Pages

May 22, 2017

Anime Review: Schwarzes Marken

Hello again :D

I am somehow on a roll today, therefore here is the 2nd Review I already planned in my head 1 month ago but didn't come around posting *drops*

Schwarzesmarken (Winter 2016)

(c) ixtl / (c) LIDENFILMS

The anime is set in an alternate East Germany in the 1980s and revolves around a special unit of the East German Army called 666th TSF Squadron, also known as "Black Marks" - hence the title Schwarzesmarken which according to anime world translates to Black Marks (in the real world it would be Schwarze Markierungen ;D). Anyways, not only is the GDR suffering from the Cold War and the Stasi (Ministry of State Security)but they also have to defend themselves against aliens called BETA. With their unconventional methods and the latest technology the 666th TSF Squadron are the only ones in East Germany who can effectifely fight this threat. Within this struggle war hero Irisdina Bernhard and fellow team member Theodor Eberbach not only fight against the monsters trying to destroy the world but also for their freedom within the split Germany.

(c) ixtl / (c) LIDENFILMS
STORY: 6/10
The premise looked really promising because anime set in the time of the GDR are rare if non-existent. As someone born in the GDR an the 80s I was really intrigued even though it "only" was an alternate universe. I really wanted to see how it turned out in the anime. As for the setting I quite liked how it turned out - And this was somehow the only thing that I liked about the story. They tried to put so many schemes in the anime that at one point it got quite confusing but on the other hand it was easy to guess what was gonna happen next. There was no real suspense in it for me. It was just the usual "Even though there is a greater threat against humanity we still have to fight for power within our own ranks"-setting. I think the anime could have lived without the BETA threat.

(c) ixtl / (c) LIDENFILMS
CHARACTERS: 4/10
The only person I somehow liked was Irisdina, the rest of the characters were just plain annoying. If they weren't annoying they were only minor characters with not much of a backstory. I especially hated Katia Waldheim - the epitome of everything I hate in a character: an incapable, naive and flat character. The only thing she is good at is having a war hero as a father and thus standing in as a symbol for something greater. Also getting jealous of everything that is coming near her love interest. But don't even get me started on Lise "Brother-Complex" Hohenheim. Also there is no real depth to the characters at all - they are pretty seethrough. Even as the show progressed I didn't get any real attachment to the characters.

(c) ixtl / (c) LIDENFILMS

ART: 5/10
It is average in my opinion. Can't say to much about that. It didn't make me go wow but I also didn't want to scratch my eyes out. The character design is nice to look at but the rest is just normal - nothing special.

(c) ixtl / (c) LIDENFILMS
OVERALL: 5/10
The anime was not overall horrible but at some points I really had to force myself to watch it further. At points like these I already knew that something cringeworthy was going to happen and I was right. At some points I just lost interest but I made it through and on pint at the end was quite unexpected but that didn't make up for the other 12 mediocre episodes xD I can't recommend this anime but if you still wanna watch it you can either watch it on crunchyroll or Anime on Demand (German).

No comments:

Post a Comment