Beatless Episode One Review

Last Updated on by Szuniverse


I trust in your smile. I won’t care if your soulless or not. These are the opening words to the show Beatless. An anime based off of a light novel that isn’t an isekai! More that this show is set in the distant future where mankind has developed hIEs (this world’s androids) to do the work of humans and have them as personal housekeepers or pets. After an attack of the Memeframe Corporation a few hIEs end up going rogue and one of them meet up with Arato Endo forming a contract with him. Who is this mysterious hIE and what were those memories that Arato had at the beginning of the episode?

From the basic premise it’s a simple one to digest and follow. Beatless I’d classify as an easy to understand show depending on how well versed you are in the sci fi genre. The general question I came from watching this was can machines have souls? By no means is this revolutionary since almost every popular sci fi story have done the same thing. Still with the way how things were presented it turned out to be an interesting romp. I found myself engaged with how things were being handled. Specifically, I really liked how mankind at this point just treat hIEs as tools. They don’t really have any high values of them other than they get basic tasks they were programed for done. Arato doesn’t really see them as such which makes him the kind hearted main protagonist. Speaking of the characters the first episode so far is alright I’m certain later episodes will fully develop them more. I found Arato to be a good main character but nothing I haven’t seen done elsewhere. Still I feel like a lot was done with Beatless to set it apart from other light novel animes at least the ones I’ve seen.

Moving onto the production the anime so far looks great. The director of the series is Seiji Mizushima who was the director for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series. So I had good faith that the anime can deliver solid quality both in presentation and storytelling and so far yeah he’s done a good job with it. The animation was good and the overall look of the show was fine.

As first episodes go, this was a solid one I can’t wait for the next episode and I’m interested in seeing where this series goes. So far things are looking decent and this maybe a good pick for my favorite show this season given if the series maintains this good level of quality.

 

Final Verdict: 8/10

Beatless is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video

Szuniverse

Senior Editorial Writer for Toonami Squad and former writer for Swim Squad. Host for Toonami Squad Sessions Podcast.