Beatless: Final Stage

Arato Endou and his faithful hIE, Lacia, have reunited to show the world that artificial intelligence, no matter how brilliant, can be safely shut down. The world's super-intelligent artificial intelligence unanimously decides to abolish Lacia, which they consider a threat to humanity. As they descend into a containment facility to confront Higgins, Lacia's AI creator, the pair must fend off enemies on all fronts. Among them are Snowdrop, a wild hell-bent on devouring Higgins, and Methode, an hIE seeking revenge against Lacia.

Beatless Final Stage is the last part of the Beatless anime from 2018. It came out three months after the original series and contained four episodes. Studio Diomedea, known for its series "Domestic Girlfriend," is responsible for the production of the entire series.

Beatless Final Stage directly continues the story of its predecessor and retains the already familiar concept. Although it managed to fix some of the problems in the first 20 episodes, this sequel still suffers from many issues, which is why it's often described as "wasted potential."

The main reason this sequel, like the rest of the story, is a failure is a need for a concrete plot. From the beginning to the end of the anime, in almost every episode, there is information dumping by which the author tries to explain how the world works. However, in the case of the Beatless Final Stage, it only works if the laws of this world condition concrete examples and actions. Again, the story is based on endless monologues and accumulated information that is impossible to remember if you watch the anime only once. The fact that we're constantly getting so many essential details throughout 24 episodes alludes to 2 things: the anime's pacing could be better, or the world of the Beatless needs to be more concise. Unfortunately, this anime has a problem with both.

The pacing problem, although there, is not so significant for the last four episodes. The bigger problem is the constant complication of this world, which is fundamentally unnecessary. The thing with this anime is that it keeps trying to look smart by talking about the clash of ideologies and human nature. But the problem is that these phenomena are only talked about. The author tries to make the audience think this is a revolutionary work that hides the answers to technological progress and human nature questions. However, it doesn't really work because nothing concrete is shown. We heard that the stock market went down, but we did not see the consequences of it, just as we do not see the implications of the war between computers and humans.

The only thing relatively well done in Final Stage is the villain who wants autonomy in the world. However, considering the subject matter of the anime, it would be strange if they got this wrong.

As big as the problems mentioned earlier are, the characters make Beatless Final Stage an average anime at best. The entire cast could be better written and developed from the protagonist to the villains. You will forget all the characters a few days after the end of the series because apart from their solid looks, they have nothing to offer. The most debatable character is precisely the protagonist, Arato, who is the definition of an empty character. Besides having the worst design among the characters, he has the least to offer both in combat and as a "bridge" between the world of humans and artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, the list of flawed characters does not end with him.

Each character has one personality trait we must watch until the end. Among them, the most important would be Lacia, a classic mysterious waifu that we learn about little by little. The secondary characters are so forgettable that you won't even know their names while watching, and as for the hIE characters, they aren't any better. Still, in the end, her story could be more original and fantastically done.

Beatless Final Stage was an ambitious attempt to present the benefits and dangers of coexistence between humans and artificial intelligence. The characters could have lived up to expectations, and there was no concrete plot. The last four episodes came down to the romance between Arato and Lacia, the ending of which absolutely everyone could have predicted.

The best aspects of “Beatless Final Stage” are the character design and music. Neither of them was done superbly, but the anime is undoubtedly beautiful to the eye, and the opening and ending and the OST, were pleasant to listen to. All in all, Beatless Final Stage is a sequel that, despite all attempts, could not save this series.