Wait...doesnt this premise remind you of Patlabor or PsychoPass? A little but only on the surface. In practice its a lot closer to a newly selfaware entry in Toeis old Metal Hero series. Think Winspector meets Dekaranger except guest starring Bonzi Buddy. Or just Power Rangers. That said without overthinking the material. Even Goro Taniguchi who is one of the two directors involved cautioned that this show wouldnt be anything like his previous projects. Story: Active Raid does not revolve around the life of a central protagonist or singular character. The story centers on the team as an ensemble cast. This show follows a rather oldfashioned storytelling approach aiming for audiences with a nostalgic fondness for silly and formulaic Tokusatsu or Super Sentai series without a ton of depth nor intellectual pretense. Instead of a modern take on Patlabor or a dramatic scifi police procedural like PsychoPass what we actually have here is a much less ambitious production. The misfit cops of Unit 8 have to deal with an uncooperative government bureaucracy in order to overcome wacky episodic threats through the use of power armor Willwear and ultimately face a juvenile mastermind. If that doesnt sound like something you would enjoy then the series probably isnt going to work for you at all. Which means I cannot really praise the overarching narrative of Active Raid. Even the political elements are there to serve as either satirical gags or temporary obstacles through the use of hyperbole rather than serious explorations of conflict. In the end the underlying story is going to be predictable. However one of the potential virtues about the episodic structure is that each week can be very different from the previous one. New elements will come and go providing small surprises inside jokes and quite distinct sources of amusement thanks to the rotating focus between the various members of the cast. If you didnt like a given episode perhaps youll enjoy the next. Or the one right after that. The episode previews do a good job of providing both explicit and implicit selfawareness about the inherent silliness of the show as well as various degrees of teasing concerning future events although they usually tend to be a little misleading. If you didnt care for the first episode because it was trying to do too many things at once and the characters used some jargon both of those particular concerns go away rather quickly. The specialized terms end up being mostly selfevident or irrelevant generally used either for token procedures or to illustrate how police work is supposed to work. In other words this isnt the kind of show where you really need to go look up a dictionary or glossary if you dont care about the technical details. Simply put Active Raid isnt a show that takes its science or physics seriously nor does it even try to present a game like poker in a remotely realistic manner. I would argue the single best episode of the show is the sixth one. Thats Active Raid at its most effective. It deals with nostalgia for outdated giant robots that are no longer necessary in this fictional universe due to their fuel inefficiency combining both a few goofy injokes for oldschool fans of Super Robot anime as well as a couple of genuine emotional beats and an impressive use of 2D mechanical animation. If only the show had more episodes like that one the resulting experience could have been a lot stronger rather than merely satisfactory. Character: When it comes to the characters almost all of them were technically adults which is rather unusual and welcome compared to most contemporary anime. However these are not exactly a bunch of serious professionals. Their way of dealing with crime while sometimes surprisingly effective was often only superficially following the rules and could directly or indirectly cause lots of property damage. The government doesnt think too highly of Unit 8 and frankly neither should the viewer for a start. As expected when it comes to such a goofy and unrealistic production the show doesnt provide vast amounts of character development. Sure there are a few situations which do give valid characterization to various members of the cast such as the episode about the relationship between Sena and his former girlfriend as a notable example but these are the exceptions. As much as it can be a doubleedged sword the series wasnt too interested in trying to handle powerful emotions or complex character arcs. Thats not the name of the game here. Instead its simply more about how the individual displays of charisma gimmicks quirks and interactions create a superficially amusing dynamic between the members of the team and anyone else involved at any given time. That is most of what the show expects to offer its target audience and if you can accept this it is actually quite possible to develop a very basic liking for these individuals. Not every gag or quip is gold to be sure but that ultimately depends on your personal sense of humor. Lets take a quick look. Asami the rookie cop initially hoped to reform Unit 8 and turn it into a more disciplined outfit. As much as the random bits of Engrish in her dialogue might annoy certain viewers they were also a pretty amusing quirk to other sectors of the audience. That is the sort of thing one must either take or leave when watching this show. Now you