The SoulTaker
After only watching 3 episodes initially I finally picked this up again after a couple month.
6/10, it's alright.
The show starts by throwing you into the deep end and you slowly figure out what's going on alongside the amnesiac MC who gets murdered, reawakened of sorts, attacked by superhumans, or mutants, and transforms into one (of the most powerful) himself—the SoulTaker.
That's not just the structure of the entire show but also true for most episodes. They start in media res, with some mutant of the week that plays into the larger story as well, and you slowly unravel what's going on. I'm honestly not really a fan of that structure because I mostly just lack context to care, which sucks when it's already hard to care for the rather bland MC, but the storytelling is somewhat competently executed and it forces you to pay attention. Honestly, I appreciated that there actually was an overarching story and it wasn't entirely nonsensical.
Now there's a lot of battles going on and I suppose they're similar to those in Super Robot anime or so? Well, you often have transformations, named attacks and all that good (bad) jazz. Just the stuff I personally can't stand!
Now, what made The SoulTaker ultimately somewhat enjoyable to me was the storyboarding, which had variety and, if nothing else, was usually interesting. Shinbo at work, I suppose. The red screens, in particular, were a familiar sight, but most notable was the frequent use of dark shadows masking parts of the scenery or characters.
I don't even think the storyboarding was downright great and often felt psychedelic and different just for the sake of it, but, still, it kept me interested even when I didn't care much for what was going on. On that note: I watched Infinity War last Sunday and realized that I probably felt bored during most of the dialog scenes because of how mundanely those were shot, rather than glaring script issues. It's just boring when the visuals themselves don't express much in an audiovisual experience.
Anyway, the storyboarding here also helps to make up for mediocre animation, as well as lackluster character design and overall unappealing art direction. There's usually a few decent shots during the fights and... weirdly enough that mostly irrelevant, probably pandering Genki-girl Komugi got some very nice character animation every now and then. I don't really think she served much of a purpose other than cheap comic relief and, well, being the token cute girl to keep a larger audience? Admittedly, it kinda worked for me. Compared to our dreary MC she had some delightful scenes. Apparently, she also got some spin-off OVAs, huh.
