Anime Review: Xenosaga the animation

Review Xenosaga the animation Written by Warpshadow Rating good

The ideas for anime shows come from a variety of sources and video games are no exception. Video game adaptations have their own difficulties but can still make for fun shows.

In the far future spectral invaders called the Gnosis are troubling mankind. Shion Uzuki is aboard a star ship running tests on Kosmos an android developed to combat Gnosis. Without warning the ship is attacked by the Gnosis. Since the Gnosis are an enigma the cause of attack is unknown although it could be related to the pillar called Zohar that the ship just picked up. Since Kosmos is not active the ship gets trashed by the Gnosis. When Kosmos does awaken she (although an android Kosmos has a female form) promptly throws Shion into a life pod just before the ship is destroyed.

Xenosaga was based off of a video game of the same name. While the show suffers from the natural inability to compress a 60 hour game into less than six hours of animation what is left is a fast paced show that has a good deal of action. While the show overall is decent I can't help but feel that it was unnecessary. After all most ports to anime are from art mediums that lack moving pictures and graphics was something that the Xenosaga game was not lacking in. Even so if you liked the game or just lack the patience to play through it you might enjoy this.