This one...it wasn't great.
The positives?
So I really enjoyed the character of Acht and wished he was in it for much more of the series. The animation, while not good at all reminded me so much of a video game from the early 2000's so the fight sequences were okay for me. The bugs had a very interesting look and were done well. I liked the idea of the plot, it was different and not something I've seen a lot of.
The negatives. The plot, while good on paper had some cannon ball sized holes in it. A lot of motivations seemed unclear, then there were what seemed to be major characters changing their minds mid episode about big things. I am still not totally sure what makes a character change into a Cagaster. Is it a virus? Is it contagious? Is it something already in your DNA? A combination of all of that plus other things? Ilie says she can turn a person into a Cagaster, then says she can see who will turn into one, then says she is afraid she will turn somebody into one and not know she's doing it? I'm kind of letting that one slip a little because I might just be dumb. The AWFUL dubbing. Man. It's not my favorite thing. My absolute least favorite thing was the nasty love angle they were going for. It's well established early on that Ilie is young. I believe she says she's 14? Or something in that ballpark. She is mostly friends with children and even by her design alone she looks young. Kidow is not 14. If he is then somebody in the character design department really messed up. It's very obvious through flashbacks and other characters that Kidow has been in this gig for a while and he's an adult now. If he were more of a big brother character that would be fine. But these two go from hot to cold over and over and over again and it's just weird and uncalled for. Like she is a child. He isn't. That made my skin itch. Honestly if I didn't like the bug's look and Acht so much as a character this would get a lot fewer stars just due to these two and the romance (?) between them.
The negatives. The plot, while good on paper had some cannon ball sized holes in it. A lot of motivations seemed unclear, then there were what seemed to be major characters changing their minds mid episode about big things. I am still not totally sure what makes a character change into a Cagaster. Is it a virus? Is it contagious? Is it something already in your DNA? A combination of all of that plus other things? Ilie says she can turn a person into a Cagaster, then says she can see who will turn into one, then says she is afraid she will turn somebody into one and not know she's doing it? I'm kind of letting that one slip a little because I might just be dumb. The AWFUL dubbing. Man. It's not my favorite thing. My absolute least favorite thing was the nasty love angle they were going for. It's well established early on that Ilie is young. I believe she says she's 14? Or something in that ballpark. She is mostly friends with children and even by her design alone she looks young. Kidow is not 14. If he is then somebody in the character design department really messed up. It's very obvious through flashbacks and other characters that Kidow has been in this gig for a while and he's an adult now. If he were more of a big brother character that would be fine. But these two go from hot to cold over and over and over again and it's just weird and uncalled for. Like she is a child. He isn't. That made my skin itch. Honestly if I didn't like the bug's look and Acht so much as a character this would get a lot fewer stars just due to these two and the romance (?) between them.