Murder Drones

I'll begin by saying that the mere fact that someone was able to make their vision into a full blown animated show on YouTube is always an extremely amazing thing in of itself, the fact that shows like this are even able to exist on Youtube, especially with how notoriously hard it is to profit off of animated projects on YouTube, is a phenomenal feat and worthy of praise.

With that said, I enjoyed this show but it definitely has it's issues. The comedy is extremely hit or miss, but it largely misses, often to a cringeworthy extent, and there are several instances where it's poorly timed and can break the pacing and tension of a scene (episode 4 in particular was really bad with this). The show is also really fast paced; Some plot points don't get as much time to develop as they should and the show often conveys extremely important plot points super quickly while so many other things are happening at once, which makes it very easy to miss important details. (For example, I didn't realize the symbol on Uzi's eye was supposed to be linked to the Solver entity until episode 6, a whole four episodes after this was supposed to be known to the audience). While the voice acting is generally really good, especially considering the largely amateur cast, some line reads can be hard to understand because of the characters mannerisms or other loud background noises happening at once which does not help the issue of plot details being missed.

I don't think it helps that the first episode frontlines most of the show's worst aspects and magnifies them at their absolute worst (the terrible comedy, lightning fast pacing and severe tonal whiplash) as your first impression. I'd go as far as to say it's pretty bad. (The animation is also pretty rough at points in episode 1 but considering it's an indie animation on YouTube from a small team on a small budget, I'm more lenient on that then a proper network show. Especially considering how vastly improved it gets by the second episode)

But with that said, the show begins to hit it's stride with episode 2 and shows all it's positive aspects. The animation is great, especially for a indie YouTube project with a small team (the lighting in particular by episode 2 onwards is genuinely amazing), and does some really cool things with their robotic nature and the characters powers, the character's are charming and endearing despite their tropy nature (angsty rebel teen girl, goofy and empathetic outcast from a group of killers, evil psychotic russian woman etc.), the story is interesting despite it's fast pace and how easy it is to get lost, The atmosphere is super well done and while I wouldn't call it outright scary, It still executes it's horror aspects in a fun way, and the antagonist is a really cool hybrid of an eldritch monster and malfunctioning A. I.

Ultimately, I largely enjoyed the show despite it's faults, especially in the second half, but I can definitely see why someone would be turned away by this. I'd say to try out the first 3 episodes at least and see how much it speaks to you or whether its faults are too much of a dealbreaker for you.

This is honestly one of the most impressive things I have seen on YouTube, the show is amazing while it does not appeal to everyone due to its edgy humor.

The one problem for me (and this can be just because I am dumb) is how confusing it is, in episode 6 I did not know what was going on, so I had to watch a separate lore explaining video just to get back on track, but really once you've done that it becomes clear for the last episodes.

Couldn't really make my review longer because I have said everything I wanted to say so this is basically just some filler text why are you still reading please stop.

Murder Drones is something I respect, it's great that indie animation is going on higher leagues this year and Murder Drones is a solid contender.

Murder Drones is a great combination of genres, the dedication and soul can really be seen in the quality of the animation.

Its weakest element is how it handles its humor, Murder Drones throws too many meta jokes that none hit well, it eventually bodes the meta humor to the point where they feel forced.

While the story is solid - even with some pacing issues, it's nice to see that it's great because the team put soul and dedication to this project.

It's not a masterpiece but it is great as an original project and it's a good example for what original indie animation should be.

I quite remember when SMG4 mostly announced this mostly around 2021 and I quite watch itself the pilot episode and it's was a bit amazing in my opinion, I mostly can't wait to watch Series 1.

Keep in mind that I've only watched the first 3 episodes. I don't know if they get better or worse or stay the same.

The concept of the show is really cool, and it's quite enjoyable to watch. I love the characters and their designs, and their personalities are pretty well developed. The animation is also really high quality and nice looking for an indie show.

A common criticism I've seen is of the humor. I personally like meta humor, but I do think they went a little overboard with it.

My main problem with this show is the pacing, which I've seen many other people talk about. Everything happens so fast that had to rewatch the episodes several times to fully grasp everything that happened. Some character arcs happen so fast that I really have to read into the episode to notice them. The characters swap sides so much that I have trouble figuring out whose side they're on sometimes. I have trouble figuring out the main motive of the characters, and whats supposed to be the problem at the moment.

I think this could've been avoided by either making the episodes longer, or making more episodes, but I understand that would take much more time and money.

All and all, I do think it's worth watching, but only if you are really focused and prepared to comprehend things very quickly.