Kaiba (review)
Now 100% less spoilery, more vague
Kaiba, eh?. Well, I’ve already hyped this thing a lot, so let me round out Kaiba’s awesome elements before I review:
Cute animals!
Crazy outfits!
Funny old people!
So cute!
Fanservice!
And it was all made by one of Crayon Shin-chan’s writer-directors, so you know it has to be fun!
I was really going to do the whole post that way, but I wussed out.
Where’s the plot, fuckhead?
I didn’t blog Kaiba episodically, so that makes me at least in one way similar to everyone else in the world. It seemed too easy to spoil something that really relied on not knowing what the plot was in advance. But here you go: Kaiba (or is he Warp?) wakes up with no memories, only a locket containing a blurry picture of a girl he’s pretty sure he may have been in love with. His journey to find her and figure out his own identity, is what Kaiba is about. So you really have to learn as you go, just as the protagonist does. The first time through, it’s very much about uncovering lost memories, hidden conspiracies, and other obscured plot elements. The story is not laid out in advance. Fair warning.
Characters
In the futuristic world of Kaiba, peoples’ memories are stored on chips and transferred around between bodies or stored for periods of time. Whole or partial collections of memories can be erased, distorted, and manipulated. As a result, the very nature of peoples’ personalities gets all mixed up. This is a great theme for the show, but it leaves little that viewers can identify with as far as the characters go. Characters really only further the plot, and sometimes add to that plot’s somewhat-confusing nature.
Animation
As Korasoff says, you’ll either love it or hate it, though I really haven’t talked to anyone who outright hated it. The rounded, bouncy and fluid art style really does belie the very adult nature of the series, which makes everything a little more surreal than it already was. But it’s always consistent, with a little computer enhancement that never gets in the way (think Soul Eater), and no major drop-offs in quality from episode to episode.
It was hard to organize my thoughts, because there’s plenty to say about Kaiba but it all ends up sounding vague because I don’t want to give away the story. I also want to stay away from hyperboles and superlatives. So I’ll go back to the old dangers/benefits system:
Dangers of watching
- Relative inability to identify with the characters – thanks to their mutable personalties and the fact that nearly everyone was working with misplaced motivations.
- Often-confusing storyline – clones abound, bodies are switched, and just keeping track of who’s who is a little tough, but then the conspiracies start coming out and it gets even worse.
- Hazy feel – it’s great for atmospherics, but started to hurt the show when climactic plot points came around and the surrealistic feel overpowered the excitement I should have been feeling.
- Adult themes – lots of sex early on and some uncomfortable glimpses of realism in this weird world make it neither kids’ stuff nor light watching.
Benefits of watching
- Excellent music – not much more to say there, it captures the feel of the show perfectly, and in turn helps define the feel.
- Great animation – it goes with the great atmosphere and music. Aesthetically, this is the total package.
- Intellectual stimulation – if you like philosophizing with classic sci-fi themes, you’ll find plenty to chew on.
- Emotional stimulation – I know I said it’s hard to identify with the characters, at least up until the end, but somehow Kaiba manages to wring a great deal of emotional appeal out of its strange setting. The whole thing has a lonely, mournful feel that grabs you early on — and is infinitely more rewarding than the crying haremette scenario.
Time’s up — make your point.
Ultimately, Kaiba was really ambitious and didn’t always succeed. But I do think we should reward even marginally successful ambition with our praise, lest we get no more of it and instead suffer through endless variations on Strike Witches and To Love-Ru. And you shouldn’t let that ambition turn you off from the show — ambition and pretentiousness are not the same thing, and Kaiba is never pretentious, always understated.
At its heart, it uses the most basic of Frankensteinesque sci-fi premises, which is to answer the question: What are the implications of a particular piece of world-altering technology? So fans of JG Ballard, Masumune Shirow, etc. should really be able to get behind that. The questions of memory and how much memory defines us have been pondered before in plenty of media, but never so deeply in anime.
