There are a lot of movies and books that start off in a very complex and confusing fashion, but end strongly.  Some of my favorites shows are like that.  It's almost like the creator is saying, "If you can persevere through the beginning, it will pay off with a really great story.   Neuromancer by William Gibson is a book that uses this tactic, as does the anime series Serial Experiments Lain.  In both these cases, it is hard to tell what is going on at the start, but if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with a fantastic story.   Of course having an intricate and perplexing beginning doesn't guarantee a good story; sometimes you end up with unintelligible garbage.   Now, from the creators of Serial Experiments Lain comes another series that is very opaque in the first episodes.  Will this show be as inspired as their earlier work?

The first volume of Texhnolyze has four episodes that give you a taste of this rich and complex series.  In Lukuss, a city buried deep underground; a gang war is about to erupt between rival factions of Yakuza.  The population is divided into the very rich crime bosses, and the dirt poor laborers who try to eak out a meager survival amidst the squalor f Lukuss.

In this violent city lives Ichise, a boxer who apparently does the wrong thing in a fight and pays the price for this failure by having his right arm and left leg brutally cut off.   Left for dead, the man clutches his severed arm, and tries to crawl back home.

At the same time, Yoshii starts his journey from the surface world down to Lukuss.  On his long trip he meets a mysterious young girl, Ran.  Ran has the ability to see the immediate future, or at least one possible future.  After Yoshii saves Ran and her grandfather from an attacker, the quiet girl agrees to take him the rest of the way to the city.

As Yoshii gets nearer the city, Ichise is still struggling to get back home.   He fashions a make shift crutch out of some old metal piping, and slowly crosses the city through alleys and side streets until he reaches a large flight of steps.  He tries to climb them, but can't possibly reach the top.  Tired from his exertion and loss of blood, he collapses.  There, unconscious on the steps, a scientist who wants to use Ichise for an experiment picks him up.  This lady is an expert at installing Texhnolyze, a form of bionic replacement for limbs.  She has grown tired of doing the same operations day in and day out, and has an idea that involves Ichise.

Although there are four episodes on this DVD, it is still a little early to tell if this is going to be a good series or not.  This anime has a convoluted style, jumping between the various storylines quickly without bothering to introduce the characters or places.  The first episode was an exercise in confusion, with their being very little dialog, and none spoken at all for the first eleven minutes.  The first episode is also told in a nonlinear fashion with the story, as it is, jumping forward and backwards in time almost at random.

I will admit that I didn't like the first couple of shows in this series.  It seemed that the creators were being obtuse just for the sake of it.  In Lain, for example, I wasn't sure where the story was going to at the beginning, but I didn't mind.  I was intrigued with what was going on and the characters.  But the first couple of episodes of Texhnolyze were too abstract.  I couldn't get a handle on the plot, much less who people were or what they were doing.  By the second half of the disc, I could at least identify the characters and see some semblance of a plot.   (You could make the argument that if you started watching the show with the third episode, you wouldn't miss anything.  The flashbacks at the beginning of that show bring you up to date in a concise manner.)

The style of this show is very unique and I like it.  The world this show depicts has a grim and gritty feel to it, which is accentuated by the way in which they craft the show.  Flashbacks are identified with their very grainy look, like an old movie, and there are a lot of quick cuts.  The background music is techno in nature and fits in well with the visuals.

There are many great images in this series too, especially in the first episodes.  A man walking through catacombs wearing a gas mask and backpack, a goldfish floating in a bubble of water, and a girl with an oddly painted fox mask all help make this show wonderful to watch.   The city streets are intricately detailed, with dirt and garbage lying around which adds to the grim feeling.  The densely populated backgrounds added a lot to the visual impact of the show.

The audio to this show is just as detailed, with the smallest sounds being put in.  Be it the squeak of an old ceiling fan or the sputtering of a flame going out, the subtle sounds that are present make this show very detailed and rich.

Audio:

This DVD gives you a choice of a Japanese or English audio track, both in stereo, with optional English subtitles.  I listened to half of the disc in each language.  While I preferred the sound of the Japanese voice actors, I thought the English talent did a very good job.  They made sure that the dialog matched the lip movements, and didn't try to go for any fake accents to make the characters sound unique.

The sound quality was very good, though I was hoping for a 5.1 mix for this show.  There was some use made of the front soundstage at appropriate moments, and the dialog was clear and easy to hear.  There wasn't any unwanted noise or hisses in the soundtrack, and the subtle sounds that were used throughout made this a nice sounding DVD.

Video:

The anamorphic widescreen video looked pretty good.  The lines were a little soft, being slightly blurred, but the transfer was very good.  There were very few instances of compression artifacts.  The colors were usually darker earth tones that reproduced well, and the contrast was very good.  The image quality on this DVD goes well with the intricate and densely populated visuals.

The Extras:

This DVD had a couple of extras.  The first was an interview with Ueda and ABe who were instrumental in creating this show.  The 11-minute interview covers the creation of the characters, the style and feel of the world, and some of the problems that were encountered while making the series.

There are also two dialog outtakes where the English voice actors ham it up and purposely mess up their lines.  These were pretty funny, and I especially liked the first one where the main character was slightly annoyed that his arm had been cut off.

There is also a reel of trailers, which, unfortunately, Geneon seems to favor instead of a menu that lets you select the trailers you want to watch.  The three trailers on this DVD are:  Space Pirate Captain Herlock, Fighting Spirit, and Master Keaton.

Final Thoughts:

Though there weren't enough shows on this DVD for me to really get into the series, I have a feeling, partly based on the creators' previous work that this will turn into a good show.  The first episodes were very hard to get a handle on, but the second half of the disc gave you enough information that you could start to understand the story.  The characters start to become interesting and you can hazard a guess as to where the show might go.  Bases on the episodes on this DVD, I wouldn't bet that they series would play out in a simple and predictable manner though.  Fans of more a more obtuse storytelling style should be sure to pick this one up.  Recommended.