This is more my kind of thing. A short (six episode) series. 30 minute slices. From the streaming trailer it's not difficult to see there's something different going on. Then you check online for the subtitled Promo. Wow. Cool. Then you realise the episodes are 1 per dvd and that people do fansubs (first disc was out in the last couple of weeks in Japan, but unsubbed), so it's only a matter of time before at least the first show appears online. It's out - seen it. Fantastic.
Cinematic styliings and production values. Orchestrated music that's running at some pace, rich and dynamic visuals. Heavy blend of very 'Satoshi Kon' mature, realistic, and traditional anime styles blended with CGI. Looks like they decided to treat themselves to some exciting and testing work that required some money (heafty finance). Slice it all together and you could have a damn good 3-hour movie on the big screen. The animation is so well put together.
OK, so many anime shows now exploit the access to cheap and rich CGI effects. Some do it better than most. This is better than any I've seen. Could be better than 'Innocence', but I was watching in a relatively tight, smallish window on my monitor and not a Cinema screen or large TV. Lots of anime looks great when you see small visuals on Blog pages. Then you see a clip, trailer or episode. It all loosens up. The detail in this one though is so heavy it's easily comparible to something like 'Paranoia Agent', but is also clearly a step-up in production values.
The story is, as ever, revealed bit by bit. Initially it's an over-the-top CGI mecha-man sword and spaceship battle. Overall it's a mix of the very surreal and the real-world, a substantial piece rather than "typical anime sci-fi". Then the cel animation begins to blend in. Lovely use of light and dark, a kind of vaseline look over much of it. Nice detailed backgrounds. Flashy and intentionally high-end in almost every way. Dynamic at every available opportunity, but not overly so, instead it's clear they had money to spend so they did it in a more free and time-consuming fashion. Very nice to look at, and relatively low on dialogue it seems. Then the characters are briefly intercut to show who is involved. As the episode progresses, it is becoming clearer what the story elements are.
Theres the 'Karas' of the title - the mecha-men who switch to cel animation as their suits are removed, who seem to be caught in some battle scenario. And then there's the 'blisfully unaware' modern-day city-dwelling Cops, who are investigating a series of murders committed rather brazenly in front of seemingly intentional survivors. Bizarre and extreme yet public (and unseen) circumstances too. They seem to be on the trail of something or someone called 'Kappa'. Could be a creature rumoured to committing the murders? Unfortunately the translation on the episode isn't top-notch, so this, coupled with the way in which anime stories are revealed (even at their most mainstream) means it's hard to entirely get a grasp. Need to watch it again perhaps.
Seems almost like a dimensional shift occurs. There's a 'stopping of time' effect going on. And different people, both human (maybe superhuman) and aliens share the same space without everyone being aware of what is going on. Lots of visual comparisons to 'Casshern' are possible, as it shares a few stylings. Don't think the same comparisons can be made so easily with the story, but could be wrong.
Sophisticated it certainly is - in absolutely every department. As good a piece of storytelling (as far as I can tell) and production as anyone could hope for, from either live-action or animation storytelling. Up there with any of the substantial stuff you've seen discussed online over the last couple of years. I will keep following it for certain. Hope it gets a reasonably priced (2-Discs in total?) DVD in America sometime in the future. Sure, anime is dramatically improving of late. Sure, this is potentially one of many shows that could be picked up. I can't think of any that have production values like this : how common are OVA mini-series of late? From what I've just watched, it's a sure fire hit and one of those that would cross-over to non-typical anime fans.
Fantastic stuff.