A.I.C.O. Incarnation

If you aren’t afraid of gore and psychological torture just watch it. (And if you like it play the Visual Novel “Saya no Uta”) The story 6/10 : Lovecraft, check. Mechas, check. A lot of inspirations from other works ? I think yeah. Ever heard of “Saya no Uta” or “Sidonia no Kishi”? The basics are the same, humanity is endangered and needs to be protected or saved. And even if it wasn’t very original it had a nice plot twist that made it interesting. The art 8/10 : I think that for an anime that hasn’t had a lot of advertisement this art and design should be seen by more people, it’s clear and corresponds to the vibes the story wants to give you. From the Matter’s design to it’s colors it gives a sense of worry and danger. The 3D was actually really decent and used in correct ways, that is not used for the lazyness of some parts but really used for some tricky shots or time consuming scenes to draw. The sound 9/10 : The soundtrack is what kept me along with everything else in “The Zone”, they knew when to give breaks with calm music or even break it with a very aggressive soundtrack to break that sense of security creating doubt even in calm periods. The characters 5/10 : This is the tricky part, because you never really know who is who, they are kind of a mess because some characters didn’t get some proper details and were just there doing their thing. The best example for that is Isazu, he is just and only the villain. The enjoyment 10/10 : This was a hell of a ride, it had everything I liked, from Mechas to some kind of Lovecraftian Sci-Fi. As it is I think I’d put it in my top 25 for the enjoyment, if you have some time ahead of you I recommend to watch it more like and movie and not episode by episode, just watch everything straight, the experience and feeling is awesome.

Minor, mid-plot, spoilers ahead Overall rating: 8 The strength of A.I.C.O lies in the scientific feasibility of the conflict, the basic premise of which is that malignant cell proliferation has occurred on an insurmountable scale due to an adverse bodily response to the surgical separation of an artificially intelligent brain from its body. The adaptive manner in which this cell malignancy is combated, essentially creating chemical antigens on the spot as the chemical and molecular composition of malignant matter develops continuously, as well as the theoretical concepts behind the creation of artificial intelligence, effectively ground and invest the viewer into the very intriguing reality created by this anime on a scientific level. Ultimately, what made this show interesting was not necessarily the element of looming death and viewer investment in the survival of the characters along their life-threatening journey. Because in honesty, if something is life-threatening in a show, you're going to expect people to die. It's not surprising. What made the show interesting, were revelations towards the science of "Artificial Intelligent Organisms" that bring about plot, as well as character development, leading in twists and turns that successfully surprised and countered my well-formed convictions towards the controversial solution to "The Burst." This is what engaged me as a viewer and had me binge-watching the show.

So the cycle of Netflix releasing anime continues and so far they have been releasing some really amazing titles or at least decent ones. Though, in this case it's the latter. Have you ever heard of that scenario when a mutated misshapen alien attacks a space shuttle trying to kill everyone? No? You probably should go and watch A space odyssey then. Anyway, A.I.C.O Incarnation's story is very close to that except that this time it's happening on earth and the alien is an experiment gone wrong while producing artificial humans. Thus, man race must fight in order to survive against this threat to the dominance over the earth. I really liked the art style here. It might have been better if it were a little bit more gory, but it still wasn't that bad at all. The characters are well-drawn, the piles of Matter looked good and nothing seemed out of place at all. I should mention that it wasn't that demanding in art in the first place from the looks of it. There aren't those moments when you'd look at the scenery in awe since most of the events are in places packed with mutants, engulfed in fog and are basically wastelands. Character development was a bit fluctuating; some characters were well-developed, precisely the main cast, while others weren't. I won't go into much detail here since that would basically be ruining almost every plot twist in the show, but I'll leave you with a note that, yeah, there is characters development and you'd probably feel its relevance to the story as a whole. Enjoyment, pretty enjoyable if you ask me. I think it'd have been even more enjoyable if it wasn't released as a whole as I don't think it should be binge watched. I'd recommend the subbed version, most of Netflix exclusives had better dubs than subs. However this wasn't the case here which is somewhat disappointing. Even people who are usually comfortable with dubs and prefer it over subs have chosen to watch this one subbed which goes as far as to tell you how bad it is. I'll get to the point, this anime is very generic. There aren't many things I can say were mastered here or unique. Then why did I give it such a high score? Because while it didn't do much out of ordinary, it still didn't do anything wrong. The art is simply amazing and beautifully done especially the mutants or, as they're called, the Matter. The plot twists might be the best thing you'd find here. There are many, some of which are easily expected, while some others come as an absolute surprise. I'd say if you're looking for something you've not experienced before or an anime that you'll remember forever, then you've come to the wrong place. However, if you're stuck on something you want to watch and you want a decent show which you'd enjoy and won't regret your precious time spent on then this A.I.C.O might be what you're looking for.