And speaking of memory, Kaiba will stick in mine long after the next couple seasons are over. Unlike last season’s other highly-lauded show starting with a K, I have every intent of watching this again and I think it’ll continue to look good with time. It was a great watching experience, I’d do it again, and I think you should give it a shot too.
- otou-san out!
August 11th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
[...] the show. If you haven’t seen it, there’ll be plenty of other people (how about these four) to argue why you [...]
August 11th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Woot linkage. I feel all legitimate and stuff!
We saw eye to eye on this one. As you say, a second watching’s absolutely imperative: I caught glimpses of foreshadowing in early episodes while just skimming through them to find screenshots. Parenthood (motherhood in particular) is a thread I’ll keep in mind during that second viewing.
In the end I was surprised at how strongly I felt about the story of secondary characters compared to primary ones. Perhaps the greater immediacy and succinctness of their stories gave their plight more weight, compared to the vague, almost drawn-out quest for truth of Kaiba/Warp, Neiro, et al.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Kaiba was awesome, to put it simply. Experimental or not, I enjoyed every episode of it.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I was compltetely bias in my review of Kaiba, giving it 9.5 for possibly arbitrary reasons. But I don’t care! Because it’s Kaiba, W00T!
August 12th, 2008 at 2:52 am
I’ll be watching this one again soon, haven’t seen all of the series though. The OST of the series is fantastic though, and it’s iPod worthy.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:42 am
I only like the pictures and the cute voices
August 12th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I marathoned the first eight episodes one evening and it really kept me hooked. I really liked the Chroniko arc up to episode 7. Maybe I’m a bit cheap but Chroniko, her body that it is, is incredibly cute and absolutely adorable. However, starting with episode 8, Kaiba kind of lost me it. It’s not just because the sugar factor dropped due to lack of Chroniko but the episodes during that arc were quite different. They were heart-warming, sad and melancholic. Afterwards it’s all about conspirancies and plot twists. Someone dies but doesn’t quite die, returns, loses some memories or gains others ad nauseum. I still liked episode 10 in which Kaiba and Neiro get to know each other. Anyway, the last episodes left me rather cold.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Definitely the emotional stimulation and the music. I love Kaiba, and I believe it’s definitely one the better series this year so far. And yes, it didn’t always succeed, but heck, I’m down with re-watching.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I could never get around to liking Kaiba, call me superficial, but the artwork just turns me off.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Hoshi, Ez, Omi, I’m really pumped that so many people enjoyed it, that gives me faith in my fellow fans.
Korasoff - I found myself wanting to see the whole first and second episodes when I was grabbing screenshots, because of all those reasons that become obvious to you after seeing it through. I was pointing at the screen like “ooo! Oh! I get it now!”
newgeek - it really does have fantastic music, I don’t know if it’s iPod worthy because for the most part it seems to be mood enhancement, but I’d definitely be willing to give it a shot.
blissmo - The first part was for you, of course
Chris - It didn’t bother me too much, but I did have the same feeling. Plot twists and general confusion is cool, but that haunting feeling really was lost in the second half. Maybe it’s because of the way the story changed, but maybe it’s just because we became more familiar with it as we went along. A re-watch certainly is in order, and it might answer that question.
C.I. - The art style is one thing that I think contributes hugely to the show as a whole, but on the other hand I sometimes wish it wasn’t the way it is, because it turns some people, like yourself, off. Unfortunately, if you’re not into it, there’s no way to divorce it from the total experience, but if you ever have a thought that it’s worth another chance, definitely give it one.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
On the soundtrack’s iPod worthiness: it’s the only music I’m lugging around in mine along with some Japanese lessons (learning Japanese on my lunch hour rocks), and when the mood hits me I’ll fire it up… Although a lot of tracks are “reinterpretations” of the same song with a slightly different beat or hue.
Still, after a hard day of work, it makes the subway ride home a little surreal.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
It is very uncommercial yet it beats out many animes that have excellent graphic but no plot.