Exception (2022– ) User Reviews

The monster within

[malixreiko · 7/10 · 16 October 2022]

If you can tolerate some predictable plotlines and cliche character behaviour, then you can watch it, because one of the good things about Exception is the symbolism and how it makes you question the worth of life and existing, and what you are ready to do for it.

It was superb how so many beautiful parallels were drawn between the stuff we see and don't see being played out. The series has also many little details that are easy to miss out.

The 3 first episodes seem to give away the direction the story will go, but slowly you're gonna realize that sometimes the scariest monster is within.

Some little horror elements, but more on the psychology side. Soundtrack is okay, intro is great. Voice-acting(jap) could have been better.

An enjoyable slow-burn sci-fi animation

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 1 November 2022]

This animated series is set aboard a spacecraft far from Earth. It travelled to its destination unmanned for reasons that are explained then its crew are created on a biological 3D printer. They are each copies of other people and their job will be to terraform a planet that will ultimately provide a new home for humanity. A solar flare during the printing process causes something to go wrong; one of the crew comes out as a monstrous creature that could be a threat to the others. That won't be the last problem they face.

If you are looking for plenty of action and one story per episode you are likely to be disappointed but if you are looking for something more slow burn there is plenty to enjoy here. Inevitably there are some clichés but I still enjoyed the series. The character designs are very distinctive; at first I thought they were a bit too odd but they grew on me as the series progressed. The story provides some good tense moments well as twists that weren't too obvious. Overall I'd recommend this to sci-fi fans who also enjoy animated shows.

Not sure how to feel

[samrosenbaum-823-417674 · 7/10 · 31 December 2022]

"Exception" is a highly cerebral story that's not for people with short attention spans or those wanting lots of action, although there is some in the last two episodes. I did not mind the character designs and think the reason for them is that the reprints are stylized versions of the original people, materializing attributes of their personalities and worldviews. The reason the ship carrying a small crew is so large is that it's carrying a large atmospheric converter.

However, without spoiling any details, the supposedly happy ending for a subset of characters is tempered by what is done to achieve it, an act which Mr. Spock would describe as "a crime against science." That may have been the point.

It's watchable

[krachtm · 6/10 · 22 October 2022]

A crew of synthetic humans is tasked with terraforming an alien planet ahead of a slower colony ship. Sounds like an interesting science fiction premise, right? But then this plot is basically abandoned and replaced with some silly philosophical questions. The themes are a bit tedious if you've ever read any short stories by Philip K. Dick, but it's certainly watchable.

The art is reasonably good. Sometimes it seems pretty detailed, and other times not so much. It looks like they were given a decent budget and made good use of it. It's definitely better than average for the stuff on Netflix. The animation itself was usually fine, but the frame rate occasionally made character movements seem unnatural. I remember once being abruptly snapped out of watching an episode because someone's movements seemed to fall into the uncanny valley.

Character design is a bit odd. Each character has a color theme, like a blue uniform, blue hair, blue socks, blue blue blue. You know, I like blue quite a lot, but I sometimes wear other colors, too. It's an attention-getting stylistic choice but a bit perplexing, even for anime. For example, the blue characters sometimes seem to have blue-tinted skin, too. I'm not sure exactly why certain characters were blue-themed, but others were green. Maybe it was based on temperament or job?

The plot is generally fine, and I liked it. However, it's likely that, at any given point in time, you'll already know the next two upcoming plot twists, which can make the show seem more slow-paced than it is. Unfortunately, the characters routinely overexplain their motivations or recite overt exposition to each other. The way everything is spoon-fed makes it seem like the dialogue wasn't written for an adult audience.

There are a small handful of scenes with nudity that look like they were included solely for the reason of a check mark. However, on the positive side, all of the characters are adult scientists. Amazingly, there are no high school children in the entire show. It makes me feel a bit better about recommending this to other adults.

So, if you're over 30, and you're not an obsessive anime fan, should you watch this? Sure, why not. If you're a science fiction fan, you'll probably be pretty forgiving of its flaws.

There's an imposter among us

[roygln12 · 7/10 · 17 October 2022]

6.5/10 First things first, the animation is beautiful albeit a bit shaky at times. The original score is beautiful but the rest of the music was quite disappointing.

This show definitely feels like a missed opportunity. The world building (both figurative and literal) is interesting and makes you want to know more about the back story. However, the main issue of this show is in its writing. The plot twists were either easily predictable or straight out of left field. The characters all seem very one dimensional apart for the one or two outliers whose character arcs evolve either too suddenly.

