Clockwork Planet is about a bunch of kids and robots becoming terrorist to fight against an evil government.
Aaaaand despite all the hype about the novel and manga flying around, the anime itself is…so-so.
Clockwork Planet is an anime with lots of potential. Its source material is a popular light novel series that get generally positive reviews about how epic and well-researched it is. What happened to the anime? I have no clue.
The series began with an automata crash-landing into a random boy’s house. That boy happened to be Naoto, who is obsessed with these robot girls. He fixed RyuZU, the automata that nobody could fix for 200 years, and became her master. And then there’s Marie, an experienced clocksmith who somehow, along with RyuZU’s sister AnchoR, her lackey Halter, and Naoto, became a criminal.
Clockwork Planet offers a lot of interesting interactions between the characters. Naoto and Marie get into quarrels often because they are each other’s opposites: Naoto can find the problem but cannot fix it, but Marie knows how to fix problems but cannot find where it is. Seeing these two work together is entertaining. The interactions between Naoto and RyuZU were pretty sexual but funny because of the automata’s obsession over her master. Also, RyuZU has a sharp tongue and constantly bickers with people. Seeing Marie soften up because of AnchoR’s sweetness is cute. Halter and Vermouth don’t really get much attention so yeah…
I have a lot of problems trying to understand why they do things sometimes. I still have no clue why the villains think building a giant cannon to destroy what Y created is a good idea, or who Y is, and why the dude thinks that humanity should turn against Y, or why he thought Y reincarnated into Naoto and Marie.
There’s one scene in episode 6 where RyuZU and Naoto jumped down a hole, looking up at Marie like ‘don’t worry girl we got a plan!’ and then Marie was like ‘oh no they jumped to their death!’ She then proceeds to be depressed, which isn’t really effective because we know Naoto and RyuZU are up to something but Marie doesn’t, and that made her look stupid. They even give us the whole flashback and ‘I made Naoto die’ deal.
And then this happened.
After she thinks her friend is dead, she got into a skin suit and tortures a man to get information. It seemed so out of place, considering the fact that we never see Marie like this ever again for the rest of the anime. After that, she went back to depressed mode again.
The drama in Clockwork Planet is ineffective because of its pacing. Taking the scene above as an example, Marie being depressed and doubting herself doesn’t work because it felt so slow and unnecessary. If only they removed the part where RyuZU and Naoto looked up, it would work a hell lot better. There’s also a scene where RyuZU might die and Naoto acts like he knows something but wouldn’t tell Marie. Naoto always keeping things from Marie and making her worry for no reason isn’t really good drama, it’s annoying. Actually, the whole drama of this anime seems to involve Marie being angst because Naoto wouldn’t tell her things.
The artwork is also really inconsistent. The proportions are always a bit off somewhere, especially for Naoto’s and Marie’s faces. The CGI is okay, and the parts where the automatas unleash their powers actually look pretty epic. The opening theme’s sequence where petals fly everywhere looks really cool.
Music fits the atmosphere well.
The part I feel is weird is the spider dance Naoto and Marie did while fixing gears. It looks epic and over the top, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think the spider arms work that way. This is a high-precision equipment and they’re doing a spider dance to control it. What.
Overall, Clockwork Planet could have been a lot better if they got the pacing right, and spend more time building the characters (especially the villains.) I like how Naoto is accepting of his own fetishes. Drama could’ve been better. The plot is confusing. The ending was strange. Despite how much I look forward to watching this, the real thing is just so-so.
bonutzuu 