A.I.C.O.: Incarnation has a very intriguing story, yet poorly developed. Maybe this is the case just because I like slow paced stories, but this one in particular seemed ran over time. A lot of the dialogues and storie development are plain boring. Just that simple. Such a great storie, great plot twists, are presented to us in the most simple of ways, whereas it could`ve been dramatized. While irrelevant moments are dragged with vain information. One of those unecessary moments, for example, would be dialogues or scenes with government agencies/scientists, talking about politics or projects with weird names/acronym. Don't think that I'm belittling just for being "politics" or "science stuff", saying that those things weren't necessary. On the contrary, they would make much more sense if were better elaborated or explained with more emphasis if they had the time (24 eps would be a good time to properly develop this world imo). Everytime they started talking about any project or politics, I wandered to other place, thinking to myself why on Earth we need to see this agencie if they have no effect whatsoever in the main characters. For a militarized city/base, those guys could kidnap pretty easily (from both sides). And what the fuck is that zone with only explorers? Anyway... Whenever new information was introduced to us, I just wish it wasn't so obtuse and shallow. Also, no need to scream at our faces what is going on, let us unveil it little by little. The graphics and animation are superb. I confess that it was the biggest reason to binge watch it. Pure eye candy. In the end, as I said earlier, the storie is great. Too bad it was served too raw. A.I.C.O. fails for wanting to throw their world at us before asking how we like it.

When I heard that Bones had a new production in store, I got really hyped about that, having watched Boku No Hero Academia S1 and S2, and Mob Psycho 99, both excellent production. But unfortunately, AICO Incarnation isn't on the same level. Still very good art, but poor character development and a story maybe too intricated definitely holds this work down. Especially regarding the characters, the feeling I had during the whole 12 episodes was that I didn't care about them, or that they didn't give me a reason to do it. The supporting cast especially is very bland, very similar to each other and it looks like it's there just to serve as a mere help to the MC, without a lot of involvement. Even Aiko and Kanzaki, the two Mains, aren't very charismatic, and apart from some predictables twists they basically don't get any character development. The story doesn't support them much, despite the good premises: a lot of parts seem forced down the throat of the watcher, some are not even explained very much and felt flat. It does stand on the same rails from the start of the mission, even if some moments kinda repay the attention you give to the anime. Artistic wise, it's Bones, so you know you're getting very good animations and sound, even if this last characteristic was kinda absent here, in the sense that is very generic sometimes, and both OP and ED aren't any special. Voice acting is good (I watched it subbed). Overall, I did enjoy it in the first 4-5 episodes, but the more I watched, the more it kinda fell for me. Maybe the fact that I expected a lot from this influenced me, as it isn't a bad anime per se, but it's not a great anime either. With two cours and a better writing, it could've been nicer and more enjoyable, but with only 12 episodes and not very good characters, it's just a fine show.

Aico is an anime about what it means to be human. I'd like to say it tackles this question quite well - generally speaking, when it comes to being an interesting piece of media though it really fails to be anything other than mediocre. For such a theme based around being human, you'd think there would be a focus on making the characters believable people with motivations you can understand and stories you can relate to. Unfortunately it does not do this. Almost every character is forgettable, I only remembered two of their names (the two leads). The two leads do have a fairly interesting relationship, I can't say much because that's spoiler territory but they grow well together - my only gripe being the weird 'love interests' thing that seemed to be hinted at. Only Aico was an engaging protagonist. Not enough to make up for the lack of personality with everything else but she was a very good character. She comes across as a more gentle soul, but the show immediately shows that she has a strong will - something that keeps up throughout the entirety, as well as a lot of empathy and protection for others. Her arc is fairly small, she doesn't develop all that much as every choice she makes stays true to who her character is, she may seem like she believe one thing at some points but she does stay steadfast in her beliefs for what she truly wants and chooses to do. No time is given for any of the other characters really, we're given an exposition dump for a couple of their backstories (exposition dumps are another problem with this) but that's about it. We go on their journey with them, we see how they work well together as a team and how they all do care for each other - but it's just not enough to actually care about them. The main villain is a little bit too cartoony, they're set up fairly well but when they come to the spotlight it is a bit too dramatic, as if they're saying 'look I'm the villain' to really show that they're not a good guy, rather than having any build up to justify their actions. To understand the plot and what's going on you really do have to be paying full attention to the show. It's only 12 episodes so there are some scenes that are short but a major change occurs, if you weren't paying attention then you're just going to be lost. The latter half definitely picks up the pace, whereas the first half slogs on quite a bit with nothing much happening. Overall it was an enjoyable watch, it lost my interest in parts and the sad moments didn't elicit any reaction at all out of me due to this feeling of detachment I had towards the characters. But I liked the message and I believe it did quite well exploring it.

