Animal Hybrids Rise!
- Episodes : 12
- Genre : Action, Super Power, Fantasy
- Airing Date : April 2020 – May 2020
- Producers : Trigger
Contains Spoilers
BNA (Brand New Animal) Introduction and Story
Michiru Kagemori is about to have a pretty dramatic event occur in her life. As Michiru heads to a festival, an explosion rocks Anima City and thrusts her into a strange situation. Michiru meets with a beastman named Shirou Ogami and discovers that humans believe the beastmen are to blame for the explosion! As a human, Michiru shouldn’t be involved in this long-running feud between beastmen and humans but she will soon discover that she is far from a normal human. Michiru begins to change into a hybrid beastmen—a human/tanuki—and now must help the beastmen in their struggle to coexist with humans or end up in a war of blood.
1. Trigger Animation Team at It Again!
Studio Trigger has long been known for their amazing animation thanks to series like Kiznaiver, Promare, and Kill la Kill but BNA is an entirely different beast, pun not intended. BNA is a truly beautiful series with extravagant levels of detail in the fight scenes, scenery, and character models! Your eyes will thank you for every second you watch BNA, that’s just how beautiful this series truly is!
2. Interesting Sub Plot
One element that might surprise viewers is beyond the simple monster/human segregation lies a deeper theme of prejudice and racism. Michiru starts off as a human witnessing how beastmen are treated in the world but soon becomes one herself and witnesses their struggles firsthand. BNA has an important message to its viewer, that looks and race shouldn’t cause rifts to grow in the world. This message is extremely important seeing the issues in our current world.
3. Strong Fight Scenes
BNA is definitely a creation of Trigger and that can be witnessed in the excellent fights! Shirou kicks tail—again pun not intended—often in the series with Michiru having some wicked battles herself! The final fight in episode 12 alone is a marvel to behold and we can re-watch that scene a dozen times and not grow tired of it!
1. Cliché Plot
Despite the surprises within BNA—like Michiru’s reasons for her transformation—none of them really shocked us and we quickly noticed the series lacks a truly inspiring plot. We would have liked deeper analysis of the beastmen and Human plights in the past and maybe a strong ending that felt as strong as the subplot context we mentioned above. In the end, BNA tries hard to be deeper than previous Trigger works but ends up halfway to its goal.
2. Ho-Hum Ending
As epic as the final fight was, the end result feels like Trigger rushed to make an ending that worked. How the series went about changing the world’s current political endeavors ends up being a series where everyone just finds a nice middle ground and it shows as the curtains close on BNA.
3. Odd Baseball Episode
We love baseball here at Honey’s Anime and equally love baseball anime but in BNA, it felt a bit out of place. Was the episode bad? No, episode 5 was a fun little episode where we see Michiru’s powers and how practical they can be but it felt so bizarre to see in this series. If you aren’t a fan of Trigger’s strangeness factor, be warned that BNA won’t change your mind about the studio.
Final Thoughts
BNA is a fun Trigger animation but won’t end up being one of the best shows of the year, or decade for that matter. The ideas in BNA are truly inspiring and we loved the darker themes within, but BNA doesn’t pull these concepts far enough and in the end, the series feels a bit rushed and lackluster. Needless to say, BNA still looks incredible and was a fun show to watch but don’t expect the next Kill la Kill when you dive in! Did you love BNA or felt it was underwhelming? Comment below with your thoughts and for more anime reviews be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime!
Author: Aaron
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