English Dub Season Review: BEM Season One

Our Take:

Bem is a remake of an old anime from the 60s, and I have no knowledge of what it’s about. In this sense, I went into the series completely blind, except knowing that Production IG was in charge of it, and they tend to do a pretty okay job animating things.

The trio of Bem, Belo, and Bela all want to become human and go about different ways of doing so. Bem saves people from the shadows, Bela hides her identity as she pretends to be a young student, and Belo pretends like he’s unaffected but secretly helps his small adoptive group in the shadows. Their interactions with humans center mostly around being disappointed, as they have been many times before. People are selfish, look out only for themselves and their own interests, and are mostly content maintaining the status quo. This clashes directly with the trio, who despite acting humans still aren’t. Their other forms are large, massive, and monstrous, even if their actions are very human, and that inspires fear and pulls people away from them. In the end, it seems that for the most part, people are more interested in making appearances as truth over actions. To be fair, this isn’t completely foreign a concept; seeing a monster would cause people to freak out. However, this is all about the sad truth of jumping to conclusions.

Summers is the main human who manages to change over the course of the series. She’s a strict person with a high sense of morality, who puts herself in danger if it means that the greater good will be helped by her doing so. However, she is not immune to fear, as even when Bem saves her, she shoots him. This isn’t a static impression, as, over the course of the series, she starts to realize that there’s more than meets the eye. Even though her supervisors all see Bem as a monster, she notices that something doesn’t add up, and in her personal investigations, comes to realize that Bem isn’t as dangerous as people say that he is.

The crux of the series comes down to a few things: can a monster become human, can humans accept monsters, and can the trio find happiness. The problem is, that it never really delivers on any of them. We don’t know if the trio can ever become human, considering how powerful they are. Most of Libra City doesn’t accept them, only sees them as spectacle, but there are a few hopeful exceptions to the rule. As for happiness… the ending shows the trio still alive after the fight with Vega, but it feels more like things will continue on as-is vs any sort of change. Subtle narratives are perfectly fine, and even not having radical change despite a story with very fantastical elements is fine too. Still, it doesn’t feel like much changed at all, with the exceptions of a couple of people. Most of the cast remained static, and that’s not a good thing for a long show.

The villains also didn’t really amount to much. Most of the enemies ended up being villains-of-the-week. Vega, the big bad, was hastily introduced and despite her massive power, didn’t really feel like much of a threat. Of course, the true evil is the prejudice in people’s hearts, and that was definitely conveyed throughout the series, but in terms of external threats? Not much. The show mainly ended up being carried by the trio, who are excellent, and Summers. Also the noir jazz soundtrack, which I need to get for myself.

To be fair, it’s a show with a lot of potentials. Unfortunately, in the end, they don’t really end up saying anything substantial, so the show feels flat. It is interesting, but it could have been executed a lot better.