Wednesday, July 16, 2014

First Impression: Tokyo ESP

TOKYO ESP: Too much action, too little exposition


Tokyo ESP revolves around the idea of espers, humans possessing extrasensory perception resulting to the manifestation of supernatural abilities. The story jumpstarts to a group of espers hijacking the government office building and declaring themselves as the new leaders of the world, while several espers emerge and try to stop them.

I am actually surprised with everything that has happened in the first episode of Tokyo ESP. And no, that’s not a compliment. Firstly, the synopsis I’ve read in the introductions, Wikipedia, and elsewhere, is entirely different to that of the anime. Or, at least, the approach of the anime is completely different that the given synopsis is unrecognizable. Secondly, the approach makes it hard to make out the plot.

This is because of the technique in storytelling. Tokyo ESP doesn’t allot some time for exposition and immediately jumps to the action. This technique is effective in some stories, but I’m afraid it’s not in this case.
The lack of exposition makes the first episode of this anime a heap of action sequences that don’t really capture the audience. It doesn’t give the viewers enough reason to care if this or that happens. The same thing goes for the characters. The lack of proper introductions makes the viewers feel disconnected to the perspectives of Tokyo ESP, not to mention that the personalities and whatnots of these perspectives are uninteresting.

Some of the perspectives of Tokyo ESP

The animation and design is not top-notch, but I appreciate them. I can see the effort in achieving fluidity in animation and distinctiveness in design.

Overall, I think Tokyo ESP is trying too hard to capture the audience in the first episode. It’s feeding the viewers with too much action, a rather mindless hook to get them subscribe to the anime. The high number of perspectives and lack of an obvious main character fail to achieve an emotional connection.

Cluttered plot. Cluttered characterization. Okay production value. I’ll be skipping this one, but it’s recommended for those who are looking for a lot of action and grit.


6 comments:

  1. For me, a pilot episode that is either heavy on interesting exposition, like Aldnoah.Zero, or pilots that start with something intriguing, without explaining it, and then expand upon it in later episodes. Ga-Rei: Zero actually did the same thing by starting in the middle of the story, and flashing back. Anyway, I look forward to how the story turns out, especially since it features a few Ga-Rei: Zero cameos.

    -James

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    1. We all know that there is no strict formula on good storytelling. But personally, Tokyo ESP's style feels like a poor attempt for a hook. Maybe I'd give this one another chance if I hear some good news for the next episodes.

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  2. So.. you don't like those kinds of storytelling. I fairly get the story of Tokyo ESP in episode 1. A synopsis of an anime series is not entirely based on what happened to the first episode. Then I think you will also skip Zankyou no Terror - also lacks exposition. Have you watched it?

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    1. I'm not saying that I didn't get the story. I'm just saying that the given synopsis is not very obvious from the get-go of the anime. That's not actually a major problem for me. The real problem solely lies on Tokyo ESP's style of storytelling, which is obviously trying to grab the audience in ways I find uninspired.

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  3. Hey, just a random update. The series took a complete nosedive in quality. It has turned into typical shounen without any of the fun shounen charm and energy.

    -James

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    1. Oh, that's too bad. But I'm actually not surprised. After all, it was giving me the wrong signals from the start.

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