We’re sampling the summer season’s selection! Check out our other pilot write-up’s –
- ALDNOAH ZERO ** SWORD ART ONLINE II ** RAIL WARS ** YAMISHIBAI + AI-MAI-MI
- GLASSLIP ** AKAME GA KILL ** SAMURAI JAM ** PERSONA 4
I was a little apprehensive going into this. Based on the
synopsis, the show looked like it'd be fulfilling some of my most reliable rules
for a show being not-so-great. First, there was the needlessly-convoluted
spelling in the title. Then, there was the promise - - nay, the threat - - of this being a show about MMO’s getting’ real.
Well, there are always exceptions to rules. Sometimes, there
are even exceptions to two rules, at once.
DRAMATICAL MURDER proved to have a lot more personality I
was expecting. It’s not the dour, self-serious, pretty boy cyberpunk gloom fest
that it seemed to be shaping up to be. Interestingly enough, it’s much more
urban than expected, offering what feels like an authentic
representation of what it’d be like, being a twenty something with a shitty job in the arts district of a future megalopolis. When the MMO’s get real,
they’re far more abstract and creative than the usual pseudo-medieval
sword fight - - more like a futurist extension of rap battles,
dance-offs or competitive graffiti.
Unexpectedly, my only gripe with this show is that it’s lazy
about earning brownie points; reaching for the really
low-hanging fruit of a bully rescue on more than one occasion. Sure, it’s a
reliable way to get the job done, making your audience root for a guy who might
otherwise seem like an asshole. However, I feel like if the crew’s already using
such creativity to show what life would be like in the future (between the holographic stop signs on the
cross walks and the talking dogs), they could dig a little deeper than that
all-too-familiar scene of non-descript goons roughing a nerd up in alley or hallway. And twice, at that.
Watch "Data_01_Login" and decide for yourself.
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