One of the series I had put on-hold due to my most recent anime hiatus, Prism Ark was the only one that wasn’t currently on-going when I went on hiatus. I didn’t mind as much with Prism Ark, because it was awful. Upon seeing the rest of it, it’s still terrible. And I mean it’s really, really terrible.
Prism Ark begins with some sort of vision of the future, where all of the characters are fighting things whose origins or intentions are unknown. All of the major characters are present and have already established their relationships with each other to the point that anime is willing to develop. This meaning that they kiss without being embarrassed. Yay. I guess it was trying to show us the final product as an advertisement before letting us try it out from the beginning? It’s an odd maneuver. Cut to episode two, and it’s like episode one. Everyone is introduced, shown how colorful they are, and the series kind of plays out like that.
If you’re asking yourself, “How’s the story,” I’ll tell you how the story is: cliche. Every stereotype about anime that anyone unfamiliar with the medium can use to put it down is present here. Specifically, tits. And panty shots. And middle-aged men acting like pedophiles. And edge. And women acting like their natural instinct and desire is to be swept off their feet by men. I’ve never been one to call out sexism in anime, because I don’t care all too much. However, Prism Ark is kinda-sorta sexist… just like most of anime like it… probably. Other than its cliche-ness, it’s also incredibly boring. Things happen, but they’re dragged down by disgustingly archetypal characters and an overused plotline of redemption and trying to build a romance with a tsundere person. It’s not worth it. Oh, this is also based off of a game. I have no idea how the game is.
There are a variety of characters in Prism Ark. If you would like to know about these characters, I would recommend you look them up, because I don’t remember them. There was a main character. He was a boy. He liked the other main character, who was a girl. They kissed at the end. That wasn’t a spoiler; the first episode spoils you anyway. Besides, do you really care? There were also a number of other characters. They cared about really stupid shit. Like the size of their tits. Because in anime, every female character is self-conscience about the size of their tits. Always. No exception. I feel like I’m missing a few characters. Like, all of them. I really didn’t care throughout the whole show, so, what does that tell you? I’m cynical, exactly.
Despite Prism Ark being about eight or so years old, it still looks as lusterless as a show from the ’90s. I mean, it looks fine aesthetically, but it just feels really dull. Also, it didn’t try a lot of creativity outside of the comic relief scenes. Speaking of comic relief scenes, cliche. There were a few instances where the girls’ panties looked like an elderly vagina, but that’s excusable because vaginas aren’t pretty anyway. The character designs were something to behold. That may have been the best thing about the anime: how the characters looked. Despite being dunked in gray coating, they at least looked like they were training in a knight school… wait, no they didn’t. I take that back, this anime is chaos.
There are no redeeming qualities about Prism Ark. It’s literally just a time waster. The plot is cliche, the characters are annoying, and the art looks bland for its time. It’s just another example of the anime industry trying to cash in on the popularity of a video game series. It’s stupid. Very, very stupid. Nothing else but that.
The Visualist's Veranda 