I value animes that seek to provoke reflection and thought rather than simply entertain. Nowadays, most productions focus more on providing instant entertainment than exploring deep concepts, life lessons, or moralities.
Texhnolyze, with its dark and monotonous aesthetic, doesn't stand out for beautiful and captivating visuals. However, it focuses on showing rather than telling a relatively simple but thought-provoking story, although its 22-episode runtime can seem long and tedious to follow.
The visual appearance of the anime faithfully reflects events, sometimes charming despite the lack of colourful images or flashy animations that characterise contemporary animes. This choice, however, contributes to the overall concept of the anime.
Regarding the music, although I haven't paid much attention to the ambient music, I must highlight that the opening song seems very fitting, and the ending song is the best thing I'll take away from the anime; I loved it.
As my final detail, in a world marked by dilemmas addressing violence, cyberpunk issues, and the destiny of humanity, Texhnolyze presents interesting directions that provoke reflections on current and future themes, some of which have already been lived. What will be the human fate in the future? Will it be consumed by the desire for immortality through «texhnolization»? These are fascinating analyses, even in a dystopian setting distant from our own.
However, there are important warnings. The anime's pace is slow, and its 22-episode duration can become tedious. Characters come and go, experience joys and sorrows, without making a significant impact. Although it presents shocking events, it fails to fully deliver, and because of this, the anime doesn't feel worthy of another look. Texhnolyze, while having a well-constructed and fluid story, a gloomy appearance, and interesting themes, lacks the ability to captivate and entertain, which, though not essential, is important. Ultimately, it's a decent anime but one that could easily be forgotten.
