Viewing Journal: Kaiba (complete)

Series Overview Bittorrent Download (Not yet licensed in US) Trailer Rating: Overall= C+ Story = C Video = B Audio = B

Journal

One day a man, Kaiba, wakes up in a broken room. He has no memories, only a pendant with a picture of an unknown woman. Outside of the room are grotesque floating electrical clouds of disjointed memories. Kaiba is suddenly assaulted, and escapes into space. He travels to various planets, encountering various people and retrieving his memories. Memories of an inconsistent and decaying world, of his own agony and of Niero, the woman in the picture. (Source: ANN)

The art and animation in Kaiba are unique -- like a mix of Doctor Seuss and Osamu Tezuka. The story is pretty strange -- which is not necessarily a bad thing -- but this is a little too strange. The whole setting and concept are so other-worldly that there is nothing to latch onto in terms of being able to relate to the characters or situations. Plus, the fact that the main character keeps switching bodies without ever talking makes it difficult to give a care about them because for a good portion of the show they didn't seem to have any personality.

Experiencing the story is something like reading The Little Prince in terms of it's tripped-out writing. I'm sure it's meaningful and I can appreciate that as an experiment in animated storytelling it has value; but for pure entertainment value it's hit or miss. There are times when I could understand pieces of it, but most of the time it was so abstract and/or slow-paced that it became a trial to get through.