Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
MutsumiYours
The true strength of TEXHNOLYZE is that its second half completely changes the meaning of its first.
The cold atmosphere that runs through the entire series, the restrained direction that rarely explains things through dialogue, and the setting of Lux are all incredibly compelling.
But to be honest, the first half of the story itself did not impress me that much.
The conflict surrounding Yoshii and the various factions felt fairly conventional. After twelve episodes, I still could not understand why this anime had continued to be discussed for so many years.
Then the second half began. And that is where I understood.
TEXHNOLYZE is beautiful when it collapses.
Once Kano enters the story, everything begins to fall apart as if the entire world has suddenly started accelerating downward.…
Read at the sourceMichaelzaweebo
An underground city where factions fight each other while everything slowly falls apart, with a protagonist who spends the first half getting absolutely demolished and the second half being... there. That's Texhnolyze.
Look, the first half is genuinely interesting. The world pulls you in without explaining itself, which sounds annoying but actually works. Characters like Onishi and Yoshii carry most of the emotional weight, and they do it well enough that you stick around. The MC though? I finished the show and had to look up his name. That should tell you everything.
Then the second half happens and the show decides nihilism is its entire personality now. Things fall apart, momentum dies, and the ending is bleak in a way that only hits if you were still invested enough to care. I wasn't…
Read at the sourceKaartuk
I really love how confident this anime is in its own atmosphere. It never tries to constantly entertain you or explain every little thing, and I think that’s exactly why it feels so memorable to me. A lot of scenes feel strangely empty and overwhelming at the same time, like the anime wants you to sit with the feeling instead of escaping from it. I can completely understand why some people would hate it, but honestly, that’s part of what makes it feel so special to me.
I genuinely think this is one of the strongest things I’ve ever watched, but also one of the hardest to talk about. Every time I try writing about it, I end up deleting everything because saying "It’s dark" or "depressing" feels way too simple for whatever this anime actually made me feel. The city, the silence, the feeling…
Read at the sourcesamsyl
This anime put all its eggs in the aesthetics basket. While the setting, soundtrack and art style are spectacular and original, it can't carry how terrible the writing is. The plot is all over the place, hard to follow, and seems to think it gets a pass for being 'cryptic' due to its aforementioned positive qualities. The characters are just as weak and forgettable to the point where the stunning visuals feel wasted on them. Maybe I've missed something here that could be cleared up from a rewatch, but considering it took me years to get through this, that's unlikely to happen.
Read at the sourceSansonOshino
I finally watched this anime I had really high expectations for, and on one hand I had hoped it would be good enough to make my top 15, but it was still so good that I didn't regret watching it at all.
I'm writing this with the aim of recommending this anime.
Note :
- I have to say that this one of those anime that is really not for everyone :
it contains really dark themes, has a pacing that can be hard to follow, features older animation and can be very disturbing for many reasons.
What I mean by really dark and disturbing is the anime as a whole, but to be more specific you may witness extreme violence, sexuality, incest, pedophilia and homosexuality (not a problem but still saying ), so be prepared.
All of this is in fact not problematic to be in an anime but this is more of a warning…
Read at the sourceAloNatural
Texhnolyze español
Esta historia comienza con Ichise. El está metido en el bajo mundo de las peleas callejeras y debido a ciertos problemas se ve absorbido por una ciudad repleta de criminalidad e injusticias, donde hay mafias, organizaciones o sectas.Si uno ve la serie desde el exterior es una historia sencilla y simple de mafias, nada nuevo. Pero aunque sea una premisa sencilla, lo que yo valoro de este anime es su honestidad de principio a fin.
Aquí los personajes funcionan como motor o como transición para la historia porque esta historia es una escalera para ver quién llega más rápido a las puertas del infierno. En cierta manera el infierno o la muerte vendrían siendo un lugar muy hermoso y justo para vivir comparado con la ciudad de este anime llamada Lukuss.
