Anime Hajime Review: Avenger

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Avenger. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

After Earth's destruction, the last of humanity has colonized Mars. Most people live scattered across the red surface in domed cities. Necessary resources have become scarce and lawlessness runs rampant. The last vestiges of order are tournaments between representatives of the different settlements.

Compounding this harsh reality, Earth’s former moon is now on a collision course with the planet. But, the end may come much sooner.

No children have been born for the past decade. To fill the lack of a child’s presence, human-like dolls serve the people. While they may look like kids, the artificial nature of these dolls cannot fill the void. There is, however, one exception.

A doll by the name of Nei (voiced by Mika Kanai) is the most advanced model that has ever existed. Drifting around, Nei finds a powerful new master.

Layla Ashely (voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi) is a Barbaroi, a person not attached to any city. She has gained a reputation for being a strong fighter who has never lost a fight. She is also quite open about her intention to kill the most formidable person on the planet. This is none other than the de facto ruler of Mars, Volk (voiced by Hiroshi Yanaka).

Layla bonds with Nei and vows to protect the doll no matter the cost. As these two travel onward, their journey will decide the fate of mankind.

Series Positives

The soundtrack to Avenger was great.

This is a series that wanted to tell its story through sound. There wasn't much dialogue and the visuals weren't spectacular. To this show’s credit, the music managed to create an atmosphere. It succeeded in inducing a few emotions.

Everything sounded grand, epic, and large. This world was without a doubt apocalyptic. The score, in many scenes, created tones of fear, tragedy, and sadness. There is no denying what we were hearing painted an end of times story.

Unfortunately, this had nothing to do with what was happening in the actual show.

Avenger was awful.

Series Negatives

Words like bad, boring, uninteresting, they all apply to Avenger. But I can do you one better. This series was lifeless.

The music was good, but it didn't belong here. While I may have heard grandness, grandness wasn't around. Although this soundtrack may have channeled certain emotions, there was nothing to reinforce them.

I can't even categorize what Avenger did right and what it did wrong. There was that little to work with. This was thirteen episodes of time that is now gone.

The Action

The action scenes in Avenger were some of the dullest I've come across. Period. There was no spectacle, excitement, or tension. Except this story sure as hell tried to play it up like those things were here. Each encounter was over and done with before anything could get started.

Nothing was ever gained nor was anything lost. Fights were in this show for one reason only. If they weren't here, this series would have been two episodes long.

Even though there were a ton of confrontations, they were all slow. About five percent of any given fight was an actual fight. The rest consisted of characters looking at each other with the deadest of eyes.

I wish I was joking.

There was an infuriating amount of posturing and intense glaring in this series. Then when something did happen, it was beyond underwhelming.

Every hit and punch felt hollow and soft. No one ever got smacked around. No one ever appeared like they were getting hurt. Each "violent" throw or contact had the same force power of a gentle push.

Some setups indicated something cool was about to happen. Too bad each and every time such an instance came, we never got to see the coup de grâce.

A horde would rush Layla, cut to the next moment, and the whole thing was over. Instead of seeing our main character be a bad ass, she only ever stood over broken bodies.

But if you're the kind of person who likes a brooding protagonist, you're in for a treat. Layla had plenty of chances to do that. As in she would look over the horizon with her cape blowing in the wind for five straight minutes.

The Characters

I won’t say that Avenger had bad characters. That would insinuate this series had characters.

We didn't learn anything about anyone in this story. What were anyone's motivations? What were their pasts? Who were they now? How were they connected to one another? Why were they even around?

To be fair, Layla had answers to each of those questions. They weren't good, but they were at least there.

On the other hand, the “villains” were a total mystery.

These people were such a mystery I’m not confident I should be calling them villains. That’s how much I don’t know about them. They were moronic, I did gather that, but why they were the antagonists is beyond me.

These characters will remain in my head for about a day. And that's me being generous.

The Story

Recently I have been harping a lot on exposition. Especially how having too much of it isn't the best course of action. Avenger demonstrated what happens when a story provides none. There were no explanations in this series.

Why were no children being born on Mars? Why was the Earth’s moon crashing into the planet? What actually happened to the Earth? Was it the reason why humans had to colonize Mars? If for some reason these questions got an answer, ten more problems would rise to take their place.

Adding to that, so many different plot points kept getting introduced. It didn't matter if it was episode one or episode thirteen, new information kept coming in. 

Did Avenger end on a happy note? I'm not sure. But based on everything that had happened, I like to think that everyone was doomed. This story gave me no reason to think otherwise.

Final Thoughts

I had to write this review as soon as I finished the series. I'm talking seconds after the final episode. If I didn't I would not have remembered enough of to write with any accuracy.

And had that happened, I would have then had to watch the whole thing again.

The music may have been solid, but so what? I guess that means you can go out and buy the soundtrack. That would be nice. Don’t watch this show to hear it. Whatever you do, don't do that.

The action was slow, the characters were dull, and the story was nonexistent. Want to know what it's like to watch Avenger? If you've never seen it, you already know.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? How would you advise Avenger? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

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I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.

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