Monochrome Factor – 01

Episode 1 – Silver-Colored Shadow

Akira Nikaido is a typical slacker high school student who thinks he has a normal life–until a mysterious man called Shirogane appears and tells him to meet him at the school that night. He is skeptical but goes anyway…and gets attacked by a shadow monster! Shirogane convinces him that the balance between the human world and the shadow world has been distorted, and that Akira must become a shin–a creature of the shadow world–in order to help restore the balance.
-AniDB.net

Alright, if you were expecting to watch a boys anime (shounen) then I would have to say that guys might not wanna watch this. It is a boys anime alright, but I mean it in a different way.

Unless you are alright with guys kissing each other, I would say guys, hands off this.

Summary

Akira plays the guitar and is a slacker. In school, he is constantly being chased(more like wacked) around by a girl who wants to bend him into shape. The plot starts off this way.
It then progresses to you seeing Shirogane.
Akira meets Shirogane in the middle of the street and they engage in a weird dialogue that makes Akira doubt if it ever happened in the first place.
Cut to him going out at night and ending up in school where the fighting starts.
There are monsters in school and he and his 2 friends are getting attacked by them.
Shirogane appears and continues talking to him saying how it is fate that brought them together (yea right) and he basically tries to “charm” Akira into fighting.
Akira runs scared(which sets everything into motion), and in order to fight to stay alive he has to become a shin.
-magical kiss scene-
-fight-
Shirogane then tells Akira that he cannot change back into his human form anymore, and said that if they kissed he just might turn back.
And of course he turns back. (I can’t remember if they did kiss)

Overview

Negative

Firstly, the plot is not even strong enough to entertain the audience.

Secondly, this seems like a bad rip-off from Loveless.
Some random guy comes up and pulls the main lead into a whole big mess (sounds pretty standard shounen doesn’t it?), but wait, get this, the way to ‘acitvate’ his powers/shadow thing (i think) is by kissing him. I have no idea if the freaky guy(silver hair) kisses the main lead out of pleasure or necessity.
Okay, so fine, it *might* not be like loveless, but it sure reminded me of lovelss.

Thirdly, the animation is mediocre. The aciton scenes are not even exciting.

Fourthly, the plot is somewhat boring and a mess.
It tries to sound sophisticated and dense with its play on the idea of shadows and weird things, but it just comes off as cheesy and common.

Fifth(ly?), the characters are very normal and standard as well. (The silver hair dude gives me the creeps. =_=! he reminds me of a transvestite that stalk the streets at night waiting to eat some poor young boy. (no offense to transvestites. the character just looks plain freaky.)) There is nothing special with the character design and personalities.

Okay, if that is not enough to put you off the anime then watch the first episode. Fine, since I manage to watch till the end of the first ep, it is probably not all THAT bad.

Positive

1) BL fans might… and I repeat.. MIGHT get a very very small small happy moment from watching the guys lock lips. (even then you see nothing but a fade out)

2) The story is acceptable, it will not make you run away, but this series does not stand out.

3) It has its cute moments. (I just can’t connect with the characters so I don’t “feel” those moments)

Here are some screen caps

Alright, look closely! Does the silver hair guy look weird??? He has lipstick and a very very flat face. (I know most characters do, but this looks flat like the pancakes that I have for breakfast (and probably will not have ever again.))

The fade out kissing moment that I was talking about just now

A fighting scene

Before writing this review I was contemplating if I should even write one.

Bottomline

There are anime that make you want to come back for more.
There are anime that have a lousy plot but just has a weird charm to it that makes you want more.
And then there are anime that you know are good but can’t seem to like.

Sad to say, it is none of those.
It is more of a weird feeling. Everything is really ‘okay’, not bad enough to make you discontinue watching it, but not good enough to make you have the motivation to want to watch it.

Even though I was looking forward to this anime this season, I can’t say that I do anymore.

P.S.: Sorry about the bad screen caps, I just can’t seem to capture a nice moment for some reason. It is always either fading in and out or just them standing there doing nothing.

-ra out