Thunder 3

Episode 4

For a show that began with a major genre side-swerve in its first episode, perhaps it's not too surprising that it does it again in its fourth. Unfortunately, this time, the results are far less interesting. Turns out that almost entirely side-lining the main characters in their own show is a big mistake, especially when that means all we're left with is a terminally dull “normal” human being whose single personality trait is that he wants a girlfriend, and his sole facial expression is “mildly perturbed.” Socially awkward student Segami has all the charisma of a wet piece of cardboard, and I already felt the manga chapters that focused on him were by far the weakest. Animating them with such poor, half-finished CG sadly only makes everything worse.

What previously mitigated the effect of this show's accursed ugly presentation was the presence of the funny little cartoon people from another world. Shifting the viewpoint to one of these stiff, unemotive, mannequin-like dolls with dead eyes and creepy mouths is a grave mistake, and I wouldn't be surprised if many viewers dropped the show after this complete narrative and visual misfire. Although the mech designs remain cool, they're animated at such a low frame rate and with such minimal motion that the whole thing looks embarrassing.

Even the plot and setting itself is questionable. A more slickly produced show might have been able to distract the viewers' questions about this subjugated human society. Why does every single human being wander the streets, zombie-like, with their eyes captured by glowing cellphone screens while an alien invasion occurs around them? Perhaps this is meant to be a searing indictment of human distractability in the digital age, but it just doesn't ring true. The only events that shake people out of their unwittingly suicidal self-absorption are the sudden and shocking application of violence against innocents.

The aliens normally pay even less attention to the humans than the humans do to them, but if humans get in the aliens' way, now they're unafraid to haul out the vaporization cannons. I mean, if even TV reports that now the Earth has been unified under an alien “Galactic Emperor” isn't enough to perturb the average person surgically attached to their phone screen, then maybe vaporization is all they deserve.

Segami isn't much different. Although he despairs about the state of the world, he's not actually motivated to do anything about it. He only blunders into a meeting of the hilariously-monikered “Rebellion” (couldn't they have thought of a slightly more creative organizational name? It's so pathetically on-the-nose) because their flyer promises babes “with F-cups.” I know that sex sells and all, and in a better produced show this would probably be funny, but the utterly garbage presentation and impossibly flat character animation sucks all fun from the premise.

If the rest of the season digs in to focus only on Segami and his boring new friends, even if they're packing rocket launchers and uzis, the show could end up as a crushing disappointment. I'm a big fan of the manga, mainly because of its excellent art and fast pace. So far, this adaptation has ruined the visuals, and looks likely to fail in every other regard too. I want more funny cartoon people smashing aliens to pieces. I couldn't give a crap about these boring and ugly “normal” people.

Rating:

Thunder 3 is currently streaming on Netflix.