The year is coming to an end soon, and it's time to remember some of the releases that left some lasting impression on us in 2023. One such show was The Marginal Service — one that may be called a disappointment of the year.
Now think about it: a fun key visual with naked jacked dudes (and one girl, mind you), a premise about humans dealing with aliens, and a staff team full of people who have proved to be capable of delivering an interesting story.
Kenta Ihara was in charge of the script and story composition, and before The Marginal Service he worked on Death Parade, Vinland Saga, Zankyou no Terror, Ajin, Isekai Ojisan, and more works that were worthy of our attention; Masayuki Sakoi was the director of the show, who previously did Citrus and Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru) alongside many works in the 2000s where he not only directed the series (Kaibutsu Ojoi), but also worked on storyboards (Strawberry
Panic). And don't get us started on the cast: all the main characters are voiced by the tops of the top — Mamoru Miyano, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Nakamura Yuichi, Tomokazu Sugita, Hiro Shimono, Shinichiro Miki, Kaori Nazuka, and Uchiyama Kouki. People were hyped for the show, and the trailers looked promising.
Studio 3Hz made quite a lot of anime original series. It's a relatively new one, created just a decade ago, but they were able to create engaging stories in Dimension W, Flip Flappers, and Healer Girl — and with wonderful animation, mind you.
The problem with The Marginal Service is that it feels cheap. It looks like all the budget went into the cast and left the animation team starving. In a show that should be action-packed, the action itself seems stiff and dull. In a premise that promises a lot of unconventional weaponry, the weapons are boring.
The show tries to be a parody of the American cop shows and buddy movies, but it lacks the parody aspect and the seriousness aspect that would make it funny. The characters embody their archetypes to a T, becoming lifeless and predictable caricatures.
The plot, where a certain secret unit under the UN jurisdiction deals with non-human creatures disguising themselves as humans, who are here called Borderlanders, repeats Men In Black, but with less flare, and adds a reference to Independence Day at the end. It could've been much more engaging and fun if it had been a bit more unhinged, a bit less serious, and a bit flashier. It could've been another action-packed story with elevated funny moments and a thin layer of mystery, but instead, it became something stiff and unoriginal.
Watching it feels like watching a kid's cartoon that somehow got enriched with a bit of nudity and badly timed adult jokes.
Even the stellar cast didn't help.
The year is coming to an end soon, and it's time to remember some of the releases that left some lasting impression on us in 2023. One such show was The Marginal Service — one that may be called a disappointment of the year.
Now think about it: a fun key visual with naked jacked dudes (and one girl, mind you), a premise about humans dealing with aliens, and a staff team full of people who have proved to be capable of delivering an interesting story.
Kenta Ihara was in charge of the script and story composition, and before The Marginal Service he worked on Death Parade, Vinland Saga, Zankyou no Terror, Ajin, Isekai Ojisan, and more works that were worthy of our attention; Masayuki Sakoi was the director of the show, who previously did Citrus and Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru) alongside many works in the 2000s where he not only directed the series (Kaibutsu Ojoi), but also worked on storyboards (Strawberry
Panic). And don't get us started on the cast: all the main characters are voiced by the tops of the top — Mamoru Miyano, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Nakamura Yuichi, Tomokazu Sugita, Hiro Shimono, Shinichiro Miki, Kaori Nazuka, and Uchiyama Kouki. People were hyped for the show, and the trailers looked promising.
Studio 3Hz made quite a lot of anime original series. It's a relatively new one, created just a decade ago, but they were able to create engaging stories in Dimension W, Flip Flappers, and Healer Girl — and with wonderful animation, mind you.
The problem with The Marginal Service is that it feels cheap. It looks like all the budget went into the cast and left the animation team starving. In a show that should be action-packed, the action itself seems stiff and dull. In a premise that promises a lot of unconventional weaponry, the weapons are boring.
The show tries to be a parody of the American cop shows and buddy movies, but it lacks the parody aspect and the seriousness aspect that would make it funny. The characters embody their archetypes to a T, becoming lifeless and predictable caricatures.
The plot, where a certain secret unit under the UN jurisdiction deals with non-human creatures disguising themselves as humans, who are here called Borderlanders, repeats Men In Black, but with less flare, and adds a reference to Independence Day at the end. It could've been much more engaging and fun if it had been a bit more unhinged, a bit less serious, and a bit flashier. It could've been another action-packed story with elevated funny moments and a thin layer of mystery, but instead, it became something stiff and unoriginal.
Watching it feels like watching a kid's cartoon that somehow got enriched with a bit of nudity and badly timed adult jokes.
