Dimension W

[Kraco]

http://i.imgur.com/k0vT8st.jpg

"In the year 2072, the world's energy problems seem solved by a network of cross-dimensional electric-field inductors—"coils"—that extract energy from a seemingly infinite source. That source is the W dimension, a fourth plane that exists beyond the X, Y, and Z dimensions.

In this world, unofficial "illegal" coils harness powers that the police can't hope to counter. Dealing with these coils is the job of coil-hating repo man Kyoma, whose run-in with the unique coil android Mira leads the two to form a reluctant partnership." -FUNimation

Genres: action, science fiction
Links: AniDB (https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=11345) | ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=17285) | Official (http://dimension-w.net/)
Subber: HS





- - - - -- - -





A gruffy older man as an MC is a nice change of pace. Of course he's paired with an android looking like a young, cute girl, but I guess that kind of goes without saying, considering how many such series there have been. Still a solid concept, though. It's hard to say anything much about this show so far, but it did have some good points. Especially the MC dude is promising, and I hope the android will be a good counterforce with all the contrast present. Production values were quite standard but got the job done.

I'll keep watching for now.

[shinta|hikari]

Solty Rei reboot!

I love the fact that he got KO'd by the droid. Hilarious. Great animation and action. Definitely one of the stronger entries this season, even if it's still behind Rakugo for me.

[Ryllharu]

I love Solty Rei, but a successor this isn't.

I almost feel like I got a more Saber Marionette J feel to it, but without the obnoxious characters and godawful 90s art. It's difficult to compare this series to another, despite the nostalgic feel of it being overwhelming. If anything, it's some sort of hybrid of Solty Rei and Eureka 7. It's got a very distinct style to it all, but it is tough to pinpoint a specific era. It's more of amalgamation of those three series.

I had low expectations for this, but it definitely exceeded them.

[neflight86]

I went from lukewarm to really highly enjoying within the span of episode 1. Good stuff that kinda reminds me of Cowboy Bebop in a "everybody's just doing their own thing and nobody's got all the answers" kind of way.

[MasterOfMoogles]

With a name like Dimension W, I was not expecting much.

Turns out, this was a pretty good first episode! I'm looking forward to more of this.

[Kraco]

Episode 3 - HS




- - - - - -



Piece of junk... Right. I love the relationship of these two. The dude doesn't give a shit, the robot girl just keeps trying and is endlessly optimistic. I still fail to see what the larger plot might be, but the setting is getting more interesting. How the prototypes were essentially far too and unnecessarily powerful is also quite plausible indeed. The mystery surrounding Yurizaki's fate is only getting deeper, though. It would be quite a traditional plot if he had realised something terrible about the coils and wanted to stop their use altogether, but the corporation naturally couldn't let that happen.

[MFauli]

I want to find out why the hero is so fast and strong, despite not using any coils. Hope there´s more to it than "it´s anime, duh".

The robot girl seemed way sexier in this episode. Before I had perceived her as a loli character, but she was super busty and, well, standing next to actual children helped. If I was the hero, I´d have her every night ;>

The overarching story seems obvious imo: The entire economy depending on coils will backfire, when we find out more about those "deep coils" aka numbers. The W-dimensions is bound to be more than just a source of infinite energy. While the hero seeks the guys that killed his parents or whatever, he finds more information about numbers, and thus gets closer to the dark secret behind New Tesla Energy. Which, if we´re in for a happy end, ends with the whole world going back from NTE to good old oil and gas (lol).

[Ryllharu]

The W-dimensions is bound to be more than just a source of infinite energy. While the hero seeks the guys that killed his parents or whatever, he finds more information about numbers, and thus gets closer to the dark secret behind New Tesla Energy. Which, if we´re in for a happy end, ends with the whole world going back from NTE to good old oil and gas (lol).
I'm under the impression that he is already intimately aware of how evil New Tesla is (or at least how little they are telling the public), including many of the secrets they are harboring. He knew what happens to a ruptured coil, and the brief flashback shows how bad a deep coil can get when it gets that way, and he saw and did things when he was a paramilitary contractor that has only been hinted at, but concretely formed his opinion on why coils are bad news, even for the most casual use.

