Babylon Series

[Stark700]

An official website and Twitter account opened on Monday to reveal that Mado Nozaki's Babylon novels is getting a television anime adaptation by Revoroot. Twin Engine is producing the anime, and the company began streaming a teaser video for the series.

Plot

The suspense story centers around Zen Seizaki, a prosecutor with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Office. While investigating illegal acts by a certain pharmaceutical company, Seizaki stumbles across a conspiracy over an election for an autonomous "new zone" established in western Tokyo.

ANN source
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...voroot/.129199

Official site
https://babylon-anime.com/

[Stark700]

Preview

[Stark700]

Amazon Prime has the first three episodes up today.

[Dop]

Just caught the first three episodes as they came out today, and oh boy that's liable to be mightily can-of-worms-y and is definitely flirting with controversy given what happens.

That said, I really liked it (was amused by the main character's "Keep Calm and Serve Justice" mug) and I'm now in the same position I was in when Vinland Saga launched. "Aargh! Now I've got to wait WEEKS to find out what happens next!"

[bakato]

Nice start, but this was written by the same guy who made Kado so I'm not gonna be surprised when it fizzles halfway.

[zztop]

Originally Posted by bakato

Nice start, but this was written by the same guy who made Kado so I'm not gonna be surprised when it fizzles halfway.

Depends on how closely they follow the source books.
There's only 3 books; I wonder if the anime will cover all of them.

[Irenesharda]

This is probably the most adult, dark and dramatic thriller anime I've seen in a while.

It has the feel of something like Psycho pass or Resonance of Terror, but even more serious.

Lots of twists, turns, cliffhangers, manipulation, murder, and corruption, with a layer of mystery on top, I definitely will be following this one.

I'm a little sad that I now have to wait some weeks for the next episode.

Originally Posted by Dop

Just caught the first three episodes as they came out today, and oh boy that's liable to be mightily can-of-worms-y and is definitely flirting with controversy given what happens.

It would be more controversial if it was really dealing with euthanasia or something closer along those lines. Here, this smacks of cultish behavior. Where people are being influenced and manipulated by others against their will and better judgment. It's not healthy or does anyone any good, any city that has that as its law is not going to last long. I mean, in what way would mass suicides help the growth of the human race? If you exterminate yourselves as a species, there IS no more growth.

[Grifis]

I like this and I'm interested to see where it will go. I want to know where this woman comes from and her motive as well as what she's trying to achieve. It looks like she's the final boss. Main guy disappointed me when he allowed her to play him.

[wuhugm]

Meh, same with Kado, too pretentious

[bakato]

It just occurred to me. Ai is the whore of Babylon, hence the title.

[Blaat]

I wonder who the inspiration was for Ryuichiro Nomaru's character design.

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by Grifis

I like this and I'm interested to see where it will go. I want to know where this woman comes from and her motive as well as what she's trying to achieve. It looks like she's the final boss. Main guy disappointed me when he allowed her to play him.

It was mostly to work as an introduction to Ai, and so we had to see how powerful and unsettling she was as a manipulator. Zen had never met her before and hadn't interacted with her, so he was thrown off by her. It makes sense and works here. Next time, he won't underestimate her.

Originally Posted by bakato

It just occurred to me. Ai is the whore of Babylon, hence the title.

Ah, that makes more sense. The first poster with her in the church confused me considering the storyline so far. But seeing her in that context gives her a whole new meaning.

[Wandering Soul]

Nice start though I do have to wonder what exactly this young politician's plan is. I get he wants a society where people are open to and may even desire death, but I'm curious to see how everything he has done so far leads to it. Not sure how a cult suicide changes anyone's mind on death.

Well, whatever his plan is, Ai is central to it.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

Nice start though I do have to wonder what exactly this young politician's plan is. I get he wants a society where people are open to and may even desire death, but I'm curious to see how everything he has done so far leads to it. Not sure how a cult suicide changes anyone's mind on death.

Well, whatever his plan is, Ai is central to it.

Or whatever her plan is, he's useful to it.

[SeijiSensei]

I was a bit surprised when they added in the detail about how Ai could look like different women. It seemed a bit out-of-place in what is otherwise a pretty down-to-earth police story. Are we really supposed to believe she has some supernatural shape-shifting power?

[Applehell]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I was a bit surprised when they added in the detail about how Ai could look like different women. It seemed a bit out-of-place in what is otherwise a pretty down-to-earth police story. Are we really supposed to believe she has some supernatural shape-shifting power?

TBF, we had otherwise mentally healthy people like Fumio randomly committing suicide out of blue. So I think elements of supernatural phenomena were present from the beginning, just more subtle. Feel it will likely remain mostly understated tho as from brief like in ep 3 assuming Zen isn't just hallucinating all of this.

[Forsaken_Infinity]

Pretty predictable twists but I liked the execution so far even so. I am also not fond of bringing in the supernatural where it's not warranted but in this case the supernatural was sufficiently hinted at from the go indeed. Sucks to have to wait so long to continue.

[Grifis]

Well, with the power of make-up magic nowadays, it's not hard for one woman to look different every time.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Interesting start. Ai is obvious Whore of Babylon reference there. Most likely she hijacked the whole Shiniki project rather than Nomura or Itsuki being the actual mastermind. Anyway, this story literally stands or falls purely on the basis of her character. I hope she proves compelling enough rather than being just a plot device antagonist


Feels like Monster in a certain sense but it's clear this one's going to be more thematic

[Haak]

I was actually quite impressed by the first three episodes. I wasn't a fan of the overly SRSBSNS posturing and "justice-boner"-ing in the first episode but things really kicked into a higher gear with the death of Seizaki's colleague. His interrogation of Ai was very well directed with tons of double meaning, subtext, body language and other visual cues. I was a bit annoyed when his boss revealed himself to be in cahoots with the corrupt politician (its such a cliche at this point) but was then impressed by it turning out to be far more complicated and with Seizaki being put in a position where he has to indirectly help corrupt politicians so he can solve a bigger crime.

I do admit the ending worries me though. Ai's powers of persuasion were stretching incredulity in the interrogation but that's nothing compared to what we're seeing here and I have a hard time seeing any plausible explanation for that. I wonder if this story will be brave enough to write a scene of Ai directly persuading someone to kill themselves instead of everything being off screen, because that's the only way I'll be able to judge the plausibility of her persuasion.