Revisions: A Ride to the Future!

For the next five or six weeks weeks, I’m just going to jam a slow moving freight train of Netflix Anime content on my blog. Why? Because I finally spent some time catching up with some Netflix series that I’ve been neglecting for too long. Also, I wanted you all to know about these things. These selections also will Include Aggretsuko Season 2. Still, I feel like I am starting off with the most unique one of the bunch sort of. Each series is completely different from one another, but this one is directed by one of my favorite anime directors, Goro Taniguchi. You know the guy behind Code Geass and director of a lot of other great anime? Yes, I already talked about the Code Geass film that came out this year, but I think Revisions was something that he really wanted to create and probably is the best mecha anime that has been made this year. (Not hard when there is only three of them.) It seems like he’s been making one unique mecha series after another recently and I just hope he finds the time and energy to make more while being stuck in Code Geass hell one again.

Revisions starts off with kids meeting a woman from the future named Milo. She saved a rather specific one by the name of Daisuke from untold dangers and/or kidnapping and tells him that he will be the greatest hero one day. She also tells others certain attributes to worry about or to focus on in order to make sure the other kids that were involved in the situation to make sure they remain balanced and functional when something horrible happens in the future. Unfortunately, when jumping into the future when all five of them are in high school, Daisuke is the only person to take that attribute to heart. Yes, Daisuke more then goes out of his way to save EVERYONE even when he doesn’t have to. Very much to the annoyance of everyone. That’s where the fabric of the city of Shibuya, where they go to high school falls apart sort.

The main plot occurs when an entire section of the city of Shibuya is dragged 300 years into the future. Giant mechanical beings called Revisions attack the school and other parts of the city. Milo shows up on her motorcycle not remembering anyone. Yeah, some time travel magic right there. (Don’t think about the time travel in this show as it gets more “complex. It will make sense and won’t at the same time.) On her James Bond gadgeted motorcycle, she gives Daisuke, of all people, a robot called a String Puppet first to defeat the so called revisions. He does after struggling with doing a thing that he has never done before and learning as he went. Then two other String Puppets are given to the other four members of the group and with those two mecha, the kids become Shibuya’s Defense Force for the time being until a way appears which would allow Shibuya to make it back to their current time period. They do all need to survive against Revision attacks first though. Living is very important to returning to their time period

Before you ask, no. Revisions isn’t as simple as that descriptions says. Like I said before, time travel plays a larger and larger role in the anime as time goes on. But there are other attributes like the politics. What is the best way to protect Shibuya? Is Daisuke’s existence a thoughtful analysis of heroism or is Daisuke just annoying? Do we make a deal with the enemy so some people can get out or do you fight against the Revisions in an attempt to get everyone that still is still alive after the effort out? What about human needs? Where does electricity come from now? What about food? Also, there are some questions that appear like the true nature of humanity and what forms people need to take from a psychological and physical perspective to survive in conditions humans can’t. I mean, this is a Goro Taniguchi series, so it’s going to have interesting themes and plot elements to it. Man, this show had a lot of themes going on for a single cour show. That’s why some things have to take some hits.

Characterization is the area that takes the largest hit because each cast member is established and then given one trait or arc to change over the course of revisions. Daisuke, for instance, is the reason why people let go of the anime because he’s completely insufferable in his over glorified heroism. What happens? He eventually calms down and starts to understand people more. Then there are the other characters. Milo is given commands over the radio for a lot of missions, but she learns to think for herself. Other group members like Marin is incredibly shy until she isn’t. Gai is constantly rough with Daisuke and argues against him until he doesn’t. Luu is the kick ass girl who is always kick ass. And lastly, Keisuke is the nice guy of the group and is the heart and soul that keeps the group together. I bet you can guess what happens in Revisions and not at the same time. And just a note, this over simplified, but still very truthful in a lot of ways.

As you can tell from some of the images that I’ve shown in this post, Revisions is an anime animated through CG. The most surprisingly part of that aspect is that the animation is pretty good. The easiest thing to say is that the characters are never off model, but there is a lot of natural sort of movement that each model moves. Why? Because they actually move like people instead of puppets with mouths that move like a lot of lower budget cell anime. Then of course, the environments and settings are well modeled, the String Puppets are small mechas whose designs are pretty creative, and the Revisions are pretty uniquely designed too. I suppose there are a lower amount of characters that appear on screen because of the cg modeling, but one can hardly tell. It’s all very well done.

In the end, I really liked Revisions. Just like how I like a lot of Goro Taniguchi’s works. It’s creative and innovative with a lot of interesting ideas and concepts while also having some cool action. I won’t say it’s the most unique thing ever, but it twists ideas from other mecha anime around in it’s own way. Considering that mecha anime have been around for a pretty long time, that’s saying quite a lot. The characters are more vehicles for the plot to happen plus exploring concepts and one particular one can be incredibly annoying until he isn’t, but everything is worth it in the end. Maybe that’s just my tastes speaking again because I’m the only person I know who greatly enjoyed Active Raid a few years ago. Please watch if you enjoy Goro Taniguchi’s unique ideas and explorations like me. Wow, that’s a bad sentence to end this post with isn’t it? Oh well.

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