Los personajes de esta m…
Read at the sourceetchedmonolith
I know this anime is often regarded as one of the classics in the "artsy/philosophical" category, but for me it is probably the weakest of the bunch. The main story takes forever to take off, and the progression of everything is just so sluggish at times. And I say this as someone who likes when the story takes its' time. But the key is - that time has to be spent on actual character development, worldbuilding, and interesting visual bits. And when Texhnolyze is at its best, it can present a lot of these things. The main characters all have some unique charm, the show has some interesting concepts going on with all the communities surviving in this closed, technologically-advanced environment, and some shots are just fantastic. But oftentimes the show just trips onto itself and wastes time…
Read at the sourceMapinguari
Texhnolyse is not a 'fun' anime, as many have pointed out before. It was not supposed to be, as far as I'm concerned. It's not cool, exciting or stylish, maybe because it's not some vision of the future one should aspire to pursue, as many other cyberpunk dystopias ended up, even if unintentionally. That is precisely why it succeeds in something many other cyberpunk dystopias fail: to warn about a future (which is very much present, I'm afraid) we should be wary of.
An interesting question posed early on in Texhnolyze is that of the reason of being, the 'raison d'tre'. It's a question that keeps coming back for each character, and even for the 3 major organizations in the anime and for the city of Lux itself.
As Texhnolyze has very little exposition (a departure of storytelling style fro…
Read at the sourceXamir1
The show had a lot of potential to be as deep as it was trying to be, but after watching that last episode my reaction was "what was the point?" I know the show was trying to be philosophical and make some kind of point about human nature, but it was so poorly executed and dilluted. The atmosphere in the anime was great and some of the characters and politics were interesting. That is the strength of the anime, but in terms of making the anime logical from start to finish and tying everything together, it failed. We don't get much backstory on most characters, which are continuously introduced throughout the anime. Furthermore, many of the characters that are present don't undergo much evolution throughout the series. Things just kinda happen throughout the story and one thing leads to ano…
Read at the sourceRacerDuvan
Between the very slow pacing and the confusing (but still good) story, Texhnolyze is definitely not for everyone. However while the story might be slow and takes its time to finish scenes that also makes it so the pacing feels very life like and realistic, as if you were following the characters in real time. It's a very different way of doing things but it's refreshing and interesting.
All the characters are very softspoken which leads to the characters having a bigger impact when they lash out, their emotions become stronger. The stronger emotions also helps compensate for the slower pacing. The confusing story also makes it so that the story becomes unpredicteble which really suits the anime well as it is mysterious, leaving you to wonder what is going to happen next. The characters so…
Read at the sourcefilipe33
English
When I went to watch it, I had high expectations, and the anime really delivered something very good. The fact that it's a "retro" cyberpunk work is quite striking and stands out for breaking certain paradigms within the genre.
It's a very well-crafted piece, with excellent characters and a strong narrative that handles multiple plotlines simultaneously in a wonderful way. In my opinion, the protagonist is the central point of the story: his internal development is amazing. His existential struggle with his Texhnolyze limbs and his moments of vulnerability bring intense and emotional situations.
The materialist implications that the work subtly suggests are another highlight. They introduce excellent philosophical themes and give the story greater depth, which I really appreciate…
Read at the sourceYaBoyPat1
I have to say, the first episode was super jarring and confusing for me, and it was the reason I initially dropped it (much to my regret later on). However, for the more patient and mature viewer, you realize that it perfectly sets the scene for the events that are about to unfold. Every episode feels like a struggle for survival; no one is safe, and everyone is attempting to manifest their ideology into the world around them. I honestly loved the show, the gritty aesthetic was the perfect backdrop to explore the themes the show sets out for the viewer to contemplate. The dialogue is genuinely intelligent, with the characters all being believable and acting in their self interest (of course not all actions are rational, for most characters are only human after all). I just loved it. The pl…
Read at the sourceBerrybird
Nihilism in 480p, whimpering in your right ear and gore splatter in the left.
You might as well go and lock yourself in a basement for 4 hours (wait, make that 8, I couldn't tell!), stare at the concrete while someone else has a panic attack behind the wall, instead of watching this.
You'll most likely end up wondering, why did I do that, was there any meaning to any of this, what was all that for after both. But at the very least in Texhnolyze you have questionable characters to keep you company and in the end you can cross this one off the list of 'oh, i am an intellectual' watch list!
I sound like such a hater and you might actually be wondering if I ticked the 'Recommended' by accident, but no, no—I don't regret watching this! I was hoping to lose sleep or to be philosophically evi…
Read at the source1stDecame4Danime
This show is a (bad) concept-art walking-simulator and vapid im14andthisisdeep delinquent/mobster fighting series. Even at 2x speed this is comatose-inducingly uneventfully boring.
It is an absolute waste of time with nothing of value to say. This show stretches almost nothing across all 22 episodes with the most unwatchable garbage filler imaginable.
