Wow, this show almost went completely under my radar. How often do you have two shows airing in the same season containing a derivative of “Babylon”, anyway? Not exactly a common anime word (but I’d put it up there with strange English words that the Japanese have a fascination with, such as ‘Psycho’, ‘Guilty’, or ‘Cross’).
Babylon is a crime mystery anime based on a short novel series written my Mado Nozaki. The show puts us in the role of Zen Seizaki, the public prosecutor who is most interested in performing his duty with a moral code and giving those who bend the rules no quarter. His assistant, Fumio, is a young upstart with a good heart but lacking Seizaki’s work ethic and drive. While the show begins with the duo seizing medical records from a firm suspected of accounting fraud, their discovery spirals into a dark web of suicides and nihilism.
A local anesthetist named Shin Inaba is found dead in the wake, seemingly by his own hand. While following a dark trail of leads from this seizure guides them to the footholds of a scandal involving a local politician Nomaru, Seizaki’s understudy Fumio commits suicide without warning. Seizaki refuses to believe that this man so dedicated to their cause would so suddenly abandon hope to end his young life. Filled with determination more than ever, Seizaki intends to bring the wrongdoer to justice.
While Seizaki’s hot trail leads him to discover political corruption even within the prosecutor’s office, albeit for “the greater good” (what political deal doesn’t claim to be so?), this is really just the tip of the iceberg, a teaser for the depraved depths that Babylon goads you into inviting. While it is impossible for me to say where I believe the show is going to go, there are a few interesting ideas it has displayed in just the first three episodes.
First, let’s talk about the tone of the show. Babylon is not here to insult your intelligence – it’s clear this anime is crafted with an older audience in mind. For one, the main character isn’t a high school student – so far opposite, he is a 30 something, married man with a family. In addition, it isn’t often we see a man from a legal profession as the main character. Seizaki is heroic, but stoic and down-to-earth. This permits the show to follow a more serious structure, with almost no humor and make it seem completely natural – it knows why you are here and isn’t interested in wasting your time. I can greatly appreciate this and I think the uncomfortable/mature tone isn’t for everyone. When I say “mature” I am not speaking about the graphic material present, but rather the heavy, introspective material, pacing, and “place in life” the show assumes you are at emotionally.
Second, let’s talk about the second episode. Ai Magase is a monster. This is a person I do not think I would be able to handle in my waking life. There is something delicately uncomfortable, something slightly painful, something eerily nihilistic about the way she attempts to poison your mind. Notice the excellently animated body language in her interrogation scene when she is pressed as to why she went to the lengths she did for Nomura’s “associates”. You rarely, rarely see this level of attention to body language or conveying of complex emotions without being stifled by the obtuse plodding of narration (be it third person or character introspection) in most other anime. This suggests a great understanding of the darkness of the human condition that the author was looking to exploit. It was at this moment after this tense, uncomfortable interrogation scene that I began to expect much more out of this anime.
After purportedly driving others to a similar fate atop a building in the public eye, Seizaki understands that Fumio and Inaba really did convince themselves to end their life and were not murdered, likely after an encounter with the tainted Ai Magase. Why can Ai change her appearance completely, what is her ultimate goal, why does she do what she does, who does she live for? Is there a greater purpose? Why does she show interest in the people she has? I can say that I am truly terrified, as this character is already more threatening than the villain in the 10 shows I watched (Except Fyodor, that guy is fucked).
I’m eagerly looking forward to Seizaki’s exploration of this character and the resolution of the mysteries the show presents. I expect things to get pretty cerebral following the “she can change her appearance” reveal.
