A.I.C.O. Incarnation

Though it wasn't great, A.I.C.O Incarnation definitely was not bad or mediocre. It wasn't great either though. It was OK. Netflix has been pumping out anime like crazy so it would be easy for this title to slip under the radar. The story takes place in the future where Artificially Intelligent Cellular Organisms (AICO) are created to advance humanity's medical knowledge in the hopes that one day they could make human beings immortal. However, an incident occurred that created the "Burst" a mass of cellular organisms that swarmed over Kurobe Gorge, consuming anyone and anything in its path before its advance is halted but not reversed. Aico Tachibana is just a normal school girl until she (quite literally) runs into a recent transfer student named Yuya Kanzaki, who, after a daring escape from several government spies, reveals to her that she was in a car accident that nearly killed. Her father, Yura Tachibana, created a duplicate body and brain for Aico. A complex and and top secret surgery was performed that switched the brains of Aico and the duplicate, placing her brain in the duplicate body and the duplicate in the real body. It was successful, but the surgery made the duplicate brain panic and create malignant matter at an alarming pace. In order to stop the "Matter" that has filled the gorge, Aico, Yuya, and a group of mercenaries have to traverse through the gorge and reach the research facility to perform the same surgery and stop the burst once and for all.

I thought that the story was just the average sci-fi plot that didn't show me anything new, with the secondary characters being blander than a bag of rice. But the animation more than makes up for these problems, and we can all thank Studio Bones for this. Bones has been going above and beyond the call of duty in its titles like "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood", "Mob Psycho 100" and most notably " My Hero Academia", and this show is now different. The action scenes are wonderfully choreographed and with "Matter" seeming bright and alive, making you feel that it has a mind of it's own. Thought some other animation studios would have cut corners and used copious amounts of CGI, Studio Bones goes that extra mile in providing a vibrant setting with wonderful animation. Thought the plot and characters were not great, I kept watching to see those beautifully rendered scenes and backgrounds. If your bored and looking for a binge watch on Netflix, look up this title

The anime it's far from a very good one, but it has from the begging a good storyline and action so it is hard for to get bothered. The main carecter is Tachibana, you may get little bothered with her but it is normal. The good thing about the anime is the design of the animation I really appreciated at all!

This is a decent anime. Well-crafted (although one does get really tired of The Burst after about almost immediately). The story is unique and the characters, although anime-cliche, well-enough created. Some of the dialog is a little cheesy, but that's not unusual in an anime.

The real problem is toward the ending, where the plot gets somewhat confusing (as in "who is what at this point?") and is both anti-climactic and somewhat predictable. For several episodes it seems to be a repetition of "dodge the Burst kill the Burst evade the Burst shoot the Burst" ad nauseum. Still it tends to remain interesting throughout. The rather weak ending drops this down to an "above mediocre" level, but doesn't place it in my list of "good anime".

They could have had a much stronger, better and more satisfying ending (really, there were no limits to the different endings they could have used), so the somewhat dull choice they made was rather poor writing overall.

Worth a watch perhaps and not "bad anime", but just not up there with the greats.

Pros: Moves at a fast pace. Most things are explained.

Meh: Story is nothing special. Mildly thought provoking.

Cons: None, really.

This is a basic anime with a semi-clear goal early on, and a few twists along the way that aren't too crazy. There a couple thought provoking aspects to it but nothing major. The ending is a little perplexing,, as you wonder why they are doing that, and then they wrap it up nicely for you anyway.

Decent, fast moving anime to watch, nothing terribly special though.

A.I.C.O. Tells the story of Japan being overrun with "matter", a sort of abstract material that destroys everything in it's path. The story is a bit generic but the pacing make's up for that. The biggest issue I had with this anime was the main character; Tachibana, Aiko. it's not that she lacks depth, it's the way she reacts to every situation. It's like she was made to be shocked at every turn. And it gets tiresome fast. The best aspect of the anime is the artwork. The elegant animations and fast pace of the series is what kept the two dimensional characters in check and made the series watchable. I did like the small details that made the world of A.I.C.O feel more authentic, e.g. the artificial suits that needed to be fed in order to function properly. I wish a little more thought was put into the world building of the series, it felt like I was watching a CW series with good visuals. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but it does make for a good popcorn anime.