There is no actual plot beyond a series of pointless bs barely even strung together as excuses for more walking/violence while idiots spew pointless filler words to continue wasting the audience's time because they have nothing of substance to show.
The characters all lack any real motivations and just do occasional edgy spectacle bs in lieu of any actual characterization or plot or worldbuilding.
100% of their arcs meander around meaningl…
Read at the sourceGreyB0y
In my looking for Science fiction animes, I encountered this. Honestly I didn't understand shit. I even had to use ChatGPT to break down some concepts and even then, some things seemed unconnected. Story went from making a little sense, form making no sense at all, to suddenly redeem itself towardes the end and suddenly doing a backflip and break your mind again.
Main character lacks any personality, other than being "the emo guy that doesn't talk much", but unlike Gordon freeman, who is cool af, this guys is just plain creepy, seasoned with anger issues and no point of even existing in its own story.
The "villain" goal of making a better human-kind? been used a 1000 times and even then, the author managed to do it wrong.
The best characters are actually the side ones, they had more s…
Read at the sourceTGFGG
Although not perfect, I wish more anime like this still released today. The story is a slow burner, the animation is mediocre, and it's confusing as hell. But the writing, character designs, art, music, and atmosphere are pure bliss. What makes it so especially great, though, is how all of its negative aspects have a purpose. Texhnolyze is all about the often mundane, gritty life of us people on Earth experience and it uses its stylistic approach to support that theme. I found myself on my phone a lot while watching—especially in he first half— and only looking up only at the exciting parts, and I think that was probably intentional.
No spoilers, but those who stick around through the mundanity of the show get to experience a 4D show. It's so meta that it hurts, and yes the show preaches…
Read at the sourceRekuiemu
This anime has great gang/insurgency action and politics in it, maybe the best I've seen.
But you should only watch it if you're seasoned anime fan. The art style is quite amazing, Madhouse really put their love in this.
The MC in this is like a non-voiced RPG protagonist, so you don't really get a full fledged character as MC but I guess that might work in the same way in the games in terms of immersion.
I dropped this twice before really giving it a go. At episode 5 Texhnolyze becomes amazing! It may be the darkest ending of the humanity I've seen in an anime. I might rewatch it sometime to completely understand the subtext. Only knocking off one star because it's so very hard to start going with this anime. Rather than the ending the journey to the end is great with this anime, the end…
Read at the sourceRacistCat
Yet another amazing show with Yoshitoshi ABe's involvement. Great character designs, as always from him. I LOVE Ran's design. The art work for this show is amazing. The world building is incredible in this show. It gives you one of the most bleak feelings I have ever experienced in an piece of media. They want the world to be bleak in the show, and you really feel it. There is really never any point where you think "oh wow, what a happy place" or anything close to it. So if you're a fan of desolate feeling dystopian atmosphere's, you'll love this show. Story is very rich, and like many of the other shows I have highly rated, it requires a good amount of thinking and interpreting metaphors and such to fully enjoy the story. Took me a little to fully understand everything, but thats just bec…
Read at the sourceRecynon
If I were to review Texhnolyze on its own merits, I can’t really say much other than, “OK, that just happened”. Or to put it more critically, it’s a big nothingburger. That’s because 1) the events in the show seem to be directionless and 2) the series likes to go out of its way to give you as little information as possible on what’s going on, in a “blink and you’ll miss it” fashion. As such, I don’t know what significance any of the payoffs in the series carry with respect to the series itself, if they can be considered payoffs at all, and there is not enough information nor coherence within the context for me to even say that the events carry any significance through real world parallels. And so the most neutral thing I can say is that it does not do anything for me. If I were to be negat…
Read at the sourceCybirbV
I’m very disappointed with this anime. It is not even half as good as many people claim. The biggest problem is not a plot itself, which is actually very shallow and has nothing in it that we haven’t read or seen elsewhere, but the way it was all presented to the audience. I decided to watch it after seeing recommendations for Ergo Proxy fans – I was amazed by the way creators told us the story there. I know Ergo Proxy maybe isn’t very revolutionary when it comes to plot too, but Texhnolyze has so many directorial problems that all the flaws in its story are more apparent.
I don’t even want to go deeper into the plot, I know there is a lot of symbolism, it is a commentary on society, technology etc. Yes, it could have been interesting if it had been wraped in a better narrative, but inste…
Read at the source
