Pacific Rim: The Black (First Impressions)

Our good buddy Cam the Animation Guru braved the kaiju riddled ruins of Netflix to bring us his first impressions on their brand new series based on the Guillermo del Toro film. Does the series provide the same same apocalypse cancelling fun as the film before it?

The Pacific Rim franchise is something that should have happened sooner than expected. Who doesn't love giant robots fighting giant monsters? The first film, while not the most successful blockbuster, is still a fan favorite bit of action sci-fi fun. Granted, the sequel is, unfortunately, a big step-down, and it keeps adding to the film-making rule of "if Guillermo Del Toro isn't making the sequel, then don't make a sequel to a GDT film". Not that it didn't have its moments or good performances, but the storytelling was a real disappointment.

However, it seems like Legendary Pictures still cherishes this franchise, because they now have a new anime series coming out on March 4th on Netflix called Pacific Rim: The Black. I was able to get a screener of the first three episodes, and I decided to do an editorial on the first three of seven episodes. We will talk about the entire series in a future Renegade Animation podcast alongside City of Ghosts and Raya and the Last Dragon.

So, the story begins on a rather dark note. Essentially, the entire world has been overrun by Kaiju, the giant monsters that invaded through portals. We start the first part of the story in Sydney where a duo of Jaeger pilots, who are also parents who leave their kids and a group of survivors to fend for themselves while they take off to find help. Years pass as the two kids are now teenagers. Their names are Hayley Travis, dubbed by Gideon Adlon, and Taylor Travis, dubbed by Calum Worthy. One day, after getting into a fight, Hayley and Taylor find a hidden Jaeger suit known as Atlas Destroyer. After they accidentally turn it on, they are assisted by an AI program named Loa, dubbed by Erica Lindbeck. They must now go out and find what exactly is going on with the Kaiju, and hopefully find their parents.

This series is produced by Polygon Pictures, the same studio behind the Netflix Godzilla films, Human Lost, the Knights of Sidonia series, Blame!, and did plenty of CGI for other projects like The Sky Crawlers. So, how does it look compared to their previous projects? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Polygon Pictures might have been innovative with being one of the first major anime studios to rely on CGI animation, but it has competition now, especially when that competition includes Studio Mappa and Studio Orange. With that said, Polygon's animation for this show looks good. It's a little more fluid in some aspects than their previous work, and I think the stiff clunky movements help when they are using the Jaegers on screen. On the other hand, it feels like they still haven't quite polished the movements fully. Then again, I have been sitting through every minute of Ex Arm, and that's the area below the bottom of the barrel in quality. Overall, the animation is a little more lively than their previous work. As I said, the Kaiju movements and the Jaeger movements are properly heavy. There were some more agile Kaiju, but the biggest of the bunch still feels weighty and big. The action for what little I have seen is also bombastic and satisfying. The art style is very anime in design, which shouldn't be a shock, but it does seem like some areas had more time put into their design than previous work.

In terms of the story so far and the acting, I'm intrigued. While I can't say what I saw due to spoilers, I am happy to see them expand upon the world of Pacific Rim to make it feel more fleshed out. I mean, they have to since they put us in a timeline of everything being screwed over by the Kaiju. I'm not fully on board with our two leads as you have the overly serious brother and the kind-hearted sister, but their chemistry is solid, and they now have introduced some characters into the plot that will hopefully make them more interesting. The voice cast is pretty stellar. I especially love the AI's snarky artificial intelligence mannerisms. Erica Lindbeck is fantastic as this type of character, and she's my favorite part of the series so far. The others are also good, but Erica is carrying the performances.

I'm a little curious/worried as to what kind of story we are getting ourselves into because while it might be expanding on the world a little more, it's also fairly typical in the anime scene. I mean, the entire point is to be a homage to the giant robot and monster genre. However, that doesn't mean you then don't have to worry about executing it since it seems like you can play the "it's a homage" card and avoid any criticism. I simply am a touch wary after the three episodes I watched. Not that I didn't enjoy them, but consider it a trio of episodes that are more about building up the main drama and drive for the plot. I'm looking forward to seeing how the plot unfolds when everyone can see the full seven episodes in the future.

Overall, I'm enjoying Pacific Rim: The Black. I'm holding off on my more critical and judgmental thoughts as we get to the other episodes in the future. Without spoiling anything, there is enough robot action, intriguing plot points, and solid character chemistry to make me want to watch the other four episodes once they are fully released. I'll say this, I'm enjoying it way more than Pacific Rim: Uprising, but we will have to see if it ranks above, below, or around the same area as Uprising or the first film in the franchise.

I'm sorry for this being fairly vague, but I've got my hands tied due to not being able to talk more about the story. I guess you will, simply put, have to check out the show when it's released on March 4th exclusively to Netflix.