Authors certainly like to keep viewers in the dark. Practically everything is described so vaguely, that somewhere along the way one begins to wonder if there really is a coherent picture behind it all..
For example, what's the state of the world? They sure have electricity disseminated enough for small children at the orphanage to have access to it, so society must be fairly industrialized. Also year 1900 is mentioned, what might be an indicator of the current historical period.
That said, If the relics are valuable why isn't any country trying to secure the pit for itself? Except for few mentions of foreign cave raiders' squads(which appear more like a bunch of independent venturers than official expeditions), nothing is disclosed about the outside world.
Which brings us to the island, that we also get to know nothing about. Except that it's relatively remote: about 50-day sail on a small wooden ship.
Next goest the city of Orth. Not much is revealed about it either. How is it governed? Rough idea about the population? What is its food source? From where all the goods come from? What is the role of relics and consequently the cave raiders in its economy? What other districts are there except for slums(how is it structured)?
Next goes the pit. Is anyone allowed to enter it? Are there some entry points or one can descend from anywhere? Why there is barely any infrastructure built in it? If the curse is weaker on outskirts why not ascend there? What's the deal with the crossing points to another layers? Why not just dig down?
And the cave raiders: how are they organized except from ranks? Do they have some bestowed goal, or just venture willingly as independent groups? Why so many of them are unaware of dangers already discovered and described by their predecessors? Why their deaths are so trivial? How many are there? Why there are barely any infrastructure? Seriously there're no shelters, no stashes, no cableways, no even markings to help with orientation, finding food/water/communication spots, or avoiding danger.
Relics up to this point are nothing more than random magic. We know neither how any of them work, nor how many there are, nor how valuable they are, nor where they came from.
The same situation is with the pit's creatures and environments.
Such lack of contextual knowledge makes it impossible to properly evaluate multitude of situations.
Nonetheless now we can proceed to the general perception of the characters. I will start by listing what's done well:
Having outlined that, it's time to get to the biggest flaw of the story: Riko's actions regularly resemble that of a person without a self-preservation instinct. And the worst part is that she does not improve along the way.
If you think it's an exaggeration, there is a scene where floor collapses beneath her feet(what if not for helping hand would've resulted in certain death). After being pulled up from the verge, she doesn't stop even for a second to reflect on the situation; and literally the first thing she does is run carelessly on that same surface without any particular reason. That event isn't regarded even by a single thought. It's so trivial, almost as if it didn't happen at all.
Beside that heroine regularly acts as if she were on the same grounds as her companion, despite being an ordinary human, and thus repeatedly either has to be saved, or barely avoids trouble due to the main character's luck charm.
The next flaw is an inexplicable attitude towards cave raiders' deaths as if they are being caused by an act of God, and nothing can be done about it.
Then, the show creates a rather peculiar impression of an exploration. As if the ability to advance farther with each expedition isn't due to the efforts of the previous ones during which surroundings were gradually mapped, information gathered and the environments adopted, allowing for easier and safer reach to already discovered areas and eventually enabling move beyond them, but rather by plainly enhancing oneselves to the point where ones can make it all the way and back in a single try(and if so happen to die - so be it).
Besides these, there is a multitude of individual shortfalls when characters' actions are.. questionable to put it lightly, but due to lack of clear understanding of the world it usually can't be said with certainty.
I would've liked to provide some examples, but IMDB does not allow for spoiler flags to collapse specified text parts, so skip to the summary it is.
Visual and audiable aspects are both decent. As for story it has intriguing premise, interesting characters and is complemented by brutal honesty. In conjunction it makes for an enormous potential, but unfortunately there alrerady are some poor scenario moves which indicate a rather low probability of authors being able to collect all the pieces into a coherent picture.
I'm nonetheless waiting for the continuation, though my expectations are rather low. Certainly hope to be proven wrong.
For example, what's the state of the world? They sure have electricity disseminated enough for small children at the orphanage to have access to it, so society must be fairly industrialized. Also year 1900 is mentioned, what might be an indicator of the current historical period.
That said, If the relics are valuable why isn't any country trying to secure the pit for itself? Except for few mentions of foreign cave raiders' squads(which appear more like a bunch of independent venturers than official expeditions), nothing is disclosed about the outside world.
Which brings us to the island, that we also get to know nothing about. Except that it's relatively remote: about 50-day sail on a small wooden ship.
Next goest the city of Orth. Not much is revealed about it either. How is it governed? Rough idea about the population? What is its food source? From where all the goods come from? What is the role of relics and consequently the cave raiders in its economy? What other districts are there except for slums(how is it structured)?
Next goes the pit. Is anyone allowed to enter it? Are there some entry points or one can descend from anywhere? Why there is barely any infrastructure built in it? If the curse is weaker on outskirts why not ascend there? What's the deal with the crossing points to another layers? Why not just dig down?
And the cave raiders: how are they organized except from ranks? Do they have some bestowed goal, or just venture willingly as independent groups? Why so many of them are unaware of dangers already discovered and described by their predecessors? Why their deaths are so trivial? How many are there? Why there are barely any infrastructure? Seriously there're no shelters, no stashes, no cableways, no even markings to help with orientation, finding food/water/communication spots, or avoiding danger.
Relics up to this point are nothing more than random magic. We know neither how any of them work, nor how many there are, nor how valuable they are, nor where they came from.
The same situation is with the pit's creatures and environments.
Such lack of contextual knowledge makes it impossible to properly evaluate multitude of situations.
Nonetheless now we can proceed to the general perception of the characters. I will start by listing what's done well:
- Reg's and Nanachi's objectives and actions are rather understandable,
- most orphanage characters are relatable, moreover Jiruo is quite likable,
- images of Riko's mother and relatives are charismatic,
- Ozen's figure is intriguing.
Having outlined that, it's time to get to the biggest flaw of the story: Riko's actions regularly resemble that of a person without a self-preservation instinct. And the worst part is that she does not improve along the way.
If you think it's an exaggeration, there is a scene where floor collapses beneath her feet(what if not for helping hand would've resulted in certain death). After being pulled up from the verge, she doesn't stop even for a second to reflect on the situation; and literally the first thing she does is run carelessly on that same surface without any particular reason. That event isn't regarded even by a single thought. It's so trivial, almost as if it didn't happen at all.
Beside that heroine regularly acts as if she were on the same grounds as her companion, despite being an ordinary human, and thus repeatedly either has to be saved, or barely avoids trouble due to the main character's luck charm.
The next flaw is an inexplicable attitude towards cave raiders' deaths as if they are being caused by an act of God, and nothing can be done about it.
Then, the show creates a rather peculiar impression of an exploration. As if the ability to advance farther with each expedition isn't due to the efforts of the previous ones during which surroundings were gradually mapped, information gathered and the environments adopted, allowing for easier and safer reach to already discovered areas and eventually enabling move beyond them, but rather by plainly enhancing oneselves to the point where ones can make it all the way and back in a single try(and if so happen to die - so be it).
Besides these, there is a multitude of individual shortfalls when characters' actions are.. questionable to put it lightly, but due to lack of clear understanding of the world it usually can't be said with certainty.
I would've liked to provide some examples, but IMDB does not allow for spoiler flags to collapse specified text parts, so skip to the summary it is.
Visual and audiable aspects are both decent. As for story it has intriguing premise, interesting characters and is complemented by brutal honesty. In conjunction it makes for an enormous potential, but unfortunately there alrerady are some poor scenario moves which indicate a rather low probability of authors being able to collect all the pieces into a coherent picture.
I'm nonetheless waiting for the continuation, though my expectations are rather low. Certainly hope to be proven wrong.