Unfortunately, the exposition in the first few episodes made it seem like the writers felt the need to hold your hand for you to understand their concept. On top of that, most of the dialogue between the characters is simply not convincing enough to believe they are real (which is pretty ironic considering how the characters come to be).

By the last episode, i didn't feel particularly attached to any of the characters.

There were a few plot holes yes, but nothing that had a major impact on the show in my opinion. Watch it if you have some time to kill but don't expect to get your mind blown.

One last thing i forgot to mention: the action sequences were laughably rigid and poorly choreographed but hey, that wasn't the point of this series.

Great til

[starvingartsmemphis · 6/10 · 15 October 2022]

You had me and it is beautifully done and up until the third episode where the green guy doesn't tell everyone that he was saved by misprint Lewis. That doesn't make any sense. And that is an enormous shame because the animation and the storyline and the imagination are all very beautiful. That was just a bizarre oversight. If the crew knew that he was sentient, a very clearly would have allowed him to live. I'm sorry to hearth on about it but in order to communicate this information to you I have to leave it in a review and there are a required number of characters that I am just about to hit here.

It's fine

[therealadambeck · 7/10 · 15 October 2022]

Yet another mediocre Netflix animation. It's fine. The art and character designs are beautiful. The concept is intriguing. The voice cast is also quite good. Tbh, it's all really quite alright. However, it leans heavily on tropes that have been played out for decades. Nearly every conversation feels like it's being had solely for the benefit of the audience. It rarely feels like characters are talking to eachother, merely acting as vessels for exposition. So much is stated that should really be common knowledge for anyone in such a universe. Not only that, but it will often be repeated several times to ensure that the audience misses nothing.

Loved it from start to finish

[Silent_Rocco · 9/10 · 17 October 2022]

I was absolutely enthralled by Exception from the very first to the very last minute. A truly original high-concept science fiction anime with stunning worldbuilding, creative and often intelligent writing, and a stylized and colorful CGI look that I grew to love immediately. Got some Aeon Flux and some Lexx vibes. One of the most interesting and unique shows in a very long time, and I'm happy Netflix got this thing made. The elegiac soundtrack was also very special and constantly created a dream-like atmosphere.

Only writing to reach the the stupid 600 character limit right now (dear team IMDB, please change that).

Worth a watch if you're intrigued

[olivia_grace-73536 · 6/10 · 4 April 2023]

The premise is fascinating and the first part of the story had me hooked. At some point, though, it seemed like things just went in a whole different direction that wasn't interesting to me anymore. The story became predictable and tedious, and it kind of felt like previous themes were dropped for new ones. (They do really hit you over the head several times with, "What makes one human?" in the first few episodes.)

I don't really get the character design of assigning each person a head-to-toe color, but it didn't take away from the story or anything. I thought the voice acting was decent. The art style is unique. And as I said before, the beginning had me hooked.

Overall, I'd say if it sounds interesting to you, give it a go. It's only 8 episodes.

An Exception

[UltraMaximal · 5/10 · 18 October 2022]

At first glance I almost didn't give this a chance. Then I started it. I was immediately turned off by the stiff ultra cheap imported animation that is generally and genuinely cold and boring. The difference in the art style and art deco themes made the animation easier to deal with but albeit slightly.

As I progressed I became surprised by the story. In general it has several plots and subplots running throughout and some of the ideas are very fresh and welcoming. The writing is good and the voice acting is generally pretty good and somewhat convincing for a production like this on Netflix.

It could have been awfulf but instead was very decent and kept my attention.

10/10 would watch again!

[DimmesdaleViktor · 10/10 · 17 October 2022]

At first I saw the art style and thought it was a bit strange. I usually don't like non traditional anime but after the first episode I was completely sucked in. The characters and designs are charming and the story is so thoughtfully written. The animation is very well done and the expression that's brought out in their models is very eye catching. I binged the entire thing in one night which I don't usually do unless something takes all my attention. I won't spoiler much but I highly recommend it if you love sci-fi horror themes as much as me. If you're looking for something to pass the time you better go give this masterpiece a watch. :)

First Insights

[spartalileonidas · 7/10 · 13 October 2022]

Animation's framerate is not high so watching it on 1.5 speed really helps show to be enjoyable.