I think he's after what happened to his ex, not his parents.

[shinta|hikari]

Or maybe his daughter, who will show up later as a blond cop.

[Edort4]

Strange series. I like the MC I hate the robot (cat like?). I like the idea of dimensional tech & endless energy with a hidden cost I hate (tired of) big evil Corps.

3rd episode was bad as hell.

[Kraco]

Episode 4 - HS



- -- -- - -



I don't think I'll get bored of the relationship between Kyouma and Mira. Mira being such a strange robot also helps. Sometimes I think she's too much like a human, but the moments when she's not at all like a human help alleviate that feeling.

Dimension W (and especially the numbered coils) seem to allow the story to have all kinds of stuff, which is hardly different from magic or whatnot, but I don't especially mind as long as the show works this well and the characters are this interesting.

[shinta|hikari]

Mira is so hot.

[MFauli]

Mira is so hot.

SO true. Dear god the shower scene, omg. If I was Kyoma, I´d have had my way with her looong time ago. She´s just a robot, after all, so no tough feelings ;P

Gotta say this episode was a bit weak. It felt almost like a filler episode, until they make it obvious that the whole ghost-angle is part of the Dimension W properties. But that came in too late.

I still want to know why Kyoma is that powerful. Being able to jump from ridiculous height and such. He hates coils and there was a scene in ep 1 where it was made clear that he doesn´t use them. So how come he´s so fast and strong? Hopefully the answer is not duh, anime".

[neflight86]

It was a pleasant enough episode, but could someone catch me up on what is happening? I had trouble following the mystery.

[Edort4]

Now we have "ghosts", time travel or whatever. As kraco said this series can throw any shit out and relay on "its the other dimesion stupid!". I think im gonna drop this in the next episode not even a badass MC can save this prepub show. Maybe is worth to watch it in one go after all episodes are aired and u dont have time to think.

[Kraco]

It was a pleasant enough episode, but could someone catch me up on what is happening? I had trouble following the mystery.

A bunch of students travelled to the dam construction site, perhaps to protest against it, and they activated one of the numbered coils. Then they died in various ways, like one lamenting she was shredded by barbed wire. Only the dimension W effect of the numbered coil brought them back as they were at their moment of death, in the form of some kind of dimensional shades. They killed everyone who came to study the site. It's another guestion what that bunch of living people are after and if it was them who managed to somehow activate the coil for a second time since apparently nobody had been killed for a long while. I'm not sure how the author is related to all of it. Was he a survivor who then kept writing gruesome depictions of how the students died?

[shinta|hikari]

It's amazing you understood that much. I was just like, "BoobsAssBoobsWakiWaki."

[neflight86]

A bunch of students travelled to the dam construction site, perhaps to protest against it, and they activated one of the numbered coils. Then they died in various ways, like one lamenting she was shredded by barbed wire. Only the dimension W effect of the numbered coil brought them back as they were at their moment of death, in the form of some kind of dimensional shades. They killed everyone who came to study the site. It's another guestion what that bunch of living people are after and if it was them who managed to somehow activate the coil for a second time since apparently nobody had been killed for a long while. I'm not sure how the author is related to all of it. Was he a survivor who then kept writing gruesome depictions of how the students died?

Thank for the explanation. I hope the next episode delivers adequate closure.

[Kraco]

Episode 5 - HS



- -- - -



No big surprises there. I feel like the setting for this arc was better than the conclusion. In the first place I still don't know why the ghosts were all so fricking murderous. Sure, some of them ought to be bitter because they were abandoned, in a manner of speaking, by that one dude, but how much could he have done anyway? Some 20 people trapped and one man with a bike? How the hell was he supposed to save them in the first place, in a way that they couldn't do it themselves? It was an extra funny detail the ghost of the man working in the dam control room was also there causing trouble.

