First Watch, First Thoughts

I've always wanted to watch this show since as long as I can remember and finally sat down and watched them over the course of a couple weeks, about a month ago. Spoilers obviously ahead for anyone who hasn't seen this.

I like it and yet I still think it could have been more - I know I'll be an outlier in this opinion.

I know it's often cited as one of the greatest anime of all time and I can understand that and see why. There's a certain - mystique? - about the show. It has this mix of vibes and emotions, drama, laughter, romance. There is without a doubt the cool factor going for it: there's musical influences from jazz and hip-hop at times, there's a sex appeal, there's an allure of mystery, action. The animation is done extremely well. The show is so well put together you know you're watching a TV show, not necessarily one that is animated. It was clearly meticulously crafted and designed, nothing feels really forced. They packed a ton into this show creatively and it meshes so extremely well.

And yet - I still feel that despite seeing and agreeing with comments regarding the sentiments above - it was a bit lacking. The only real dive into the backstory they presented was Faye, who if I recall had a couple episodes actually dedicated to her origin and motivations. Jet had a little as well to pull you in. But the finale and show obviously revolves around Spike and they cover so little on him (but really everyone) and so early on that it's kind of hard to care or feel any build up over the course of the show for the end fight and love story. It's touched on I think once early on and then they bring it back at the end. There's no real strings to keep us going throughout when they touch on it so little. Why do I really care about his lost love when I don't know anything about this romance to begin with - just a single instance from 20 episodes ago.

I wouldn't expect every couple episodes to have more backstory, but maybe even one or two others throughout the series that dedicated to each characters motivations would have made the closure much more impactful. Even their bounty hunting was disjointed - there were no real veins leading to the heart of the final showdown - it just kind of ends up there and the show is done.

It ends at 26 episodes - even a couple more would have done so much more at pulling me into actually caring about Spike or really any of the characters just a bit more. I know they're cool. I see their individual styles, but there was very little for me to care on their motivations. I get the hype. I feel the show has a soul and style, an originality that so many are lacking. There's character to the show, but the show needed more for its characters.