Hello friends. On Saturday night, I made a list of the first episodes that I should watch, and there’s one problem that I didn’t foresee before deciding to do this. Brand new series aside, there are sequels like Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack, or the 4th season of Bungou Stray Dogs. Should I include those first episodes in my first impressions as well? Or do I skip? Here’s a poll and I’d appreciate if you could vote.
Anyways, sorry for the rambling and let’s get down to business and talk about what TECHNOROID: OVERMIND has to offer!
Did I know this series beforehand? No, it’s an anime original and I went into it blindly, reading no summaries, no tags, nothing.. And boy… Was it an experience!
What is it about? What is it NOT about? Due to climate change, the sea levels have risen considerably and now a good portion of the world is submerged. This has affected the human population as well, but technology has advanced enough to have humanoid robots that take care of the work. Oscar Wilde would be in tears seeing his dream of robots taking over the mundane, everyday labor coming to life!
A group of androids that live together, Cobalt, Neon, Kei, and Chrom, one day find themselves in a pinch. Not that they would’ve defined their situation as a pinch, because no one has put in an operation request for them to pay their electricity bill. So they haven’t been paying their bills for the past year and now have to find a job. With my help the help of their cat Nora, they find out about Babel, an entertainment tower where “Climbers” sing and dance to charm the audience, and the more positive feedback they get, the closer they are to the top!
What to look out for? I think it’s safe to go in.
What do I think? Guys… when I tell you it’s been a while since I was played around with like a ping pong ball!
At first, I thought it was going to be a show with social commentary on humans and androids cohabiting, with androids being somewhat second-class citizens. Then I thought “Oh, it’s an idol show,” after the group of androids participated in a selection. But they quickly got eliminated so I was like, that was a gag I guess (?). Then on their way back, they help one kid we see at the beginning who has lost his foster dad, that’s when I was sure I nailed what the series was about, this group of androids was going to help other people. At this point, I was tired of trying to figure stuff out. But with one last “SIKE!”, TECHNOROID: OVERMIND turned out to be an idol anime after all because our guys went back to try the audition once more.
Visually, it’s not a bad-looking show. Bright colors, good-looking guy-presenting-androids, and minimal action are the saving grace of this series. Similar to some of the other idol shows I checked out, the dances are animated using 3D CGI. While understandable, it creates a difference in texture between the daily lives of the characters and when they are on the stage performing. There’s the usual color coding for the individual characters that reflect their personalities.
As for world-building, we are given enough information about how the current situation is in the world without being overwhelming. However, after seeing what happened at the end of the episode, I understand that the commentary on human-android cohabitation won’t end here and will be carried to the following episodes. I don’t know how that will mesh with the whole idol business, and being reminded of Carole and Tuesday, I feel like there will also be a side of “creating something that touches the hearts of masses in the age of automatization” to all of the above.
I’m not one to enjoy idol anime and while I know it’s too early for a final verdict, what I see in the first episode of TECHNOROID feels too ambitious and this original work might be shooting itself in the foot by overcomplicating a theme that otherwise could be somewhat interesting.
Will I continue watching? As I said, I’m not a fan of idol anime, and unless I’m bored out of my mind or I read a really enthusiastic review, I won’t be keeping up with it. Although for the fans of the genre, TECHNOROID can be a fun and pretty-looking series!
Eager to hear your thoughts on idol anime in general and on TECHNOROID: OVERMIND specifically! Have you seen the first episode? Would you be willing to? Let me know and see you tomorrow with another taste test.
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I watched the first episode and I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. I think I’ll give it a few more episodes before I decide whether I’ll keep watching it. Though, there are quite a few really good anime coming out this season, so this series will have a lot of competition for my anime watching time.
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“(…) so this series will have a lot of competition for my anime watching time.”
Definitely agree with you here. With seasons full of goodness and already busy lives, it’s not ideal trying and forcing to stick with an OK series. Although, as you pointed out, it’s not too bad that you’d immediately drop either. : )
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