The Gene of AI

DNA-focused anime, ID:Invaded, Plastic Memories...what has become of this barren land of science fiction that's not much focused in the world of AniManga? Is it that authors have a burning desire to share with the world the possibilities of AI, or are unwilling to cash in on a niche product that'll not catch on? This season, there was one show that's more than enough to take on the premise of the world at large and its studies on AI, and that's mangaka Kyuuri Yamada's AI no Idenshi a.k.a The Gene of AI, a manga that lasted 87 chapters within 8 volumes, serialised between November 2015 andAugust 2017. But the anime, which is only announced 5 years later and finally aired this Summer season, is just sad to say that any appeal that the manga had that was heavily exclusive to Japan, did not catch on in the West, not just for anyone trying to translate the already completed manga series, but its social traffic is not the best either, despite obtaining the Excellence Award in the manga division of the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2018. Similar to American medical profession drama shows like House, M.D. and Grey's Anatomy, AI no Idenshi focuses on a world where AI has taken over much of its processes, split into regular humans and android-like Humanoids, who need maintenance as and when it is necessary. And one place where the Humanoids go to receive their checkups is at this unassuming clinic called the Sudo Novo Medical Clinic, headed by its sole doctor, Hikaru "Mogadeet" Sudo and his AI assistant, Jay, alongside his assistant Risa Higuchi. For the most part, it's an episodic nature of discovering and discussing what makes Humanoids tick, ranging from personal areas like family and friends to scenarios of how they would react to love and romance. In essence, Humanoids aren't that different from humans, and the thought processes that arise from this do make for interesting plot narratives about the importance of AI driving the future of mankind, either into prosperity or destruction. That said, the one narrative that get you head-scratching is on the side of humans wanting to implement Humanoid-like features. And one example of it is the copy-exact nature of real humans into humanoids, so much so that they are indistinguishable from each other. This can especially be detrimental if reflected on a familial scale, and Sudo's life is not a purely blank state either, because he was once a victim of the measures that certain people will take as a way to gloss over that these practices "will improve" his life, only to suffer heavy consequences later on. Not all Humanoids are good, and neither will humans want to push the available technology, even if the scientific progressions are proven or not, just to prove that "AI is the future, and we should all embrace its judgements upon humanity, regardless of whether they're correct or not." If there is one thing you should know about this show, it is that the production is not its swan song, and neither is the direction that the anime took, that ultimately feels like the show is a chore to watch, being very sluggish. Partly because of storyboarder-cum-director Yuzo Sato, whose directorial duties include the most recent work of Winter 2022's Hakozume: Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu a.k.a Police in a Pod, it feels like the production committee had a false start of wanting someone reputable to direct a show (you know, considering it's Madhouse), but that they could not find a suitable one, so Yuzo Sato had to be called in for the job, doing the bare minimum that he could. And looking at his biography, it seems as if Yuzo Sato had been the 3rd-rate director that was always given the "last resort" call, simply because he has not been doing much within the last 40 years of work in the anime industry, even from the time that he was brought into Madhouse since the early 2000s to be trained to become a competent director. But in the near 20 years since, I'd reckon that Yuzo Sato lost his touch, and that unfortunately, speaks volumes about this show's adaptation, which could've been better in almost every possible way. Also, this is a bit of a transition period for Madhouse, as they're trying to get back to their former grand slam state (which is set to return with Sousou no Frieren a.k.a Frieren: Beyond Journey's End next season) after the setback since the early 2020s, producing shows that for the most part, have been on a never-ending tick-tock cycle of good and bad in-between seasons. But if you are to only focus on this show, it feels like the production team never had any confidence in the anime, opting to animate the bare minimum while showcasing low quality visuals that while fits the dark and gloomy vibes of the anime, it wasn't the same Madhouse that we've come to expect from. The music aspect is interesting at best. While Aile The Shota's OP song perfectly fits as the "futuristic" centerpiece for the anime, it's the visuals, of which some are created by Unreal Engine. It's definitely unique in that regard; I'll give it that. GReeeeN's ED song is a mellow song that has all the characteristics of a song that speaks volumes to all. Overall, cool songs that each have a distinction of their very own. The problem is, niche topics like AI and the future of mankind are accompanied by the far and few in-between, and despite AI no Idenshi being a standout show just for its themes, it really isn't enough to justify a show that's produced as it is this way. I appreciate that shows like this are brought out to break the usual Isekai, fantasy, romance molds that always finds its way into each and every season, but they need to double down on what makes them stand out, which sadly, this show doesn't do the original source material justice. Skip this show if it doesn't intrigue you, but it doesn't pay to at least watch a single episode of this, yeah...?