I watched the first 3 episodes in regular speed and I watched it in 4x speed for the rest, just to finish the series before definitively saying that the show is garbage. What's good about this show? I struggle to say. Perhaps the animation is pretty decent quality, and no bad CGI was used for the monsters, but it was actually well animated. Other than that, nothing. This show is one where the story is just rushing past everything at a breakneck pace in order to cram enough plot to get to the conclusion. What I mean is that you're given info dumps left and right, and random characters you don't know very well and never will know very well will be pulling the plot forward. You never really get to understand much of the combat, nor does the show care. There's no relevant development of any characters. Rather, they just "brave it through" and "gain a new sense of motivation" without much rhyme or reason. Basically, our main character is just dragged along with peoples' agenda for the large majority of the show, and doesn't have much motivation themself. You never really get to know any characters particularly well, other than the ones where they shove flashbacks in order to artificially make you think more of a random stranger that's dying, doing something reckless, or going against the main character and her comrades. Our main character is merely taken for the ride because she's an important object, a "key" and that's exactly how she functions for the entire story. She's a mere ornament to the characters that are carrying her to "ground zero" and any involvement of her being useful is due to the plot thinking that she can't literally be a useless sack of garbage for the entire show. She somehow goes through a transformation in character and gains a new sense of hope and drive to save the world within the few minutes of character development allotted to her. She then becomes magically useful and mentally resilient in the short period in around 5 minutes. Her comrades that are going with her to ground zero? Absolutely nothing about them is revealed, and only surface parts of their personality are ever revealed, but guess what, I'm supposed to care when one of them dies, or when one of them falls in love with Aico. What's the reason for them to be risking their lives in the first place? What's their determination? It's never explained really. What about the action packed adventure towards the goal that Aico and her team are doing? Surely the fighting is amazing. Yeah, well I can't say much about the choreography: its pretty decent, it's just that it's just them fighting tentacle monsters over and over again, with them deploying a "kill gate" at the end of each area. This gets repeated 4-5 times, with minor changes in the enemy. Was it really necessary for there to be so many repetitive sequences other than to waste screen time that desperately needed to be reallocated to something more important? Plus, the extremely slow paced dialogue that reveals little to nothing and the side arc with Yuzuha are just extremely painful to sit through even at 4x speed. Was it necessary for there to be so many parallel stories going at once when they couldn't even get the "main story" done well? There's a reason why this show is 12 episodes, rushes past so much plot, yet does so little with any interest with making characters have any development or personality. And For what exactly? What exactly is the plot rushing for? Nothing amazing, let me tell you. The overarching plot isn't that complicated, the story is just focused on the wrong things. Repetitive action scenes, Yuzuha/side arcs/random dialogue/repeated flashbacks take up an extremely large portion of the story when there should have been more worldbuilding onto what exactly the matter is, what divers do, and how they adapt to different situations. It would have been so much better if there were separate story arcs rather than a single, long, boring and convoluted story arc that goes from 0-100. There's no introductory arc that really needed to happen. There really needed to be more time for Aico to adapt to the circumstances and rather than just have a billion info dumps, have natural way of producing information to Aico and make it more of a linear and slow paced story. Not just Aico, but also know more about the divers that accompany Aico, and that would have neatly tied in with the objective of learning what Divers do. There was a 3 minute scene at the very beginning that showcases that, but it needed to be much more than 3 minutes.

I found A.I.C.O. Incarnation forgettable, and I think you may as well. The experience of watching this story unfold, the tale of an unexpected side effect that stemmed from the advancement of science in a modern world, left me confused and exhausted. The pacing of the story was littered with exposition that reminded me of the times I would cram before a test, leaving little room for us to imagine or be taken for a ride. The details of such an interesting sci-fi story was lectured onto the watcher with the same tone as a historian repeating an event for the past twenty years, and the enthusiasm I had for watching reflected this. Had this story been given more time, perhaps another dozen episodes, there could have been a chance to fix it. As it stands I would rather have read a spoiled synopsis. The art was wonderful for the most part. I enjoyed the stylization of the characters and the detail given to the eyes of characters, but found myself considerably disappointed at times at having to bear witness to so much gray during much of the story. A medium capable of such visual wonders turning so dim was upsetting. Despite this issue, the visuals were pleasant during their best and simply uninteresting at the worst. The music, voice acting, and sound effects were immersive and excellent throughout. The soundtrack was wonderful and by far the most positive part of the viewing experience. There was a point where I considered simply listening to the series rather than observing because the sound design did the series justice at every point. The character's development was rushed and had no lead up. There were actions of characters that I could not either justify nor understand. There were actions that came out of nowhere and other times felt contrived. This ruined my connection to the characters in a series that was meant to lean heavily on the feelings of characters. This made it incredibly difficult to actually become interested in anything any character did. I consider no personality memorable, nor any of their actions. The experience was short and bitter sweet. I saw great potential in a work that fell short of those expectations, and this left me disappointed. Despite this, I do not regret watching this, as it still had high points that still made me feel and desire for more. It simply did not make me feel that way for enough time to consider it a recommendation, nor do I ever think this would be something I would ever watch again. If you are looking for anything to watch and stumble upon this, you could do worse. If you are looking for an unforgettable experience, do not get your hopes up. If you are looking for my honest opinion, there are other series worth your time. Thank you.