might be tempted to expect the series to ostensibly focus on her dilemma and try to turn it into a PsychoPass style conflict of ideals. But thats not what really happens further revealing the huge differences between how both series operate. Early episodes did establish this tension yet they also started resolving the issue at the same time. In particular the second episode already had Asami implicitly accepting Unit 8s methods. After that point the rest of the team essentially keeps handling things in their own way and effectively ends up absorbing her in a gradual manner. Which is also pointed out near the end of the season thus completing the process. Are these people just caricatures then? Not completely since a few of them do have extra traits and occasional personal issues which emerge after learning a little more about their lives or just by seeing them in action. In fact I would have to say that Rin the Boss of Unit 8 and old man Funasaka were arguably two of the best characters in the show at the end of the day. Not great ones but decent. The episodes focusing on them were pretty good in this respect and they still manage to get other nice scenes later on. Evidently you do need to accept how someone like Rin will look young for her position. But as a matter of fact she does consistently behave like an adult. The same cant always be said about everyone else in Unit 8. While I was fine with all of that I believe one characterrelated issue did admittedly tend to directly detract from the show at least in this season: the main antagonist Mythos. Mythos lacked presence his personality was boring and the revelations about his background were not effective in creating much sympathy. Frankly glorified computer hackers dont seem that much of a threat even as a concept. The single best thing you could say about him and the organization he created Logos is that they contributed to creating various entertaining situations. Its true other enemies such as the ones known as Dog and Bird rather silly codenames of course were slightly more fleshed out during the late stages of the season. But if there is one key thing that Active Raid absolutely needs to improve for the next series it would be providing better villains and giving them more room to breathe. In fact it would be easy to speculate about how such a positive change could also help expand the characterization for the heroes from its currently basic state into something more traditionally solid. In short if you have come to Active Raid expecting much more than that or as someone who needs very compelling characters as a strong anchor to hold your interest then you are most definitely looking in the wrong place. Art: In terms of art and animation quality Production IMS did some relatively consistent work by their own standards. The illustrator known as Tosh made everyone pretty when it came to the character designs and the production itself didnt collapse all of a sudden unlike some of the worst IMS projects. The eventual physical release of the series will include fixes to the artwork and animation but the broadcast wasnt too impressive. That said I would argue the various animation changes to the opening and ending sequences over time were quite welcome. In particular the ending had some amusing additions towards the final part of the show which contributed to the amusement value of the experience. The 3DCG Willwear suits were animated by Orange one of the better studios in the anime industry for this kind of work. The actual designs have uneven visual appeal but they do show variety different inuniverse companies produced them and blend in quite well. In general most of the mecha action sequences were well animated and merely competent rather than particularly exciting often being employed as another part of the surrounding jokes rather than trying to be too intense. Sound: As for the OP/ED songs themselves Akino and Bless4 were involved. They were alright. But what I liked the most was the background music by Kotaro Nakagawa. He gave the shows soundtrack the right kind of retro cheesy yet energetic vibe which was a good fit for something like Active Raid that owes a lot more to the traditions of Tokusatsu and power armor heroes than to anything else. Overall: So what would be my final word on Active Raid? Its fun and watchable with low expectations but not for everyone. The first season isnt very appealing to modern anime fans. In addition it has long been established that most of the real anime moneymakers come out in Spring and Fall. Active Raid is just a transparent throwback piece not a product of innovation and great creativity made by a bunch of creators who were basically chilling out during an offseason. Everything suggests they wanted to create something primarily for those who share a certain amount of nostalgic amusement for this specific type of material. Which is why I doubt Taniguchi and Arakawa or the rest of the team for that matter arent thinking about more ambitious projects in the meanwhile. Objectively speaking this is simply a lightweight product. Neither serious enough to provide a compelling dramatic core nor nonsensical enough to appeal to fans of complete insanity. If that sounds boring or offends your sensibilities you would be better off watching something more substantial. Otherwise feel free to check it out.