Episode Guide
Shibuya Transfer Heroic Desire Guardians First Return Plan Appearance of the Future Because They’re Humans… Midnight Rhapsody Operation Nephilim Loss of Destiny Everyone’s City The Last Hope Revert Originally broadcast in Japan at the end of last year, Revisions is an interesting but sadly formulaic animated offering. Embracing the usual tropes seen in this genre, Revisions injects some intriguing but under-developed time travel mechanics into its man VS machine story but fails to really stand out against the plethora of other animes in this category. After a brief introduction to our hero, second year school student Daisuke, we jump back in time to see a strange woman called Milo tell him and his friends that they’ll eventually be responsible for saving the world. As a strange phenomenon descends over Shibuya back in present day Japan, the city is thrust forward over 300 years into the future. Once there, mechanical behemoths known as revisions threaten the city and it’s up to Daisuke to save the world, thanks to Milo and her “string puppet” (a mech suit). As the episodes progress, we learn more about the world, the truth behind the machines and time travel mechanics, including a few nicely worked twists at the end. Despite the familiarity of the story, Revisions certainly isn’t afraid to kill off a few of its characters and while I won’t spoil any plot here, suffice to say it’s certainly a welcome inclusion here. Unfortunately Revisions is quite the slow burn series. Despite a pretty promising opening episode, the rest of the series slows in pace, requiring quite a bit of patience to see this one through to the end. The wait is worth it though, especially for some of the later fights and the final episode, but whether you’ll have the patience to get that far is another matter. Much like Sword Art Online, the biggest problem with Revisions comes from its unstoppable, seemingly invincible main character. Daisuke is as mundane and formulaic as you’d expect which does make it difficult to empathise with his struggle. As his friends start to gain their own string puppets and help him out, some of his inner turmoil and envy over them getting involved only further exacerbates this problem. The art style is decent though, with a good dose of thin-lined character models and a good use of colour throughout. The actual fight animations are well shot, with a consistent amount of cutting, giving a real ebb-and-flow to the way these play out. The design of the revisions themselves are certainly imaginative although the main antagonists of the series typically cling to the usual obscure hair colour trope that seems to be a mainstay in this genre. Revisions is not a bad anime though and there’s certainly enjoyment to be had here. Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly memorable or original one either. It’s simply an average mech VS human action anime, with pretty visuals and a stock “chosen one saves the world” character at the heart of it. Daisuke is disappointingly bland and although Revisions does pick up in its second half of episodes, whether many people will make it that far to see this one to its conclusion is still up for debate.