Character/Story: The characters in A.I.C.O Incarnation are pretty well written. There are many of them, but they all play off each other well and have decent motivations on what they want to do with their lives. I did particularly like the whole government vs the regular people going into the Burst. This is an old story beat of course, but there are some good ideas behind the specific take on the show and the motivations are done pretty decently as well. They are easy to understand and do demonstrate some character growth and regression (into a bad person) at times. The main character Aiko (or Aico) however has a few problems. Aiko is a little bit clueless at times. Now this is somewhat acceptable, as she is thrust into a situation that she has no clue how to partake in. But her level of cluelessness is a bit too much and at times, off putting. She constantly suffers from that anime trope of just repeating what characters say or explaining things too far and not letting the viewer come to terms with the scenery or situation. This is probably the biggest hinderance on the series, as the concept of the Burst and idea of how and why it spread is actually quite interesting. I did find enjoyment in the sci-fi aspects of the show, but the main character is extremely hard to root for at times, and her personality is extremely lacking to really dive into who she is and how her existence affects the show as a whole. Sound: The soundscape of the show is a bit lacking. This is partially due to the fact that there aren't many memorable tracks besides the opening and ending. This is fine, as there are a lot of shows like this, but for this show specifically, the extra feeling that could have been achieved from this soundscape would have addd so much more to the idea of dread and looming from the Burst. The opening is very well made, and the song is nice and reflective of the anime as a whole. The ending is one of those reflective pieces that rather than juxtapose, it helps to remind you of what you're watching and the motivations and end goal of the characters. The ambient sounds and incidental music do help to make the feeling more real, but they would have been largely benefited from actual reoccurring tracks, than just sounds and small ambient music that dots the score. The sound design is pretty good, with some believable sounds for the mechs as well as the Burst having some nice "goo-like" sounds that help to show how the Burst would sound to the characters as well. Art: The art style is interesting. Its extremely cliched and does require some work, but stuff like the Burst are animated pretty well and do convey the venom-like nature of the disease. The movement of the mechs are pretty well done, but their use of CGI is a bit smooth. The characters have some good animation where the emotional drama and tensions are at highs, which helps to drive the scene or action as important, but scenes where there aren't many actions taking place, or are there for character development aren't being fully utilized by the animation team and just seem lackluster and out of place compared to the heavy action scenes in terms of animation. The art style is also an interesting one too, in which the anime falls victim to the "redness" when it comes to the joints of Aiko. This is a bit annoying to look at, as it is quite bright in this show and does clash with the dark muted colors of the rest of the show. Overall: A.I.C.O Incarnation is a pretty decent sci-fi action show that can be emotional at times. There are some good and bad parts to it. Honestly, the best way to watch the show is probably by foregoing any huge emotional ideas one would get from the show, and just watch it for fun. It is a good show to watch with friends and just enjoy, but when thinking more deeply about it, its flaws certainly show.

