M3: The Dark Metal had a good premise and a huge potential. The attention grabbing prologues were also effective and it also had a good sustained mystery for the first 10 episodes. But, the unfolding was too slow and because of that the audience had too much time to think and speculate and so, it lost the element of surprise it was trying to achieve. Thus, giving the good moment of truth the unwanted predictability!
Story
The story of the anime was pretty good. I really liked how it was developed and how it was fleshing everything out. The problem I had with it was that it took me atleast 15 episodes of the anime before I started to have a slight idea about the story and the light-less realm. Now for the actual story-line, the story follows Akashi Saginuma and his fellow classmates as they are drafted into a program developed to combat terrible creatures known as Admonitions which continue to come forth from the area known as The Light-less Realm. Several years prior to the beginning of the show, a portion of Japan was lost when suddenly all light disappeared from it. An all encompassing blackness enveloped the area and took the lives of all those inside. Inside terrible monstrosities formed from the remains of the humans whose lives had been claimed. The creatures, known as Admonitions, have ventured forth from the light-less realm, attacking the surrounding population. In order to combat these creatures and learn more about the Light-less Realm, Akashi and his fellows students, numbering eight in total, are put into a program to train them in combat against the Admonitions as well as to explore the Light-less Realm. But, then the group learns that there is far more going on then what they had initially thought.
Characters
Well, I really hate to admit it. But, the characters of the anime really sucked. Yeah! I know that they had good feelings in them and acted on it but the thing is that I just couldn't understand them and most of the main characters did nothing till the end of the anime and for the majority of the anime most of them seemed to loose themselves or fight and bicker on absolutely nothing. Thus, you came to easily hate them. But, not for being too good in their roles but for being BLOODY Stupid. Our MC, Akashi Saginuma is an orphaned high schooler and he is quiet, brooding, standoffish, and enveloped in his own angst. However, unlike most of the anime series where such a personality is romanticized. The anime plays it straight and his personality is directly responsible for the majority of his problems in the series. When someone seeks Akashi's help or support, mistakenly seeing him as someone who is emotionally in control, he rudely rebuffs them. Thus, with no one to turn to, they emotionally self-destruct. Over the course of the show, he realizes the effect of his personality has on others and so tries to change. However, what he doesn't realize is that he is being just as self-centered as before; instead of trying to understand and sympathize with the pain of others, he simply doesn't want to feel guilt for being the cause of their pain. So when things go bad as they inevitably do! He emotionally collapses into self-angst, blaming others instead of recognizing his own faults. While far from uplifting, it is a compelling emotional study in its own way! Overall, I didn't feel bad for the characters and just wanted someone to put a gun to that person's head and fix the potential problems the show would encounter in the future.
Animation and Sound
The animation and artwork was good but not on par with the other 2014 simulcasts. Though, it still portrayed the light-less realm and the other elements of the story perfectly fine. I liked the MA-Vess designs of the anime as they were unique and their movements were fluid. But, the fighting sequences of the mechs were still not impressive and they were incredibly anticlimactic! Thus, they were not that great and worth watching.
For the sound, All the opening(s) and ending(s) were great and I never once skipped them. Especially, the first OP "Re:Remember" by May'n was amazing and promising. The soundtracks and background musics were also pretty great and suited the theme of the show perfectly. The voice acting was top-notch and I don't think it could have possibly been any better. All the voices suited their characters perfectly and also displayed their personalities pretty well.
Enjoyment
This is a unique show, with a unique, melancholic feeling to it. It's a very sad show, with certain situations that I honestly didn't expect and I loved several aspects of this show. As my favorite kinds of series are dark, melancholic ones that move slowly with a sort of sad atmosphere and a unique story. I definitely enjoyed it and really love it. Anime like these are extremely hard to find and especially ones that actually do a good job at keeping the same feel throughout the entire show.
Overall, Watching M3: The Dark Metal was emotional masochism, pure and simple. There were really mornings when I woke up, queued up on this anime, watched it and then decided to watch something completely different because I didn't really want to be depressed all day. But that said, I greatly enjoyed the first half of this show and it had a captivating plot that manhandles your emotions into submission instead of simply playing with them. If the idea of a psychological mecha anime sounds even a little bit interesting, give this anime a try!
3 STAR ANIME.
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