I'm here to review the better of the two.
Pictured: Not Guilty Crown.
...Thank God.
So UN-GO was a very...uhm...interesting series. The characters weren't that special, and the background was very predictably post-apocalyptic cyberpunk Japan. How did it fare? Pretty well, actually. It seems that in the Fall season at least, there was UN-GO to provide the usual mystery genre anime quota. Personally, I think that the studio (Bones) just stopped trying to make bad series (like Gosick and No. 6) and just said, "Why don't we make something that looks like Darker Than Black...but with mystery?" In any case, it worked out rather well for something that looked like it was crapped out for the Fall season at the last minute.
The graphics are good. I actually really like them because I'm a sucker for strong lines and colors. You can definitely tell this series' drawing style from others though, and that's good. The fast-moving scenes were really well done though, especially the action scene at the end. Other than that, there's really nothing more to say - the CGI butterflies were kinda weird, but I guess they were necessary, b/c which supporting artist is gonna draw 185101 frames of pink translucent butterflies forcing themselves into someone's mouth?
The soundtrack is unique. By that I mean that while not entirely "bad" or "annoying", the OP and ED sound like someone wrote them while high. Well, the rest of the soundtrack does too, but to a lesser extent. I definitely think I'm gonna download the OST though - UN-GO had one of the few soundtracks that I actually noticed, and the piece that played whenever they were about to explain the mystery was really well made. So props...I guess?
Listen to me, Baka to Test. THIS is how you do male EDs.
As for the story...Well, yeah. It was good. Again, it lays out most of the clues and details beforehand so that the mystery doesn't consist of the detective hand-waving everything. I do agree that having a character that forced everybody to answer truthfully to solve the mystery was somewhat cheap, but to be honest, it only happened at the very end (and they only asked for the reasons as to why they committed the crime).
The characters were very nicely mixed - from the cynical and slightly ruthless Shinjuurou to the secretive Rinroku to his naive daughter Rie. The small mysteries/side-jobs were very nicely done and so was the final arc. There was an actual sense of risk, a feeling of "oh man the main character could actually get screwed" (and sometimes he did). This added a LOT to the series and I give it props for its unpredictability, even if I knew that this series should have a good ending.
The expounding of the themes in UN-GO were also inserted nicely. Perhaps it wasn't the most subtle thing in the world, but having it sprinkled throughout the series and especially in the ending was a great way to show viewers that this series was relatively profound. The presentation of Shinjuurou as an almost "anti-hero", someone who seeks the truth regardless of how many people would be "hurt" due to their own lies and conspiracies, is a great initial premise. Too many times, viewers have been frustrated by genius detectives that put a finger to their lips and go "shh!" Well UN-GO has the solutions for you. Even the hand behind all the conspiracies was nearly stomped on by Shinjuurou's rampage. I would say that this is a very refreshing way to vent your frustration, but don't be surprised at how it ends. People do need their white knight, after all.
Personally, I don't like how it ended so abruptly, but it is different and I think this type of conclusion also works. The last part of the last episode also tied up things really nicely and wound down the tension while potentially setting the series up for a sequel. Good job overall with finishing it off, I would say.
I think UN-GO was one of the really good gems of Fall 2011 and I had fun watching it. I would probably recommend this to anybody with even a slight interest in mystery series.
Bada bing, bada BOOM.
Nice review. UN-GO was good. It's nice that a decent mystery series finally showed up. Then again, I didn't watch the other two series, so eh.
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