Overview: A.I.C.O. incarnation, a dystopian depiction of when the production of artificial organs backfires onto humanity. It follows female protagonist Aiko Tachibana and male deuteragonist Yuuya Kanzaki in their journey to reverse the negative effects of the 'matter' (an organism that expands and absorbs humans that was thrust into existence because of the biological process that produced Aiko's artificial body) that were produced during a life-saving experiment on Aiko Tachibana after a car crash. This story is well articulated and documented throughout the series with vivid flashbacks and pivotal events (such as saving Aiko from the Defence agency and the sacrifice Shinoyama made to continue with progression. Although the story was excellent, the character development wasn't fully considered (including the short antagonizing forces of Isazu and the defence force). Nonetheless, worthy of binge watching (As I have done...) Story: As described in my overview, the story is well articulated and logical within the circumstances, there were no 'MC goes berserk to save everyone' scenes which were a shame but still lead to a mature progression. The beginning of the series was a mystery to grasp as it shows the Divers amidst a group mission so it was difficult to grasp the overall presence of the story and the premises of the character that way too. Nonetheless, everything was explained by episode 2 and even in depth by episode 3 with the introduction of Kanzaki underway - This series took more care in maintaining characters rather than killing them off (apart from Shino and a few unlucky pursuit Divers) which made it less edgy or shock inducing. 7/10 in terms of plot and events Art & Sound: Art & Sound are as expected with any normal anime, there were a mix of CGI scenes but I noticed that Netflix don't have a standard against CGI as noticed with other projects they've licensed out (Ajin, Blame, Kengan Ashura etc.) but CGI used in this series followed its true form of imitating 2D animation techniques. Sound wasn't too surprising, as expected quality for a Netflix-funded project. 7/10 for both Art & Sound. Character Development: I'd say the larger events could be considered character development (where Kanzaki is revealed to be Dr. Yura and Aiko revealed to be the artificial body + brain) and such it could have been improved but for the duration of this series, it did a great job of finishing with a satisfying character palette - deuteragonist Kanzaki managed to maintain both Aiko bodies as well as his own artificial body, Dr. Isazu's daughter managed to wake from her comatose state, Aiko's brother and mother were confirmed to be alive and were saved and many more characters were maintained satisfyingly. Overall a good wrap up of character development. 8/10 Enjoyment: The general premise of a dystopian Japanese society attracted me to this series but I was a bit personally underwhelmed about how the story progressed. It followed a text-book route of getting from point A. to B. with antagonizing obstacles but that's pretty much it; I would have liked some shounen inspired action scenes where deuteragonist Kanzaki saves the day after transforming into some ultimate being that can fend off the matter attacks but it would've brought down the rating even more. Overall enjoyment 6/10, the story could've been more dramatized if there were pivotal deaths earlier on or toward the end in order to reach a climactic state. Thanks for reading :)

A.I.C.O.: Incarnation (2018) A show reminiscent of Knights of Sidonia due to the overwhelming enemy force on a biological basis. Humanity fights to protect its current home and strives to not loose it. The 'Burst' event happened and devastated mankind on earth with a biological terror that has no mercy. After time they are fighting it but on the defensive ready to loose more ground each day. A girl Aiko in a hospital has an unusual body that means she has her ailments disappear. She sets out on a journey as her existence could help stop the furthering of the Burst. We get a story that is full of surprises, shocking revelations and has some really great actions scenes whilst they do the adventure into dangerous territory. The art of the show is of a great level. It is satisfying to watch and has many scenes are that just so well done with a high level of detail. The sound of the show during action sequences is great. In Japanese language the voices show emotion. Overall not really a faultable area. The character development is done really well. The cast is well known by the end in an intimate level. The show is really enjoyable to watch. The show is definitely worth your time. The plot twist that you can figure out by the end comes to a satisfying but shocking conclusion.

I... have mixed feelings on this show. It's not laughably bad, but it's not recommendably good, either. Most of the time when it gets brought up around me, I just automatically think 'ah, that's the body horror waifu show'. Not to be blunt or unnecessarily vulgar, but that really is all that it is. The whole time I was watching this, I couldn't shake the feeling that this show was just the director blowing Netflix's money on his weird fetish. I don't know what that says about me, or where I spend my time on the internet, but it was definitely uncomfortable and deliberate. There are a lot of original anime on Netflix now, and I mentally group them into being one super-genre; eleven-to-thirteen episode shows with highly developed aesthetics, blending two dissonant genres, with a lot of piano on a light soundtrack. They work out fine about fifty/fifty. This is one of the failures. AICO sets out to do a lot of ambitious things thematically, tackling questions about the perception of selfhood and inherent 'realness', familial issues, loss, and scientific progress. But it seems like every statement it has to make is weighed down or half-formed; even its climactic conflict feels clumsy and ineffectual. If I could go back in time, I would've made the writers give every single script about another ten or twenty passes. It's thirteen episodes. If this was a boat on a lake, the floor of it would be swiss cheese. You have got to get this stuff airtight before you put it out there for the world to see. There have to be actual stakes in a story that's written like it's supposed to have stakes. The characters are fairly flat, with only the two leads really receiving any depth or care in their writing. I did find Aiko sympathetic, even though she's got a very bland sad-girl-protagonist personality. The art is actually very pretty, when it's not CGI or focused on writhing masses of flesh. I found some of the clothing/costume design disappointing and I think the mechanical design also needed a lot more polish than what it got, or at least another perspective. A lot of the backgrounds felt too empty or undetailed, as well. The direction otherwise is very solid and it generally has good character design. The soundtrack is also very solid, though it doesn't necessarily stand out and I don't listen to pieces from it on my own time. I never found myself annoyed or disappointed in the music, but that also lends to the fact that it's very generic. If you've heard light piano in a Netflix original, you've heard this show's OST. I do recall the opening theme being bad enough that I skipped it every time, though. I would like to point out that Takehito Koyasu is in this, and for some reason or another he's serving full DIO in his performance. It really took me off-guard, especially since I've heard him in a lot of other roles and I know he has the range. Nothing else about the voice acting really stood out to me.

