Seikaisuru Kado

No spoilers, except just one: this show is a spectacular train-wreck. If you like good science fiction, beware: this show begins extremely well but manages to destroy everything it built up and trample on its viewer's expectations in every way imaginable in its final episodes. After hearing that this was an anime that had heavy parallels to Arrival, and watching the first five episodes, the sci-fi buff in me was ecstatic. Here was a mature, well-written and absolutely gorgeous looking and sounding sci-fi anime that was headed in a direction that didn't seem hackneyed. It was thought-provoking and sparked a lot of discussion among the viewership. It was a potential masterpiece, I thought. But as the series progressed, anime tropes that had no business appearing in a mature narrative such as this started popping up left and right for no good reason like some rash, creating a very jarring experience, and culminating in an ending that left many wondering how something with so much potential had ended up like this. It became incoherent to the point where one has to wonder whether the author's original vision was altered by others in the creative team to appeal to a larger crowd - one that wouldn't be watching this series in the first place. Story (3/10): The first half was a solid take on first contact, and the plot was genuinely creative and gripping at the same time. The last quarter was an unmitigated disaster for the most part. I don't think any other show with such a promising beginning has bombed so hard. Art (8.5/10): Ah, this is something that the plot couldn't touch, and does deserve a favourable mention: the characters and several other parts are in 3DCG, and it pretty much sets an industry standard to how 3DCG should look. At no point did it look awkward or badly animated - on the contrary, some CG-heavy scenes ranged from beautiful to downright jaw-dropping. Sound (8.5/10): Another thing the story could not completely spoil was the soundtrack, which was great. If there is one good thing that came from this show, it's that. Character (3/10): Just like the plot, the main characters start out with great promise, but end up getting development that is frankly appalling. Enjoyment (4/10): This reflects the effect of the ending more than anything - it leaves a very bad taste, especially because the first half was so enjoyable. Overall - 4/10. Tl;dr: You are probably better off pretending this doesn't exist. That, unfortunately, is the right answer.

Story: 3 Seikaisuru Kado begins with an intriguing premise: An alien arrives on Earth bearing gifts to advance humanity. To ease communication between the alien and the government, a gifted negotiator offers his services. Over time, the alien and negotiator learn about each other and become friends, overcoming their many differences. Meanwhile, the alien's gifts are so vastly powerful and beyond human understanding, that they threaten existing international resource and power relations. Soon, the bigger, more concerning question looms: Why? That's a lot to work with, and the first 8-9 episodes actually do quite well in exploring these ideas. However, if you're after intelligent, well-considered, or satisfactory answers, you will most likely be disappointed. In fact, "disappointed" is the word I'd use to describe my feelings about this series as a whole. Many of the issues raised in earlier episodes are resolved by way of shoehorned deux ex machinas, then explained away in empty words as to sound somehow profound or meaningful. While I understood the reasoning behind the solutions and how they had to be done, there was little-to-no lead-up and foreshadowing, making them seem overly-convenient, and leave no satisfaction in the resolution. In essence, poor execution: It felt as though the writers wrote themselves into a corner, had trouble resolving everything in the space of a few episodes, or handed the reins over to shallow mahou shoujo writers altogether. Art: 7 As a fully CG-based series, Toei did surprisingly well (see: earlier efforts in the sad CG transformation sequences in Sailor Moon Crystal). While it was apparent that impactful action sequences are beyond the reaches of the overly smooth and measured pace of their CG animation, the need itself was rendered obsolete due to the setting and cast of white-collar characters, and it even enhanced the otherworldly quality of the alien. By nature of CG animation, the quality could only be consistent throughout, but overall visual interest is lost through over-reliance on it where there could be better angles or compositions. Sound: 7 I actually remember very little of the background tracks, but since nothing stood out to me as being particularly out-of-place either, I'll give this a pass. The opening and ending themes are actually quite lovely and help conjure a sense of wonder at the vast universe. Character: 6 First of all, I was very impressed by the variety of character designs; the old and young, physically imposing and frail, big and small, etc... Even the main character doesn't look terribly outstanding, which lends weight to his professional nature. That said, most of the recurring cast are attractive young people, which kind of ruins that thought. I had trouble taking the main girl seriously, for many, many reasons. The alien's design was appropriately strange, and subtly differentiated him as a whole other species, even while taking a human form. Design aside, I appreciated the developing relationship between the negotiator and the alien; in particular, the alien's growing attachment to his new friend manifested through subtle glances and not-so-subtle keeping of mementos. The relationship felt believable through their attempts to overcome cultural, linguistic, technological, etc... differences. The love interest, while soundly and reasonably developed as a character, on the other hand, felt lacking in chemistry by comparison, considering her importance in the conclusion. On a separate note, for all that the negotiator was set up to be one of the best in his field, he does very... little... negotiating...? Enjoyment: 3 Despite my enjoyment of earlier episodes, the conclusion was poorly done. I spent episodes 9-12 mostly feeling confused and in disbelief over every nonsensical turn of events, disappointed at the waste of potential, and the waste of my time. Overall: 5 Only the first 8 episodes and a few technical aspects manage to redeem this series. Good job effing it up, Toei.

