New Sci-Fi Epic Worth the Wait? Producer's Cry to Netflix? - Moonrise Anime Review!

Finally, finally, after seven years, Moonrise has finally released on Netflix. And I was extremely, extremely excited for this show. Anytime you mention Ubukata, I really liked his work with Marduk Scramble. We had the team behind Attack on Titan, WIT Studio. Everything was lining up for this to be a massive, massive hit, despite the fact that the producer thinks that they weren't pushing it enough. Despite it being at every single, every single Geek Week for Netflix. And yes, I'm spamming it on their Netflix account. Apparently, the producer of WIT Studio, which may I may remind some people, the producer's job is to acquire and distribute the money for marketing. So it's technically their job to market it. Despite the producer believing that they didn't push this enough, I have been extremely excited for the show to come out. But let's be perfectly honest. A solid team behind a project doesn't always mean it's going to be gold. Especially when you have a main character who's a Pokemon Go addict. That isn't really the most engaging thing there. But despite that, I watched the entire 18 episode dump of the series, which, yes, I still absolutely hate that. Please, Netflix, stop these massive episode dumps. It's very hard to keep up and it's very hard for people to dedicate that much time to a single show right at the get go, especially when a season just started. But I watched all the episodes. I'm here to give my impressions on it. Did it turn out to be as great as I was hoping it to be? Is it going to be as good as Marduk Scramble? Let's dive into it. Moonrise opens up in a world full of peace and happiness. They developed a new AI program known as Sapientia. And if they follow all the directives that it gives them, it solves everything. So there's no problems with, you know, famine, no problems with conflict. Everything is being solved and figured out by this AI. We've even gotten to the point where people are starting to live on the moon. Well, we follow Jacob Shadow, who's a part of the Shadow family, and they're currently celebrating this next moon elevator that's actually being opened up. But while he's there with his family and everybody's having fun and everything, suddenly out of nowhere, the elevator itself explodes and starts to crumble and fall upon everybody. Well, Jacob managed to survive, but unfortunately, the government thinks he's the one at fault. Well, thanks to this Sapientia AI program, he's actually freed and enlisted into the military to go up to the moon and find this rebel group that might be responsible for causing this uprising. See, there's this rebel group on the moon led by Bob Skylum that is currently trying to fight back against the earth and claim the moon to be independent. So Jacob, along with his team, they train for a little bit. They have to learn how to use this new advanced military equipment they use up there to kind of move around in the gravity of the moon. And eventually they travel up to the moon as sort of a an op group separate from the military trying to locate and take down the leader, Bob Skylum. All the while, we learn the secrets behind this rebel group. And yes, Jacob's connection to Bob Skylum and all that kind of stuff. So my thoughts on the show overall, I am OK with the show. It's not a show that I would really recommend to a lot of people that are looking for a deep plot line, looking for some crazy twists and turns. A lot of what you can kind of speculate early on with the story is a lot of it kind of just turns out to be true. It's one of those things where if you try to think about it just a little bit, you'll pretty much figure out everything. You'll figure out where the twists and turns are. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the story likes to jump around a lot, and that's my biggest criticism overall. This show likes to jump forward, jump back, jump forward, jump back, jump forward. It's one of those ones that I think it's trying to keep you engaged with the current action that's going on while slowly piecemealing a lot of backstory stuff that pretty much fleshed out the characters. It really gets the root of what the story is way back here. And so they're trying to balance that. And I think a lot of that stuff sort of frustrates me because sometimes it's not big jumps. So you're kind of wondering what comes first sometimes before it becomes clear. I really hate storytelling that just does not like to keep a straight narrative. And when it jumps around pretty much every single episode, it starts to frustrate me. This is unfortunately one of those series where I didn't really get too engaged with the series until about halfway into it, which is kind of rough when it comes to a 18 episode series. I really just didn't feel the characters for a good nine episodes. I didn't care who they were. I didn't care about their personalities. I didn't feel like a connection to them. Like early on, you have a sort of big, shocking moment with one of the characters. And I'm just I just shrugged because we didn't find out until afterwards. Oh, oh, so he's supposed to be important. These are just characters that didn't really connect to me at all until about nine episodes and where I suddenly started having these moments with the characters just hanging out, having some silly shenanigans happen between them before I finally said, OK, this is a pretty cool band of characters, because interestingly enough, it's actually a story reason for this. These characters actually know each other. These are people that used to be friends, but for some reason they're being enlisted into a military group to do special ops. Yeah, it seems a little weird because these people weren't in the military before all this happened. For one, Jacob is just a lazy, rich boy. Jacob is just a lazy, rich boy. But now he's suddenly going into the military in a special ops group that is for a world ending revolt that's going on. It's odd, but there's a story reason for it. And they kind of point out very early on, is this all the A.I. is doing is the A.I. itself just trying to get rid of us, having us do this very dangerous job because it just wants us dead. That's a massive question mark there. That's all to say that, yes, this is supposed to be a band of friends. These people knew each other before all this happened. But yet I didn't really care much for them as friends. They just seem like a bunch of people hanging out together and they're shooting stuff. Why do I care