Texhnolyze

If you are the type of viewer who enjoys fast-paced action, bubbly and/or quirky characters, romance, cool depictions of violence or just a happy ending, then Texhnolyze is not for you. This anime does exactly the contrary to everything listed before: is cold, slow, realistic, challenging and the ending may leave you with an empty or bittersweet feeling.

Personally the first time I watched it, it left me confused and to be fair, I didn't payed the attention I should have and even a year later, it left a huge impression on me. After the second watch everything is more comprehensible so I can say a couple of things to be considered if you decide to give it an opportunity.

Even if the first episodes seem slow or too abstract, none of them are fillers, events that will have an impact at the end, start from the very beginning but the anime doesn't care to explain to you how or why.

This story is rewarding if you reach the ending, the message is clear and it doesn't leave you with an ambiguous interpretation, but it's your work as a viewer to pay attention, because the exposition is not spoon-fed to to you, but don't misunderstand me, it is not hard to understand it either, the dialogue chooses to be poetic or figurative at times.

I may say that the story of Texhnolyze is focused on the search for the meaning of life on an individual and collective scale, you should watch it if that's something that sounds interesting to you.

My first review on IMDb, Hiroshi Hamasaki's Technolyze has been so far (in my viewing experience) the most effective way to understand moral ambiguities of the human spirit. Juxtaposing art, architecture, science, psychology and a fair bit of body horror rendered in surreal animation, this series is everything an entire generation of storytellers could want to tell, perhaps, without being able to.

The first episode has exactly five lines of dialogues, the most provocative sound design and surreal animation that can either put you off it or make you bend your knees in awe. From there on, the world of Lukuss takes over, in vivid and astonishing detail.

The denouement is especially haunting and much will depend on your own perceptions. Unless you decide to hanker over the internet trying to find a singular meaning. Which will not be very satisfying. Re-watching this series is going to be my gamble.

I believe Texnolyze is more of an impression. An evolving thought in the minds of Konaka and Hamasaki. And therefore it has movement and fallibility. Sometimes, that is exactly what defines true expression.

Watch it only if you are patient. Or you enjoy art.

I value animes that seek to provoke reflection and thought rather than simply entertain. Nowadays, most productions focus more on providing instant entertainment than exploring deep concepts, life lessons, or moralities.

Texhnolyze, with its dark and monotonous aesthetic, doesn't stand out for beautiful and captivating visuals. However, it focuses on showing rather than telling a relatively simple but thought-provoking story, although its 22-episode runtime can seem long and tedious to follow.

The visual appearance of the anime faithfully reflects events, sometimes charming despite the lack of colourful images or flashy animations that characterise contemporary animes. This choice, however, contributes to the overall concept of the anime.

Regarding the music, although I haven't paid much attention to the ambient music, I must highlight that the opening song seems very fitting, and the ending song is the best thing I'll take away from the anime; I loved it.

As my final detail, in a world marked by dilemmas addressing violence, cyberpunk issues, and the destiny of humanity, Texhnolyze presents interesting directions that provoke reflections on current and future themes, some of which have already been lived. What will be the human fate in the future? Will it be consumed by the desire for immortality through «texhnolization»? These are fascinating analyses, even in a dystopian setting distant from our own.

However, there are important warnings. The anime's pace is slow, and its 22-episode duration can become tedious. Characters come and go, experience joys and sorrows, without making a significant impact. Although it presents shocking events, it fails to fully deliver, and because of this, the anime doesn't feel worthy of another look. Texhnolyze, while having a well-constructed and fluid story, a gloomy appearance, and interesting themes, lacks the ability to captivate and entertain, which, though not essential, is important. Ultimately, it's a decent anime but one that could easily be forgotten.

Having really enjoyed Haibane Renmei I was interested to see another film from its creators. While this series is very different; it is slower moving, much darker in tone, violent and has a much bleaker look to it, however the animation is of an equal standard and the backgrounds are very detailed. The series is set in a bleak underground city were various groups are in conflict. As the story begins it is hard to tell who the protagonist will be; there is Kazuho Yoshii a visitor to the city who at first appears to be a tourist but soon starts to stir up trouble, then there is Ichise a young man who is violently attacked in the opening episode and ends up having his severed arm and leg replaced by cybernetic parts, and finally there is Ran a mysterious girl who is frequently seen around the others. As the series progresses we gradually learn more about these characters and others while the situation for them and the other people of the city gets more dangerous. As to the title; Texhnolyzation refers to the process where some people have body parts replaced by cybernetic parts; some people just have one or two parts others are almost entirely mechanical.

For the first few episodes I wasn't sure what to make of this series; there was very little dialogue and what there was didn't make it that clear what was happening; some viewers might find it boring but I found it gradually drawing me in to the lives of the characters. The animation looked good if a little bleak; the bleakness was increased as several scenes the picture contained static like you would find on a television with less than perfect reception. The regular bloody violence means that this series isn't suitable for younger viewers although I suspect the slow pace would put children off watching anyway.

Texhnolyze is a fantastic, brilliant and unfortunately underrated anime that comes from most of the staff who worked on a similarly dark anime Serial Experiments Lain.

The plot is as follows: Lux, the name of the underground city is ruled by gang warfare, all aiming for more and more control of the decaying city that is Lux, and the technology of Texhnolyze (allowing the use of robotic limbs in humans). The story follows Ichise, a young man who spends his life fighting in underground fight clubs, Doc, the creator of Texhnolyzation, Onishii the leader of Organo, Ran, a young girl who can see into the future and Yoshii, a mysterious visitor from the surface world.

Unlike most anime, Texhnolye is very experimental, (with very little or no fan service whatsoever) and this is often seen in the dramatic angles, fight sequence, explicit violence and even in its soundtrack, which itself, is a mix of acoustic, electronic and orchestral music which suits the show very well.

Texhnolyze is thought provoking series, often characters will talk about the nature of humanity, man's ego, the effects of technology on humanity, power, greed, redemption and salvation. Although you might think the characters talking about these subjects could be out of place in the anime, it is not and fits naturally within the scene.

One of the flaws of Texhnolyze (and this is one echoed by many) is that the first few episodes (particularly the first episode) are not very interesting. For example, in the first episode, barely 3 lines of dialogue are spoken. It's something like that that can turn most people off the anime instantly. Unfortunately for Texhnolyze, it is a slow burner, and it can take a at least four, maybe five episodes before it really draws you in. But when it does, it doesn't let you go.

I encourage everyone to see this series and most of all, give it a chance, because this piece of art deserves to be seen.