[Androzani84]

I liked this more than I liked GAVV proper (my verdict: While I don’t outright hate it like I did Ryuki, it never really grabbed me beyond Vram’s initial introduction, and he became less interesting after he joined the heroes), but that’s not particularly saying much.

I think my big issue is that Shoma aside, the main cast are all sidelined or absent for most of it, replaced with their doppelg?ngers. That would be fine, but instead of giving the doppelg?ngers much development, they instead use them to try and derive emotional beats that bank on attachment to the regular versions. And as someone whose answer to the Theseus Ship paradox is no, I’m not okay with that. And among he new characters, only Taorin gets anywhere near anything to try and make me invested. And since he’s basically a clone of Shoma, that falls back into the first part of this complaint.

On the other hand, I preferred the action in the movie to the show, especially since they seemed to be letting Sugihara film in spaces more suited to his style, rather than forcing him into cramped alleyways where the suit actors look like they’re struggling to breathe. And I honestly felt more for World B Michiru than her regular counterpart, probably because flashback only characters who are stated to be dead in the present are kind of a hard sell for me, unless they’re not revealed to be dead right away. And the kid was pretty cute.

In all honesty, I think Komura did the alternate world angle better in the Wozard movie.