about their personalities? Why do I care about potential romances? Why do I care about them fighting for each other? Would I care if they betrayed each other? I didn't really. Again, this is one of those kind of slow burn series that is really carried early on by the action, which is really good. The action in the earlier segments is really great. Yeah. To the joke, this is basically Attack on Titan in space. And a lot of it's really carried by the cool tech they have in there. I've always liked Ubicata and their take on sci fi. It's really cool. I like the whole cloak thing that basically is allowing them to be in space, even though it doesn't look like a big old helmet on their head. It's just more like a cloak with a hood that you put up. And even the back of their cloak has tech behind it and that it allows them to sort of dart around by activating it. It gives them boost to kind of jump around. And then they have these little cars that they do this engraving technology with that turns the card itself into a different mass. As long as the mass itself is similar, it can turn to anything. They can turn it into a gun. They can turn it into a whip. They can turn it into a baton. And they're constantly utilizing that throughout their combat in a way that they kind of engage that into the combat itself with the action sequences was really creative. Like I said before, the first half of the show is very much so carried by just the animation and the action scenes and how it doesn't let up. It's constantly pushing the characters forward. They're constantly moving from location, location, trying to seek out their target. So I really do feel like for a lot of people, if you're looking for a lot of like engaging storyline and big twists and turns, you're going to probably be bored with that first half. It's not really until that second half when things start to pick up. For me personally, getting more invested in the characters and caring about whether they live or not. But the second half is where things start to kind of open up the story itself. The deeper plot lines of the A.I., the rebel group, why they're fighting against Earth, that yes, the moon itself is basically being subjugated under the power of the Earth, the A.I. itself. Its focus is for the happiness of humankind, but that it's at the detriment of those on the moon. It's really like the A.I. is just caring about the people of the Earth and the people of the moon is getting all the trash. You're sending us all of your trash. You're taking all of our resources. You're giving us nothing back. We're suffering up here while you're down there whining and dining. It really does get into an element that I really do appreciate with the storytelling here where nobody's really the bad guy. Nobody in this world is technically the evil. Yes, people shooting down a bunch of people is a bad thing. A guy throwing a bomb into a crowd is a bad thing. But my more point is their mindset and what they're doing for themselves isn't directly evil. It's just what it looks like to the other side. That I do appreciate. Giving the sense that when somebody betrays another person, you get why they're doing that because they think it's good. We've always relied on this. I can't go against it. But yes, that's all to say that the second half is where it starts to pick up. But it's also where we see in a story sense, it's massive flaw. The storytelling relies way too heavily on people not opening their mouth. Let's be honest. This show literally could have been three episodes if somebody would just open their damn mouth and say why they're doing what they're doing. But it doesn't want to do that. And that's where it gets frustrating, because when it finally has them open their mouths, you're going again. Like I said earlier, I knew that from the beginning. Why do you not just say it? I knew that from back here. Why did you not say that in the church? We all knew this was coming, but everybody doesn't want to say it. That's the frustrating thing. And yes, I can admit that it's probably to do with the fact that people of this world of this world and this moon are so brainwashed. But it doesn't give me enough of that. Yes, one character specifically in the series, I think, unfortunately gets to be the punching bag for that storyline. One character does show that, but it's not evident really across the board. It's just almost this element of don't say because it'll be too easy. And like I said, I think that's my biggest frustration overall with the story. But even so, that aside, I think the second half was still really strong. Like at some point, nine or ten episodes in, suddenly I felt like, oh, I'm actually liking this. Like I'm suddenly finally attached to the screen and I want to see more. So much so that when I realized that maybe I wasn't paying enough attention early on because it wasn't really grabbing me. I later on went back and checked the first half a second time just because I wanted to make sure that everything that I picked up in the second half was as interesting as I thought it was. It was still good in the end. In the end, I still really got caught up in the show and really enjoyed how it kind of progressed towards the later half. Yes, part of that is because we have more of the inclusion of Dr. Salamandra, which is easily like my favorite character. I think overall the characters of the show were decent, but Dr. Salamandra was easily my favorite. She's just like this muscle chick that she's like the T-1000. Like she can turn like her limbs into like liquid metal or whatever. She's just like swinging around like a whip or a blade or whatever. And she's just got she's got guns like this girl has got some muscle and she just beats people down without even flinching. She was easily one of my favorite characters. She got this kind of charm about herself. How she responds to, you know, guys trying to charm her was super good. The other characters, Jacob, he's all right. He's a do-gooder. Jacob is a do-gooder. I do appreciate how his character has evolved over the series because, again, he was a rich boy. He loses everything. He wants revenge over time. He still wants to do good. Reese was probably the biggest conflict that I had overall. She is the character that is very duty bound. She does love Jacob. But at the same time, she's very duty bound. I did like to see how her character had a lot of conflict over the series' advancement and the idea that she's constantly feeling like she's too cold hearted because she's so focused on her job. It's duty versus