Here we are with our first ever Readers Request! We got some interesting submissions from you guys, and one of them happened to be a this highly requested one here, Netflix’s original anime B: The Beginning. Now, I’ve always been interested in this show ever since Netflix announced their original anime lineup. I thought, and still think, this idea is awesome. With the Readers Request event, this finally gave me the excuse to watch it, as the only original Netflix anime I’ve seen is Aggretsuko (which is fantastic btw).
I just kind of wish I left the first episode with a more positive impression.
To start things off, what exactly happened. The story is set in this fictional city called Cremona, which is basically Italy. An increase in murders have occurred, all seemingly by the same person who leaves an insignia who the police have dubbed “Killer B”. In the beginning, we saw a group of brothers toturing a poor girl, until someone with red hair killed two of the brothers, and the girl ended up being saved, which is the crime scene we see is being investigated. Our “main” character Lily (is she the main character???) confronts a strange man at the crime scene who was holding a black feather. Instead of being a random person, another investigator recognizes the man to be Keith Flick, who seems to be a big deal even though he doesn’t look like it. His hair is unkempt, he literally dozed off during the investigation, and he walks and talks slowly with so much disinterest until he shows his smarts later on. We saw another (main???) character in the beginning named Koku, but….I’ll get to him later. While the police force work with the details, there’s a guy with red clown hair confronting with the one brother that wasn’t killed and makes him work with him. Why? We find out later they steal a military vehicle and head to a freight train that’ll take them to an air dock to a group of…vampires? Quinn, the one with the red hair, uses this guy to lure who is obviously the blue boy from the beginning to “invite” him. While they both fight, the police are in an insane car chase after the military vehicle and to the air base after Keith had finally got off his butt and immediately went to work figuring out just where these guys would go to. The IFV was a false lead though, and they completely miss what’s happening on the train. Quinn calls Koku the black-winged king, gets killed by him, and Koku leaves. The other group of strange people leave, the train crashes and the police force make it there, but Keith knows it was a false lead. He WILL find Killer B!
Except…who the hell is Killer B?
I’m extremely confused. Going into this show, I knew it would be a police drama, which I was excited about. What I did not know was that we would get vampires/fallen angels/whatever these people are. The supernatural stuff feels so strange. It’s off seeing a group of normal looking characters, and then a group of the most anime looking people on earth. Strange hair, crazy designs, a FALLEN ANGEL? I have no idea what this has to do with anything. The world of Cremona looks so normal, so who are these people? Why is this supernatural? And just who is Killer B? Is it Koku? Who is Koku anyway? He seems to live, or at least know, Lily. They must have some sort of relationship. Speaking of Lily, I can’t really say anything about her or any of the other characters since there wasn’t any focus on them. Keith is amusing though, and there seems to be a mystery surrounding his background I’m intrigued to learn more about.
But the rest of my confusion goes to why Quinn needed the brother to lure Koku to them? What did he tell the brother to work with him? Like, how would that benefit him? It wasn’t said, but I’m just guessing Quinn told him he’d get to meet the guy that killed his brothers and he just ended up being bait.
I’m stumped. I’m not sure how I’m liking the supernatural element to this. It just seems to random and unfitting to me, but I guess I’m going to stick through to see where this strange story is going to go. The animation for this was outstanding, Production I.G. did extremely well with this. The car chase looked awesome and the fight on the train did as well. While the designs of the bad guys are strange in this world, I enjoy the art style a lot. All in all, it just looks very polished. The ending theme was also amazing. But like I said, I’m a little stumped but because of how weird this was, I’m curious to see where this is all going to go. I’m not too thrilled with this premiere, but I’m interested to know what’ll happen next with the weird group, Koku, and everything about Keith. I just hope the other characters get to be fleshed out a bit too.
The general opinion on B’s story (myself included) was the supernatural half was weaker than the (better-implemented) investigative half – like 2 entirely different shows loosely stitched together.
That said, B will be getting a Season 2, so hopefully the 2 elements will be better reconciled for the sequel.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-06-12/b-the-beginning-anime-gets-2nd-season/.132816
Fun fact – B’s director said in a (poorly translated) interview that Cremona was meant to be a combination of Italy and Cuba. The Cuban element was reflected in characters driving in vintage cars, which the director personally likes.
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20180302-b-the-beginning-kazuto-nakazawa-interview/
Yeah, that’s how I feel already after one episode. The two elements don’t really mesh well together, but I’ll have to see later on how they’ll combine the supernatural and police drama parts together.
Oh, Cuba? That’s interesting, I didn’t get the Cuban vibe at all. But I guess that only pertains to the cars because the whole world breathes Italy.