A battle of words and ideas between the finest diplomats of Japan and a being from another dimension that comes from a cube. Please be aware that there are slight spoilers in character analysis and story analysis. Once every anime season there is a chance you will encounter an anime that has a premise that is completely new and hasn’t been seen before and one that completely engrosses you in both its setting and story and can keep you entertained until the end. In this case Seikaisuru Kado certainly fits that bill as its one anime that I have yet to get bored off and indeed continues to intrigue me episode by episode. The premise behind Seikaisuru Kado is a relative straightforward one but one that is exceedingly rare within the anime industry. When you think of aliens or being from another dimension visiting the planet most people would imagine that ok this is going to be an action anime that focuses on the soldiers pushing the alien back right. Not so in this case. The main premise of this anime is diplomacy and how new technology that is gifted by an alien should be used and viewed and whether is it right for humanity as a race to use it. The combination of Diplomacy between the alien and the people of Japan and their relationship with the countries of the world with regards to the alien and his gifts I felt was interesting as was seeing the effects of the gifts on humanity as well. The anime’s Theme of focusing on diplomacy as well as focusing on the larger picture of humanity as a race and not individual countries I felt was an interesting one and this was one anime that really hooked me in when I saw the trailer for it. Seikaisuru Kado’s main story takes place within modem day japan and follows life of Shindou Kojiro a veteran diplomat of the Japanese Governments ministry of foreign affairs who whether by chance or not becomes the first person to meet an alien from another dimension and from there act as the intermediary between him and humanity. The overall story focuses on the negotiation between the alien being ZaShuNina and the government of Japan which is watched by countries around the world and ZaShuNina’s attempt to help humanity by providing certain gifts. Kojiro Shindou Kojiro Shindou voiced by veteran voice actor Hiroaki Miura is one of the main characters of the series and is the main protagonist of the series. A veteran negotiator from the governments Ministry of foreign affairs Shindou is a calm, collected and composed person that thanks to his many years of service to the ministry has a detailed knowledge of not just how Japanese society works but also how governments and countries around the world work as well. As a result of both his experience and knowledge Shindou is well liked by his co-workers and well respected by them and by his superiors. Apart for being calm and composed which is no doubt his prominent trait Shindou is also a smart man and well versed in making quick decisions after finding out all the information that he needs for a given situation. Shindou seems to be a person that takes great pride in being a diplomat and seems to value the job that he has immensely which is best exemplified by the fact that he’s always eager to see things to an end which indicates that he is also very dutiful as well. As a result of this personality Shindou is someone that understands how negotiations work on an intimate level and as such he will always try to get the best deal for both sides of one. It’s important to note that Shindou also has a softer personality that he shows when he’s not in diplomat mode and is used when he’s interacting with friends and family. Unlike when he’s in diplomatic mode Shindou’s other personality tends to be softer and more respectful but at the same time have less pressure behind his words. In this personality Shindou seems to be a bit of a joker and will often use humor to deal with people that are either too serious, nervous or uptight. This is best seen in his first meeting with Saraka. As a main character and the main protagonist of the series Shindou develops and forms a relationship with many different characters in the series as part of his new role with his relationship with ZashuNina and Saraka being the most important. Both of these relationships I felt were pretty well done and were built on the most important element that any negotiation would need to have which in this case is trust. Shindou’s relationship with ZaShuNina is arguably one of the cornerstones of this series and forms an important part of the overall plot of the series. In the beginning of the series Shindou as a result of being on the plane that ZashuNina absorbed was the first human that he encountered and as a result of both ZashuNina’s curious and inquisitive nature and Shindou’s sense of responsibility and adaptability they soon established a bond that is built on understanding and trust. As the series progresses it can be seen that Shindou’s advice and observations are highly valued by ZashuNina and that there was a genuine bond of friendship that had been forged between them. Their relationship from the outside could be seen as something akin to that of a normal friendship though naturally one that transcends the human race. Though as later events occur I do wonder whether this bond was indeed real or not. Still I felt that the relationship between the two and the effect that it had on the overall plot was both well developed and was integrated very well into the main plot. As a character Shindou I felt was an excellent character as despite a veteran diplomat that was accustomed to dealing with fellow humans Shindou was due to his personality able to adapt well to the most unusual of situations and be able to act as the link between the people of Japan and ZashuNina which arguably made him one of the most important person on Earth at the time of the event. At the same time Shindou’s compassionate personality while certainly not on the level of Saraka’s also served as great qualities that ensured that his decisions while logical also ensured that he also thinks of the effects that it will have on normal humans as well. All in all, I felt that Hiroaki Miura really did an excellent job voicing the character of Shindou. Saraka Saraka Tsukai voiced by veteran seiyuu Mao Ichimichi of Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio and Digimon Adventure Tri fame is one of the main characters of the series and serves as the main heroine of the series. A negotiator that works for the Japanese governments Ministry of foreign affairs that handles Japan’s relationship with other countries Saraka is an intelligent, fast thinking and composed person that looks and behaves similarly to Shindou. Despite working in the same ministry Saraka and Shindou never met before the events of the plot. Like Shindou Saraka adapts a mask of professionalism when she’s working as a negotiator that is both composed and reserved yet this mask does sometimes break when she’s exposed to situations that resonate with her humorous personality. This aspect of her I felt was quite funny and helps differentiate her with Shindou who rarely laughs. Despite being young Saraka is both earnest and hardworking and treats her duties seriously which indicates how she got to her position and rank at her age. Indeed, while Saraka and Shindou have not met each other before the events of the plot it can be seen that he has at least heard of her. Like Shindou when Saraka is in diplomat mode she tends to be overly serious and uptight at times that manifests in a variety of ways. When under a lot of stress which in the series is actually quite often Saraka’s overly serious personality manifests in the form of lectures to people that tries to remind them how important this is. Rather than reassuring others this seems to have the opposite effect on her which I felt was rather funny. As a result of her uptight personality when dealing with people that have a humorous side to …

Seikaisuru Kado is a tale of the meeting between humanity and a being from another universe and how events unfolded thereafter. I didn't expect this anime would have been as good as it was and at least for the first 75% of the series I thought the show was very consistent. The way how the story was constructed along with its premise, allowed the show to have a great base from where the story could go in a multitude of directions. The direction the show eventually went wasn't one that I personally got a lot of satisfaction from but it was still to the point where overall the anime still felt enjoyable. The art is a blend between 2D/3D and surprisingly I thought that it was handled extremely well. There wasn't many instances where I thought that the animation suffered because of the use of the 3D. Kudos to Toei Animation in that regard. The soundtrack was phenomenal and I thought that it was able to enhance many moments from the show. The characters were great although in the final moments of the series, the way certain characters were developed could have been different in my personal opinion. In the end certain elements of the show felt a bit rushed but it didn't detract too much from my overall feeling of the anime. Seikaisuru Kado is a anime with an interesting premise and I thought that it did a very good job on delivering on that premise.

