EXPELLED FROM PARADISE
To clarify, before I get too deep into the actual review, I want to start by saying that I am a massive fan of Urobuchi’s work. I have been an avid reader of Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, Gargantia, and Madoka. The first thing that I want to point out is that his tendency to kill off characters and subvert narratives is not his main appeal for me.
What does, however, draw me into his work are the underlying philosophical motifs. Everything in his work touches upon some aspects of modern society, human impulses, and moral ambiguity. He closely resembled the works of Hajime Isayama and his best-selling work Shingeki No Kyojin. However, when it comes to Expelled from Paradise, it feels like a massive misstep to me personally, as the series lacks almost all the signature styles that I love about his work.
I wanted to like the story and the themes of two separate worlds colliding, but it was very unimpactful. It’s about a young woman sent from a Digi-world in outer space to a post-apocalyptic desert version of Earth to find the whereabouts of a hacker, with the help of her assistant. Halfway into the film, the story begins to lose identity and starts diving into the concepts of humanity, modernization, and morality.
Expelled from Paradise introduces these ideas but never lets them take center stage to reveal a more significant underlying motif. The story itself is very predictable too. I knew what was going to happen a lot of the time, way before it did.
Talking about the characters, Angela is a spoiled fighter from a digital world, and she remains that way for the most part. Zarik, Angela’s assistant, is a predictable tough guy who is good with computers. There’s also a sentient robot who wants to go to space.
These probably sound like toned-down character descriptions, but that’s how they’re portrayed. The characters receive minimal development, and their growth is so out of proportion that it feels forced. Dingo is the only character I could say I appreciate here, mainly because of his calm personality and carefree nature. Angela and Dingo receive the most attention and screen time in the film. Angela is a rash, bratty character who undergoes minor character development moments towards the end but remains quite uninspiring.
Dingo is a much more enjoyable character; he is a freelancer, so he can do whatever he wants. I do like the interaction between Dingo and Angela. They are both from two entirely different worlds, and the conflicting points of view are often fun to witness. Urobuchi’s writing shines in these moments, but honestly, that is the only moment it shines in this series.
Okay, before I start talking about the animation and the art. I have to say, the costumes and outfits for Angela are plain stupid. Angela's most worn “futuristic” costume was unnecessary. Why is she dressed in a swimsuit with glowsticks when she’s being sent to a planet’s desolate desert to search for a Rogue Hacker? Not only does she stick out like a sore thumb in the world, it just looks like it was an outfit created for sex appeal and felt unnecessary.
Now regarding the animation. The CGI, in my opinion, was very decent, but the deliberate lock on 6 Frames Per Second was a colossal waste of potential. They tried to imitate a hand-drawn feel but wasted a considerable part of CGI animation, the fluidity. It becomes increasingly irritable, especially during faster action scenes where it looks as if the film is lagging. I often found myself refreshing the movie to see if it would stop, only to read up and realize it was locked at 6-FPS.
The character animation also felt janky, and the missing fluidity hurt the overall animation for me. The art, however, was very well-done. It was detailed, with some stunning character designs (Aside from Angela). Although some scenes had a lot of missing detail, I guess it was due to cell-shading use. The characters were rendered pretty well. They succeeded in imitating the look of hand-drawn animation. Achieving that with CGI is a challenging task, but they did it pretty well.
The soundtrack is quite decent, though. It was very hype-heavy during action scenes and fit those specific scenes pretty well. The central theme was perfect, and I ended up listening to it long after finishing the film. Still, other than the music during the action scenes, no other songs remained memorable at all.
In conclusion, Expelled from Paradise has many ideas that it seemingly wanted to explore but couldn’t at all for some unknown reason. It constantly tosses out ideas during breaks from the action, which is the biggest flaw this film has. However, it is not the worse one out there, but there is always a better anime to watch for a mindless action film. I’d be lying if I said it needed Urobuchi to work on it; his writing presence is entirely invisible here. This is honestly a huge factor in why I can’t like the film, despite its somewhat appealing to many people.
