It's just a game: No really

"The world around you is not what it seems" - Ingress the Animation

So you like video games? And you like Anime? Might as well mix those two right?

Ingress the animation is about the mobile game that was the basis for Pokemon Go. Ingress is an augmented reality game - Like Pokemon Go or that Harry Potter one that I never played - in which you walk around with your phone and see the hidden ‘reality’. Niantic is the parent company that sponsored everything and when Pokemon Go first started there was no end to the people that used to be like “I’ve been playing this since it was Ingress.” In truth a lot of the ‘gyms and poke’stops’ used to be places where one would try to capture points in Ingress.

Honestly. I can see where they’re coming from on this one. Yugioh, Pokemon, Digimon - making an anime series based on a game or vice-versa has kind of worked before. But does it work here? Did they make the right decision by going full 3d animation? Was the story any good? Let’s talk about it:

Music:

Jacob Yoffee is the person responsible for the music inside Ingress the animation. And uh. It’s good. No, it’s really very good. There’s an article from Variety magazine that I’ll link below if you’re curious to read more about the process for making the music and the direction they decided to go.

Is it your typical anime flair? No. But Ingress the animation isn’t your typical anime so it makes sense that the music wouldn’t follow the rules of a bright fanfare or heavy vocal guitar bands. It makes sense that it would be a more grunge sound following closer to what one would expect of an action/drama movie.

Jacob Yoffee is without a doubt very talented, but here’s the thing it IS an anime. They chose that structure for a reason, and then proceeded to make some changes to the formula, some good some bad. The music and sound in the actual show aren’t bad at all, in fact, they’re very good, and gripping. The problem I have is with the openers and closers. These maintain the theme which is nice, and a great touch, but also fall short because of the medium they’re choosing to represent this story through.

John what the hell does that mean? It means that they didn’t make an action movie. They made it an anime series. So there leaves something to be desired in the openers and closers. It’s not the fault of the musician/composer, it’s the fault of a company that’s trying to do too much.

I can see the direction here. That they wanted it to feel more like an action movie and less like an anime, but if that’s the case…. Make an action movie. Or at the very least an action anime movie. When it’s drawn out over a series, moves like this are going to lead to problems.

Music 4/5

Animation

I’m actually torn on this. I Hate. I HATE this new 3d animation style. It ends up looking cheap in most cases and even in the good cases like it would still be better if it were in 2d. Full disclaimer: I liked RWBY and everything that Monty Oum touched. The thing is, he’s really the only exception to that rule. Even that though, I always felt that the scenes that weren’t direct action scenes i.e. any place where they were just talking felt wrong. Monty Oum was a master at the fighting choreography R.I.P. From his origins doing the Master Chief vs. Samus fights all the way to his ‘dead fantasy’ series his work on Red vs. Blue, and his master production of RWBY. It’s all pretty phenomenal. Which by comparison makes everything else feel like a cheap knockoff.

If you look at currently produced anime, especially some of the new Isekai garbage *I love Isekai but most fans of isekai even know that a lot of it is pure unadulterated garbage* you’ll see that when studios start to lose money or time they slip into 3d animation. Looking at you “I’m a spider so what” or the CGI used in Angel Beats for the crowds, some of the scenes in “Golden Kamuy” most everything in Arifureta - to name a few. It’s a frankly terrible trend.

However.

Ingress the animation’s 3d style grows on you. I still think it would probably have looked better in a 2d animation style, but some of the fight scenes were very well done, and even had me thinking that they couldn’t have done certain things in a 2d style. That said, it’s all of the action scenes that were great. If there were any scenes with a lot of dialogue, or slower scenes these usually fell flat. Because of the high action content in the series it was bearable, and even likeable at some points. I thought it was going to ruin the anime for me, and it didn’t.

If you like 3d animation and CGI this show will probably be a treat for you. Some of the flashiness would’ve been impossible without the 3d aspect of the show, so it definitely took advantage of that fact. Still CGI has a long way to go before it’s able to stand with the rest of the 2d crowd.

I’m not going to let my absolute hatred of the 3d style cloud the judgment because even though I dislike it, it was well done for the action sequences for which there were many. The texturing, lighting and movement in scenes that weren’t action sequences though left much to be desired.

Before you say it, I know it’s an action anime so most of the money had to be spent making those scenes look crispy. What I am saying is that it’s no excuse to drop the ball on the other scenes.

Animation 3.5/5

Characters

*spoilers ahead*

It’s nice to have to only focus on four major characters, the show does a good job of not adding a whole lot of unnecessary extras. ( and those that it does add, get just enough story without overpowering the main characters of it all)

Makota Midorikawa (Not Midoriya)

A pretty decent main protagonist. Not great. Not terrible. Just pretty decent.

Cons: He has a job that he just sort of quits when he gets an app downloaded on his phone. He’s a psychic who works for the police, but he gets a weird incident and a random text message and he kind of leaves it all behind. I know that the story has to get there somehow, but it did feel like a bit of lazy writing to get him into the story.

He also doesn’t ever think about going back to that job even though it’s one of the few places that would hire him given his psychic abilities.