When there exists many assured commercial and critical successes sustaining a company or studio money, sometimes they would want to take risks. Maybe they'd hire more auteur directors, try original story concepts or do something to aim for a new crowd that wouldn't previously enjoy their work. That was likely the thought of Toei Animation, when in addition to their successes with Dragon Ball Super and the juggernaut One Piece, they decided to create Kado- The Right Answer, an all CGI original sci fi series having debates about such complex topics such as the ethics of humanity and how prepared they would be for sudden instantaneous advancements in technology. This wasn't Toei's first time doing this. They released the widely beloved Mononoke series which felt above the norm, and to my knowledge 2013's Kyousou Giga was considered to be an overlooked classic as well. However for Kado, it feels like it was so close to establishing its identity and maturity firmly, only for that potential to be wasted and lead into something annoyingly typical. SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED The plot, although not the most original at first glance, starts seeming to come into its own. A giant shiny multicolored cube falls from the sky onto an airport about to take off, including two workers with skill in diplomacy, for which Episode 0 established: Kojirou Shindou and Shuuhei Asano. We start by seeing the government of Japan trying to handle this foreign presence of the cube and then by seeing those trapped inside it interacting with the being naming itself Yaha-kui zaShunina, which would later be called the Anisotropic for convenience. Later on we get to meet more characters, including skilled foreign diplomat Tsukai Saraka, Japan's prime minister, news reporters and Kanata Shinawa, an eccentric scientist girl who understands the alien technology the most. While not the most concrete characterization, they seem to work fine for this portion of the story, as it becomes all about seeing these diverse reactions and showing how these mature people see the different suggestions the alien brings up to advance humanity's functions. The people would be of greater understanding of each other and the universe regardless of what choice they picked. The story, while not that investing, seemed atypical and fairly grounded and mature despite the supernatural entity. Does it continue these ideas it set forth until the end of the show though? Not exactly....... See, at around the halfway point, Saraka snaps out of her professional attitude to have a Tsundere moment that main character Shindou brings up and it's at this point when things start to fall into typical anime-ness. A few more moments like this come up, we get some comedy involving a festival episode and then Saraka goes on a massive speech on why humanity is amazing and the world is amazing and that everyone is perfect! This was the point where I lost faith in the show. It made it seem like this professional diplomat character turned into a typical over-idealized anime heroine, saying things that felt contradictory to the morally gray nature of certain debates earlier. That's not the only thing that happens though. The anisotropic itself goes from wanting to and considering collaboration with humanity and technology to.....wanting to backstab the main character and absorb all of humanity for his own goals. Not only does this completely go against any attempt at character development the conversations might've had earlier, but combined with Saraka's over idealistic speech completely ruins their sense of moral ambiguity we saw previously for the past 7-8 episodes or so. Then, in an unexpected twist with zero buildup, Saraka ALSO turns out to be an alien, the simple bonding relationship between her and Shindou turns into a love which lacks the proper pacing in itself, and Shindou and zaShunina have a punching battle which ends in the death of Shindou, the defeat of the alien and more idealistic speeches about humanity. Therefore, we end our Seinen story with a climax that wouldn't be out of place in your average battle Shonen. This feels contradictory to the intentions from the beginning. If your idea is to create a unique product that will stand out from the genericness that seems to overtake the market, why decide to take the cliche route out anyways? It's like if an elegant ice skater near the end of his routine decided to swap out from rollerblades, slipping on a loose banana peel and falling flat on his face. Kado's overall execution simply comes off as ineffective at best and extremely jarring at worst. With the intriguing concepts so much time was put into meaning very little by the end of it, Kado feels like a wasted effort on the story front. Too much time was spent on the mature debating to accept the high tension stakes of the climax, so when a character you appreciate literally has his life on the line, you'd like him, but not care enough to that extent that we're concerned for his safety in an actual fight we'd not seen animated before. That said, as far as animation goes, it was actually one of the show's greatest strengths. Yes, including the CGI. Many have often seen CGI animation as an unfortunate crutch, especially when it comes to anime, with the new Berserk adaptation being one of the standout examples of its badness. However, this show not only decides to not have excessive movements with the CGI, but use it to convey the slight movements and body language of those in arbitration in a faster way than traditional animation. And unlike say, Ajin, the frame rate didn't feel too fast for its own good, so the choppiness that could've been there was not. The best part of the animation though, was the background art inside the Kado itself. With the liquid gold exterior and the many different shapes formed, the director was allowed a lot of perspective shots to sell the out-there nature of the series. That said, if the show ever reverts back to 2D animation....it looks BAD, like, really choppy and generic looking. Still, the good outweighs the bad and the animation overall benefited the series. The sound...didn't really do it either way. The OP was nice, the ED was nice, and background music was functional but unmemorable. Moving on to the biggest disappointment, the characters. The main character, Kojirou Shindo, is the one who gets the most screentime and has the overall importance. He's a skilled debator who ends up siding with the anisotropic in his goals to advance humanity's nature. While it is interesting to see why he continues to side with the alien for every debate topic that comes up in the early episode, the "bromance" there felt like it happened too fast for me to fully buy. Agreeing with the alien was one thing, but siding with it for every possible option felt like an extreme. Still, he's the character we get to know the best and most of his decisions are shown fairly well in context. We like him enough? Sure. Do we care about him enough that his DEATH could leave an impact? Not to that extent, the story of Kado didn't feel like it was building up to such a thing. Character death was such a foreign concept, and the show seemed to favor logical over emotional. The character's resolution is sound but the full extent of the story does him about as much harm as good. The alien zaShunina also started off the story fairly interesting. With an ever growing view of humanity and technology could benefit or hinder humanity's potential depending on its use, it was interesting to see him propose his morally gray views, rather than simply wanting to take over the world and eliminate humanity. Sadly, that's exactly what the final quarter of the series ends up doing. His betrayal of Shindou makes it too easy for the audience to choose to go against him, and his final scene has him too easily see the positiveness of humans and have a typical villain angry face breakdown scene. Therefore a possibly…

