Paradox Live the Animation

Paradox Live - let's set our hearts on fire with music, just don't take it literally! If you're even a little bit interested in Japanese hip-hop, you've probably heard about such a great project as Paradox Live, aka Paralive, created jointly by Avex Pictures and GCREST recently, in 2019. The project is essentially a rap battle between members of different teams, voiced by 29 (so far) voice actors including Gakuto Kajiwara, Ayumu Murase, Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Komado and Kousei Arima), Yusuke Kobayashi, and many others. The teams themselves, as well as their members, have their own characteristics, song styles, history, but the most important thing thatunites them is hip-hop. If you believe the mainstream version, hip-hop started in Japan in the early 1980s and was, like in other countries, "freedom music". If you look for a correlation between the anime industry and hip-hop, the first thing that comes to my mind is the series Afro-samurai Fuminori Kizaki by Takashi Okazaki, where at the expense of hip-hop style to the viewer more clearly shows the concept of anime. Hip-hop in Paradox Live is the basis, it is around him all the musical teams and it is this musical genre is very fond of all the participants of this project. The announcement of the anime adaptation was at the end of the second live concert Dope Show Paradox Live, and later the whole cast of creators became known. The series was created by a small studio called PINE JAM and directed by Naoya Andou, who had previously worked on episodes of some anime and on the music video Hi-DRIVERS! 2022. Paradox Live at the time of writing this review was divided into two story phases, this show is just about the first phase, with the main characters being the members of the four teams. About the plot. Humans discover the metal "phantom metal", which in the not-too-distant future hip-hop artists start using to create charming illusions related to their emotions, for this they use accessories containing the very same "phantom metal", which has its own DNA. What is the toll of using illusions? Side effects, up to and including the death of the one using them - that's the price, quite impressive, but there's no way to stop the servants of their creativity. As I mentioned earlier, the anime depicts the first stage of Paradox Life. Several teams battle each other in battles after the mysterious return of CLUB PARADOX for a huge amount of money and the right to get a duet with the legendary vanished group. There are four hip-hop teams, and they are: — BAE, a trio who perform songs in three languages: Japanese, Korean, and English. In general, the anime seems to have no protagonists, as all the teams and members are equally important to the project, but the BAE members do get more screen time, especially Allen and Hajun. Ann stays on the sidelines as a good mate. — The Cat's Whiskers are a foursome whose line-up is more reminiscent of the title of a Russian TV series called Two Fathers and Two Sons. They differ from the other teams in that their hip-hop is combined with jazz, and their overall style is darker and nocturnal. In addition, all members work in the bar 4/7, where they mostly get together. — cozmez is a duo of marginalised brothers, Yatonokami Kanata and Nayuta, who, like BAE, get a lot of attention. Their songwriting style is cheeky, talking about the harshness of their life in the slums and their difficult childhood. — Akanyatsura is a five-piece team who call each other family, and are members of the Suiseki Clan, a yakuza group. Their music is more fun and lively, similar to street rap. These guys probably get the least amount of screen time than the others. Seeing in the genres "music" don't rush to please your musical soul, this anime touches on deeper themes, as it still has drama in its genres. Even though the anime is part of a music project, this show is still not about the music, but about the stories of the characters. Yes, you will see and hear performances, but prepare yourself - there are few of them, less than in other musical anime like Love Live or K-On! The anime does a great job of showing drama, but the creators devote an entire episode to revealing some characters, and a measly minute to revealing some other characters, so it doesn't feel like they're all equally important to the story. The characters have drama in their story, and hip-hop, as a free genre of music, helps them cope with it, and the "phantom metal" effect, thanks to its peculiarity, becomes a powerful weapon for viewers and listeners. Another advantage of Paradox Live: The Animation is 2D graphics, which turned out to be colourful, despite the fact that the show was created by a small studio. However, 3D during the performances leaves much to be desired, it would be better if it was not there at all. If it was not so noticeable during the performance of The Cat's Whiskers, it was obvious during the performance of Bad Boyz by Akanyatsura, which Pine Jam did not handle very well. Although there isn't as much music in this show as I would have liked, it was cool and varied. Paradox Live is strong with tracks, it's hard to argue with that. The opening intro "Rise Up", performed by all four bands, sounds great despite the different styles of the bands, all the members sound unified. The closing sequence, "Every Day Every Night" by Buraikan, shows the greatness of the legendary band from the first episode. Despite some shortcomings, the show is a great addition to Paradox Live that will delight fans and not only them, Taku Iwasaki has done his job well. Personally, being not the most ardent fan of the "music" genre in anime, after watching this project I liked it, even now, w hile typing this review, I have headphones in my ears with the BAE track playing.