Kokkoku

Kokkoku is an anime that kind of leans heavily on the high concept side of storytelling. While the translation for the title is “Moment by Moment”, I believe that it’s better dubbed as “Moment” as everything takes place technically in one single moment. The reason why is because the concept of the show is “ what if we had an action/thriller story, but almost everything occurred when time froze”. Of course the show has its twist and turns, the inciting point, the characters, the development, and every other minutiae that i’ll hopefully get to later. Still it's high concept is one of itsmain selling points of the show, and means to draw in viewers. However its concept can only get it so far, and without well thought out characters and plot all that’s left is the concept and it’s wasted potential. Family dynamic Or maybe I should say the lack of? well, kind of. The main bulk of the cast of the show are the Yakawa family with Juri being the Heroine pf the story. Before the inciting point of the show happens the focus of the show is on Juri and the living situation that she and her family is in. While they are not living in the most dire of straits, they are not living the most comfortable life either. It’s during this time that you get a basic understanding of each person and their function in the family, and whether they are helping or hindering the family. This is all fine, however very little comes out of this. The most development to be had is just how each family member feels about each other, and they just roll with that, and not much really evolves for that. I’m fine if the family members don’t get along with each other, or that they have little redeemable qualities, but the problem is that they do nothing with it. Really the only characters that seemed to have some sort of dynamic going on for them is juri and her grandfather. It could easily be chalked up to the fact that they are the ones with the most screen time, but i don’t feel as that’s enough to discredit the fact that there was some sort of connection between them that really wasn’t there for the other family members.while their relationship may have been fine there’s still very little interesting character interactions between much of the cast which slowly unveils how lacking many of these characters are, with 2 specific characters being our prime example. The Protagonist and Foil The first one obviously being the Protagonist/Heroine of the show, Juri. As the proganist, she is the one that the viewer spends the most time with, and over time intimately learn many things about them that other characters don’t know and what we’ll never get from the other characters. Like most of her family she had the basics of her personality and backstory covered in the beginning. She is shown to be as sort of a headstrong women with a bit of sass, and it’s because of this she’s been having trouble getting employed. Add upon this her families living situational and it shows she’s not living the most happiest of life even feeling some contempt towards her family. However it’s also evident that she cares about her family since after the inciting point which was her brother and nephew being kidnap, she willing tries to go save them by herself with nothing more with a kitchen knife which does overlap with her headstrong personality. All of this shows that she really isn’t that badly written of the character. The problem is that after the plot starts, any sense of development goes out the window, with the only thing left is more backstory for her. She still does a lot of things, and shows different emotions throughout the story, but none of them really help define her personality or give us a new side of her to examine. It’s just her regular personality placed in a different context each time. The other character worth examining is Shoko whoi believe is to be the Foil to the protagonist, at least what they were presented to be. Both Shoko and Junji have several things that compare and contrast one another that makes them a foil for the other character. They both a some history with each other, they both entered Stasis in order to “save” their family, and they both wear opposing colors with Shoko wearing black leather and junji wearing White jacket thing. There’s little to go on since almost all the characters just have the basics and nothing more. The only reason these to are worth standing out is with the whole save their family plot happens for both of them. They do conflict initially, but it’s not like they are against each other on a personal level, and after they do team up there’s really no dynamic between them. Even worse is after shoko completes her plan she just becomes irrelevant to the entire story, and is just there for the ride with her becoming more of another support character than anything else. So when looking at all the characters I don’t think there bad, just underwritten. Well except maybe one. The Big Bad The big bad of the story, junji, is really a character who’s appeal goes through a few ups and downs. Initially he was just a cultist leader whose only purpose in the show was to start and drive the plot. He came off as unassuming and kind of boring as he was just there for most of the show not doing much but giving commands to his henchmen. Of course he does change after a while figuratively and literally, and his intentions while given as exposition are more interesting than what would come from any other antagonist in his role. However that goes to a waste as he becomes another generic and uninteresting characters via his actions. They do try to reconcile it with some backstory for him but it just comes of needlessly and just