Set in near future during a civil war in some eastern Asian state Flag is a realistic documentary-like show which rather than delving into plot or characters showers its viewers with in-depth news reports and scenery pictures. I’ll be frank here, Flag is one of the most boring anime I have ever seen. Apart from some eye-candy and innovative storytelling, this show offers absolutely nothing you couldn’t see on your global news channel. Unless fighting sleep is your idea of fun, forget all about Flag and leave it to rot for good.

No matter how wonderful the smiling faces in the picture, the instant you click the shutter, it becomes a thing of the past. That’s why people like us always have our cameras raised, ready and waiting for that next instant.

Both originally created and directed by Takahashi Ryousuke (Gasaraki) Flag is a show which offers a whole new storytelling to anime industry. It also sacrifices everything, including pace of the plot and characters, for that storytelling which nets a strong sense realism. Flag’s story takes place in our world, probably in the near future, as mecha weapons are deployed for wars. Anyway, it all happens during the civil war in the middle of some south eastern Asian state, I didn’t catch the name of. Saeko Shirasu, a photographer, took a picture of flag which was raised when the conflict seemed to be at its end, hence her photo and that flag became symbols of peace for that country. However, peace is not that easy to achieve, as the flag which should have been a symbol to end the war was stolen by terrorists. It comes back down to Shirasu to accompany special troops in pursuit to retrieve the flag and end the boiling conflict for good.

Flag had it all. It packs neat ideas, it offers original plot, it has its distinctive storytelling. Anti-war message is very well conveyed, humanity’s tenacity to survive in the most horrible of situations is very well shown, and you can also notice many manifestations of ‘individual feelings vs society’ concepts. Now then, how come a show, which appears to pack so much and is carried out with style gets such ratings from me? Simple. It’s boring. I don’t remember the last time I was so constantly fighting sleep when watching anime. I seriously had to stop my encodes at times, get up and do some exercises to fight drowsiness away. Because, man, is it one sleep inducing show. Even though it packs so much good stuff and appears fresh and original (I darn liked the first episode) it fails to deliver anything in an exciting way, heck, even my review delivers it in a more exciting way than this show does. That unique everything through camera storytelling is mostly to blame here as all you ever see is either identical to what you see in the global news on TV or Shirasu taking photographs of various things, like sheeps, mountains and damned grass, or whatever. And looking at someone randomly moving camera around is not my idea of fun. And when it’s not tormenting you on bland grass photos (it’s well animated though) Flag makes you spend most of your time on watching guys you don’t know talk about things you don’t care. It gets better when narrator starts talking philosophically near the end, but that’s way too far to save the show. It is, basically, a compilation of many news and documentaries about Israeli you have already seen on TV, except here it’s fiction, so you don’t even care as much.

Animation: 4

Animation by Ansa Studio is top-notch, exactly what you could expect from a short show with a good budget. The show adapts realistic style and though I’m not a fan, I did enjoy it quite a bit. The best is probably the great blend between 2D and 3D graphics, not only you can’t easily tell them apart, they merge into something you could never imagine was originally two planes. Backgrounds are pretty nice for the most part, though the annoying grain effect rather than making backgrounds realistic, made them blurry and not as beautiful to gaze at as they originally were. Character designs, though not the most attractive (again realism) blend well with their surroundings and move in very realistic ways. Point goes to lips animation during dialogue. Either way, animation of this shows achieves what it sets out to - make the show as realistic as possible. It’s not something you will remember in your arts class, but it transfers the realistic mood well.

Sound: 3

Epic instrumental OP Hope to Peace by Ike Yoshihiro is a very beautiful piece which transfers the mood of the anime perfectly. Imagery which follows it is just what you’d expect from documentary about civil wars in third world countries. ED Lights by Nobuchika Eri sets for slow, tranquil pop which gets energetic near the end and it works pretty well. Unfortunately, I could only listen to it for a very limited number of times, because I was so sleepy after some episodes I could not bare with spending another minute on them.

