Texhnolyze

Texhnolyze is a 2003 anime done by Madhouse (you know you're in for a treat!) that, similarily to Ergo Proxy, can be found in all "dark, gritty, psychological, thunk provoking" anime lists. And actually, I feel like this anime deserves the title more.

I was filtered by the first episode at least... 3 times that I can remember. It takes a while for this anime to get going, and the protagonists directionless presence coupled with his extreme passive disdain for everything can be exhausting - watching him feels like you're watching a stray dog wander, he's merely an animal. But you know what.. It really pays off! It does! And I can't really say that for every anime that was sold to me under this premise. I thought of making this review long and complicated but honestly I don't know where to begin exactly. I think this anime really isn't meant to be binged, because of it's pace, it was a lot more enjoyable to watch it slowly, every couple of days I'd watch an episode before sleep and it proved really effective.

I was mostly in love with the surface world that was presented to us in the last 4 episodes, but I'd almost consider that a spoiler if I talked about it here. I loved the references to Edward Hopper's paintings, and to me, the surface world was almost like paradise - perfect and therefore static, not evolving, not decaying but slowly dying. And it's so interesting how Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou does almost the same thing but from a totally different perspective.

I loved all of the characters, each one of them representing a different idea, having a different purpose and realizing it, or failing at it in a different way and with that conveying a different message, but everything was consistent and all of the characters stayed true to themselves. The setting was amazing as well, an underground city, with a big obelisk in the middle that represents the rulers. Ah, if I say any more I'll just spoil everything. If you like media that explores the ideas and theorizing negative/positive impacts of transhumanism, nihilism, religion, evolution, chaos, human naaaaature - I think this anime does a really good job of doing that and conveying it through different characters. I don't think this anime was perfect by any means but I found myself liking it a lot more than I expected. I really loved Doc, her weird incestuous actions and devotion to her craft and Yoshii, a chaotic character whose goals are so unclear at first. Also the opening and the ending? Both are bangers.