A.I.C.O is, to summarize, very mediocre. The plot, focusing around a teenage girl who we're supposed to assume is "normal" is broken fairly quickly, though I wish there would have been more preamble before that point. The story only gives you what you need to know right as it becomes important - there was a major 'plot twist' later on that might've had an effect if I'd actually known what was going on with the characters. However, A.I.C.O makes up for a lot of its flaws with killer worldbuilding and art - the 'Matter' has taken over part of Japan and ravenously devours anything that enters its domain. This is the first thing we're exposed to in the first episode, and it's great. The main plot, without revealing much (though, it's not like revealing it would even be much of a pain, it's pretty much exposed from episode one) has our cast of characters going deep in to the domain of the 'Matter'. It's a very good core concept, and the landscapes it portrays are quite amazing, hence the 'eight' in art. To be honest, if you care about character in this kind of story, you won't enjoy it, but I had a good time just due to the spectacle and the quality of the combat. It's fairly unique compared to many other shows I've seen, and giving it a shot would be a good idea if it seems interesting to you.

A.I.C.O: Incarnation is a sci-fi series focused on a high school student named Aiko Tachibana who discovers she isn't exactly human and that she is somehow connected to an incident called the Burst where an experiment creating an artificial lifeform called the Matter led it to surge out of control and engulf the city in which the experiment was performed in. Learning more about her unique origins, Aiko is partnered with a group of Divers, who specialize in technology to counteract the Matter and aid to get her to the center of it to halt its growth. A.I.C.O rehashes some typical tropes of sci-fi that include good-intentioned science leading to chaotic events and the efforts made by those responsible to atone for those actions. Still, the series does a great job at establishing the science and technology employed within the series that include the genetic experiments that led to the Burst's creation, the mechs and weaponry employed to counteract it, and how the science led to major breakthroughs such as artificial limbs and the plugsuits worn by the Divers. The series is pretty thorough in establishing its logic with the behavior and habits of the Matter, as well as the Divers adapting to its varying forms and actions as they press further into its territory. In regards of plot and characters, A.I.C.O offers solid development of Aiko and her journey within Matter-infested territory with the Divers. Aiko gets much of the development throughout the series as she learns more about her origins and identity, gradually coming to terms with both as episodes progress. While much of the cast is not explored as deeply compared to our female lead, there is still enough dimension to their personalities for them to be likeable and there are still some within the cast who get their developments in connection to the problems caused by the Burst. In addition, the plot doesn't waste time on pointless side-plots or filler to pad out its runtime. The pacing of the series is reasonable enough to have its plot progress, while also allowing enough time to delve into more elements of the problems surrounding the Matter and those connected to it. The only major hiccup with the plot is the show's unnecessary need to add an antagonist in the final two episodes of the series, who becomes a tad bit over-the-top compared to his depiction in earlier episodes. Visually, A.I.C.O seemingly sports a higher-than-average animation budget with how nice it looks. It sports nicely detailed and vivid scenic shots, creative uses of the Matter's forms and means to attack, and the tanks and mechs used by the Divers are nicely rendered in spite of sticking out from the regular visuals. Movement throughout the series is very fluid, with visual highlights being any conflicts that the Divers get into with various forms of the Matter. In spite of some quality hiccups and not necessarily breaking any ground, A.I.C.O Incarnation is still a worthwhile sci-fi anime that offers up a solid foundation of plotting and exploration of the Matter's behavior and the advances that its creation brought about. I'd at least recommend checking the series out once if you are a fan of sci-fi anime.

Wasn't expecting that anime to be entertaining at all, but somehow I was completely hooked and binge-watched it obviously in 1 day. I really liked the setting - that near distanced future whatever city it was looked amazing. There were some pretty nice shots. It's nothing special nor is it bad in any way. While watching it I had the feeling that I had already seen something similar before, can't pinpoint what it was though. It had that "roadtrip"-feeling about it. It was that perfectly linear story, where they progressed farther with every episode. I really enjoyed that full package. All in all I'd say that story and animation deserves a solid 8/10. Would definitely recommend watching it. It was really worth it to keep using my ex-girlfriends Netflix account through her sisters profile. (Sorry for that unstructured thing I call "review", but I was really tired writing this.)

