Catalyst Castle

This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation. 

This anime takes place in the not-too-distant future and focuses on an elite police squad that uses the latest technology to deal with crimes committed using the latest technology. Ghost in the Shell was a movie first, and if I understand things correctly, this series is a prequel to the movie. The show seems very episodic in the first two episodes. Each episode had the team dealing with a different crime, which did not seem to be connected in any way. Both situations were interesting. The first was more of a mystery, while the second was more straightforward but had more action. One of the cool things about this anime is the technology portrayed in it. Several of the main characters are cyborgs, and it seems like in this world it isn’t unusual for your average person to have at least one or two cybernetic enhancements. Of course, there are also anti-cyborg activists, but that was only alluded to in these episodes. The animation was pretty good, and the plots were interesting. In the first two episodes the characters weren’t developed very much, but they might get more attention as the show progresses. Overall, I’d say this show is more mentally engaging than emotionally engaging.

Content Advisory: Some PG13 language. The first episode had one scene with some brief gore when the main character shoots off a guy’s foot as he’s trying to escape. It also had a scene where the police blow off the heads of three androids. It wasn’t exactly “gory”, but the heads (which looked rather human on the surface) do explode with some sort of black fluid spraying up from the necks. Again, not exactly “gory”, since they were machines, but still kind of disturbing looking. Interestingly, the second episode had nothing like either of those scenes, so I don’t know how I would rate the series as a whole, content-wise.