Pros: He doesn’t fall into the trope of ‘gets trained for a day and is suddenly a boss at everything’ he often gets his ass kicked by people who by all rights are just better than him. He struggles realistically with the growing of his powers, and he questions things often. That can get a little annoying in a protag, but it was honest, and as such I think it lends to his character development rather than deterring it.

(Although his ability to outwit Jack at the beginning was a little frustrating)

Jack Norman

Easily one of my new favorite characters in anime. He’s ruthless, he’s a master bodyguard and assassin. He’s awesome. From his first fights it’s clear that he’s one of the reasons they had to go 3d with this animation. Some of the stuff he does is just absolutely wild. He’s a little bit terminator a little bit “World’s greatest assassinated gets reincarnated” Altogether he feels real, he has an actual goal, and he has limitations.

It’s his pursuit along the lines of his limitations that make him awesome. I stand by this: Someone that constantly pushes past their limits and succeeds is unrealistic (Natsu from fairytail, Naruto, really most shonen) someone who uses the bound of their abilities to the maximum is so f*king cool: (Most of the characters from My hero, especially Mirio Togata, the children from Promised Neverland)

Jack falls into the latter category. Definitely an A+ character

Sarah Coppola

Like Makoto - Not great, not bad.

Cons: Has a weird attachment to Makota. Like honestly there’s nothing in the beginning of the story to make her trust him as much as she does. It’s a little irrational bordering on nonsensical. She says things like “Makota will pull through I know he will” Like, he literally just learned about his psychic powers, he’s gonna get his ass kicked. *and he does*

Pros: She holds her own against a seriously op protagonist. She questions things appropriately and powers through the bonds that hold her, making her someone other than just a damsel in distress (which is where I thought the series was going originally) it was nice to see the series twist that trop a little bit.

Christopher Brandt

*Serious Spoilers ahead*

An honestly awesome antagonist. Neither for the pro-government party or against it. His game was always much bigger. It was for all of humanity. He’s got some serious anti humanity issues much like Kiritsugu Emiya from Fate Zero or Lucifer from Devilman Crybaby. He wants to eliminate humanity by saving it and vice versa.

He’s got a decent reason for wanting to do so, and his reasoning is very Thanos-esque compelling. He makes a lot of sense, and has the power to manipulate a lot of change.

If anything it was just upsetting that we didn’t get to see him much throughout the series. I know that he was supposed to be ‘dead/not dead’ the whole time, but it would’ve been cool to see him as a background actor more often than we did really see it. Unfortunately there was a build up of a different antagonist for most of it, and then he just kind of took over. More of a fault of the plot than of the characters themselves.

Characters 4/5

Plot

*More spoilers*

Well. If there’s any area where this anime falls short (other than the animation) it’s gotta be the plot. It’s not the worst plot I’ve ever seen. It’s simple enough, and it even completes itself in one season without feeling that rushed. For all of those reasons, it’s not going to get a terrible plot score.

But.

And that’s a big but.

I can’t get over the things that they so blatantly put in there. Niantic is referenced too many times than was really comfortable. It really takes you out of the moment when they keep mentioning things like that. It would be like if the Pokemon anime kept mentioning Game Freak. It would take you out of the moment of the battle or the moment of seriousness that the series is trying to convey.

Additionally though, even though it didn’t feel rushed they did an unnecessary bait and switch at the end. I mentioned this briefly in the characters spot with Christopher Brandt. The government was shown to be the biggest enemy to everyone and they set up a lot of things that made it all feel hopeless. From virtual reality goggles to sales, and corporational takeovers. It felt real and that added a sense of urgency and terror to the feel. For them to take that away in the last few episodes and say “actually it was Christopher Brandt that was the biggest evil. He killed the government cronies in one strike and now he’s trying to make a collective hive-mind like super conscious in the ‘cloud’” . . . what?

Like yeah, that is compelling and that is awful, but now you’re pulling the audience into two very different directions.

Additionally the in-game mechanics that they used to display the psychic abilities directly referenced the game too much. To the point where people in the anime were playing Ingress on their phones. Like. No. Just… no. Too meta. If you’re going to do that then I think you have to make the whole show meta, and kind of meme like. They didn’t do that, and that wasn’t the intention though. It was supposed to an action packed anime with thought provoking sequences and ideals.

What did happen was 11 episodes of weird meta action. Not terrible. But falling flat.

Plot 2.5/5

Overall

It’s not a bad show. It’s not a great anime. If you played the game, you’ll honestly probably love this show. If you like the CGI artstyle to begin with this also wouldn’t be a bad place to start. If you’re not sure whether you like anime or not, I wouldn’t start with this one, and that’s not because it’s bad, but because it’s on the outskirts of anime. It wasn’t cringe enough that I didn’t want to finish, and the story was compelling enough that I wanted to see it through to the end.

My final score: 3.5 “It’s aight”

Extras:

The aforementioned Variety article with an exclusive interview from Jacob Yoffee - https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/ingress-the-animation-new-music-1203193231/

Some extras on the use of CGI in anime

https://animehunch.com/2021/03/19/what-is-cgi-in-anime-why-is-it-used-is-it-good-or-bad/

The fight directed by Monty Oum (R.I.P) of Samus Aran and Master Chief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nXy9acXdqw

The review of this anime was from Ben F. from Michigan. Hope you enjoy!

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