ENG: the anime begins with an interesting plot idea and with a nice character design and acceptable soundtracks had potential to be a great anime. However, with the passing of the episodes is verified a certain repetition of events, which ends up leaving the spectator tired and gradually unwilling to follow the adventure, besides that, the deepening in the past of each character is very simple, making the spectator does not feel a great affection for them. However the last 2 episodes are cool and the plot improves (even fast). Eventually, the events of that world, could bring great subplots to aggregate the anime and make it better, but this does not actually happen. At least it has closed end arc. PORT: o anime começa com uma ideia de enredo interessante, e juntamente, com um design de personagens agradável e trilhas sonoras aceitáveis tinha potencial para ser um grande anime. Entretanto, com o passar dos episodios é verificado uma certa repetição dos acontecimentos, o que acaba deixando o espectador cansado da trama e aos poucos sem vontade de acompanhar a aventura, além disso, o aprofundamento no passado de cada personagem é bem raso, fazendo com que o espectador não sinta uma boa afetividade por eles. Entretanto os 2 últimos episodios são legais e o enredo melhora (mesmo rápido). No final das contas, os acontecimentos daquele mundo poderiam trazer ótimas subtramas para agregar o anime e deixá-lo melhor, mas não ocorre isso na verdade. Pelo menos tem arco final fechado.

A.I.C.O. is an interesting beast. No, scratch that, it isn't, which is the problem. It's not a bad anime, and compared to other shows I've given similar ratings to, I think it actually has some intriguing elements with surprisingly few deep faults, but in the end, everything just sort of washes out to become part of the pack, and never really set itself apart. How's the story? Honestly, it's pretty basic for an action-adventure with a contained plot: characters want to get from point A to point B and there's a lot of shit in their way. There are some more interesting notes of intrigue than that, but the story is dominated by the "harrowing journey" that doesn't really have an epic scope or scale. It has one or two commendable twists, but not enough is really done with them to say they make the show. And it has one or two twists that take away The art is pretty good. The action scenes manage to keep tension going with good choreography, and the character designs all look nice. But there's really nothing spectacular here, either: the series consists of facing down against endless piles and tendrils of blackish red goop in dark, misty environments. Now and again the blackish red goop will take on another form or you'll see an amoeba-person or something like that, but even when they do mix it up, with various structures and a somewhat clever but not really praiseworthy use of color distinction in the last episodes, it's still serviceable, not a real feast for the eyes Watching it subtitled, the voice actors all did at least OK, but the overall sound was... nothing to write home about, and the opening and ending were bland and forgettable, the kind that I would skip (a rarity for me) even if Netflix didn't make the prospect easy bordering on automatic. Maybe I'm missing some subtleties here, but I didn't see any reason to rate it above a passing grade -- nothing's truly godawful, but neither is anything really memorable. The characters are pretty similar, and for character that's a bigger sin. The main character, Aiko, is the only one I care about or would look forward to seeing. That's not terrible; main characters are often bland vessels and the weakest parts of their show, but this thing has a pretty huge cast for what it is including seven supporting members of the away team, a two man home team, Government Lady, the Obsessive Doctor, and at least a couple incidentals. The creators spread their effort too thin; I feel like this could have been a wildly better production had they deleted (or handed red shirts to) about half the cast. We didn't need a full four hired guns, we didn't need two "in on it" troopers, we didn't need so many scenes especially early with Government Lady or the two doctors... that's a lot of running time to waste. They don't totally fail to make a connection, which is why I wouldn't rate this lower, but the entire cast (again, bar Aiko, who gets some decent growth and exploration despite starting out as an object going with the flow) is just sort of superficial. In the end, I feel like this story could have been a really good two hour movie, with a tighter focus on the couple of characters we do or should care about. As a twelve episode season, A.I.C.O. feels rather bloated. It didn't lose my interest at any point, at least, so I guess it did justify its existence, but it didn't go beyond that, didn't impress, and if not for forcing myself to engage with it by thinking enough to write this review, I suspect I would forget it entirely the next time something a little interesting arrived to occupy part of my mind. If you have an interest in it, I guess it's worth it for Aiko, and it probably won't do you any harm, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Story: 6 Art: 7 Sound: 6 Character: 5 Enjoyment: 6 Overall: 6

Netflix has been rushing out a stream of anime and that's how this anime seems: rushed. The dub is quite awful and takes away from the mood of the story, especially the lead researcher Isazu Kyousuke who sounds like he has a mouth full of spit. Subbed is definitely the way to go for this particular anime. As for the story itself it starts off slow and confusing. In the last episodes when the truth about Aico is revealed it becomes even more difficult to grasp the concept. If you're into human eating matter that was caused by humanity itself than this is the anime for you. The opening theme song is one of the few things that kept me watching this anime, but overall I'd give it a 7/10 because the character development was somewhat decent and I wanted to learn the truth about Aico Tachibana.

