Un-Go (アン ゴ)
After the initial few episodes to this Noitamina series, Un-Go was quite the disappointment; the mysteries outright sucked, the characters weren’t fleshed out very well, and the pacing was awful. It was a terrible way to start off a series, but I never thought I would end up saying the exact opposite in the weeks afterwards.
Un-go manages to impress well after it’s initial few episodes, where it takes on a brilliant narrative that is much more deeply focused upon it’s characters and ruinous setting, rather than the mysteries themselves. In other words, on the surface Un-go appears to be a mediocre series with bad mysteries, but as you explore the characters and setting, the story takes on a intrigue heavy atmosphere that integrates the war-torn setting almost perfectly. The setting itself is post-apocalyptic, and the story does an excellent job with taking advantage of the setting’s unique traits.
It’s amazing just how well the story integrates it’s main cast and setting, where the story explores in depth just how much the setting has come to haunt the very fabric of society in Un-go, everything from pop idols to politics. The character dynamics are superb as well, with the characterizations of Yuuki Shinjurou and Kaishou Rinroku being handled quite gracefully. The dialogue between the two was at many times sharp and witty, and contributed a lot to providing deeper insights into the main cast (as well as their traumas). Admittingly, Un-go still wasn’t exactly the best with it’s mysteries, but that improved significantly as the series went on.
The production values, unfortunately, are nothing to really rave about, but I do feel the character designs worked quite well with the overall intrigue-heavy atmosphere. I would like to note that the ending theme song was excellent, and was a very good way to transition into the credits. Oh yea, and the soundtrack for this series was also quite good. There are more than a few memorable tracks throughout this series, and did well in adding to the atmosphere of this show.
All that being said, I do believe Un-go suffered because it was set to be only 11 episodes. The short length ended up making certain aspects to the show feel very rushed, with the ideas that the story was trying to convey getting lost sometimes. But when Un-go nailed an arc, it was honestly brilliant. It was witty, clever, mature, and smart about how it went about it’s story and cast. And of course, the stories were genuinely deep and throught provoking.
Animation/Art: 8.0/10
Music: 8.5/10
Setting: 9.0/10
Characters: 9.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.6/10
Distant Paradise 