makes him more boring, World Building The story for the show is rather uninteresting as stated previously that the antagonist was the main driver for the plot with the other characters just reacting to it. So out of everything that occured in the show one of the interesting parts of it was the stasis world. While not a world in it’s own right, it does still have it’s own set of rules that it goes by. The show never tries to go out of its way to explain how things work in stasis, as how it works is beyond the comprehension of the characters. Many things are better left unexplained like how they’re able to live in stasis, or what heralds or the jellyfishes really are. It gives the show a sense of mysticism and and need to explain it would ruin what it’s trying to present. They also do really interesting things in terms of animation when it comes to stasis, nothing really amazing but interesting enough that adds to the show. Byakugan Another thing worth noting in the story is a certain power that several characters have in the story. The reason i refer it as Byakugan is because the power is always associated with characters having full white eyes and the protagonists power in particular being very reminiscent of it. The powers take large leaps of suspension of disbelief as the show goes on. When it was first introduced it was tolerable much like the world they were in, it wasn’t really worth it do delve into what it was. However as the show when along and more people began also having powers did it feel like it was for the convenience of the plot and nothing much else. Production value Seeing as this is Geno studios first work who are basically the studio that rise after manglobe ended, the production value was okay. The character designs were fine, the background art was fine for contemporary japan, they did some interesting things with the stasis visually. Still the colour gradient for the show was boring and any sort of distant shots of the characters just looked terrible. The animation was passable, but nothing worth noting. The heralds actually looked good in CG as they have off this animousy otherworldly appearance, but only when there standing still or move quickly because they look laughable when they move for a long period of time. the soundtrack for the show was fine, nothing really stood out outside of maybe one or two tracks. Despite how much of a mess it all came to be i still enjoyed parts of it. like the idea of the stasis world and i did become more interesting in the final episode, but it’s better left as a concept.some of the characters were fine and the family would be more interesting in another genre with another script. Overall i think the show is just fine where the pieces where underdeveloped, and are more interesting as pieces rather than as a whole.

Kokkoku is the type of anime that started off interesting, dulled a bit in the middle, and then threw an ending I honestly hadn't expected. While there were some portions of the ending I had expected, the way they wrapped it up was definitely different. The entire concept of Kokkoku was interesting to me from the beginning. It wasn't your every day time travel story. In truth, it's much more complicated than that. It really isn't even time travel more than it is "time freezing." I thought it was unique and interesting. The layers of Kokkoku is something I can definitely appreciate with fondness. While I didenjoy the story, the art and sound itself were okay for me. I wasn't overly attached to them and they didn't do anything for me. The only reason I'm giving the sound a 6 instead of a 5 is due to the simple fact that the op was so good it gets a point all on its own. The characters were all enjoyable to me though and I did enjoy Juri's character development over the course of the story. While Kokkoku is not a masterpiece by any means, I would still recommend this anime to some. I don't think of it as one of the best anime I've ever seen, but I still found it enjoyable and think those interested should at least give it a chance. Bottom line; would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I still recommend it to others? Yes.

Kokkoku is an ambitious failure. It failed to understand the limits of its budget, taking on far more than it could handle. Its story is illogical, the art is ugly as sin, the characters are frustrating, and its glacial pacing makes it one of the most boring thrillers I've ever seen. The many interesting themes it juggled are freezing time, a dysfunctional family, and psychic powers, but Kokkoku wastes them on mediocre execution. The dysfunctional Yukawa family are our main characters. It would be an understatement to say they don’t get along. They hit, yell at, and curse at each other. The main character andolder sister in the family Juri is the most put-together of them all. In the first episode, we’re introduced to Juri's NEET older brother Tsubasa, slob father Takafumi, her nephew Makoto, and wise grandfather. She’s usually the one who has to take care of things like picking Makoto up from school, making dinner, and taking care of the family while her sister goes to work. It's understandable why Juri's searching for jobs to move out, but sadly she has yet to be accepted after many interviews. Her living situation is well detailed early on and gave me enough to want to see her family grow and change, hopefully becoming tolerable enough for her to happily live with them. What better of a catalyst to kick off all of their character arcs than a kidnapping? An unbelievable tragedy that happens to two of the family members, but I was intrigued by how Kokkoku would answer why this would happen to such