Best stuff in this show is still Kyouma and Ponkotsu's interaction. The Mira fanservice of the last eps hasn't certainly hurt either.

[shinta|hikari]

Waki best part.

[Ryllharu]

I'm not really sure the point of this arc at all.
Was it only to reinforce the "deep coils can do [literally] anything!" premise?

Mira said a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo that I'm pretty sure had zero purpose.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm not really sure the point of this arc at all.

Fanservice. How else would you get a superpowerful robot tied up by chains while in a towel?

[Ryllharu]

Episode 6 - HS



--------

There's not really much else to discuss this episode since it was kind of all over the board.

Does Loser have one 'daughter' or three? It's starting to bother me that it appears to be a different girl every time. The only thing consistent is they all share an eye color.

[Kraco]

No man with three beautiful daughters would call himself a loser, right?

I'm not sure where this is leading. It looked like a call to a tournament, but this hardly looks like that sort of a show. In any case the foreign robot manufacturer was a total scumbag.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 7 - HS


----------------


The entire second half of this episode made zero sense. The only thing that made sense was Loser's daughter is in fact, just the one. She's normally brunette as seen in the sub, but her primary disguise is the blond goth loli.

I did like SEELE Gendo Steve Jobs, the head of the NT council of 60!

Should we speculate from the flashback that Mira will somehow be Miyabi? Her head dredged back from the deep to form the basis of Mira's brain? Too cliché? Who can say?

[neflight86]

Yeah I got nothin'. Nice, short flashback that actually didn't feel that tragic, because somebody is usually 'screwed' by an evil party to gain their trauma; but here it was presented as an equivalent exchange and an accident.

As for the plan itself, I'm with you and have little idea what is going on. I am ashamed of how little I follow the plot of this show. Yay for more collectors, I guess we needed someone to die in the next few episodes.

[Kraco]

The collection of collectors was straight from some comedy or shounen fight show. But I suppose on one hand it makes sense people doing dubious work of high physical risk for uncertain income wouldn't be ordinary officer worker look-alikes.


Should we speculate from the flashback that Mira will somehow be Miyabi? Her head dredged back from the deep to form the basis of Mira's brain? Too cliché? Who can say?

When they said the head was destroyed, I assumed that's it. But indeed it wouldn't be impossible in this show that it was Miyabi. At the moment I don't consider it likely, though. In the first place since she doesn't think so herself nor does she have any such memories, would it make any difference? Since Miyabi was being experimented on by Mrs Yurizaki and Mira was created by Mr Yurizaki, I guess that would create an opportunity if nothing else. She might as well be something that Yurizaki created to replace her murdered real daughter. In the end Miyabi really shouldn't matter that much to Yurizakis even if she was the most important thing in the world for Kyouma. She's just a patient lost.

[Munsu]

Just watched all the episodes that are out, I'm being quite entertained by this one... even though the plot seems quite disjointed so far with no real direction.

[shinta|hikari]

The plot needs more PLOT to bind it together.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 8 - HS


----------------


I've got a better series to compare this to now: Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil (https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=10024). Pretty, but that's its only virtue.

This will be the second series I've seen that contradicts itself, changes the plot, rules and characters...mid-episode. It's rare that I've suddenly felt that I missed an episode when the scene changes. Plot threads dropped, characters portrayed differently, plots threads sprouted from nowhere. Erratic motivations for things even occurring.

Even the much-maligned Guilty Crown had overall plot consistency, and the characters held the same motivations and attributes within individual episodes.

- Nothing is alive on this island, not even bacteria, so anything that should be decomposed crumbles to dust...except that one guy, because humans might randomly be zombies. Oh, and unless a bunch show up in the facility, he's going to be the only one.

- The white-haired prince was a full cyborg, and not heir to the throne when he was introduced...except now he's naturally born and heir to the throne, his older adopted brother has been demoted to regent when he was clearly the ruler when he was introduced. Might be a cyborg still? Not sure, because now he's using synchronized mechs via some kind of waldo.

