Watching 'B: The Beginning'

B: The Beginning is an original anime produced by Production I.G., the studio also produced Psycho-Pass, Haikyuu, Kuroko no Basket, and the original Ghost in the Shell film to name a few of their work. The show was distributed worldwide by Netflix in 2018. The series is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa and Yoshiki Yamakawa. Nakazawa also worked on the character design of Terror in Resonance, and was the episode director of Samurai Champloo, and Kuroko no Basket. Yamakawa was a key animator on the Digimon Adventure Movie, and directed Little Busters!

The show takes place in a fictional kingdom where a string of murders and random crimes are occurring through out the land, and the police are trying to figure out a pattern while an underground supernatural group is hunting a supernatural being in the midst of the chaos. Amid the chaos, Keith Flick himself, who is a recently reinstated part of the police, is hunting for this same being, while the supernatural being is searching for a loved one. As the story progresses the blanks get filled in along the way.

What immediately stood out to me is the fact that it is reminiscent of other anime, other Production I.G. anime no less. The look of the protagonist and antagonist reminds one of the duo in Psycho-Pass, and the narrative of the supernatural beings follows almost like the narrative of the children in Terror in Resonance. Not only that but a few of the characters looked as if they were plucked directly from Terror in Resonance, Keith Flick in particular. In addition, there were also shades of Guilty Crown being sprinkled in for good measure.

For a majority of the show, you are not sure which character is the lead, or co-leads, and you are not sure which narrative is the main focus. The show feels more like a collection of ideas that had been blended together and thrown onto the screen without giving it the time that is needed for it to fully mature. The first episode starts strong establishing all the characters, and the various plot threats that would be involved, however as the show nears the conclusion, most of these plot threats are relegated to subplots and at the worst points are forgotten completely for a couple of episodes at a time. However, that being said by the time the final two episodes roll around equal weight was given to all the plots that are involved. This style of storytelling was also used in Terror in Resonance, the difference being in the execution. Terror in Resonance ended up giving each plot threat equal time and weight every episode which kept a viewer engaged with every character, whereas in B: The Beginning you often forget a character existed at all.

The show is also incredibly predictable, so much so that I managed to guess who the main villain was in the first episode alone, and from the first frame, the character was on screen. The show does not try to subvert the expectations and predictions of the audience at all and decides to carry on through with the cliches. Which in itself is not a bad thing to do, cliches become cliches for a reason. The execution was sorely lacking, and this is especially the case when you know that the studio has done the same but better in previous projects. Nowhere is this statement truer than in the moments when the show tries to lighten up the mood using humor only to fall flat on its face repeatedly.

Keith Flick, all the way from his mannerisms, to the way he dresses, and even looks, makes him seem like a rip off of Shibazaki from Terror in Resonance. So much so to the point that I had to pause the stream and make sure I did not switch over to Terror in Resonance by mistake. That being said all of the other characters in the show stand out from each other visually, and even if you do not know their names, you are easily able to distinguish who is whom.

Despite these negatives, there are aspects of the show that is done incredibly well. For example, the quality of animation in the episodes does not dip below a certain base standard. Beyond the moments of consistency, when the animation kicks into gear and has a sakuga burst whenever the characters are in the middle of a fight no matter how trivial, the quality of animation spikes considerably. So much so to the point that the action scene could have been a part of a theatrical film. The fight in episode two is a particular highlight with the way they used animation and the progression of time to convey speed.

The world that these characters live in is also intriguing, there is clear modern technology involved in the day to day lives, however, the vehicles they drive seem to be stuck in the 70s. Despite this sophistication in technology, the kingdom looks more like a rural village rather than a metropolis that you could expect when you hear the words kingdom used to describe the place.

Finally, the opening and endings of the show are fantastic. While the opening is short, much shorter than other anime openings, it perfectly communicates the tone of the show, and the ending was fantastic to listen to, so much so to the point that I always let it run to the end. The Perfect World by Marty Friedman featuring Jean-Ken Johnny and Kenken felt as if it was the perfect song to use as the ending. The original soundtrack was composed by Yoshihiro Ike, who also composed the soundtracks for the anime Days, Dororo, Ergo Proxy, and the film adaptation of Harmony. The soundtrack here is great. It is haunting at times, and epic when it needs to be.

In all, B: The Beginning is not a show that I would ask you to go out of your way to go and watch. There are things that are done in this anime that are done much better elsewhere, however, the action, animation, the world the characters live in and the music are all top notch. As of this moment, there is a second season that is currently in production that is also licensed by Netflix. If you already have a Netflix account I would say check out the first two episodes at the least, because the visuals and fight sequences are quite good.