a mundane family. Little did I know, there wouldn’t be any logical answers for the many questions that are continuously piled on top of one another all the way into the final episode. After the two are kidnapped, the family receives an impossible ransom request and is unable to ask the police for help. Knowing they would have to take matters into their own hands, Juri’s grandfather reveals his magical time-freezing rock, hoping that they can use it to save their family members. The rock gets only one partial explanation at the end that handwaves away any need for logic and chalks it up to ’it just works that way’. This is only the first of many gripes I have with the woefully underdeveloped sci-fi setting and spotty world logic that plagues Kokkoku at every turn. Juri, her father, and grandfather enter the frozen time world of Stasis. Once entering, the three of them find it won’t be as easy as they thought to retrieve their stolen family. They would go on to fight against the evil criminal group responsible for the kidnapping who also somehow accessed stasis and entered it at the very same moment as the Yukawa’s… Um… What? How? These plot issues crop up everywhere while watching Kokkoku, and the show doesn’t even acknowledge them. Repeatedly it bends our suspension of disbelief, with no care if it breaks or not. The ridiculous setup at least quickly introduces us to the leader of the group and cruel antagonist Sagawa. Coincidentally, the criminal group is looking for the magical time-freezing rock so they can use it to commit crimes and what-not. Stasis is a very intriguing idea that thankfully does get some moral exploration, but from a logical perspective, Kokkoku rarely makes an effort to be more than nonsensical. When a story wants to be mature and realistic it cannot have such glaring plot issues. It's so difficult to be immersed in this anime when the story is so unbelievable, no matter how maturely it presents itself. Despite this, the show offers up some intriguing moral implications. The grandfather states how this world can lead to people losing all sense of morality while they know there isn’t any consequence. It’s a thought-provoking moral quandary to put forward right away; what would you do if you had this power? Adding to the moral intrigue are the giant tree-like monsters known as Heralds. These frightening creatures enforce the rules of Stasis by brutally killing anyone who dares to break them, namely no killing allowed. Sadly we don't get much more in terms of moral intrigue until the end, instead, the show tries to distract us with a shallow but occasionally entertaining mystery. Plagued with horribly inconsistent pacing, the mystery story becomes nearly impossible to get engaged with. Most of the show takes place in an alternate reality. The Yukawa family plans what to do next rather than doing the thing. It's like the show stretched its content to be 12 episodes. Most of the time is wasted on backstories and boring conversations that are barely relevant to the story. All of this presented as crucial information. After watching it all, I can confirm it's all filler. Almost nothing that happens in Kokkoku actually matters in the end. It is just a collection of speed bumps trying its best to distract you from how poorly written the story and characters are. As a mystery, it'll keep you guessing. Sadly the story isn’t good enough to justify the many cliffhangers. Let alone provide us with more than one satisfying payoff. The final shot of episode 12 is satisfying because it ended. Instead of giving us even one answer for one mystery, it simply ends. That’s it. Kokkoku spits in its audience’s face and says "You got what you came for, now leave." Maybe if the characters were better I could have gone a little bit easier on the terrible story. The idea of a dysfunctional family being forced to put aside their differences in the face of grave danger is cool, it was easy to connect with their arguments. But my problem is that there is nothing to them beyond those frustrating fights and annoying personalities. Juri is strong-willed, but there’s really nothing else to her. She's a likeable character for these traits but lacked the characterization beyond surface-level information. The rest of them are just annoying. Makoto nags about wanting things because ‘he’s a kid and doesn’t know what’s going on’ only existing as a plot device to be kidnapped and add stakes (which works but is a cheap trick). Takafumi stays a stupid slob for the entire show, never changing, only adding frustration. At least Tsubasa's character had major growth thanks to the low point in life he started on, sadly we don’t see much of him in the show diminishing the impact of his arc. And the grandfather’s only purpose is to be the wise old guy, which is a lame excuse to get some random family involved in Stasis. We occasionally see the characters tested by the events that occur throughout the show, but that often felt like the writer shifting them around to keep the plot moving when considering how little (if at all) they change. They start as a dysfunctional family and for all, we know they still are one after the show ends. There is one definitive change made to some of the Yukawa family members throughout the show, some of them get psychic powers while in Stasis. As if pulled out of thin air, for unexplained reasons certain characters have abilities like teleportation and sending people out of Stasis. These powers seem like little more than plot contrivances added so the Yukawa's can get out of dangerous run-ins with the crime group. The menacing villain at first made up for the family's overall annoyances; that is