he first episode of Texhnolyze is more like an extended trailer than a series opener. The premiere lays out an almost entirely dialogue-free series of stuttering images: A bare-knuckle fighter pounds his opponent bloody at a crowded fight, then turns passive while a creepy woman ministers to him gently in a disintegrating bathroom, then aggressively in bed. The woman appears to have a robotic arm; at one point, her fingers pass through his face as though one or the other were insubstantial. Eventually, as she threatens his eye with her sharp fingernails, he strikes her. Later, she appears, bruised and smiling, among the armed men who cut off his arm and his leg.
Meanwhile, a placid traveler meets a precognitive child and her grandfather, a mild-seeming man guarded by armed thuggish types. An assassination attempt by slogan-shouting cultists interrupts the meeting. In a third plot thread, a suited businessman in what seems to be the series' only bright, sunny room holds a enigmatic conversation.
Unlike so many deeply cryptic anime series, Texhnolyze doesn't come with a booklet or a series of special-feature explanations to put all this flashy and confusing imagery in context. Some things about the series' world become evident only in the talky fourth episode; other things are still obscure. What is clear is that the series takes place in a future world where high-tech artificial limbs are relatively common, though brutally expensive and available only through a small controlling cabal. Luckily for the wounded fighter, Ichise, an unconventional mad scientist has chosen him to prove a point about what the Texhnolyzed—those fitted with robotic parts—are capable of. The businessman, Onishi, is himself a Texhnolyze, and he leads the Organo, a group that rules the dark underground city of Lukuss with viciously directed violence. The role of the traveler, Yoshii, and his fox-masked child-guide Ran is still unclear by the time the first disc of Texhnolyze reaches its somewhat unsatisfying end.
A complex and creepy series
Hellsing and Serial Experiments Lain screenwriter Chiaki Konaka is just one of the familiar names attached to Texhnolyze, but he may be the one with the most influence. In its quieter moments, Texhnolyze has some of Lain's eerie, tech-heavy oppression; in its more active phases, the series certainly recalls Hellsing's insane violence. The signature of character designer Yoshitoshi ABe is less obvious; Ran and Ichise in particular look more like the rigid doll-people of the Armitage movies than the softer, more human characters of ABe's Haibane-Renmei or Lain.
The design of the world itself seems more organic and more impressive. Texhnolyze takes place in an extremely dark and complex environment full of decay—rusty pipes, moldy walls, filthy alleys—and rendered in impressive detail. The darkness adds to the oppressive sense of underground weight, and the background music—mournful blues, wild jazz and defiant industrial by turns—completes the mood and adds even more texture. As if to keep the backgrounds from taking over entirely, director Hiroshi Hamasaki shows a penchant for extreme, invasive close-ups of faces, bodies and machines. At times, the camera seems to be trying to crawl inside the characters, or at least press up against them for protection or warmth.
Between the extremes of the experimental storytelling, moody music, horrific setting, fairly graphic sex and violence and beautifully rendered art, Texhnolyze would likely draw viewers even if it didn't have a story at all. (The series' fetishism and the first episode's wordless hyperactivity and visual distortions do sometimes recall early Aeon Flux shorts.) But Konaka is hinting at a complex series of connections that will eventually bring his story's three major threads together. Viewers waiting for that potential to be reached certainly won't be lacking for interesting things to watch in the meantime.
I do wish this initial disc had more interesting extras. I've gotten spoiled by the extensive background info for series like Yukikaze. Texhnolyze's extras are pretty minimal, though there's a nice video interview with ABe and producer Yasuyuki Ueda.
— Tasha
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