Ah This show, I thought this might be the one show that would prove to me that Toei as an animation studio isn't as bad as I thought it was, after all, every reboot/sequel of a show they've done recently has looked bottom of the barrel cheap (with sailor moon crystal season 3 being a weird exception) and their only good shows this past decade only make up for looking cheap with impeccable or eccentric art design and directing (kyousugiga, Mononoke) so when i see there first real attempt at a 3d show actually look decent I had some hope. add that to the shows premise of a more serious first contact with higher beings science fiction story and you got yourself an interesting show with some potential. Before I talk about what ruined the show in detail Ill talk about what grabbed my attention about this show in the first place. questioning the ideas of certain human concepts like war, the formation of borders and countries, and the gap between developed and impoverished nations from an outsiders perspective is inherently interesting. This begs the question from that outsider "if humanity is capable of being the dominant species why isn't it as a species able to put aside their interests as nations and unify as a world nation capable of solving world problems more efficiently?". It also asks of whether help from an outside source to artificially kick-start human productivity through alien technology is indeed even the right move or would our reliance on it be harmful should it ever just vanish out of thin air as well as the ethics of tampering with the natural state of the world as it stands and just letting humanity progress at its own pace. Now aside from a lot of technobabble about the devices used to raise these questions, this show does at the very least a good job of getting the viewer to think about this type of subject matter. Add to that very adult characters and the tone of the show staying serious and morally ambiguous for the first 9 episodes and you got yourself a good thought provoking type of show. Unfortunatly the last three episodes ruin the whole idea of what the show was building towards and instead throws away all interesting discussion and intrigue the show could have had as mentioned by other reviewers, In favor of out of nowhere deus ex machinas, little to no setup to some of the more dramatic moments and plot twists, and terrible writing that throws out the serious tone and gray morality in favor of creating a contrived as hell scenario for a "humans are good/outsiders are bad" type of conflict. And to top it all off the show doesn't have the guts to stick with whatever impact the new technologies introduced could have on the world long term so it just hits a magic reset button to make people incapable of using any of it or interact with the people who made them so it basically wastes your time as viewer by not really exploring these ideas deeper or predicting how humanity would really progress with the advanced tech and plays it too safe. Because of that the whole buildup of what "The Right Answer" was in the title was thrown away so it fell flat on it's face. In short this show is a waste of time with OK 3d CGI but in a couple of years even the CGI will be dated and I don't recommend anybody to watch this only to be disappointed.

Minor spoilers ahead Story: So our story starts with a very interesting set-up, a being from another dimension - the anisotropic - comes to Earth and wants to advance humanity and help them find the right answer. This leads to a couple of interesting questions: Is it a good thing for humanity to advance through the help of outside forces? Will humanity be able to handle this much advancement at once? What are the consequences for the world? Who is this anisotropic being and why does he do what he does? And what is the right answer? These questions are the driving forces behind the story of Kado - the right answer and it's up to humanity to find out the right answer to these. First of all the premise was very interesting and for most of the episodes the execution was great. The problem with this story was the twist in its final episodes, while I liked the reveal of what the anisotropic being is and why he does things, it took this show in a very different direction than I thought it would go. It started of with a lot of these deeper, philosophic questions about humanity and ends with well... something quite different. The final episode was horribly rushed and the ending was very unsatisfying. I don't want to give it away but the way the Main Characters story finished was just very anticlimactic. Art: This anime uses a lot of CG, especially for its characters. If you're really bothered by this then it might bother you in this show as well. For me however it worked very well, the CGI was obvious but it was executed in a way that it didn't feel out of place at all. If this is the future of CGI in anime then I'm up for it. There were a lot of beautiful wide shots of Kado and its surroundings in this show, especiall the proportions of Kado in comparison with other objects was handled exceptionally. It really felt huge. The inside of Kado was also designed beautifully and was one of the highlights of the show from an artistic point of view. The character designs weren't anything that special, but I think that was the point, it was a show that was set in reality so everybody looks like an ordinary person, except for the anisotropic being whose design I really enjoyed. Sound: The soundtrack of Seikaisuru Kado was a highlight of this show. The opening and also the ending were just awesome. Especially the opening, I never skipped this one. Though in general the OST was quite good. It added a lot to the series and made a lot of moments feel bigger. Characters: Shindou, Koujiro Shindou is the protagonist of Kado, he's a negotiator for the Japanese Government and the person who also negotiates with the anisotropic being. He's a very likeable and interesting guy, worthy of being a protagonist. His interactions with his co-worker Hanamori would've been enough for me to watch a slice-of-life show with them just doing their negotiations. He goes through some interesting character development over the course of this show, I just wish the end of his story arc wouldn't have been so anti-climactic. Yaha-kui zaShunina The anisotropic being who wants to advance humanity. His deisgn was great and I really liked the concepts of the anisotropic he brought to this world. He was a very interesting and mysterious character right until the final episodes. It was interesting to see him change due to the influence humanity had on him. Tsukai, Saraka The female lead of this show. At first she felt a little out of place in this show. Her typical anime antics just didn't fit with the otherwise serious world of Seikaisuru Kado. But she was a nice and sweet girl and she grew on me. It was interesting to see her become so important later on. Enjoyment: Overall I'm a bit disappointed with this show. I really enjoyed everything until the twist and was ready to rate this 9/10. But the twist of this show first drove it into a direction that was only okay instead of great and then the final episode happened and I won't give away the ending but it was a huge letdown for me and some of it felt like an asspull to me. I'd still recommend this show for it's great 10 episodes!