One thing you cannot take away from A.I.C.O and is worth witnessing even if you don't make through the entire show, is the artwork. It's superb, horrific, fascinating, creative, disgusting, and definitely a direction that is rarely pursued. They start and end strongly in this area, and if you are a fan of animation and art in general this show is worth the watch for the visuals alone. With that said, **SPOILERS** ahead. What makes the artwork great is "The Matter". What the hell is The Matter? It's basically a "grey goo", but based on multi-cellular organisms and how they form structures at the cellular level. In the dangerous zone The Matter occupies, it is absolutely everywhere, convering absolutely everything. More than that, it is capable of forming all kinds of disgusting structures and traps to impale, engulf, decapitate and/or smash to smitherines any organism or vehicle containing life forms that it encounters within it's territory. If you've seen the horror film Life, this is basically what you could expect the monster to turn into for the sequel, "Life 2: Red Dead Earth". It's terrifying and super fresh. Unfortunately, I feel a bit let down with the initially promising journey into the matter-infested zone by the "divers" and the somewhat mysterious Aico. There was so much opportunity with this setting, with this cast of characters - so much to explore. But in the end, I could not help but feel that despite the very competent production team and excellent ingredients, and the undeniable artistic achievement in animating the unique countermeasures of the divers against the matter and the matter's relentless and horrific hostility towards the divers - there just wasn't a very compelling narrative to go along with the stunning presentation. Both the political intrigue and secret power games angle that revolves around the origins of The Matter and the value of it and Aico as specimes of artificial life, and the journey of Aico and the divers into the heart of The Matter fell flat and failed to tie into each other despite the efforts of the writers. Instead of the smart, ruthless nature of characters with competing aims making for interesting interactions, double-crosses, and outplays - it just kind of devolves into a power of friendship, oh look the bad guy has gone mad, wow made it just in time kind of thing... somehow they let this of all things get boring. I suspect they were playing it safe, and it really left huge cavity in the story and characters department that no amount of ingenious artwork was going to make up for. Now, on balance this isn't really a bad show. There's more to like about this probably, and it is at least more consistent and more ambitious with better production values and pacing, than other shows I've given higher ratings. However, as a whole the drag in the story and characters department is so significant towards the end that it becomes hard to pay attention to anything but the visuals - and that's a disaster for this show because the visuals play off of the tense "horror" element. With no investment in the characters, or their situation, it's very hard to do anything but shrug when they are trying to fend off The Matter. Another gripe I have is that they really left no opening for a follow-up or spin-off. I think that would have been appropriate here - why does The Matter have to die? Unfortunately, this is a one and done and it wasn't done right. Still, it's a very watchable and very well drawn work that I recommend despite my criticism of it. I'm just upset that it didn't end up sticking the landing, because it really could have been great.

Can I like just cry? It's a fun trip, good company in characters, like it's in an early 2000-2010 style. It's pretty dang well put together with some interesting questions and ideas presented. I just can't fathom why they added this one weird element to an otherwise high-stakes and interesting story. Story Gotta say I live and die with one element. If I ignore that element my general and story enjoyment jumps up by quite a bit. As a whole the story has some amazing progression and is very snappy and action packed. It just tosses you into everything and explains a little later, which depending on the person can be good. In the beginning it is very alien and crazy but as the story progresses all the mysteries are naturally unraveled. Characters They're really fun. I can't stay I remembered any of the divers' names on the first watch through. However, I can recall each and memorable moments with them. They spend a lot of time in their diver suits due to the malignant matter. Everyone else is pretty solid and I could really get attached to them. Aiko especially is fun and full of life, I really enjoyed getting to be around her. She was honestly one of my favorite parts of the story, which considering it focuses on her means they did well. However, if you don't enjoy her too much it can make it a tad hard to follow her for as much as we do. Most other characters are decent, their backstories take a little to get to but many are well designed. Only downside is it is all highly interlocked so it may take a second watch through. Sound I mainly listen to op and ed, not really a good judge of VAs. I don't particularly like the op or ed. They're not bad just not something I think does the show any favors. The op is a mini story all on it's own which is really well told, being mainly visual, the op music itself feels oddly operatic and maybe a little surgical with a general hopeful sound. I think they need to balance the background music a little, it seems they just turn the voices sound up when bg music is there. Otherwise the sounds somewhat compete. Good music tho it's just not balanced with the voices well. General feel It has a general feel of a deep dive mission through a dangerous alien world. Very fun if you like the world building. I loved the ride the show took me on it really is like a tour through the strange world. As I keep saying it's snappy so you'll have a fun time. Positives: - Solid CG and art - Solid world - Interesting questions and mysteries - Op is a mini-story (I suggest skipping visual til ep3, just makes it better) Negatives: - Occasional use of cliches (they're usually surface level) - It can be too much info scattered in some throwaway like-lines (eg: all this matter is bravo class, like 4 eps in explanation on matter classes and another 1 on what that entails) - Divers are like always in their suits that all look the same - One weird element that I can honestly rant about but won't