BBK/BRNK

Episodes 1-2

When an anime series starts conversations about its visual style from day one, it usually means that it's trying something unusual from either an artistic or a technical standpoint. BBK/BRNK falls into the second group as the latest show to take a shot at using CG character models throughout an anime series. It's interesting to watch the medium grapple with new technology in full view of the audience, but there's also a reasonably promising show hidden under all the technical drama.

The first two episodes of BBK/BRNK follow the story of Azuma, the son of a woman who most people call a witch and blame for a major catastrophe. Azuma's family used to live on an island suspended high up in the sky, where his mother kept watch over a dormant group of mechanical monsters called Buranki. One of the Buranki, along with Azuma and his twin sister, fell to Earth and caused some serious damage. Ten years after the incident, Azuma returns to the area where the Buranki landed and meets up with a rebellious group of people who can use small pieces of Buranki (known as Bubuki) as weapons. Along with these Bubuki users, Azuma begins the process of fighting back against the oppressive forces that have to risen to power in the wake of the disaster.

No matter how hard you try to focus on the story, the CG character models are the first things that stand out in BBK/BRNK. Anime studios have been using computer animation for mechanical objects for a while now, but using this approach for the characters is still pretty unusual. For one reason or another, no one has been able to make 3D anime characters look good. BBK/BRNK does a better job than some of its predecessors, and it still doesn't really work. Character movements still have a tendency to look stiff and artificial, and facial expressions fail to convey intense emotions convincingly. In terms of overall visual direction, however, the show is quite good. Both of these episodes featured multiple moments where I found myself thinking, “Wow, that's a really cool shot.” The more traditional background art is also consistently strong, and the awkward CG characters do at least allow for all kinds of dynamic movement during action scenes. It feels like the medium is still one or two significant breakthroughs away from getting this animation style right, but BBK/BRNK does its best to work around the issue for the time being.

As for the plot, this series is essentially an unruly mess of ambition and potential right now. We've got a coming-of-age story combined with a search for the truth in a dystopian world, and there are all kinds of big ideas about society and humanity's fear of the unknown waiting for a chance to grab the spotlight. It's going to take a few weeks to see how well BBK/BRNK can translate its ambitions into compelling plot points, but it's encouraging to see that the series does at least have something to say. For the time being, the obvious question of what happened during Azuma's decade-long absence is intriguing enough to keep things moving along.

If I have an immediate concern, it's that the main characters are too easy to organize into archetypes. The five-person group of protagonists includes the hero with special powers, the perpetually angry guy who wants to be the hero, the sweet girl, the quirky girl, and the sexy girl. I can only hope that BBK/BRNK is planning a little downtime so that we can learn more about these people without having to listen to them shout their motivations in the middle of a fight scene. We haven't seen quite as much of the show's villains yet, but antagonist-in-chief Reoko seems to be borrowing at least some of her personality from Kill la Kill's Satsuki Kiryuin. That's hardly a bad choice as far as character influences go, and it does at least make me want to know if there's a deeper story behind her rise to power. It's not a great sign that I'm more interested in the villains than the people I'm supposed to like, but at least someone has my attention.

As the latest test subject in anime's ongoing experiment with CG characters, BBK/BRNK will be interesting to watch simply to see if it can find any new ways of working around its aesthetic issues. As a series in its own right, the big question is how well it will translate its big ideas into a story. To do that, it'll need to take its cast beyond a simple division of good guys and bad guys and build its setting into something more than a pretty stage for everyone to fight on. The writing has yet to make any major mistakes, so I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Rating: B

BBK/BRNK is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.