Background music composed by Ike Yoshihiro (Ergo Proxy, Karas) packs quite a few beautiful mid eastern folk music like pieces, perfect for the overall exotic and depressing atmosphere of the show. Unfortunately, despite the pieces being quite good, the direction of their usage lacks, as we usually hear them just once or twice per episode. Majority of action is spent in silence and I didn’t like it as it made me even more drowsy. Sound effects are satisfying for the most part, I didn’t particularly notice anything special in them.

Finally, voice-acting is remarkably insignificant. They even sacrificed professional seiyuu for the sake of realism hiring people who usually do live action. The only voice-actor in this show who has made his name as a seiyuu is Ishizuka Unshou (Cowboy Bebop as Black Jet, Initial D as Fujiwara Bunta) and he does a pretty good job at narrator’s role, which has by far the most lines in this show. Now that I think about it, it wouldn’t have really payed off to hire any other expensive seiyuu as characters certainly have very little important lines to say. It’s not like you care about the voice of the guys who lurk the background when you watch the news…

Story: 2

Though I at first found setting peculiar, because, well, it’s rare to see such a realistic setting, mirroring stuff really happening in reality, I soon was disappointed, because it didn’t differ one bit from the setting I had seen million times in various documentaries. People are oppressed, politics and religion dictate the fates of thousands and though it’s all shit, people still survive and smile while lighting candles. And don’t forget the damn kids, what is a good documentary without filthy kids for watchers to feel sorry for?

The plot, as I have already mentioned, is highly handicapped by the atrocious storytelling this show adapts. It was all fun in episode one, never seen anime told through camera lens, that’s for sure. Then came the second and third episodes, all I did was see people I don’t know talk about what caliber rifles they use, many landscape pictures and filthy locals who try survive in that shit hole of theirs, everything from a far spectators position. Beautiful, besides the rifle caliber explanations, I had already seen all that other stuff on the news. And you bet, I don’t enjoy rifle caliber explanations. It was all that useless trivia I was fighting with for around nine first episodes. Then it finally kicked in, as Shirasu, the main character, spoke coherently for the first time in the whole show and some important stuff started to happen. I didn’t care about it much, but I at least enjoyed the last few episodes somewhat, as they cut down on explanations and landscapes and went on to portray war and how locals cope with it. It wasn’t that much better than documentaries, but it was at least new, in anime business. I’m actually quite happy I managed to not drop it until the end, as I would not have gotten those few redeeming traits this show possesses. And the ending is pretty well done. Though not that strong on emotional impact, thanks to hollow characters, it at least finishes things. And then I could say the words which had been repressed in me since episode 2, with a big smile on my face I said “It’s finally over”.

Characters: 1

Coincidences are funny, really. I’ve just finished watching Kurozuka, which unfortunately forgot to add traits to its characters, next I watch Flag, which despite possessing the traits doesn’t even bother to show them to the viewers. What you get in Flag are not full fledged characters, not personality development, heck you don’t even learn their personalities. In Flag you get a few dozens of generic guys you don’t know the names of. You know that they live as you see some random picture them jogging, eating or repairing their robots. However, apart from a few words about why they fight in the war, you don’t learn a single thing about their inner worlds. I mean, it’s not like you care who the cameraman or who the reporter is on the news, right? This show is the same, it’s just a live report from the battlefield. Nevertheless I can still say you can vaguely point a few Shirasu’s traits out when the show ends (with some imagination), I actually had almost got emotional when she risked her life to take photos and stuff. Anyway, Flag portrays how humans cope with war and it doesn’t care about personalities, it only cares about their nature. So basically, though they indeed appeared realistic, none of the characters (including the main cast) are important and you could have easily changed them with anyone else. Since all characters blend with their surroundings, they at least don’t attract unwanted attention and don’t annoy the viewers. Like trees in the background, they are there, but nobody really cares.

Conclusion: Unless you are a photographer or you get kicks out of watching the news, you shouldn’t really touch this show. It’s suitable for anyone who is above 13 years of age, but, frankly, I can’t picture a teen watching this anime. Heck, I’m interested in philosophy and politics and I still couldn’t sit still. Best for mature audience with nurtured patience Flag is a show which would have gotten much more fans if it was live-action. If you have liked Flag, then, well… errr. I recommend watching documentaries about Israeli or global news, Iraq reports. Seriously, I have no anime to recommend.