ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.

As a rule, MADHOUSE animation studios chose the material that should be of great interest to their audience, and I think they rarely took a wrong turn. This show looks interesting from the opening. You could speculate if it is going to go in the direction of a government conspiracy, coup d'état, power struggles within a government agency, or deal with various cases of various frauds and crimes within the different state branches. You could even assume this is not going to be the kind of show that grabs people by how good it looks. The characters are not particularly beautifully illustrated, although to be fair, I guess that is in keeping with the original manga art style. Also, this show is not going to captivate people with tons of action and violence, as it seems more like they are going to go for a story that focuses on solving things with reason rather than force. The problem with this show is that it consists mainly of dialogues between the characters, so there is not much chance of action. Plus, everybody is trying to be mysterious, even though in reality, a lot of stuff happens. Also, when the stuff happens, they give the impression that it just happened and came out of nowhere but did not really affect anything. Even the biggest twists are presented in a dry, emotionless way, so any atmosphere and interest go more and more down the drain with each passing episode. I kept waiting for it all to kick off, and it just did not. Most of the time, there is such a really long wait for something you think is coming, and even though you are right to expect it, the longer you wait, the more you start to not care, and you are left wondering if it was really worth it. In conclusion, the last episode is definitely the best of the whole season and more or less gives a reason for everything that came before it (so it does not feel like a complete waste of time). However, although I really enjoyed the last episode, it could not redeem the oddly unengaging majority of the show that got me to that point. It is not bad, even though it is probably the most boring and least dramatic anime series about a government conspiracy I have ever seen. However, because of the last episode, a couple of likable characters, and a good soundtrack, I eventually awarded it 5.2/10. (01/10/2017)