friendships. It's duty versus love. That kind of stuff that she goes through. Mary, she's a dork. Mary was a dork. I did like her inclusions. She's a dork. She's very much so the third party that does start to get into the element of how people of the moon are so in a terrible state, how they're so kept under the foot of the earth itself. She's kind of our vision into that. So her inclusion overall was decent. But that's sadly where it ends. Like anybody else in the show, Phil even, I just didn't really care too much for. In the end, I think Phil's character does come to fruition, but I didn't really care about anybody else. They're more art types, if anything, like Duan's the big guy that has the gentle heart. He's a gentle giant. Inanna is the big sis. Zuwan's the dorky hacker girl. Wendy is the dorky hacker girl from the other side. Nova's Harbringer is the gentle giant of the other side. They end up becoming the sort of just art types that I really didn't care much for. Overall, though, like I said, it was an enjoyable ride, especially the second half. A lot of that having to do with that conflict with the A.I. itself, the A.I. itself manipulating people is the A.I. bad. Is it for the betterment of the people? Will people accept it? Will people push against it? What is good for mankind, whether or not have it or not? The reliance of it, that kind of stuff does sort of kind of trickle up. But it's never really the focus. It's just sort of a subtle plot line that does sort of flip everything on its head at its core. It's really about like I said earlier, they're not really being a true evil side. It's just more of the idea of the scars of what's been caused, bring them to a conflict to want to change how things are. It's trying to change the status quo. You guys are comfortable there. It can't be that way anymore because we are not comfortable here. We are not doing good here. Wake up kind of situation. And yeah, you could probably get into a deeper commentary on the reliance on A.I. and how it is in the end going to create some sort of suffering. And would you ignore that suffering? There is a greater conflict that you could probably get into here, which is, yes, it's obviously there. Visually, like I said earlier, it's great. Visually, it is really great. And then again, that sort of gets me back to that whole discussion earlier about the producers and with studio kind of putting a lot of effort in this. And hopefully it does well enough for them. I don't think that will be its biggest issue. Is whether or not they market this or not? Because again, I think this is marketed just as much as really any other show, especially for Netflix themselves. I think of anything, it will be whether or not people enjoy the show. And it doesn't look like it's super positive so far. Even for myself, I'm not going to tell people to go out of the way to go watch this show. I think it's great if you want a sci fi action flick. It's super fun, but it's not amazing. But visually, it's great, though. But again, that's where I have my fears. I think the amount of effort they put into this, this has obviously been cooking for the last seven years. This doesn't feel like something that was thrown together in a year. Production values of this 18 episodes was high up on there. Yes, there is some action still uses. There is some moments where things aren't incredible. The use of CGI and showing momentum with aircrafts and whatnot isn't great. But overall, visually, it does look very beautiful, especially the action sequences. Some of it is some top quality stuff and consistent across the board. I think visually, directing wise in production and visuals, this show excels. The music, the sound quality, all that stuff absolutely excels. This is pretty close to movie level quality here. Not like incredibly high budget movie quality, but it's it's movie quality. Like I could probably see something like this being a theater, which, yes, gets me into my fears of the idea of this being something that cost them a lot of money. And it's probably why the producer wanted to be pushed more is because they probably put a lot of money in this and they probably want some kickback for this being successful. I hope it does well for them. But in the end, I don't think it will, because in the end, like I said before, I think this probably won't really capture a lot of people's attention. It might possibly grab a general audience, a general audience of people like Netflix is usually going for that would want something like this that's not about cute girls in a high school setting. It's military, it's sci fi, it's ghost in the shell, that kind of stuff. And this could actually work in that regard. But we'll have to wait and see. I really I hope it does well. But at the same time, I'm not sure if it's going to be seven years of production. Well, but you know, that's my thoughts on Moonrise. I hope you guys enjoyed my review. And yes, my critique on how production works. I do think that some people don't understand exactly how the line of process works sometimes for how an anime is made. It's like this whole aspect of a producer or production committee. They essentially bring together the funds and decide where this show is going to be produced at. If it's a producer at WIT Studio, it's a producer within WIT Studio that says, OK, I need investors, we're going to make a show. He gets the investors together. They'll give out the work to WIT Studio in their own company. And they're going to, you know, reach out to who's going to be licensing it, Netflix. Who's going to market it? This company. Who's going to do this? Who's going to do this? They divvy out that money. It's not Netflix's job. That would be like the director of Jujutsu Kaisen getting mad at Crunchyroll for not advertising their show for them. No, MAPPA knows full well they do the marketing. If they're producing it. So they did all the marketing. Chainsaw Man, they did the marketing for it. It's not the job of whoever licenses the product to do the advertising for them. If the producer wants it to be successful, they do it. Anyhow, that's my thoughts on Moonrise. Hope you guys enjoyed my video. As always, if you did, hit the like button down below, comment. Let me know what you think of this series or if you're going to be checking it out. Additionally, if you're new here, make sure to subscribe before you leave. If you like this content and want to support the channel more, I have links in the description below. I greatly appreciate it, but until next time, y'all take care.