After hearing lots of praise for Seikaisuru Kado, I finally decided to give it a go. And I was not disappointed... well at least for the first few episodes. Everything started going downhill after the second half. The anime introduced itself as a spectacular sci-fi mature type of anime; however, it trailed off and the sci-fi aspect was completely lost, in my opinion, when the romance was forcibly put into the anime. I especially hate it when a random side character is given a 'main role' for the sake of advancing the plot. [Story] -- 5: Mediocre Speaking of the plot, as I mentioned before, I had a hard time following it after a few episodes. There were so many plot holes and so many questions left unanswered. If the anime had gone more into the sci-fi genre, instead of delving into the shitty characters, a lot of the questions may have been explored and even answered. That would have left us with a greater understanding of the anisotropic. [Characters] [Spoilers] -- 2: Dreadful The characters were atrocious in this anime. The crazy scientist girl was literally there because 'plot convenience.' The creator[s] never even considered giving her any development as a character. Then we have that guy who's a part of the media - again, plot convenience. They were only there to spread the Sansa - they merely existed for the Sansa and that's pretty much it. Then we have Hanamori and Saraka. I don't even know why Hanamori is there. He got so little screen time, that I'm surprised I still remember his name. Saraka is also there for the plot convenience. Like, Shindo got to know that girl for like a few days, and then they fall in love? This bullshit romance between Saraka and Shindo resulting in the disgusting ending, which gives me more reasons to hate Saraka. She became a main character in fucking 3 episodes. She is most definitely the worst of all the characters. Then we have zaShunina, who is lovable and is comparable to a child who is still understanding the ways of the world. Then they just HAD to make zaShunina the bad guy. You have no idea how big of a mistake that was. The anime could have gone in SO many directions! We could have seen much more. This type of anime doesn't need a bad guy to continue the story. There were already many options from the start. What if Shindo had agreed to go to the anisotropic with zaShunina? What if there was a different objective or a different "right answer?" What if the Wams were actually distributed to the other countries? What if the Sansa did not have it's same effect through the television and the only way was for one to see it for him/herself in real life? The anime could have explored all sorts of questions, and I bet there are more. [Art] -- 7: Good Oh no! It is 3-D animation, the enemy of anime! Honestly, that's what I thought at first as well. However, I got used to it after a few episodes, and I must admit, the visuals were pretty nice. But even after watching Seikaisuru Kado, I still dislike the appearance of 3-D animation in anime... [Sound] 7: Good Nothing much to say here. The voice actors did a great job, and the OSTs were average. Not the best, not the worst. (Did not mention the opening/ending because I did not listen to them.) [Enjoyment] 4: Decent I did look forward to each episode, whether it be because I was legitimately looking forward to the episode or because I was looking forward to shitting on it. [Overall] 5: Mediocre It's meh. Just another anime with great potential gone wrong. Adding everything up, it's just average. Nothing too special. [SHOULD YOU WATCH?] No. Unless you're a sucker for forced romance and sci-fi anime gone wrong. ***Thank you for reading. I will appreciate any feedback, since it is my first time writing a review.***

Sci-fi stories have as of late become more action-oriented or filled with fantasy-tropes, straying far from being speculative stories about our future and how we might change over time. This is why Kado came in like a welcome breath of classic air, bringing up the interesting questions that the genre is well-known for. Being interesting alone was however not enough to make this series great. We start our journey of interdimensional exploration with some rather slow pacing, sometimes used well to flesh out characters, other times to waste an episode on watching the futuristic paint dry. Yet it keeps you hooked by introducing crazy concepts, such as what might happen if humanity was given brand new life-changing technologies. Sadly, it only scratches the surface of its own premise, seemingly more interested in just raising questions instead of actually exploring them. The effects these new technologies are having on humanity are never shown. With more episodes this series could've done much more. Heck, with better planning and pacing the series already had the potential to do more. What it all boils down to is one question, should humanity try to advance faster, or should it take its time to get wherever it's going? Despite a flashy and crazy climax, the anime predictably enough seems to lean for a more conservative and cliché answer, one that wastes the story's potential. If I were to praise Kado for anything, it would be on the technical side. It managed to successfully blend 2D animation and CGI in a way that didn't make my eyes want to flee in terror, which is quite the feat. While not great, I can't say I regret watching Kado, since it was different from most anime being made today. My hopes would be that this could encourage more stories with complex ideas in the future, but with more polish.

This show had a lot of potential in its first few episodes. Then it went down the drain. Story: 4 This anime's plot seriously had a lot of potential. The beginning sets you up with a conflict of technological advancement vs conservatism. It asks the questions related to change. Then, midway through, this show turns into a mahou shoujo romance between Shindo and Saraka. Instantly, Shindo changes his philosophical stance to match Saraka's. The show then becomes a one sided competition between the yaoi pairing bond between zaShunina and Shindo vs Shindo and Saraka's superluminal romance bond. In the end, there is even a Deus Ex Machina who magically, through whatever contrived plotholes, comes with powers to make Saraka's side win. I call this bullshit. Character: 5 Most characters were 1-dimensional. Shindo and Saraka included for the most part. They're just maybe 1.5 rather than 1.0. The dynamics going on with Shindo doesn't make any sense but you can possibly just blame that on the fact that Saraka is a canon Sue who twisted the original story concept. Art: 7 Everything looks pretty decent. It's possibly the best part of this anime. Sound: 7 Sounds okay too. Enjoyment: 5 I started off excited every week for this anime. Halfway through, that changed. By the last episode, I just laughed at how much of a trainwreck this became. The writing in this show started off good but halfway onward, becomes about as good as your typical fanfiction.net work in the last half. Only problem is, I've seen fanfiction stories that do better than this and I myself write more coherent plots than this nonsense. Who's this show for? -anime critics who watch almost everything anyway. -if you enjoy "So bad it's good"/trainwrecks Who's this not for? -if you want a show that's plot driven -if you don't like forced romance/poorly developed romance -if you don't like asspulls and Deus Ex Machina