There are multiple science-fiction genres in this show.

Biotechnology and neuroscience is super advanced, space travel and physics are also advanced. Has is own unique atmosphere.

Character design has gender-fluid elements but its netflix so no worries.

Each character has differences and unique principle.

There is also one more thing which is too important; printing weapons is forbidden besides they do not want to solve their problem with complete violence. But you will see progression of how and when they decided to switch to brute force. Storyline was good and immersive. It was not cliche. However ending was not unique.

Good start, idiot ending

[omnimog · 4/10 · 15 October 2022]

Starts out pretty well. I love philosophical sci-fi like this. But very much like Raised by Wolves. It ends up as idiotic as possible. It falls flat on what it tries to in last few episodes; silly character "development", mystery, motivation, plot holes, zero emotional gravitas. It even sounds like the voice actors realized it by their decreasingly flatter delivery on dialogue. A real let down. But hey, lots of people seem to like the abysmally written stupidity that the first season of Raised by Wolves spiraled into as well so what do I know. Great score by the brilliant Ryuichi Sakamoto at least.

Interesting Japanese Science Fantasy

[migusilva · 6/10 · 18 October 2022]

Exception is more Science Fantasy than Science Fiction. It doesn't dwell into details about technology or what each scientist does, it's based on aesthetics and philosophy. This can be seen in the way that each scientist dresses according to their own style instead of the trademark white lab coat, and how they are constantly asking about human nature and what is morally correct. More fantastical elements can be seen in the shape of the spaceship and the way technology works. These elements aren't negative plot-wise, however there are parts that required further development. The basic premise of the story is that humanity is fleeing Earth because something is wrong there. Exception doesn't elaborate on what is going on and leaves two possibilities: A) aliens ruined Earth somehow or B) humans ruined Earth and adopted alien technology. After fleeing Earth, humanity is frozen in cryogenic sleep in order to travel into deep space while another ship is used to terraform a planet for them. Upon a giant fish shaped ship, a 3D alien printer copies people to start the process while humanity doesn't arrive. The story doesn't explain how humans mastered these alien machines but somehow they are capable of duplicating it. Many problems appear after one copying process doesn't work and a person is made like a "monster" (more like a dragon). Most of the team wants to kill it except one of the scientists. This is one the best parts of the plot because it's essentially Pro-Life instead of the Pro-choice stance that Netflix loves to utilize. The story continues but it doesn't dwell so much into ethical questions like: Do printed people have souls? Are printed organisms human? Is all life sacred? And many others. The antagonists are essentially propelled through emotions: They don't want to let humanity to live on the planet because it means that the existing life forms will die and it's the first time they met aliens. That doesn't make sense since that means humanity will die and humans are life forms. The ending is very provocative because, despite being beautiful, it leaves the viewer with an empty feeling. Are they really humans? Was this worth it? Why did they leave Earth?

New-ish?

[ritokessah · 6/10 · 15 October 2022]

Eco, eco, eco-terro.. forming.

Fun graphics, not bad characters, twists in plot are good enough but plot itself was hurt by wish to show some actioooon, ma~an! So as stupid decisions. Without it it could be boring. Or more unique?

Lets see. We have band of terraformers. They must prepare a planet for humanity. This mission is out of comission from the very start, you'll see why yourself, but all that plot stubbornly hangs on this fatality.

What if it was not this case? What it could be instead? Aliens? Old story. Sudden magical intelligent dragonthingys in apparently techno-universe? Interesting, but also solid cliche. Peaceful travel without troubles? Booring. With troubles but smart ones? Possible. Harsh twists like fake travel or anything like this? Closer, tell me more.

And pieces of that you may notice here. But just pieces.

So - not bad, but could be better. Not enough imagination or..?

ok

[rdvljunk · 6/10 · 30 October 2022]

There us a lot to dislike about this series. The visuals are terrible, some weird esotheric simplistic computer graphics that lack any feeling, they're cold and dull. The music is even worse. It looks like it is there to disrupt the visuals, rather than to emphasize the atmosphere of the moment. Also the whole setting is weird. Why do you need a spaceship that size, complete with endless corridors and huge stairways. It simply makes no sense. Also if there is a misprint, you would expect a blob or something, not a well-formed monster

There story is however interesting enough to keep watching it to see how it ends.

