I was at first concerned about the visual style as the dolls in the trailer looked all the same, however that turned to be quite the opposite - it's quite impressive how they made all the characters look and behave differently, even though material is seemingly the same. And the visuals in general are amazing too - all the details of the surroundings, it's all very minute and accented.
Than I was curious how the cast ensemble would perform, and even though I had high expectations the voice acting was great - from Tom Waits' creaky narrative through Da'Vine Joy Randolph's pessimistic dialogues, it's all great.
What came as an unpleasant surprise is the general lack of direction of the story - it seems to have a general core event, but then id doesn't really go anywhere. Things happen to characters, which somewhat emphasises the grim nature of the city, but then comes the end of the season and then what? And then nothing. It all starts in a dreamy but promising fashion, but then gets lost in a half-hearted fits of dark humor and indulging in the awkward moments for the sake of those moments, not the general mood.
Overall it's a worthy arthouse animation with great voice actors that unfortunately lacks story development and might get better in season 2, but given it's a fairly pure arthouse it might never get one - so I'd say don't watch it for the story, watch it for the visual style.
Than I was curious how the cast ensemble would perform, and even though I had high expectations the voice acting was great - from Tom Waits' creaky narrative through Da'Vine Joy Randolph's pessimistic dialogues, it's all great.
What came as an unpleasant surprise is the general lack of direction of the story - it seems to have a general core event, but then id doesn't really go anywhere. Things happen to characters, which somewhat emphasises the grim nature of the city, but then comes the end of the season and then what? And then nothing. It all starts in a dreamy but promising fashion, but then gets lost in a half-hearted fits of dark humor and indulging in the awkward moments for the sake of those moments, not the general mood.
Overall it's a worthy arthouse animation with great voice actors that unfortunately lacks story development and might get better in season 2, but given it's a fairly pure arthouse it might never get one - so I'd say don't watch it for the story, watch it for the visual style.