!First Things First There Will Be Spoilers, You Have Been Warned! I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. This anime had so much potential and I stand by my belief that things could've been improved even a little by allowing it a 24 episode run time rather than 12, but should nothing of the story and development change that'd all be for naught in the end. For me this anime wasn't a complete waste of time, I seriously enjoyed it up to episode 8 and actually wouldn't have minded if they ended it there, went on a month long hiatus then came back with a fully fleshed out and well thought through ending instead of the crap shack we got instead. The visuals, the music and the characters for the most part were fantastic, even the story started out well being sort of like the CG anime equivalent of Arrival (excellent film, I highly recommend watching it), but as with a lot of ambitious projects they just couldn't seem to figure out how to appropriately end the series without royally fucking it up. (From here on excuse me if I rant a little, the ending is about my only qualm with Kado). For starters, Shindo, zaShunina and even Saraka (whom I didn't like that much anyway) were good characters in their own right. It made sense that the 40D alien boi had no understanding of human concepts and emotions, it made sense that Shindo wouldn't be at all shocked by making contact with an alien because that's his character, and it made sense that at least one of the main cast would be opposed to this and encompassed that side of humanity's reaction which was what Saraka represented. But all semblence of development was completely throw out the window when things started coming to a climax. Shindo I'm not so hung up on apart from the fact that he's praised by the Prime Minister for being able to walk his own path, yet the power of boners makes him follow along with Saraka's wishes like a dog in heat. Or how his amazing negotiator skills are scrapped in favour of needless violence, yay! //throws up Now here's where I start getting annoyed; Saraka was a character that, as I said, I didn't like (and I could also sadly tell where they were going with her character the second I saw her because she's the only other character in the whole anime with red eyes bar zaShunina). The reason being was not because she was written badly but because we stood on opposites sides of the argument, something I consider excellent writing for a character. She represented the cautious and fearful side of humanity, our distrusting nature towards a deal that feels too good to be true, the most basic and instinctual fear of even the most simple of creatures; fear of the unknown. This however is completely ruined by one simple fact...she's not human. She is fearful because she has knowledge of what zaShunina might do and what he is capable of, the complete opposite of humanity who fear what they don't understand. Her character could have had so much more depth and meaning if they'd just kept her human, but instead they reduced her to typical tsundere waifu material and only worth a damn for her womb. Now comes zaShunina, the biggest cliché insult to me since I really loved his character (for reasons I shall make clear a little later on). From how much anime and movies and series I've watched over the years I've become really damn good at telling where a story is going to head (not to toot my own horn there, just fact), which is why I'm happily surprised when media does something I didn't expect. For all intensive purposes, Kado was heading the latter direction at first, being something I'm not unfamiliar with but something I don't see often, so it's refreshing, but unfortunately it started running down the road of predictability far too fast, tripped up and dropped its own plot down the storm drain. I have no doubt that zaShunina was intended to be the quote unquote "bad guy" of the series, but I highly doubt it was intended to be this blunt about it. All of the development he'd gone through was utterly trashed when the decision was made to have him turn psychotic, I find it hard to believe that A) he, who has never been remotely human in his life, could learn to be human in a month when it takes us humans years to learn to do that and B) a highly intelligent 40D being would become emotionally unstable. It felt messy, rushed and above all else out of character. The other part of things that upset the fandom was of course the queerbaiting. I won't talk too much about it but I will say this; it was noticeable and disgusting. I have no idea why having a gay couple in a regular anime is so bad that they have to kill them off for it, just having a non-hetero couple in your anime does not make it a BL/GL or a yaoi/yuri, it makes it a wholesome and relatable story to a minority often overlooked in the media. I have watched anime made in the 90s do a better job representing the LGBT community than our supposed "world of equality" nowadays. Now...for the part that pissed me off the most about the ending. ...I'm sorry but...for being a heavily science(ish) based anime...HOW THE FUCK DID THEY MESS UP BASIC MATH? 0 + 0.5 does not equal 2 for fuck's sake, there is no way that a human being and an Anisotoron who is essentially human and abandoned almost all her power could produce a being more powerful than a whole, pureblooded Anisotoron. That. Is. Not. How. Biology. Works. And don't give me that "She's a Anisotoron, she can alter things" because she has next to no power anymore, she threw away her power to be born and live as a regular human being, retaining only as much as she needed to survive I suppose. To use an extreme example, a normal healthy human and a human with a hereditary degenerative disease /does not/ produce a child with the cure to cancer. It does not work like that. What happened in Kado was, say it with me now; PLOT CONVENIENCE. They could not figure out a way to end this anime, so they asspulled, and I think this is what annoyed me the most. I have my own story and headworld, I've had it for years now and I share it with my partner. Between us we have created a wide universe rich with lore and mysteries in equal amounts, and the "God among men" situation is one I am very familiar with. This is why Kado appealed to me, it was like watching an anime that had parts of my own headworld lore in it and that was fascinating to see come to life before my eyes. I and my partner sorted the problems of having OP characters in a very simple way; the God-level characters in our headworld are /passive observers/. They don't fight, they don't interfere with "lesser beings", they are simply there to see to it that the universe is running smoothly and that there are no beings getting too powerful and causing chaos. The only time they clash is with each other in their own pocket dimensions, well away from any collateral damage. We asked ourselves why they shouldn't be antagonists and the answer was simple; "Beings with enough power to create universes are wise enough to know that their power should be used to protect the weak, not cause conflict." Too many writers create God-level characters and then slap human concepts onto them as if beings of that level would share our beliefs. None of mine and my partner's God-level characters have human emotions, they have a set of emotions that are like human ones but not the same and can copy human emotions if they want be can't really feel it. None of them have "morals" because those were things made by humans in the first place, they have an understanding of the concept of "right" and "wrong" but again these are human concepts that humans made to judge the actions of other humans, so they feel no need to adhere to these rules, they won't chastise someone for murder nor congratulate someone for saving a life, they simply acted and that is that. This is represented beautifully by one of my God-level characters who apologizes to others but never means it, he und…

1 word, disappointment.(reason why will be in spoilers) Good plot build up, characters, music, art (despite it being CG it wasn't bad at all). Then they just screw it up. Spoilers ahead... Episode 9 is the last episode I enjoyed along with the first parts of episode 10, then it just went straight downhill and made me want to tear the hairs out of my head for wasting over 3hours straight binging it since it was so good. All the amazing plot, the potential, the description of how their world was, how it was introduced/told to the viewers was good. But then they decide to throw all of those in the freaking trash bin and make it a classic drama/romance/fantasy what ever the hell it is cliche. Suddenly we get the MC hook up with some girl we barely got any information on(gave her a backstory at episode 10) apart from being considered as an equal to him. and hoho behold said girl is also a higher being that so called fell from the higher dimensions just because of the irrational thought of falling inlove with the human race. WHAT KIND OF HIGHER BEING THROWS AWAY THE SIMPLEST OF LOGIC. To be honest this just pissed me off so much that it made me write this review. It's total garbage a waste of time.

Have you ever thought about the great mysteries of our universe? About what possibly lies just beyond humanities reach? If you've answered yes to either of these questions, than Kado might be an interesting and thought provoking series to watch. Unfortunately the important word in the previous sentence is "might". Generally I try to describe the good in an anime, in the hopes of getting people to watch and form their own opinions. However in this case I think I should take the time to warn you in the hopes of saving you from disappointment. Kado is a mostly good series. It has a strong cast of unique adult characters, splendid art and sound design, coupled with a fascinating "first contact" style sci-fi story. Most of this goes to shit by the end though. This show is an excellent example of a train-wreck. It takes its core sci-fi elements, philosophical questions, smart characters, and kills them all one by one. I give this anime a 6/10. It kept me entertained throughout most of its run. It was thought provoking, gorgeous to look at, and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I wish it had stayed that way till the end, but what can you do. PS: If you want more context for my scores out of 10, please visit my profile. PPS: Although it is listed here on MyAnimeList as being 12 episodes. There are in fact 13, make sure you watch episode 0.

