KADO: The Right Answer
Sci-Fi anime are almost always a welcome treat to eager fans. These anime of speculative fiction portray both imaginative and futuristic concepts within their run. They typically feature concepts of highly advanced science, technology, space ventures, time travel, parallel universes, and at times even extraterrestrial life. Using these ambitious concepts to the anime’s greater success can go either way, hit or miss.
KADO: The Right Answer, also known as Seikaisuru Kado, is a pure Sci-Fi genre anime series. This is a 12 episode TV series that started airing on 7th April and concluded on 30th June, as a Spring 2017 title. The series was produced by Kinoshita Group Holdings, licensed by Funimation and Crunchyroll, and brought to life by Studio Toei Animation. The leading staff consists of Director Watanabe Masaki, Producer Noguchi Kouichi, Director Murata Kazuya, and Sound Director Nagasaki Yukio. The series is rated PG-13 for Teenagers 13 years or older.
Seikaisuru Kado is an original series adapted from the 3 volume Manga of the same title by Author Nozaki Mado and Artist Okuhashi Mutsumi in 2017.
A prequel to the series exists in a single episode ONA titled “Seikaisuru Kado: Ninovo” (KADO: The Right Answer - Ninovo), which aired on 6th April 2017.
Additionally, two summaries were released for the series; a single Special episode titled “Seikaisuru Kado: Ekwari” (KADO: The Right Answer – Ekwari, Seikaisuru Kado Recap, Seikaisuru Kado Episode 6.5 or, Seikaisuru Kado Special) on 19th May 2017 and a single episode ONA titled “Seikaisuru Kado: Beyond Information” (KADO: The Right Answer – Beyond Information or Seikaisuru Kado Episode 12.5) on 21st May 2018.
The series is built around three protagonists. One of them is the level-headed and highly rational Koujirou Shindou. He is an experienced government official with top-notch negotiating skills, which had, in turn, earned him quite an indisputable reputation. Shindou’s plane encounters a peculiar giant cube that materializes out of thin air during a particular business trip and takes the aircraft itself, unscathed, into this mysterious and indestructible cube structure.
Following this incident, the Japanese authorities make an effort to identify this cube's properties and origins. At this time, Shindou happens upon an otherworldly entity called “Yaha-kui zaShunina,” who materializes before him in the form of a human being. This being then proceeds to assure Shindou that none of the passengers are in any danger and requests aid for negotiating with human society.
Yaha-kui zaShunina is an entity hailing from a much higher dimensional universe called “Novo.” He can transfer information between the Novo universe and Shindou's universe via a special cube termed “Kado.” While having such impressive capabilities and undeniably being a much higher entity, he is not the least bit hostile towards humanity. In contrast, he proclaims to have traversed to the human world for one reason only, a clear-cut goal of "advancing" human society, and he wants to start with no other country than Japan itself.
Seikaisuru Kado has a very interesting premise, and the anime uses this aspect very well initially. Yaha-kui zaShunina appears on earth mysteriously and offers to advance human society to a much higher point.
Shindou’s gifts as a negotiator make the communication between this “alien” and the government flow pretty smoothly. As expected from this type of setup, Yaha-kui and Shindou associate quite closely over time, end up learning a lot about each other, and become good friends, despite their overwhelming differences and circumstances.
But Yaha-kui’s abilities are vast and incomprehensible to humanity, making way for difficult circumstances like threatening the existing international resources, power relations, and balance. Soon, a much bigger question concerning the more comprehensive picture arises: “Why?”
So many intriguing factors to work with, and the anime does an amazing job with these during the first few episodes; actually, they explore the concepts quite vividly. But unfortunately, this is as far as it’ll go because after around the 8th episode, the answers received for the suspenseful questions built up are neither intelligent, reasonable, nor satisfactory and will likely leave viewers disappointed with the outcome.
The series holds so much promise, but it all comes crumbling down towards the end. Multiple important questions raised in early episodes end up getting resolved by “deus ex machina” tropes. Things are explained using meaningless words, with a painful amount of effort to make them sound profound. While the reasoning can be understood, almost nothing leads up to them, and zero foreshadowings are done. This makes them too convenient, and no viewer will feel any satisfaction with the resolution provided.
It mainly boils down to lousy execution: the story cornered itself and was stuck with no proper answers for all the pressing concerns built up, all in the span of a few episodes. Ultimately, they had to finish what they started and had no choice but to go with the unsatisfactory resolutions, ruining a story that could have achieved great heights.
The characters of Seikaisuru Kado are comparatively done a bit better. The developing relationship between Shindou and Yaha-kui is particularly well done. It clearly portrays an alien’s growing connection to his newfound friend via subtle gestures and some in-your-face memento keeping.
The relationship feels very realistic, as they attempt to transcend cultures, linguistics, technologies, and species.
Shindou is well-done in this regard, but as a master negotiator, he does little to no negotiating. Unfortunately, the female lead is difficult to take seriously, despite her impending importance. When it comes to the romance of the series, it paled in comparison to the relationship of the human-alien duo. But it was decent and reasonably developed, albeit lacking in chemistry.
The art and animation of Seikaisuru Kado are overall done well. This is a CG-based series, and as difficult as it was to pull off at the time, they managed to do it. This is clear in the impactful action scenes, which are very smooth and have a good pace. Unfortunately, this effect is rendered obsolete due to the lackluster setting and monotonous white-collar characters, making Yaha-kui seem more otherworldly.
The CG animation itself has good quality and is consistent. Still, the overall effect is lost due to the series relying on it while completely ignoring good angles and compositions. When it comes to unique character designs, there are none. Even Shindou can easily blend into the crowd in this anime, having nothing that makes him outstanding, but this does add to his professional aura.
The other characters are almost all appealing young people but possess nothing special in their designs. They will blend into a crowd just as easily as Shindou himself. Yaha-kui’s design stands out, but it comes across as too much when surrounded by the remaining cast. For someone trying to blend in, there isn't even a shred of subtlety, making it obvious he is some otherworldly alien.
The sounds and music of Seikaisuru Kado are moderate. The OSTs are not really memorable, but they suited the themes of the anime well enough. The Opening theme is "Tabiji" by Saraka Tsukai starring Mao Ichimichi, and the Ending theme is "Eien no Kotae" by HARUCA, which are both pretty great, bringing with them a “vast and mysterious universe” vibe.
Overall, Seikaisuru Kado is quite enjoyable in the first half or so but, as aforementioned, the conclusion is very disappointing. Episodes 9 onwards become a pain to watch, as they bring with them a lot of confusion and nonsense.
The story turns on its heels in weird ways, utterly destroying its great potential. So yes, the first eight episodes are pretty good, and so are the intriguing concepts this anime juggles. It is worth a try if this setup impresses you, but be prepared for the unsatisfactory ending if you plan to watch through till the end.
