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Did you ever think about what a mix between Monster and Time of Eve would be like? It’s called Pluto and it’s a very good manga that’s getting an adaptation coming out in October. AI no Idenshi is not that series, but it’s the one that could have been, as it presents a setting with artificial people living among humans, blending in in ways that on occasions the rest can’t tell much difference, while also the main character initially wants to know more about an underground illegal seller of artificial brains, or well, more like, a “fixer” of them, and possibly the one who ruined his mom’s life.
But this anime is really neither, as it deliberately keeps any more info of the protagonist than that as a secret to build some mystery around him up until the last episode, and thus that plot point doesn’t really go anywhere in this season, and since the source material for this consists of three manga at the moment, I think it’s safe to say that it won’t get resolved for some good time.
What’s left of the series is a slice of life show exploring the interactions between humans and humanoids, in the likes of Eve no Jikan, only different because it came out in a different era. Since that other series is from 2008 to 2010, it was still showing some fear of technology, discrimination and indifference from humans to robots and some low level existential crisis for the androids since they did have a personality on their own on a specific place and would ponder about their relationships among themselves and with their human owners.
It’s not the same with AI no Idenshi, as it was made on a time where technology is much different and present everywhere and at any moment in everyday life, with the fear of it pretty much being a thing of the past. Thus, its approach ranges from the existential to one more laid back and more of “what daily uses or routines robots and artificial intelligence would have “on their own”?” type of deal. That’s not bad per se, but it is certainly lacking in theme exploration when compared with the previous work.
But that still doesn’t make it a not good anime, it would still be fine if it was a slice of life series with a small and recurring set of characters, like Eve no Jikan, but it isn’t, as it intends to show many different ones doing many different things, thus it can’t really flesh any of them properly. The most a character can get is one or even half an episode dedicated to themselves before being completely forgotten by the not plot in here, and even then, since the anime is more focused on what they do and how they do it, instead of the characters as themselves, there isn’t much characterization to speak of here either. Just take a look at the two mains, they don’t get the tiniest bit of fleshing up until the last two episodes, and even only a little bit of them is explored, and their backgrounds are revealed at almost the same time.
But even then it would still be fine it there was an ongoing plot that somehow tied the mini stories, but it isn’t, that was discarded very early on. Ok, it would still be fine as an episodic slice of life sci-fi series if the stories where fine on their own. And in that regard the show is a mixed bag because it loves to self-sabotage itself for some reason. Did you like how in the first episode the anime set up questions about how valuable your memories are and how much do they make you for who you are, even if only a fraction of them are lost for your overall sake? Well, the second one is going to be about two dudes running and surpassing your own limits purely by will even when you shouldn’t be able to, oh, and a non-binary person speaking ill of a whole sex and gender despite previously being their own. Did you like how in the third episode two people are so attached to two robots, one made for company and another one being a toy, that they can’t tell them apart from real people, and how one of the latter even has an identity crisis for retaining data of a previous owner? Well, the next one is going to have lots of different mini stories about horny teenagers using technology for their perverted fantasies.
And that’s the main problem of what and how the series is, even when disregarding everything that it could have been but isn’t, it’s a very mixed bag of mini stories where you can’t really know what level of quality you’ll get in the next episode, and even at its best, it would only be just decent, as its own approach doesn’t let it explore a concept on that much detail. Another issue is the tone, as AI no Idenshi is half the time a silly shounen comedy, thus almost no topic is looked into very seriously either. By comparison, Real Drive was also a lighthearted semi-episodic slice of life sci-fi series, but it knew when and how to explore its topics seriously, and it also had recurring characters and kind of a sort of an ongoing plot.
At some point the series even seems to run out of worthy stories to tell, and instead of dedicating one whole story per episode, it starts showing two or more on each one, thus amplifying all of its issues that I already mentioned. Not even the background stories of the two main characters get a whole one, they are shown together in the last two episodes, and it comes off as sudden and rushed. The final one is good in terms of themes and showing a connection between the protagonist and other characters, but is obviously not a conclusion for the series in the least, as there are still far more manga chapters to adapt, and the whole season ended in a way that made it feel as just a buildup for stuff to come.
It doesn’t help that the production and atmosphere of the series are also very average, with very plain looking artwork, backgrounds and special effects, simple and very limited character designs, and stiff animation, especially in the beginning, as well as just decent sound effects and music, but not the opening, which sucks. The series is half comical and half melancholic, and the intro seems to belong in Dimension W, screw that, the ending fits much better, I have a review coming out where I shit on unfitting songs. Even the voice acting feels off for some reason, I don’t know what it is but no character has a voice that’s completely fitting for them.
As a whole, it’s a very lukewarm and inconsistent episodic slice of life sci-fi series that doesn’t dedicate itself much to a point before moving to another, with an uneven tone and very forgettable characters. It’s kind of watchable for being a type of show that didn’t come out in what feels like a long time, but other than that, it has nothing against many others of its kind that you can find out there.
5/10
