Merry Days of Anime: Master Keaton [DROPPED]

This post will be bite-sized, as I only got through two episodes before dropping it. Along with this is Master Keaton‘s insistence on remaining episodic, so any sort of development is implied to be stagnant, and definitely didn’t show much over the course of those two episodes.

Something that sounds bad to admit is being shallow. We all try to strive to be the best people we can be, and will continually make excuses for ourselves to not feel like garbage when we do less than admirable things. For me, my weakness when it comes to anime is the visual aspect, something I’ve come to accept with age. I don’t like when an anime is ugly. If an anime from a billion years ago looks grainy, devoid of color, and static, the chances I finish it decrease exponentially. Master Keaton, unfortunately, falls within this category (and it’s not the first).

Quality of its fluidness is generally okay, though a little slow during downtime. What gets me more than anything is the washed-out color palette. Everything looks really, really muddy. Even if its design is generally okay (artist behind Monster), it’s hard to look past the aura of “Old” that covers just about every scene.

Of course, I didn’t just drop this for its looks. I find that even if the animation design doesn’t suit me, I can get by so long as there are interesting things happening onscreen. It’s helped in cases such as Meitantei Holmes and Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, but here, it takes a much more realistic quality. Our main character, Keaton, is an OP dude who’s smart, capable, and is known by many as “The Master.” His adventures throughout the world are very Indiana Jones-esque, with a little Lupin flair. This sounds pretty good, and I would agree, but what was shown in the first two episodes displayed less desirable circumstances.

To be fair to the series, I didn’t drop it due to a lack of quality or entertainment (though I wasn’t immensely enthused). With episodic series such as this one, with no promise of an overarching narrative or character development (Keaton is already “The Master,” after all), it becomes more of a niche watch. For fans of the episodic, and a nightmare for people who aren’t immediately gripped and trying to binge watch it. I could likely finish this series if I were to watch it as a weekly viewing, where things don’t feel so blended together. Due to my circumstances, however, I felt it best to cut loose early.

Lots of action and crime-stopping permeated the first two episodes. Keaton does some neat shit that probably borders the line between reality and hilarity. He saves people and shows he’s pretty cool. It has that suave factor going for it, though at the expense of any meaning aside from “just because.” An interesting series that would probably bore me after too much in a few sittings. Not bad, though.

Thank you for your time. Have a great day.