Netflix calls this a mix between Ghost in the Shell and inception. Clearly written by someone who only read the one-line abstract of those movies. Referring this to those movies, certainly Ghost in the Shell, is nothing more than a huge insult to both movies .

distinct anime, simple but effective plot, very beautiful animation

[watchplusmoon · 7/10 · 18 February 2023]

I stumbled across this anime without knowing anything about it just because i wanted to watch no stylized common anime and from the thumbnails the stylization differs alot.

And i watched it from the 1st episode it strucked me, the animation and character design is beautiful eventhough not 2d hand drawn and very different to those common disney 3d style; and could not help to notice sensei yoshitaka amano credit as designer at ending/op theme...

the story revolving space theme is fresh albeit few characters but theme and storyline were very smooth and enjoyable. The dialog is immersing too not gaudy like typical japanese anime; this is a serious but not a gory anime if you will...

i feel that the studio animates well; everything felt fresh from replicating amano sensei design, the space matters design, biology and concrete futuristic design with biological theme such as 'womb printer', fishlike spaceship, interior design and planets/astral objects were convincing; enjoyable.

The fact that few people will watch this on netflix is saddening, and the exposure for this anime is minimal at best..i mean, i found it only by navigating around but to those who watched and understand will be delighted, kudos!

Brilliant! Finally an anime for adult and not geek nerds

[ron_iamamo · 10/10 · 16 November 2022]

Don't listen to the bad reviews, they obviously didnt get it. Sure the design and animation are not conventional. I personally loved!

We're faaar away from the tiring coming of age teenage anime. Exception focus on plot and not characters which is a great thing as average animes usually focus "just being cool".

Exception has everything: coherent tech, interesting characters, tension, friendship, ... it also makes us question on how far we're willi g to go in order to survive.

The design is what will make people not watch and that's a shame. I wasnt a huge fan of Amano's character design in the 90s but with maturity, I now really apprectiate the details brought to each character. Yes his style is feminin and it has NOTHING to do with political trans/gender issues, he's been designing character this way since the 80s!!!

Give it a go, it might take 2-3 episodes to get used to the design but the story is worth it! If you're a basic One piece nerd, don't bother, no one is trying to look "cool" or "goofy". This is a true scifi piece on the same level as Alien or Sunshine.

Bland, way too much telling instead of showing and not original at all

[wokkowarr · 2/10 · 17 December 2022]

Setting aside the waffling on about VERY basic moral and philosophical concepts, all of which have been sucked dry years ago, the story is just a giant series of exposition and infodumps which could easily have been implied instead of flat out stated by characters. Often times the series actually does both.

One is left with the impression that the directors of this piece had a very low opinion of their audiences average intelligence.

I personally find the contents of the story cliché, cheesy and promoting the wrong values, but that is just personal preference.

What makes this series so hilariously bad is the execution of the storyline in the worst way possible: None of the characters truly behave in a consistent manner and they all clearly only serve as plot devices. This makes it dificult to perceive them as actual personalities.

I guess this could have been done intentionally, as the entire series from its art style, the voice acting and all the way to the actual thoughts and ideas of its people feel very unnatural, forced and artificial.

This theme is also developed a tiny bit durong the series, but while all the actual information is stated very plainly, this philosophical issue they have tried to tackle is severely underdeveloped.

I get the value of art which makes you feel "negative" emotions when engaging with it, but I feel that the creators of this series have hit that uncanny valley where the concept works in the abstract and you can see what they are going for, but it ultimately just makes for a very annoying experience as it doesn't actually "click" the way it was supposed to.

This might again just be personal preference though. If you like feeling detached, this might just be for you.

All the sci-fi aspects of the series are also very badly written, leading to gaping plotholes and internal inconsistencies in the story itself.

This is even the case without considering the "plan" of the antagonists, which is so hilariously bad and convoluted that it gives any rube goldberg machine a run for its money.

I could have written everything this series was trying to tell me on a post-it note and I still would have managed to fit my shopping list on there.

I'm still giving this a two star rating because one can see that some amount of effort and misguided vision went into this, and they at the very least tried to do something new and different.

Sadly, that attempt failed in every single way, but I can still respect the vision& the effort.

Exception is exceptional

[sfastronaut · 10/10 · 21 October 2022]

The anime "Exception" is exceptional -- exceptionally good, that is. I tend to think some of the reviewers were either not very perceptive or did not watch the full 8 episodes. Some of the things that annoyed me early on became fully explained as I came to understand the characters better later on. Music and animation -- especially the depiction of the characters -- are excellent. In some places the anime is derivative, but it is also very original in places. The two versions of the character Lewis make for an excellent central element of the story.