Here are my SPOILER FREE two cents on Seikaisuru Kado. I starting jotting down my thoughts after the third episode in order to write the best review possible, so I’ve had a lot of time to ponder on this. Animation: I’ll be honest, I really don’t care for the animation. I don’t like cgi-blend. The art style in episode 0 was superb, which made the art style for the rest of the series kind of a bummer. However, this is my personal opinion. Story: Here’s what I love about the story. Despite the fact that it’s just about as sci-fi as sci-fi can be, the way it plays out is weirdly...accurate. I feel like humanity’s response to zaShunina in this show is realistically how humanity would respond to this kind of event. The central protagonist isn’t some hot blooded 17 year old Chosen One with the fate of the world in his hands. It’s a government negotiator. A bureaucrat. Everything is disputed politically and diplomatically. Even the UN gets involved here. As complex and fantastical as it can be at times, this story is told practically. Theme wise, the show focused the most on one thing: humanity, humanity, humanity. When the UN gets involved of the dispute over what to do with the resources zaShunina has given Japan, zaShunina says something that I think sums up the central conundrum of this show: “I came here to help humanity, not countries.” Coming together as humans despite national borders isn’t exactly the conflict in the story here—it’s asking whether or not we’re even capable of doing so. That is, until the story gets turned backwards and upside down in a plot twist that made me jump up from my couch and start shouting at my tv. But that’s all I’ll say on that. You’ll just have to see for yourself. There are a couple reasons why I knocked a few points off my score here, because it could very easily have been a 10. One is simply that I tend to be a tough critic so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Second was the animation. I just couldn’t get used to it and I didn’t think it looked good. And last was a combination of a few different inconsistencies. “Can we trust Yaha-kui zaShunina? Does he really have humanity’s best interest at heart?” This is something I was asking with every episode, but curiously, the show itself only touched on this question from time to time. So when you’re watching it, make sure you ask yourself that. You might be surprised at the answer. But to that I add my greatest criticism Characters: This show is considerably more plot driven than it is character driven. It’s not that the characters are weak or even bad. But when you have a plot this complex and, in my opinion, magnificent, if your characters aren’t equally as strong then the story they exist in is going to overshadow them and swallow them whole. This was the problem with Kado, and big time. Shindo is...Shindo. As you watched the show you’ll see that everyone admires him immensely. There’s not a person who dislikes him. And he’s a nice guy. I don’t really have anything bad to say about him. But that’s just it. Despite how everyone goes on and on about how exceptional he is, he’s annoyingly average to me. In the last couple episodes his heroic characteristics start to shine though, so by the end of the series he turned out to be a good protagonist. It just took too long to get there Tsukai Saraka was quite the interesting character. At first I didn’t like her all that much. They tried to make her, a government employee, come across as a tsundere-like character. Why? Why on earth would a show like this need a tsundere?? Anyway, you see a different side of her in episode 7 and from then on I respected her a lot. By the end of the show she was my favorite character. I just don’t understand why she was portrayed as she was initially. Perhaps it was strategic, but it sure got on my nerves. Hanamori was funny, and definitely the “how the hell did I get caught up in this?” character in the series. Yet he turned out to be crucial to the plot, and I always appreciate it when a show makes the comic relief more significant than you might think they are. Dr. Shinawa was also another favorite of mine. Sincerely eccentric is how I’d sum her up. I always loved her contributions to the story. And Yaha-kui zaShunina. Man oh man. Definitely the most impressive development wise. ESPECIALLY by the last episode. His development seemed a bit too rushed in my opinion, but it was still mostly consistent with the pace of the show. I went back and forth between distrusting him and loving him, and often found myself at a weird equilibrium between the two. And I loved it. I think there was at least an earnest effort to have strong characters, so I’ll give them that. It just didn’t quite work. They focused too much on the story to really give the characters their day in the sun. So, here are the cliff notes - Watch episode 0 - Rewatch episodes if you can, it’ll help a lot - Think really hard about the questions the show asks - More plot driven than character driven - But the characters are sincere - The plot is slow to build but pays off well I’d give it a 7.5 if I could, that’s what it is in my heart of hearts. It deserves a watch, and despite my criticisms, I highly recommend it.

So, having stumbled across this one, I was quite surprised to read the plot premise as I felt I had exhausted what few adults-only, non-mecha, non-isekai, non-high school based, etc etc anime was out there, and frankly this sounded exactly like the sort of show I'd be interested in. First contact based sci-fi dealing with aliens/other-dimensional beings, and some of the reviews even went as far as to note the DMT/psychedelic motifs that accompany the best of this genre (after all, if you're going to see a tesseract, your brain is gonna bend.) So far, so good. But, so many of the reviews seemed to contain the same critique: "This show started excellent but somewhere around episode 7 (sometimes 6, sometimes 8) it took a nosedive." So, I began the show. I waited with bated breath until episode 7 and - absolutely nothing surprising happened. If *anything* (and without giving away spoilers) there was a slight tone shift from "straight up Arrival-esque sci-fi" to "here come some mild anime tropes and some unexpected character developments." And even the character developments were not what I was somewhat expecting them to be. Basically, this is very solid sci-fi fare, a rare "mature" anime (term used relatively here), with a closed-loop plot, some great concepts and some decent character interactions which may have simply turned off people who thought they were going to get "pure" Arrival in anime form. I'd recommend this to sci-fi fans, psychonauts, and basically anyone with an interest in higher dimensions and how we as humans cope with those concepts. I think Asimov or Clarke said any sufficiently higher technology would appear to us as magic. Likewise, would a higher dimensional being appear to us as an angel or a god? Ultimately, it's a first-contact tale for the modern era, it's the Day the Earth Stood Still for our time. Ignore the people complaining about the last third of the series, because honestly, I don't quite get what they were expecting and the story seemed to remain of a consistent quality to me. Again, without spoilers, I'd just say let yourself have some fun on an otherwise high-minded philosophical ride. My only quibble, if anything, is I wish this was maybe a few episodes longer as I would have liked to see more of the world reacting to the events portrayed, and some of the complex character motivations fleshed out a little further. Oh, and do watch Episode 0. It's on Crunchyroll. It provides some character backstory that does come back to enhance the plot. Final thought: I believe the same writer wrote "Babylon" which I started but never finished, but having seen Kado now I think I need to return to Babylon and give it a second chance.

