Netflix The year has started strong with anime premieres, and between continuations such as ‘Record of Ragnarok’ and the imminent fifth season of ‘Aggretsuko’, an original series has slipped in a little more underhandedly. ‘Make My Day’ is a new commitment to science fiction animewith a contained story of those that show us what happens when humans touch where they shouldn’t.
The arrival of the Swarm
‘Make My Day’ is an eight-episode series directed by Makoto Honda and is now available on Netflix. Scripted by Yumiko Yoshizawa, it is based on an original story by yasuo ohtagakithe author of ‘Moonlight Mile’ and ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt’.
With certain points of terror, the anime presents us a science fiction story with the best tropes of the genrebut which manages to stand out thanks to the humanity of its protagonist and a very well-defined aesthetic.
The story is set on a hostile and frozen planet, where the inhabitants survive as best they can and a gigantic prison has been established where the convicts work by piece in the underground mines. To earn a living and help his family, Jim starts working as a prison guard, but strange creatures known as the swarm one day they emerge from the interior of the planet and begin to devour everything in their path.
So we have a story of survival where a group of humans will have to put their differences and quarrels aside in order to survive and, above all, maintain their humanity. The rhythm of the anime is very good, little by little unraveling the plot and the past of the characters, and balancing well the action and the moments where it is closer to the terror of ‘Alien’.
2004: Odyssey in Sim City
However, The biggest element that ‘Make My Day’ has against it is its visuals. Many animes have a very slow story or lousy pacing, but it keeps you hooked just because of how incredibly beautiful the animation is. ‘Make My Day’ No It’s one of these anime.
And it’s a shame, because really the story has a good rhythm and the necessary elements to bite the bugincluding a protagonist who is easy to connect with from the first moment and a very, very emotional plot. But in order to move on you have to suffer the disastrous visual finishwhich seems to have stayed there on the PS2 or that the entire series has been modeled on ‘The Sims 2’.
This is another production of 5 Inc., who already released ‘Exception’ also on Netflix last year. The truth is that ‘Make My Day’ improves a bit on the studio’s previous series, because the character design is much more natural and expressive. Also, after the initial shock you end up getting used to the animation style, but it’s a shame because animation is going to be a very difficult barrier to overcome for those who start watching the series.
In his favor, it must be said that ‘Make My Day’ has a wonderful dubbing, both in Japanese and Spanishand it is precisely what makes the characters seem much more human and real, and also fixes the limited animation a bit.
Even so, ‘Make My Day’ offers us a disturbing science fiction storywith a very interesting bet with its alien creatures, and a very rich lore that is worth exploring. There is also no lack of social criticism of the genreemphasizing the exorbitant exploitation of natural resources and the abysmal differences in social strata, as well as the sacrifices that the poorest must often make to be treated as people.
With which, despite the fact that his visual style plays against him a lot, ‘Make My Day’ It continues to be an emotional bet for lovers of science fiction.
