Texhnolyze - Pretentious or Genius?

I must confess that on my first watch, I found this anime to be rather boring and sleep-inducing. However, that came with a bias of me not being in a good mood, or at least that is how I remember it. This time though, after many years of leaving this series under the dust, I finally come to understand how many cultist fans would often sing praise of it, and I think it deserves that, to a certain extent perhaps.

A few key elements this anime has in possession that managed to change my impression are:

• The well-crafted political struggle in a multi-layer environment

  . From within each of the factions in Lukuss, to Lukuss itself to what lies beyond that. Everything kinda connected in the end which is cool

• The no-nonsense spirit between faction leaders. I particularly find the Uninon leader and Onishi relationship to be the best thing in this anime. They don’t have much screen time together but it’s more action than talking, and that to me is a solid plus.

• The balanced cast. Almost everyone got the conclusion of their story without loose-end. Regardless, this does come with the cost of the protagonist not being really a protagonist, like really, I hope I’m not deluded in saying Onishi has more screen time and is written better.

• The rawness, pure rawness. It is not just the gratifying violence (excuse me I’m a fan of Doom Eternal kek) but basically, Texhnolyze doesn’t cower before any sensitive topics like gay stuff, prostitution, nudity, and even blasphemy. I’m not sure if these are the norms but I feel like many people would find them offensive. Personally, I’ve gotten out of the phase so yea, cool

Naturally, this anime is not without flaws. I can easily write an entire post just to complain about how awkward the entire “Above the Underground” section is. But not this time, I think the anime itself has done a good job of presenting its idea all the while maintaining its consistency till the end.

Unfortunately, the slow pacing is scarcely tolerable. I don’t know why but what I felt watching Texhnolyze was a very good essay having its spokesman getting a hiccup once in a while. There seems to be a purpose behind this, I do feel like it could have made its points straight away instead of some random long pause or annoying stop but the end result is to create a fitting atmosphere for the crux of the story (a slow demise).

Lastly, yes, this anime can be pretentious at some point and I won’t take that back even if you find my remark offensive. But here is the thing, the pretentious parts are, more or less, extras. Just simply having its characters spouting random crap while acting like they’re hot shit doesn’t really spoil the overall picture of the anime.

The bottom line is, Texhnolyze is a grim depiction of an impending doom. It is long-winded, but inevitable, just as the pacing was meant to be, on top of its restless atmosphere spanning across the entire duration of the anime.