Never before have I seen an anime with so much in it do nothing. It's a great examination of various ethical questions that arise within the setting of the world, but there's no end goal to answering these questions, with a lot of the basic plot setup from the first episode just going nowhere. I enjoyed my time with this show, but it's difficult to recommend. The main cast are enjoyable enough, and definitely stand out from eachother, but a lot of the episode to episode side characters start suffering from a strong case of same face once you've been at it long enough. Conversely,from a growth perspective, watching these side characters grow seems to be the main focus, with the main cast themselves not really being any different in the last episode than they were in the first. My final critique comes from the final episode itself, as it almost feels like the entire show was just a setup to get you familiar with the world, with the final scenes feeling very 'second season' bait. There is some lgbt+ rep, if that's something you're looking for, but for the most part it has very little impact on the story being told, from a larger perspective, or just from a character view. It's nice to have rep that feels casual, and to a degree that exists here, but there's a little too much questioning about the norm to be entirely comfortable, and if you're looking for your next big gay or trans anime, this isn't going to be it.

I Robot, U Robot. In a sci-fi future where Artificial Intelligence and technology have advanced past the point of stealing and regurgitating work by human artists and can create their original art, highly advanced androids called humanoids are becoming part of everyday life. They look, think and feel just like humans, only told apart by their amber goat eyes. Through the story of Dr. Sudou who specialises in treating humanoids, The Gene of AI explores the thorny philosophical and the morality of a future bordering on dystopian. Through his medical practice, Sudou hopes to find clues to the whereabouts of his humanoid mother's copied personality. Copyinga humanoid’s personality is very, very illegal in this world for very obvious moral reasons and it landed his mother in jail after she was naively tricked into handing over a copy by some corporate grifters. However, Sudou performs the role of a supporting character to the different patients he interacts with as the anime fleshes out its world through their different lives. Each episode focuses on one or two patients and the ethical struggles that come with being a humanoid as well as the pressures of the world around them. The show goes into fascinating detail over all sorts of topics such as memory and emotional erasure, illegal dating-sim software which allows someone to create an AI girlfriend of a real person instead of a fictional one, emotional support teddybears that don’t want to be abandoned, virus corruption, corporate abuse, even humanoid centric conspiracy theorists. All of these and more are explored deeply and uncomfortably making it an excellent almost anthology drama. That almost anthology structure does bite the show in its pacing depending on what the topic of the week is and what characters are involved. Sometimes a story doesn’t hit but because it's not an anthology you can’t skip it because it needs to build up the setting and to build up Sudou or his assisted Risa. Studio Madhouse clearly didn’t have a lot of staff to spare on this project as presumably most of them were working on Frieren and it has resulted in pretty flat and lifeless-looking art and animation. This is made up for in scene direction and the OST, but if you had told me this was a Madhouse production at first glance I wouldn’t have believed you. The Gene of AI is for a specific kind of sci-fi nerd who loves all the little details of a futurist world. Its art, animation and pacing have problems and it might not be able to hold the attention of those who don’t enjoy slow build-ups, but as a future that feels scarily in reach in our real world in 30-40 years if we all haven't died because of global warming, corporate greed, moron millionaires who fail at running social media companies, nuclear war, normal war, or whatever else could and probably will happen, it succeeds. 6/10 It’s Okay.

