So I've just finished watching Birdy the Mighty Decode, and it sucks. It just sucks. Do not watch this series. I am baffled, honestly, at how badly this show sucked. I mean, I usually have an optimistic mind towards these things, allowing room for myself to write off these things as just the nature of the genre.. But this series is just awful.
I watched this series because back when Naruto ep whatever-it-was (167? i think?), the one with the Pain vs Naruto and everyone was whining about "horrible roadrunner legs" and lol face deformations. I saw in a few places people mention that a similar animation style had been used some in Birdy the Mighty Decode. So since I absolutely loved that Naruto Shippuuden episode, I figured I'd check out Birdy for similar awesomeness. Seeing Norio Matsumoto (The dude responsible for the Naruto episode as far as I understand it) on ep 12 of Birdy made me assume that episode 12 would be the episode with the super energetic off-the-wall fast-paced incredible animation.
So I start Birdy, it's done by A-1 Pictures, and looks something between Kannagi and Sora no Woto. It's characters animation seems more unrefined and raw compared to Kannagi (which iirc imo was more polished than this), and it's backgrounds are all water-colored, nothing like the highly detailed and interesting backgrounds of Sora no Woto. Nonetheless I'd place the visuals somewhere between the two shows, and for good reason.
I start off by loving the fight scene animations in the beginning of the series. They had such a jagged sporadic movement about them that reminded me of Sora no Woto and BRS. So like the first three episodes each have cool fights and all, enough to keep me interested at least. I'm mainly thinking "Man if this is how the normal fights are, then what the heck is going down when Norio steps in??" Meanwhile I'm pretty iffy on the story. At this point I'm totally trying to stay optimistic about it, (I didn't really know the story going into it) and it's not even really the story, it's more just whats happening (The story is completely different from the gender-bender/high school setting stuff that I'm talking about here). However they decided to elaborate on what exactly the plot of the anime is, so they take a few episodes to go visit Goofy's relatives in space. Some really uninteresting and boring crap happens and we don't really learn anything, and there aren't even cool fights going down to me interested.
However before too long it drops the furry crap and gets back to generic-high-school life 101, and the shocker comes that they're taking a summer trap to the mountains. I have a little interest in it, because I can totally relate and take interest in the whole exploring urban ruins things. I think thats super awesome. So while they're out doing this thing this super intense fight goes down and suddenly I'm reminded of why I'm suffering through this crap.
But honestly that was about the last breath of hope. There are maybe 2-3 sequences in ep 12 which I think might be Norio Matsumoto's bits, which are really interesting and I've gone and watched like 5 times now. But it's around episode 11 that the train wreck of a ending unfolds. It has to be the single most predictable ending I've ever seen. I was laughing so hard at how ridiculous the whole thing was, making comments to myself at the end of ep 12 about how they're gonna introduce a dues ex machina plot device and dudes gonna save the chick and take out the bioweapon. Of course I'm just laughing this speculation to myself when the first words of episode 13 are "Birdy, there's a way we can save the chick and still take out the bioweapon!" It's around this point that this becomes one of my least favorite anime I think I've ever seen. It only got more ridiculous when mid episode, the boy is trying to save the chick (countless laughably ridiculous and nonsensical throughout, but I'm just highlighting the major ones that hit me), and I mockingly jest to myself, putting words in his mouth, "I'll kiss her! a kiss of true love will save her!" Sure enough, minutes later in the episode we see the lead boy kissing this chick he is crushing on and stalks, and sure enough it saves her.
I really hate to say "never ever in your life watch this awful series," because it did in fact have some sweet fight sequences and interesting animation. However, the horrid outweighs the interesting, and the story is unbearable. I'm so torn now on if I should watch the original OVA version, or the second season.. Because maybe the second season has more crazy awesome animation? Maybe that's the season that everyone was relating to the Naruto ep? I dunno man, but this crap was painful, and I legitimately consider it a waste of time, after about the first three eps. I wish someone had just compiled the fights into a single MAD and put it on youtube and said "dude just watch this and let that be the entirety of your Birdy experience." Honestly I wish someone would do that for me with season 2...
ps I can't even wrap my brain around how this series is regarded as being so good? There's some review on AniDB (Which I saw and read while I was getting the above image) praising the crap out of it. People are saying this garbage is legit good. It's getting acceptable ratings (7.6ish), which tell people "yeah this series is worth watching." I can't even understand this.. I wish I had spent the time after episode 3 going through some other show or movies, honestly...