until he got a development episode which just boils his mysterious presence down to a pretty pointless and irrelevant explanation. I really couldn't figure out what the point was to him getting an extensive backstory when all it did was take was to extinguish his intimidation and replace it with an interesting but ultimately irrelevant story. His story is meant to explain why he’s so evil and wants to kill people, but it feels like they forgot that important part of his character because it is in no way referred to in his story. You’re really going to tell me he just started killing because his childhood was a little different than everyone else’s? Why not Kokkoku, it’s not like I believed anything you were selling me this far into your shitshow of a story anyways. The issues don’t end here with the characters, both art and sound have their own problems too. The newly founded Geno Studio gets off to a rough start with Kokkoku; which is worrying considering they’re at the helm of the much anticipated Golden Kamuy adaptation. Environments are made of dull colors and lack much personality. They were likely aiming to create a believable world, and they did, but the issue is how unappealing it is to look at. Perhaps if there were details added to the environment (ie: visual symbolism) it wouldn't feel tiresome to look at the thing. Characters look decent but in the later episodes, they frequently look off-model. At its worst we see them warped with just plain ugly looking faces. These flaws are so surprising in a show that does not require much animation, it takes place in a frozen world and most of the screen time is dedicated to conversations explaining what’s going on and planning what to do next. It’s hard to take a character seriously when their face looks like a potato. Most of the voice acting is suitably grating on the ears to fit the annoying characters. Juri is well voiced thankfully, a decent reprieve from the others. The opening song Flashback is fun, frantic, and wild. The song is unlike any this season, one of the best. The op’s visuals of it are great too, even changing slightly with the show's progression. Any tension from the cliffhangers is totally drained by the fanservice filled ED, it's kind of funny. Kokkoku has lots of ideas, but it has no clue what to do with them. You’d expect it to make something of all of its pieces, but then it just ends. A collection of intriguing but mediocre parts doesn’t culminate into a good whole. It’s as boring and mediocre as it could be. Just skip it and listen to the op instead.

Let the time... STOP. You are now stuck in a world where everything is frozen, except you. What now? That's basically what Kokkoku is about, Juri and her group is stuck in the "Statis" along with the bad guys of course. Review will contain minor spoilers, I guess. Kokkoku started out as an interesting anime, interesting premise. Why are they stuck in the Statis? What is that world? And what is that huge creature shown in the OP (or the ending of the first episode?) Many questions, some answered, some not, but meanwhile- The bad guys are taking place. Well, they want to research this statis, so they're bad.Oh and they kill people too because why not. The "bad" people REALLY weren't fleshed out at all, they felt like some random background characters, which maybe was true to classify them as background. Kokkoku went from a mystery thriller anime of trying to unveil the mysteries of the Statis to.... Let's all fight the bad guy boss! Well that sounds familiar right? Many anime and stories in general have this, which is fine. But it was nothing like what the premise showed, the start didn't make me think it'll be just going full force forward into the enemy. Oh and just you wait until you see his foolish backstory. It's better you don't know it though. On the other hand, what I think was nice to see is the strong female lead. Juri, and later on Majima were a nice change of pace. Strong, determined, you don't see that in anime every day. But... While many remained in the background, those who didn't remain in the background were... lacking. Takafumi (dad) was always annoying and brought nothing except problems. I can deal with that, as they somewhat tried to make it funny. Well.. It didn't work. The NEET brother was more on the side, but he didn't contribute anything too. Makoto, the kid, was always the "prince"/"princess" of this show (aka PROTECT THE PRESIDENT), but oh btw he's also pretty strong it seems, because why not. Now to the more main characters, It was nice seeing Grandpa in action, reminds me of Inuyashiki. But what was... weird? Is that he knew of this Statis from his father and yet never questioned it. So he was pretty clueless, except some useful abilities (ex: Aegis to prevent being thrown out) and teleport. But that's all there is to him. He's just there to save Juri whenever she needs to get out. Majima... Gets some spotlight, she wants to protect/save her family, and she's a bit familiar with the Statis, Well I guess that works. Oh also I want to mention, the OP and ED are top tier. So... Did I enjoy Kokkoku? Kinda, I can also say that it's better to binge. Would I go out of my way to recommend it to others? Probably not. It was really good at the beginning, but... failed and fell. Trainwreck. One weird thing after another. And yes that includes the bad guy's back story. At the beginning every episode went so fast as I enjoyed it, I thought it would be close to AOTS (well after SoraYori), but nah, too many "fillers" if I can call it that. Disappointment, yet still a honorable mention for the good first half.

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