Obsolete anime became one of those few mecha storylines which left an imprint on viewers and critics alike. It was a short anime which was originally premiered on Netflix, and soon garnered much popularity due to the peculiar yet familiar narrative. In this article, we will explore where to watch Obsolete Anime along with the exploration of the plot and the narrative.
Obsolete Anime: Gen Urobuchi’s classic experimentation
Obsolete was written by Gen Urobuchi, who is known for his love for the 80s mecha anime culture and the works of Ryosuke Takahashi. Being an admirer of Takahashi, we can see traces of inspiration in Urobuchi’s work as well. Apart from Obsolete, he has also created other mecha anime shows like Gargantia and Aldnoah.Zero.
Obsolete became such a major project for Urobuchi that he had Takahashi himself work on the creation of this classic. Obsolete experiments with the idea of human interaction with forces that are alien to their existence and in that regard we can say that the nature of this anime is highly inspired by the works of Takahashi, the man who defined the sub-genre of mecha anime through his immaculate artistry.
Obsolete Anime and the plot structure
With an underlying didactic tone, the fictitious narrative of Obsolete explores a scenario where the ambiguity is explored in terms of a larger meta-narrative.
Here, humankind interacts with alien forces, and a deal is carved for exoframes (consciousness-controlled multipurpose robots) in exchange for limestone. The technological superiority of the alien race is balanced with the resources humans possess. Both of the parties, therefore, become dependent on one another for easier access to each other’s resources.
- But, on the other hand, Obsolete also creates a disbalance, or rather a balance, in the existing power structure of global dominance.
- Now, all countries have access to this technology and therefore they can assert their will on others as well, at the same time asserting their sovereign authority over their own territories without any foreign pressure.
- Obsolete anime is a deviation from the classical conflict fiction but at the same time, it also explores the domain in rather critical ways.
Obsolete Anime: where to watch it
The episodes of season 1 of Obsolete Anime can be streamed on Youtube with a premium subscription. With the initial release, the first few episodes were available on Youtube and the latter were added much later. However, Blu Rays are also available for anime and can be purchased, therefore.
Obsolete takes the audience into a state of confusion, decadence, and dejection, but ends the narrative in a rather incomplete manner. This is to show that the conditions of man and machine in a single space are rather ambiguous to imagine and therefore a traditional ending doesn’t actually fit in.
Conclusion
Obsolete anime is one of those few shows that take us to a fictitious futuristic reality. The workings of the world are shown very conflicted but in layers. The layers however work as a gradual unraveling of the story and therefore help us understand the complexities of a world order of this sort.