Did you ever think about what a mix between Monster and Time of Eve would be like? It’s called Pluto and it’s a very good manga that’s getting an adaptation coming out in October. AI no Idenshi is not that series, but it’s the one that could have been, as it presents a setting with artificial people living among humans, blending in in ways that on occasions the rest can’t tell much difference, while also the main character initially wants to know more about an underground illegal seller of artificial brains, or well, more like, a “fixer” of them, and possibly the one who ruinedhis mom’s life. But this anime is really neither, as it deliberately keeps any more info of the protagonist than that as a secret to build some mystery around him up until the last episode, and thus that plot point doesn’t really go anywhere in this season, and since the source material for this consists of three manga at the moment, I think it’s safe to say that it won’t get resolved for some good time. What’s left of the series is a slice of life show exploring the interactions between humans and humanoids, in the likes of Eve no Jikan, only different because it came out in a different era. Since that other series is from 2008 to 2010, it was still showing some fear of technology, discrimination and indifference from humans to robots and some low level existential crisis for the androids since they did have a personality on their own on a specific place and would ponder about their relationships among themselves and with their human owners. It’s not the same with AI no Idenshi, as it was made on a time where technology is much different and present everywhere and at any moment in everyday life, with the fear of it pretty much being a thing of the past. Thus, its approach ranges from the existential to one more laid back and more of “what daily uses or routines robots and artificial intelligence would have “on their own”?” type of deal. That’s not bad per se, but it is certainly lacking in theme exploration when compared with the previous work. But that still doesn’t make it a not good anime, it would still be fine if it was a slice of life series with a small and recurring set of characters, like Eve no Jikan, but it isn’t, as it intends to show many different ones doing many different things, thus it can’t really flesh any of them properly. The most a character can get is one or even half an episode dedicated to themselves before being completely forgotten by the not plot in here, and even then, since the anime is more focused on what they do and how they do it, instead of the characters as themselves, there isn’t much characterization to speak of here either. Just take a look at the two mains, they don’t get the tiniest bit of fleshing up until the last two episodes, and even only a little bit of them is explored, and their backgrounds are revealed at almost the same time. But even then it would still be fine it there was an ongoing plot that somehow tied the mini stories, but it isn’t, that was discarded very early on. Ok, it would still be fine as an episodic slice of life sci-fi series if the stories where fine on their own. And in that regard the show is a mixed bag because it loves to self-sabotage itself for some reason. Did you like how in the first episode the anime set up questions about how valuable your memories are and how much do they make you for who you are, even if only a fraction of them are lost for your overall sake? Well, the second one is going to be about two dudes running and surpassing your own limits purely by will even when you shouldn’t be able to, oh, and a non-binary person speaking ill of a whole sex and gender despite previously being their own. Did you like how in the third episode two people are so attached to two robots, one made for company and another one being a toy, that they can’t tell them apart from real people, and how one of the latter even has an identity crisis for retaining data of a previous owner? Well, the next one is going to have lots of different mini stories about horny teenagers using technology for their perverted fantasies. And that’s the main problem of what and how the series is, even when disregarding everything that it could have been but isn’t, it’s a very mixed bag of mini stories where you can’t really know what level of quality you’ll get in the next episode, and even at its best, it would only be just decent, as its own approach doesn’t let it explore a concept on that much detail. Another issue is the tone, as AI no Idenshi is half the time a silly shounen comedy, thus almost no topic is looked into very seriously either. By comparison, Real Drive was also a lighthearted semi-episodic slice of life sci-fi series, but it knew when and how to explore its topics seriously, and it also had recurring characters and kind of a sort of an ongoing plot. At some point the series even seems to run out of worthy stories to tell, and instead of dedicating one whole story per episode, it starts showing two or more on each one, thus amplifying all of its issues that I already mentioned. Not even the background stories of the two main characters get a whole one, they are shown together in the last two episodes, and it comes off as sudden and rushed. The final one is good in terms of themes and showing a connection between the protagonist and other characters, but is obviously not a conclusion for the series in the least, as there are still far more manga chapters to adapt, and the whole season ended in a way that made it feel as just a buildup for stuff to come. It doesn’t help that the production and atmosphere of the series are also very average, with very plain looking artwork, backgrounds and special effects, simple and very limited character designs, and stiff animation, especially in the beginning, as well as just decent sound effects and music, but not the opening, which sucks. The series is half comical and half melancholic, and the intro seems to belong in Dimension W, screw that, the ending fits much better, I have a review coming out where I shit on unfitting songs. Even the voice acting feels off for some reason, I don’t know what it is but no character has a voice that’s completely fitting for them. As a whole, it’s a very lukewarm and inconsistent episodic slice of life sci-fi series that doesn’t dedicate itself much to a point before moving to another, with an uneven tone and very forgettable characters. It’s kind of watchable for being a type of show that didn’t come out in what feels like a long time, but other than that, it has nothing against many others of its kind that you can find out there.