I don’t understand the purpose of this show.
“Ando Lloyd” was just as sleek, cold, and impersonal as Lloyd himself. I just could not find the heart in it, even with his last impassioned plea that “humans were worth saving” or some nonsense I didn’t really care about. Honestly, thinking about this show just makes me so annoyed lmfao
I left this drama with an appreciation for Shibasaki Kou, which I thought would never happen. It was unfortunate that they did absolutely nothing with her character and she was only allowed to not die/consistently be saved. And you know who else didn’t die? EVERYONE ELSE IN THE SHOW. Lloyd went on and on about how Ando Asahi was not permitted to die, and yet… he didn’t allow anyone else to die either. Suppli’s sacrifice (episode 6) and resurrection (episode 8) took away from the emotional breakthrough that Lloyd was supposed to have received — it was supposed to be such a big thing! LLOYD WAS HAVING FEELS, GUYS. But time and time again, characters were killed (Isaku and Nanase entered life-threatening, if not life-ending situations TWICE) and there were no real consequences.
The pacing was also quite terribad. This is actually one of the few dramas (read: only) I was able to follow this season, and I watched it every week without fail. Imagine my surprise when Week 7 rolled around I realized that there were only three episodes left and nothing was happening. And when things did happen, they were completely inorganic (heh). What’s that you say? Matsushima Nanase killed her parents and suffers from dissociative identity disorder? Well, I never! To be fair, Nanase did go crazy when Asahi told her that not only was her brother dead, there’s an android gallivanting around that looks exactly like him. But multiple personalities? Now, sis…
There was also something about the ARX-series androids being commissioned by some old French executioner family which… OK. Whatever. Come episode 10, I wasn’t invested in the story or concept. There was so much mystery and so much pseudo-technological bombast that nothing really seemed to come together to create an engaging viewing experience.
I felt somewhat optimistic about the first two episodes, I really did. I’m just not sure who to blame for this — the fact that KimuTaku’s latest offerings have been piss-poor or that Nishiogi Yumie can’t actually write a good story anymore. “SPEC” was one of the most fantastical dramas I’ve ever watched, and I’m seriously reconsidering whether I liked it because it was that good or if I was pleased by all the sci-fi/mystery elements. It’s a shame because I love the mythology behind robots/cyborgs just as much as I love learning about space, but Ando Lloyd just didn’t do it for me. I get so annoyed going through the episodes again and trying to pinpoint where it could have possibly gone wrong… I knew we were up for trouble when Lloyd ran out of Asura OS juice, but damn.
I’m a glutton for punishment when it comes to watching dramas, but I think I’ll have to take a KimuTaku sabbatical. For a long time I thought his dramas were the only good things about the Johnny’s Jimusho factory, but I have since seen the light. Bless.