Mūnraizu

Title says it all really.

WITStudio truly did some outstanding work in the production from animation to music. The setting is fascinating. The action sets are intense and well choreographed. The animation is vibrant, colorful, and impactful. The musical score accentuates both those things... But the story and the writing are painful average with a major issue in pacing.

I'm sure you'll see other reviews eating this a 10/10 and denying "the hate" but it's copium. As harsh as this may sound, to all those who rated this 10, all I can respond with is "Baby's first sci-fi?"

You'll see those reviews say it explores themes of grief and loyalty... If by "explore" they mean "present" then sure... but let's be clear Moonrise does not explore any theme that deeply especially not enough to warrant discussion.

The plot of Moonrise follows Jacob 'Jack' Shadow and friends survive an initial devastating attack framed as an assault from Moon Colony. Jack is framed as part of the terrorist group, Moon Chain, that is apparently responsible for the attack. As the show progresses you'll learn about Jack's past and a deeper connection he has that revolves around an unfolding conspiracy involving the war between Earth and the Moon.

Sounds fascinating right? It certainly starts off strong and grips you but half way through the season it completely loses its steam with pacing issues and questionable writing decisions. The show will continually add more pieces to the mystery but in a disjointed and disfuncional manner, often leaving you wondering what the point was. A saving grace is that by the very end, it does tie up MOST loose ends. Ultimately, if it weren't for the stellar production I and most others wouldn't even have finished the show.

Most characters are forgettable.

The main character is memorable for the wrong reasons, I wanted to like Jack Shadow so much but by the end of it, he was one of my least favorite characters in a roster of boring 1 note characters.

Rhys, another main protagonist and 'love interest' also falls into this as well. Special shout-out to Commander Salamandra for being a badass.

The ending is in my opinion downright bad and I mean face palm bad. It really takes away from the whole experience. It undercuts the rebels themes and message as a whole. What was a soft 7 quickly dropped to 6. I would even say 5 but no matter how many complains I issue against the writing and the story, it's still a visual treat. Id recommend watching it in passing. Something to hold you over while you wait for your other shows to return or as mindless fun.

With several months left until the end of the year, I'm not afraid to say that this is the animated product that has disappointed me the most, without a doubt.

Netflix's promotion was disastrous from every perspective, but I still didn't expect what I found in "Moonrise." A priori, it had everything to be a success. Wit Studio (which, needless to say, hasn't gotten it right since "Attack on Titan," with the exception of "Spy x Family") guaranteed excellent animation.

If you looked at the directors and people involved, you could see titles like "Full Metal Alchemist," for example.

However, none of this was reflected in this product. The 18 episodes released in one go, as is Netflix's trademark, coupled with the scant promotion, was a difficult combination to swallow. But if you add a poor script and even worse editing, you knew this was destined for failure.

We have inexplicable time jumps throughout the series. Furthermore, we have a group of main characters with confusing developments, strange motivations, and even more difficult-to-understand connections. More characters are added as the episodes go by, and we don't know who they are, forgettable like the rest.

But we also have an important secondary character who dies in episode 3 and has little or no relevance to the others, to the point that we didn't see anything on camera; he's completely inconsequential. A main character doesn't die until the last episode, and it's completely anticlimactic. The deaths in this war are never felt, and that, in my opinion, is a huge failure.

If you look at the pace of the first seven episodes and then compare it with the rest of the series, you'll realize something's strange; the difference in quality is noticeable! If we analyze IMDB, we realize that there are people who participate in this series right up to episode 7. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so!

They sweeten the deal with incredible animation, especially in the fights and dynamic sequences, but we don't get a single explanation as to why things happen. What are the SEEDs? Who is SEED 3? What is the L-Zone? Why can it terraform? Nothing makes any sense in this series.

I could go on about all the vices found in 18 episodes, but that's not the point.

Unfortunately, this series, which was highly anticipated and had everything to succeed, ends up being the worst animated product of the year, by far. No animation can save a bad story...

The animation and visuals are stellar. And I will forgive A LOT when I finally find a show with sharp animation.

I don't know if I will go as far as saying the show's story is a mess. It does, however, seem only to exist to create cool visuals. There is some pretense at an overall plot and given AoT I though there might be a bigger mystery revealed but so far it seems that the pretense is as far as it goes.

I think it might have worked for previous generations. It's technically serial but the badguy of the week without much else feels highly like the episodic stuff most of society has shifted away from. Not great for an overall story.

The characters are also highly annoying over and above thy typical constant drama and dysfunctional emotional regulation that is such a ubiquitous part of anime that I have to overlook it or I would have very little anime to watch. However, along with this is the animation shifts that feel totally out of place in a show that looks this solid in animation and takes itself so seriously. It would be like Castlevania doing Chibi.

But what really kills this is the exposition. I tried to shift over to the sub but it isn't any better. It's so bad it feels more like they are breaking the fourth wall to talk to us instead of each other. Like it's forcing you to have it on in the background, half-ignored. If you sit down and give it your full attention it is intolerable.

It's really unfortunate that a show that looks this great doesn't have anything else going for it but I guess thats the way it is.

There are so many jumps!!! Confusing all around; nothing tells you that a year has gone by or how the characters got to be where they are. We get some visions of the past but leave you on a cliffhanger with no explanation. Barely/Briefly explains what is going on, so if you miss it you're confused trying to go back and understand. Whole thing felt so rushed. They don't talk about the SEED enough so you only really get a glimpse of why.

I really wanted to like this anime because it's a sci-fi, action show, but too many holes for me and too rushed. Definitely could've been a 10/10 anime, just needed more back story.

I binged all of Moonrise on release and it went from ok, I guess, to the second half being borderline white noise. It all boiled down to the rule of cool and the magic of friendship. Tow Ubukata originally wrote the now-releasing hard sci-fi books before the director asked to rewrite them into Science Fantasy Shounen Action slob to make it "more marketable." OVA quality action can´t matter if the plot doesn´t matter and the characters wear plot armor. Especially if endless robots and masked Stormtroopers are the enemy. Or techno slime. The hell. Who knows who is to be blamed but Ubukata´s shows are rarely this bland. Bye Bye, Earth ain´t good but it´s never boring. The time jumping is the single worst idea, besides the Moon Blobs or the Mother Brain AI uprising or the love triangle that goes nowhere or the fake politics or the lack of a developed cast. Democracy > AI or monarchy and who needs a proper ending if the plot never gets going to begin with? War bad, friendship gud. Wow, so deep and this is the studio's 2nd AoT wannabe after the even worse Iron Fortress. Let it go, Wit. Whatever/10, so a 5.

I can´t see anyone talking about this by next month. 7 years in the making. 7 years! Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune (6/10) and Make My Day (7/10) are both better and shorter. Who remembers them though? Both only 2023 releases. Netflix is where sci-fi goes to die.