LogFAQs > #897610534

I think only one other person here has watched A.I.C.O.: Incarnation (hopefully more do) but I want to post some thoughts about it. This is the first anime to enter my top five that came out recently rather than being one you guys all watched months or years ago. And while reaching top five might not mean as much for me as it would for someone who has watched 500+ anime, I still thought it was pretty special. I also recently had someone semi-jokingly wonder if I'm trolling with all my unpopular opinions. I realize it might seem that way at times, what with me disliking a popular movie series while heralding Katana Maidens as best anime of the season, but I assure you my opinions are all genuine! There are just certain pet peeves that can instantly degrade a story in my eyes no matter how good the rest of it is. On the flipside, I can also be endlessly forgiving of a story that does things that appeal to me. I figure that talking about AICO might be a good way to illustrate how I form opinions.

Anyway, sorry for the preamble. Spoilers for all of A.I.C.O.: Incarnation

To begin with, I did have a few problems, primarily with the setting. It was never clear to me why the matter was restricted to that one river when it has no problem creeping through buildings, meaning water isn't a necessity. I also don't get why the matter attacked people to begin with, the one controlling the red matter never intended to be hostile and the confused lashing out of the purple matter was treated as a recent phenomenon. Still, this is science fiction, so problems like that are usually ones I can look past on the basis of 'this needs to happen for there to be a story'. I would've appreciated a two-minute technobabble answer to these questions, sure, but the absence of one doesn't ruin the story for me in the way other things might.

However, aesthetically, I loved everything about the matter and watching a small team fight their way through hostile, shape-shifting terrain. I also appreciated the way combat was handled. Fiction often has little strategy beyond 'shoot the thing until the plot says the thing has been shot enough'. In AICO, positioning mattered, like when Kaede accidentally led an enemy to the main vehicle and cost them a day in repairs. I also loved how they often needed samples of new enemies. It added tension by having them rush to synthesize ammo even as the matter threatened to overwhelm them.

There's lots more I could talk about, but my favorite thing was the character of Aiko. Given her role in the story she could've easily been a lifeless plot device for the others to drag along. In my opinion, this was very much not the case. Right from the beginning I sympathized with the trauma of her losing her family, and how she struggled to bear it rather than letting it throw her into all-encompassing angst. I also loved how she dealt with the revelations about who she really was, particularly the final one where she learned who would need to be sacrificed. So many heroes in fiction are the gung-ho self-sacrificing type, instantly willing to throw their lives away. Here, Aiko freaked out and ran away, only coming to terms with it after having time to think. Also, this was a small moment, but I loved the conversation where she was afraid the real Aiko would be fine with sacrificing her. After all, she had been willing to sacrifice the real Aiko earlier and they were basically the same person so it makes sense, right? Fiction doesn't usually take character motivations to logical conclusions like that.

Beyond that, I've always had a soft spot for characters who encounter pain, clearly let it impact them (rather than stoically bearing it), but never let it destroy them. Aiko's connection to the matter frequently left her writhing in pain but she never once wanted to stop. She also refused to be a damsel in distress, often taking over firing the laser or using her enhanced body to dual-wield huge guns.I dunno, I really liked her.
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**R.O.B.A.Z.O.I.D**