Beatless

With the significant advancement of technology, humans have created hIEs, man-like robots that help humans in their daily lives. Arato Endou is a student who highly values these machines and treats them as equals; however, he needs more money to afford one. His life is turned upside down when a standard shopping spree goes awry. Arato is attacked by the hacked hIE and is on the verge of death.

However, he is rescued by Lacia, one of the five highly intelligent hIEs who escaped from the mysterious MemeFrame Corporation. Faced with danger, Lacia offers him a deal he can't refuse: in exchange for saving her life, Arato will become Lacia's new owner and take responsibility for her actions. Knowing he has no choice, Arato agrees and gives Lacia refuge in his home.

Beatless is an anime from the winter season of 2018 that aired from January to June and has 20 episodes. It is an adaptation of the light novel of the same name from 2011. It got its last arc, Beatles Finale Stage, in September of that year. The anime was produced by Studio Diomedea, known for the series Domestic Girlfriend, Aho Girl, and many others.

Beatless is an anime that looked promising at the very beginning. The first episode set a high standard, and the audience expected a lot from this futuristic drama. However, it took only a short time for all hopes to be dashed.

To say the Beatless story was a mess would be an understatement. The anime's theme is neither original nor bad, but how the plot was executed could have been better. Instead of an exciting action that puts human morals to the test and questions the safety of working with artificial intelligence, studio Diomedea gave us a passive, inconsistent story full of unnecessary details.

The first and fundamental problem of this story is its passivity. In an action anime full of plot and conflict, something relevant happens only occasionally. The parts of the plot that should leave viewers breathless were done very cheaply, and hardly anyone cared what happened next. The writers somehow managed to make the action sci-fi story unbearably boring in the hopes that the ideologies they were throwing around would make people love Beatless.

Of course, it didn't work because simply talking about the problems of society is not enough for this kind of story to work. It was necessary to show the mentioned ideologies' consequences on humanity for the anime to be taken seriously. As this did not happen, it is challenging to experience Beatless as a deep story with a revolutionary message.

The already poorly presented story needs to be helped by the pacing, which could be faster. Most events are stretched to their maximum, making the anime often unwatchable. The creators achieved this much procrastination and passivity by constantly adding new information that makes anime unnecessarily long and overly confusing. It was another attempt to make Beatless into a complex story, which again didn't work.

The thing that definitely killed the pacing of this anime is the entirely redundant recap episodes. This is an anime with a total of 24 episodes, and all those recaps need to be more varied and distributed. Two episodes after the third recap, the fourth appears, and the only reason is the desire to make the anime even longer. They certainly succeeded in that, although I wonder if it was worth it. Looking at the story as a whole, the only positive aspect would be the comedy that can make you laugh.

As bad as the story is, it can't even compare to the characters that killed the soul of this anime. There needs to be a solidly written character, from the protagonist and the secondary characters to the villains. Like the story, the characters are passive, but that's certainly not their biggest problem. Their dullness and lack of personality are so visible that you'll wonder how someone thought of this. Headed by the protagonist, a lost cause, all the characters have one personality trait that is also very annoying most of the time.

Arato is the classic naive good-hearted boy who spends most of his time whining. Although he had his moments, for the most part, he was useless and boring to watch. Any other character, however one-dimensional, gave more than the protagonist, who is meant to be the bridge between humans and hIEs. His design isn't that great either, which is a shame, considering how he looks in the light novel. With a main character like that, it's no wonder the story didn't progress.

Unfortunately, the list of poorly written characters does not end with Arato. Aside from him, there is also the annoying younger sister Yuka, the edgy friend Ryo, and the other hIEs. The most important is Lacia, the main heroine, who is not much more advanced than the protagonist. But thanks to her at least participation in the story and Beatless Final Stage, it can be said that she is still one of the better characters.

Apart from her, among the robots are Snowdrop, whose motives and actions we do not understand to this day, and Saturnus, who served exclusively to satisfy lovers of maids. The remaining hIEs are Kouka and Methode, who, to everyone's surprise, were relatively good characters. Kouka, even though stereotypical and cliche, was the most entertaining character. Unfortunately, episode 16 happened, and our image of her was ruined. However, she is still one of the best things in the Beatless.

Methode is the only villain with reasonable motives. However, they weren't enough to make her a good character. As good as her reasons were, her acting completely overshadowed those motives, and all her potential was wasted. But the difference between her and other villains like Ginga and Erika Burrows, who were awful even by this anime's standards, should definitely be praised.

Although not many, it would be fair to mention the good aspects of this anime. The animation itself was not something you would characterize as a work of art, but the anime was utterly okay to watch. Some of the fight scenes were strange, but considering the budget, which was probably a problem for this show, the looks are absolutely fine. The character designs are also good, except for the protagonist, but if you've read the light novel, you know how much better these designs were there. The last thing about this anime that needs to be praised is the music, which was truly phenomenal. Both openings are tremendous, and you'll rarely skip them. The endings were alright too, and the Sound Tracks were the same.

It would be easiest to describe Beatless as wasted potential. This anime had all the conditions to be a good story; however, the approach of studio Diomedea could have been better. Themes such as humanity, equality, the virtues, and the dangers of artificial intelligence are excellent story starters that were horribly executed. The characters had no space to show their qualities, and the pacing had to improve. Still, as bad as it is, Beatless is an anime that many call their guilty pleasure, and you can find something to entertain yourself in this story.