Saikasuru Kado. What can I say? This is easily the most disappointing show of the year. The ending of the show really messes so much up it isn’t fun. It has been a while that I have seen a show or read a book that started out this good and then crashed and burned like Kado. It is even worse than “Langoliers” by Stephen King which created an amazing atmosphere a great mystery and had a laughable ending. Why is it worse? Because in the case of Kado, it was not just that the ending was weak. This was Donna of “Doctor Who”. Animation – 7 I wasn’t very fond of the CGI-only animation but it actually sort of worked here because of the otherworldliness of Yaha and Kado and the CGI emphasised their alien qualities nicely. In the case of the human characters, it would have been great if they had been animated the old-fashioned way. Maybe a mix of both with a heavier emphasis on CGI would have been good but since the CGI was actually pretty well done a 7 it is. Story – 5 Kado is about First Contact and in the beginning, the show does so many things right that I could have shed a tear. I wondered why it was compared with “Arrival”. They are not really similar but both “Arrival” and “Kado” are about communication and language and so much more. It debates the pros and cons of natural to sudden technological advancement. How would the media handle a first encounter with aliens? How about the political and economic impact of technology that is so far removed from what we know? The show was smart, the pacing was great, the ideas were fascinating but halfway through something changed. Maybe they ran out of ideas, maybe some people wanted to have a say. I don’t know what happened but whatever it was, it was not good and the show suffered massively and received a very stupid deus ex machina ending. When it comes most of the episodes, especially the first arc (8 episodes), the show would receive either a 9 or 10 but that ending deserves nothing less than a big fat zero, so all in all 5. This is why this show is so frustrating. It had so much potential but Yaha, who had been cool and composed suddenly became downright human and emotional. I adored the developing relationship (in a way undefinable – Friendship? Love? Something more profound?) between Shindou and Yaha and in my eyes, it was not just a simple friendship and then the finale happened. Talk about badly handled. Music – 10 The music is utterly gorgeous and it is my favourite score of the year so far (and this also includes scores like “Mary Magdalene” by Jóhann Jóhannson). 岩代太郎 already did a great job with A.I.C.O. but outdid himself with the help of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The OP and ED did not only fit perfectly with the images but are also very, very beautiful. There is even a beautiful operatic Aria included (ヤハクィザシュニナ伝 ~Diva Version~). Do buy it. It is totally worth it! Characters 6 Again a solid ten in the beginning but with an ending like that- 6 is generous. I hate this show. I love this show. I loved it so much but I hate it for being such a massive let-down at the end.

This anime started very well, but towards the end of the show they started jamming in plot twists that didn't fit well with the rest of the show and the dialogue transitioned from legitimately deep and meaningful to stuff you would see on a 6th grader's #deep instagram post. I did not like the ending at all. Aside from the story, the art was actually surprisingly good for a show that was almost completely CGI, this is an example of good CGI use. Unfortunately, the art wasn't good enough to make up for all the trash thrown in my face. This show had so much potential but it was all unfortunately put to waste. Makes you wonder what they were thinking when writing it.

As stated in the other reviews, KADO has a top-notch beginning that really gave me a lot of faith in the series. "Finally," I thought, "a mature sci-fi series dealing with the politics of first contact!" Unfortunately, the show begins to veer off (for me) at the festival episode, and goes downhill from there. The ending in particular was very disappointing to me due to the abundance of tired anime tropes the series had done well to avoid or keep understated so far. There is also no room left to explore the wider implications of anisotropic tech that earlier episodes seemed to promise. Regarding the Art, I will say that the anisotropic structures were rendered very well and were unmistakably alien. The music was also very good (especially that opening) and gave an inspiring vibe. It's up to you whether - knowing what you know now - you'll still want to pick up KADO. It's a difficult series to rate numerically because those first few episodes really are very good, while those in the other half are uninspiring to say the least. I take a dimmer view of the overall series because it raised my expectations only to dash them, whereas some worse series at least show you what you're in for.

First, I tend to go into shows without really high expectations, and I dont feel I am that hard to please. That being said this is probably one of the first shows I finished and felt completely upset and unsatisfied with. The concept is great, the first half of the season introduced it well. Sadly it just went down hill, by the end everything about the last episode upset me. The relationship between the love interest and the main character seemed forced and really unneeded. I felt there was more chemistry between Shindo and zaShunina. The fact Shindo is the worlds best negotiator but .. never really does that? all of the big empty mumbo jumbo to explain away things. I could just go on and on. Personally I was totally on zaShunina's side the whole time. sign me up for that ending.

This anime started off with a lot of promise in the first episode and it seemed like it was gonna be a mature (Or at least not childish) anime involving a lot of politics and tense diplomatic negotiations. It was far from it, I was really disappointed that it turned out so terrible but I wasn't really surprised considering a huge chunk of anime suffer from the things I found bad about this anime. Let's start off with the story. The story had so much promise but it fell short in almost every aspect. The story itself could have been bearable if they fixed one or two things. Those things being Character and not having so much tropes ruining the atmosphere and "tension" of the anime. Art Personally disliked it but for 3DCG they did good. Sound Not much to say really, had some alright sound and a nice soundtrack. I think a few of the SFX were stock sounds but they could have been just really similar to what I've heard in other anime so who knows. Character The biggest problem with this anime is the characters every character is so very droll and uninspired. This anime would've been a lot better if they managed to make you give a shit about anyone in the show. I can't even find myself hating the characters either, they are so boring and bland that they aren't likable but they aren't really unlikable other than a few "quirks" here and there. The most annoying and boring characters are the MC and the Science chick. The MC is just boring as all hell with the typical can-do attitude every generic anime MC has. The science chick (I forget her name) is so chock full of annoying and boring tropes to make her seem so quirky that it's actually grating. She's one of the few characters who will get any reaction out of you, it's just not the reaction they wanted. Enjoyment It was mediocre, but it could have been worse. That's really the only "compliment" I can give it. Overall this anime is like a 5/10. It's just such a "safe" anime. They take no real risks to spice things up and it has all these tropes and boring characters. It really is the epitome of mediocracy