Through an incisive article by JD Cowan on the decline of pop culture, I found a trailer for a new anime-style Netflix series called Neo Yokio:
I thought that, at the very least, it would be a cringe volcano, but judging from the trailer, it’s worse than that.
It’s dull and lifeless.
No excitement
The characters look like they’re just going through the motions. Their voices are utterly without emotion, the jokes are uninspired, and everyone sounds like they’d rather be doing something else. Keep in mind that tnis is the trailer, where the most impactful scenes are showcased, and every scene shown had all the energy of a cold bowl of oatmeal. None of the characters set themselves apart in any way, and the high-class violin music only clashed with the occult-fighting vibe they were going for. It does a poor job of selling both its characters and its premise.
No sense of setting
Neo Yokio is set nowhere in particular. It’s not a recognizable counterpart of a real country or city, nor is it a fantasy or alien world with different ideas blended in an interesting way. Instead, we get a highly generic “Everyville” with nothing to make it engaging. While I do not expect a highly detailed setting in the manner of Lord of the Rings or even Star Trek, I at least expect a show to take place somewhere that holds my attention. But here, we get a setting intended to be as inoffensive as possible. Not a good sign.
Of course, this is only a trailer. Maybe the full show will actually be good; however, that isn’t likely. I predict that the show will be passable at best — not a complete garbage fire, but nothing to write home about either.
Showbiz kids make anime of themselves; they don’t give a fuck about anybody [really, anything] else.
This feels like a profane relic from the heyday of Robot Chicken. I hope it bombs. For the sake of the children. But then again, as it’s on Netflix, we’ll never hear about it if it does.
Yeah, I’m not too optimistic about this.