- The glowing sphere-ball black hole attacked everything before, now it's a man-eater (https://youtu.be/INLkx3OZNVY?t=1m25s)! And undoubtedly a representation of Miyabi or whatever, because it is tasting all the men to find the right one, Kyouma. Or it's Loser's wife, who we saw this episode in a flashback, conveniently blonde not for any real reason, but just to match Ellie's disguise.

- Evil black guy giving mysterious surgical operation betrayal to a rival...when there were still two active kill-bots right around the corner.

- And no I didn't forget, Picture Drama flashback! Conserving budget! Had to waste it all on that stupid scene of Kyouma Dance Defeating that robot Snowspeeder vs AT-AT style...that Mira finished off anyway.

- Mira connects the tail to coils directly, now she just touches optical sensors to shut them down. Okay.

- Mira sacrifices her body to save kids (in what was probably the last good episode of this series), and now she's terrified of death. Which coil is she using nowadays? A normal one, or her super powered one?

- Dead zones stop all coils and all life...oh wait, it's really about 10 seconds.

Dimension W's infinite possibilities even extend to the anime studio's writers, direction, and budget. Quite the commitment to the concept.

[Kraco]

You really went all out to analyse this. I didn't bother. I just keep being fascinated by Mira and her interaction with Kyouma. I think she was written quite well and the VA is pulling it off nicely. She's almost human but there are some small nuances that feel off all the time, like how she keeps being so positive and optimistic and no matter how many times Kyouma calls her ponkotsu, she never gives up trying to form a good relationship with him. That's the behavior of a machine, alright.

What comes to the plot, I've largely given up. It's been evident earlier than Dimension W and the coils are just an excuse for the author to write whatever he wants. It's no wonder that mentality starts to corrode other elements of the story as well.

[Ryllharu]

I agree, Mira is the only good thing about this show at this point.

The way the VA says English words is quite unique and rather charming.

[shinta|hikari]

This show needs more naked Mira. They can actually just make a slice of life show with her and Kyoma going around recovering coils and it'd be better than what we got.

[MFauli]

Just finished this finally.

Unfortunately, my final word could be summarized with a simple "style over substance". The production value was phenomenal. Great artstyle, smooth, fluid animations, great music, great voice acting. So what happened? No story happened. I really had to force myself finishing this, watching the last 6 episodes over the course of three weeks, always combining watching an episode with dinner. The story never managed to grab me. The first couple episodes felt like small filler stories, then suddenly we get this meeting on the Easter Isles, where all those crazy coil hunters gathered. And then it becomes som clichee-ridden psycho-philosophical wishwash, introspective all over the place, and it completely loses any grab it might have had at this point.

If I had a chance to change things, there´s two main ones: 1.) Make this a 26-episode series. We needed more time with these characters to really CARE about them. Especially those coil hunters at the end deserved more time of their own. 2.) Better handly of plot progression. A story needs to start strong, but it needs to get stronger at any given moment. This anime had a great first episode, then got reaaaally boring with its ghost arc, and never really recovered from there. And the showdown at the end didn´t feel grand at all, even when the bad guy said "I´ll make this planet into a lifeless void!" where did that come from? was what I thought.

It sucks when such production quality is met with such a lousy story. Someone should have given Ajin this production team.

[Kraco]

Yeah, pretty much so. I only remembered I hadn't watched the last episode when I saw you bump up the thread. I really liked the MCs, Kyouma and Mira, especially their combo, much more than I like characters in most shows with actually acceptable stories. Seameyer was a pretty successful and nasty villain on the other side. The action was good like you said. But the story did so many things wrong that it's a huge pity. They should have built the whole dimension W more carefully and that way build a clearer path to the conclusion. I don't think the ghost arc did any good. A more technological approach might have been better, even if weird things happened. It would have held together much better.

[shinta|hikari]

And amnesia stories are terrible in general.

Imagine if Kyoma didn't have amnesia. That alone would've improved the story greatly.

[Kraco]

Indeed. Amnesia is such a beaten to death plot element that it would be best left to excellent stories that can pull it off nicely. This wasn't one of those obviously.