Beatless Episode 2 Review

   

     Immediately from the first shot of this episode, I realized the core problem of this series' first two episodes- it seems like the crew behind it don't know what to do with it. The second episode, plot-wise seems like a filler episode from a series that has a couple dozens of episodes. Basically, it is sort-of a side story about Lacia being used as a fashion model. That's it- zero plot-twists, if you do not count the scene after the credits roll, no one receives any character development, but we do get some world-building regarding hIE, and how they function in the society in the relation with humans. The obvious stuff, you know- discrimination against them and the fact that they are perceived more as objects rather than human beings. The execution of these elements is mediocre and stereotypical, and worst of all- obvious. When they started talking about hIE, I immediately knew what I was going to get by the end of that conversation. New characters that we get to meet are, again- nothing even remotely interesting.
     At the end, we get a post-credits scene with a guy in the room who receives a "visit" from Kouka, a red-haired hIE from the poorly animated scene from the first episode. This feels pointless at the end because the entire episode is wasted on useless conversations and that fashion show which does nothing for the plot, except wasting time. There the show introduces a poorly explained concept called "Analog hack," which seems somewhat promising, but I can't see it going anywhere.
     Visually, this episode is even bigger meh that the first one- we get zero action this time, so that is to be expected. What hurts the animation the most is the poor composition of the shots, which often seems embarrassing- at the beginning there is this reality-bending embarrassing shot of Arato's face, with black space around them- I have no idea what they were trying this to symbolize. The design of the world is very good, mixing familiarity with science fiction to achieve quite a bit of a result.
    If you haven't already started watching Beatless, I cannot entice you to start watching it, to be perfectly honest. There is a potential for an interesting story, but the execution of this episode feels mediocre.

Score breakdown:

Story: D+
Feels like a filler episode from a long-running series.

Characters: D-
No attempts at character development, new characters are not interesting.

Animation: C-
No action this time, nothing worthy of praise.

Art: A
redjuice's character designs are great, the world is well designed.

+ Has potential to be something great, good character and world design.

- The poor composition of certain shots, the animation is nothing to get excited about, same can be said for the story.