Welcome to the Out-Black
Introduction
Before Guillermo Del Toro buddied up with Hideo Kojima in making the Metal Gear Amazon delivery service that would later be known as Death Stranding, he made a franchise surrounding giant robots beating the daylights out of Kaiju called Pacific Rim. After Del Toro departed from the beloved franchise, Steven S. DeKnight took up the mantle as writer and director for its sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, but failed to rouse the same level of enthusiasm as the first, leading it to crash and burn in the box office.
Then comes 2021’s Pacific Rim: The Black, a new addition to the franchise to expand the lore left by the films, animated by Polygon Pictures best known for their work with the Godzilla 3D anime, both coincidentally distributed by Netflix.
Setting and Plot
To sum everything up for the uninitiated, Pacific Rim is about giant robots called Jaegers protecting cities from enormous monsters called Kaiju, and Pacific Rim: The Black is no different. This series takes place in one of the most dangerous locations on Earth, where everything wants to kill you, Australia, and that was before the Kaiju started appearing!
Our protagonists are a brother and sister duo called Hayley and Taylor Travis, two teenagers whose parents left inside a mountain for safety with a group of survivors while they went to bring help. However, five years have gone by since then, with no signs of reinforcements arriving. The parents probably got stuck on a beach somewhere sipping martinis to get away from their pain in the neck of a son.
Frustrated at waiting and feeling adventurous, Hayley decides to search for their parents against her brother’s wishes, only to stumble upon a secret bunker inside the mountain, where she also finds the training jaeger, Atlas Destroyer.
While trying to pilot the machine, they get the attention of a wandering Kaiju, who charges through the mountain settlement and wrecks shop, killing the rest of the survivors and destroying a big chunk of their mountain home in the process. With nothing left to return to, the siblings decide to use the jaeger venture forth into The Black to find their parents.
Pacific Rim: The Black builds on existing lore that came before, but its new setting allows its writers to get a bit weird and have some fun with it while respecting the property in the process.
Pacific Rim: The Black’s narrative can at times be very intriguing, but then there are occasions where it backflips over the shark, most specifically with anything revolving around the character of ‘Boy’. Watching these particular scenes made the series lean closer to something akin to Attack on Titan than Pacific Rim, something I believe will alienate some fans of the franchise.
Despite being made by a Japanese studio, one can feel the western influence surrounding it. Unlike other Japanese shows, Pacific Rim: The Black is very conservative regarding clothing and hair colour for its characters, similar to shows like Ghost In The Shell.
Characters and Performances
Admittingly these characters are not the sharpest tools in the shed. While most of their mistakes can be attributed to them being two hot-headed teenagers, some blunders are just utterly idiotic. There are many occasions where the characters decide to go for the more troublesome decision, despite having better options laid out for them, as if they forgot they live in a monster-infested apocalypse.
I see this trait mainly from Taylor (portrayed by Calum Worthy), a reckless youth whose ego probably can’t even fit inside the jaeger he pilots. Most of the mistakes are his decisions, but thankfully they are called out by the more rational characters.
While he does have some redeemable traits, Taylor is an absolute jerk of a protagonist, who ignores advice whenever given and is not afraid to dish out below the belt insults, even towards his own sister.
However, towards the latter part of the series, his personality does ultimately change for the better. He does come to terms with his mistakes and faults, which is a clear sign of character development if ever I saw one.
Hayley is the second pilot of the Atlas Destroyer due to her high drift compatibility with her sibling. She has a unique design being the only blonde character wearing blue in the entire cast, as the rest of the characters often stick to more muted colours.
She is also a bit of a plot magnet, literally stumbling across plot devices like she is some kind of cursed detector. I do believe that a lot of problems that her character suffers from can be summed up as bad writing. To be honest, I don’t think I can give a fair enough assessment of Gideon Adlon’s acting capabilities from just this first season alone. Hayley’s character narrative is a bit all over the place at times, from suffering from PTSD from losing her friends to being a Mother figure to ‘Boy’.
Joel, portrayed by Vincent Piazza, was brilliant and sometimes even sold us as the heart of the show. His witty personality makes him stand out among the cast, even the protagonists themselves. His happy-go-lucky personality gelled well with the rest of the cast, especially with Mei and the sassy Artificial Intelligence, Luo.
Action and animation
While I have adjusted to 3D animation thanks to various excellent anime like RWBY, Beastars and Dorohedoro helping to grow my tastes, this particular aesthetic tends to float around on the uncanny valley at times. However, 3D animation for anime is still in its experimental stages, so it is understandable that some scenes may feel a bit jarring.
That said, when it is time to bust out the Kaiju killing robots, it turns into a feast for the eyes. The introduction alone was enough to have me gasping with awe with its spectacular lighting effects and animation. Watching the veteran Jeager pilots take down a flock of Kaijus during the first episode’s opening is enough to get anyone hooked.
Conclusion
Despite the movies taking place in a world where giant robots are battling interdimensional alien monsters to save the world, they are far more grounded than this anime, as some of the more fantastical elements in the show don’t fit the franchise’s aesthetic.
The animation, as mentioned previously, is passable for the more mundane moments of the show but shines brightest during the splendid Kaiju fights. As a mecha anime, it succeeds exceptionally in delivering the explosive flashiness the genre is known for.
The question would be whether I would subject myself to another season of this show, and the answer has to be yes. While the series does have faults, I see them as experiments that can help the franchise grow. I do recommend Pacific Rim fans to at least try it out, as it might satisfy their thirst for more robot versus Kaiju action. However, I would not be surprised if some may come out jaded to this new approach.
