I was a bit surprised when the final six episodes of “BNA” (“Brand New Animal”) suddenly appeared a week or so ago. I thought that it would be caught up in the Anime Shutdown that has stopped all of the other new series that I am following this
season (except for “Zashiki Warashi”, which is probably being made in someone’s bedroom…). So I took the time to watch episodes 7 through 12 in one evening.

Well, I don’t know about “Brand New Animal”, but the series ended up being the “Same Old Trigger” for the most part. Once again, the writers at Trigger seemed to be trying too hard to recreate the “magic” of “Gurren Lagann” and once
again they just couldn’t do it. The plot was too simplistic, the characters too noble, the direction was too predictable and the action was saved until it was too late in the series. I found myself shaking my head and laughing at the poverty of
imagination during the not-epic-enough “epic finale”.

Is it a “bad” series? No, just terribly ordinary. It’s the old story of trying too hard to be “cool”. And what was cool and new almost 15 years ago just doesn’t cut it any more. However, since there is nothing else being created at this time
it won’t be a total waste of your time to watch this. My final rating is unchanged at C+.

Dave Baranyi

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