Saying this show subverted my expectations is an understatement. “Then why is it so middle of your list then?” Because I wish it had gotten more episodes, but we will be forever stuck with 12. It’s a shame that this series is largely ignored due to a variety of reasons that almost turned me off from watching it. For starters the show is CG, yikes. But after watching the first episode, I was surprised how decent it looked and how natural it felt. It wasn’t anything bad like Berserk or Ex-Arm, nor was it on a level like HnK or Beastars. Its CG worked very well for the show it was, it did not detract my enjoyment of the show like I thought it would. Secondly, it’s a Gacha advert. Many anime adaptations of pre-existing or soon to be made gacha games are usually pretty forgettable. Takt.OP from a while ago comes to mind. But once again I didn’t get any impression of an “epic secret cameo” being shoved in my face for the sake of commercializing the upcoming Estab-Life game. And lastly there’s a furry in the main cast. With all those strikes going against it, why do I like it so much?

Simply put, it’s fun. Yeah, I know it’s rare to hear someone say that as a legitimate reason for enjoying a show or any form of media these days without forced nuances or a deeper analysis. But truly, I was engaged with the silly action, character interactions, the world and the clusters we’re introduced to. Also the story as well, since we’re given very little to work with in terms of story at the start and it doesn’t start elaborating on the story until much later into the series. But firstly a brief synopsis. We follow Equa, Martes, Felles, Alga, and Ulula, who are extractors. The mission of an extractor is simple, someone does a silly dance as a code for wanting to escape their current life, uploads it to the internet and from then on, it’s up to the extractors to give them an escape into another cluster(world) where they can enjoy life again.

A simple concept set in an odd world, or several should I say. Clusters are these areas contained in their own bubble/ecosystem, each have their own unique set of rules, population, and ways of living. Though once you’ve been born into one cluster, it’s impossible to leave yours(prison cluster exempt), that’s where the extractors come in and do just that. Long story short, clusters exist because there came a point where humans could no longer survive and prosper. So they created an AI that birthed a new era of humanity that spliced human living attributes to animals, robots, and everything else in between, each given their own cluster to flourish in. Weird concept, but trust me it works somehow.

What makes this show for me is the main trio we follow and how they tackle each situation they’re in. In fact, a good bunch of the issues they run into aren’t a fault of the cluster’s resistance towards extractors, but turmoil they have with each other, or something personal going ary within themselves. Equa is a kind and compassionate leader. Too kind in fact, the creators made her so kind to make it off putting. I think they failed in that regard since I don’t think she was as scary as she was fake. Feles is the straight man, usually the one who’d rather be at home then putting her life on the line extracting others. It’s probably due to her down to earth nature, but she was my favorite. Finally there’s Martes, a slime who takes on the form of a cute girl. She is obsessed with Equa and will lash out at anyone getting too close with her, namely Feles. Her character grew on me, at first she was annoying but after seeing her actually care for Feles-san I too started caring for her as well. Oh, and there’s Alga and Ulala, a robot and a furry respectively. They don’t add too much to the story, but round out the cast. I preferred Alga since his inclusion felt more warranted than Ulala’s, being a robot of course.

The show tricked me, not only in managing to be rather enjoyable, but also because of the twists the story takes. I started this series thinking it’d be no more than a cluster/weirdo they have to extract of the week, but about halfway through it shows its true colors. After an episode where they have to extract a preacher from a cluster where you’re not allowed to wear underwear, we see Equa’s emotion dimmer than her usual up-beat self. Odd, we then get an episode of the team handling a situation without Equa, due to an illness that came over her and another one about her cafe that she runs, aka, their HQ. But then we reach the best and most emotionally heavy episode where they have to extract a butler who loathes serving this bratty young girl. It turns out her brattiness made everyone in her cluster leave. We later find out that she acted like a dick on purpose after realizing that their cluster was falling apart due to people not working together to keep the cluster afloat, with her running the cluster (unbeknownst to everyone) she becomes a brat where everyone goes AWOL. After the butler is extracted, the cluster disappears as does the girl. I was not expecting these kind of feels from this kind of show. It’s a great episode because we really come to learn about the girl through hating her at first, to putting up with her at her party, and finally realizing all along that she was given not many other options. Though I’d argue that if she had told everyone to work together and that she was the manager then maybe the cluster would’ve gotten back on track, but that’s just my two cents.

I got into detail about that episode because it exemplifies everything I love about the show. The characters, the world, the unpredictability, and the drama of it all. As for what I didn’t like about the show, well although the CG didn’t bother me personally, I could imagine it being much more successful had it gone 2D. There are moments where we see clones, twins, and reskins. Even the final episode has the master Manager taking on the form of the rich girl (Cindrillion) despite not being her. I chalk this up to artistic merit and don’t knock it for this reason, she’s rather cute anyways. As I mentioned earlier, I felt that Alga and especially Ulala were unnecessary. It doesn’t help that we learn hardly anything about either of them aside from what I’ve already mentioned about them. At least Alga can talk and provide interesting banter with the main trio on occasion, Ulala just grunts and barks. Very forgettable and I’m sure a furry also detracted some viewers from picking it up. The score is nothing to write home about either, and everything else from a presentation standpoint is just serviceable. Though some of the backgrounds and locations are nice to look at, such as the prison or panda clusters.

So in short, what makes this series so good is how much it does right despite having so many strikes going against it. I found the characters, situations, designs, story, dialogue, and voice acting all fun to invest my time into. I might just say this is my AOTS, and if this anime has taught me anything, it’s that you should not judge a book by its cover.