series.
Characters: The cast of characters for this show was large, and the best part was that they evolved the personalities as the plot developed. However, in some cases, the character evolution seemed forced for the sake of driving the plot. Ichise is the typical rags-to-riches story of the young man who started out as a fighter whose arm and leg were cut off and replaced with cybernetics (and he didn't even have to try and alchemize either of his parents!) and gets taken in by the local syndicate. He tries really, really hard to be a badass with violent temper spurts and averaging around 1 spoken line per episode, but he broods a little bit too much about his parents to be a strict badass. He develops a working relationship with Ran, a little girl from the vilage of Gabe outside of the city who was born a seer. She can see one possible future of the many that could come to pass (and she must be a pessimistic seer, since all of her visions seem to be bad). She isn't used to her role as a seer, yet, and doesn't want to see the future, so she doesn't talk about it much. Or anything, for that matter. She only talks a little bit more than Ichise, I counted. Onishi is the head of the Organo syndicate, who's a big fan of the "ask questions first, shoot later" philosophy. He respects the other heads of the organizations and can see to the root of most problems quicker than most of the people who work for him. A major plus is that he has actual dialogue. His subordinate is Doc, a female doctor formerly of the Class, who was sent to Lukuss to develop new texhnolyze techniques. She takes Ichise in pro bono and makes his limbs for him against his will (kind of a creepier version of Winry), as well as performing the maintenance on them. Shinji is the head of Racan, a smug bastard who views the conflict between Organ and the Corps as a spectacle to watch for amusement. His laissez-faire philosophy extends to until members of Racan are harmed, and then his claws come out.
Plot: I was kind of worried when the first episode had about two actual lines of dialogue, and the second episode wasn't much better, but as the series progressed, the pace picked up and they cleared up some of the things I'd been confused about. Backstory and actual plot all unfold at a decent rate, and th series length was just right for the material covered, with very little if any filler. The plot itself was interesting, if not the most original in the world. The plot was held together very well with the fight scenes, character development, and excellently set mood.
CHICKS!! This series had everything, even dilectable babes to drool over! The main attraction is Doc, whose all-business manner is overcome while she's doing her work. She *really* likes her texhnolyzing, to the extent that she only seems attracted to her patients. You'd have to (and I'd gladly) give up an arm or a leg to sleep with this woman. Any scientist that looks like that would be well worth the trouble! Another nice piece is Yoko, Shinji's girlfriend. She's hung up on Shinji, but he's too wrapped up in being a smug bastard to pay more than lip service to her (and not even in the good way). You should have an easier time with her when he's off looking at the other girls. With a slightly younger frame than the Doc, she's for the college guys who want somebody their own age.
Overall: There really was very little to argue with in this series. The quality went deeper than just the pretty box, with the non-stop plot (that didn't even go mind-fucky!), great action scenes, naked scientist chick, and high technical quality. Although there were some minor quibbles, I really enjoyed wathing this series, and think that any fan of the techno-punk feel of Ghost in the Shell and the like would, as well.
In a nutshell:
+ Nice artwork
+ Mood set excellently
+ Interesting characters
+ Fast pace
+ Great action scenes
- Sometimes generic character design
Final grade: 9/10
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