/anime/ - Anime

It was a low quality show, but I felt the characters and plot points where more interesting than most other anime on the market. They are well developed, expressive, quirky, and with character flaws, which is something most writers can't even start to write. The storyboard artists and directors clearly tried to add visual nuance and symbolism to scenes as well (like the sun setting in the final meeting of the group as they're talking, characters having clearly distinguishable walks, etc), but the studio was clearly constrained by budget.

A lot of these details "didn't matter" when it came to greater plot or drama, but you can sometimes extrapolate quite a bit and that makes everything and everyone feel so "lived in". For example, in that shot that shows where Curran sleeps, you see that (1) she's renting out a storage room, is she broke? And (2) she barred the door with her greatsword because she doesn't trust her landlord. That's a lot of story from just a still! Or another example, when Nick AND the hostess block the loli from going closer to Zem, you can tell that how close Zem really is to the girls he hangs out with. He's shared his story with them, and has probably their trust and sympathy. It's possible they've done the same with him.

I also liked the persistent theming where everyone, including the bad guys, is at a point along their redemption arc. You have the early antagonists who told themselves that they were good people who were forced into a dead end of crime, which the Survivors are a counterpoint to because they actively avoided those dead ends by getting a damn job. Then the pattern's broken by the last antagonist who intentionally chose the dark side as an aspect of himself that he couldn't betray. That's actually a set up for what the Survivors have to get over in the next episode: they've avoided their downwards, but they haven't yet intentionally chosen what to pursue from there.

This show isn't something I can recommend to people because its animation is pretty mediocre, but for people like me who watch a lot of anime it does stand out. It's also standard fantasy instead of isekai which is sorely lacking.