Exception works well as a limited series, but it also leaves open many possibilities for a second season -- exploring what happens if and when the ship full of human colonists arrives, and the fate of the as yet undefined native species of the alien planet.

Skip it

[slidextreme · 3/10 · 13 October 2022]

What a waste of time. The Animation is great. The music not so much. The story and plot was so annoying for the first 4 Episodes I can't imagine anyone wanting to finish the series. I will because I don't do that on principle. I found myself wondering when Ripley was going to show up and start shooting Aliens. A better comparison and a better movie to compare it to that's not an Anime would be "Sunshine". Watch that...I'm sure it would be more enjoyable. They went through every science fiction trope you can think of and they did a lousy job in the process. I'm going to have to recommend skipping this one.

Truly remarkable.

[shroomanp · 10/10 · 25 October 2022]

Having just binged this in its entirety (the ONLY way to watch it!), I must say that it is truly remarkable.

Conceptually brilliant, philosophically akin to Ghost in The Shell, dealing as it does with the nature of consciousness, our perception of our own existence and identity, and what it means to be truly human, with a story that plays out somewhere between John Carpenter's 'The Thing' and an Agatha Christie whodunnit, right up until the final (double!) episode, where it becomes both a race against time, and a battle for survival.

The artwork is visually stunning, with a vibrant colour palate, the soundtrack is perfectly fitting with its ethereal qualities, and its excellent voice cast (English dub) adds depth and humanness to each of the characters.

A tremendous achievement, and a real treat for all true anime fans, and fans of high concept science fiction in general.

Just one thing before I go- to the absolutely idiotic person who rated this 1/10 after only watching the first ten minutes, because they 'didn't like the frame rate'- people like you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a keyboard, much less be allowed to rate something you neither watched nor understood.

A breathtaking 10/10 🍄

Starts slow and then we suddenly accelerate...

[doggieu · 5/10 · 13 April 2023]

Slow-burn is probably one way to put it but as far as the story goes, this is probably it until the big reveal and then everything is bundled up in the last 2 episodes.

What I really liked was the animation style... it seems at first glance to be a bit choppy, mixing in the anime look and cell shading that give the backgrounds a 90s 3D video game vibe, while the character animation is... okay.

When it comes to story, it has an interesting premise and there is gradual build up that was quite enjoyable. I really would not refer to this one as a horror but if it is because (spoiler alert) everyone dies, then perhaps it should be called more of a tragedy. I wouldn't really clammer for a Season 2 but all in all, I guess I stand to be corrected by the team at Netflix!!

Wow

[hannahwilliams-mail · 10/10 · 15 October 2022]

Amazing character design, fun story telling/ literal world building. This show was gorgeous, though the 3D aspect was a little bit awkward. Patty and Mack were my favourite character designs. I love the shape of the ship. I really would be interested in a follow up, as I want to know what happens next for humanity. How does everyone react to what happened to the crew. It was not necessarily horror, but it was still interesting. It has some thriller aspects but not too much, I guess there was some body horror and existential horror but not enough to be called a horror animation. It is very good though, despite the mis-genre-ing. XD.

Not that Great

[18Buddha · 5/10 · 17 April 2023]

The animation art visuals looks terrible and i guess very different in a bad way.

I do like the plot of the story with Humans expanding to the stars and needing too find a new planet and so on so that intrigued me too keep watching even though again the animation was terrible.. literally the worst animation I have seen in along time besides those motion comic style animes.

While I do enjoy the plot but the writers lazily tried to drag things out and in many instances I had to click fast forward to skip frames cause alot of it was useless stalled moments.

Many times i would rewind to see what I missed but everytime it was nothing.. just long pauses with characters standing around saying n doin nothing. It makes me think they couldnt fill the time allocation for the anime so they filled it with lots of useless pauses .

Also they tried to drag things out with the enemy, many times releasing the enemy only for them too keep coming back too attack or hurt them again. It got so ridiculous that i had to rate this anime so low.

If they didnt keep dragging things out just to take up time for full episodes I would have rated a 7/10, if the visuals werent so cheap It would have also gained 8/10 but since they did so its 5/10 for me.

I would not recommend this.. this is nowhere near being an anime you might consider watching again in the far future lol. Not even close at all.