Review: Recorded by Arizal Prelude “Log iii”

OVERVIEW

Arizal reels from how unprepared she actually is to become a Record Keeper, but gets cheered up by some sudden encouragement from her friends.

OUR TAKE

And in a move surprising no one, Arizal still wants to be a Record Keeper. I know, crazy, right? I’m honestly kind of confused why the descriptions tried to imply there are actual stakes here when the whole point of this prelude is that the story hasn’t even started yet. We’re not even at the first episode, so why would be doubt for a second that she was going on this path anyway? It’s in that where I feel this prelude might have been better served with showing us four SEPARATE moments from Arizal’s life leading up to her becoming a Record Keeper (or Keeper, or RK, as apparently there are many ways to say this term) instead of four moments from the same day that is a foregone conclusion. Not to mention that, similar to Nomad of Nowhere, the art style sometimes shakes between comedic and serious in a way that makes me a bit confused as to what tone I’m supposed to be feeling.

It also gives me my first thought about what feedback to give when this prelude is over, which is that the vlog/found footage storytelling style should really only be a PART of the story, not its entirety. For one, it’s pretty limiting to have your story being only told through one character sitting down and telling your audience what happened as opposed to SEEING it happen. We should definitely be seeing Arizal giving logs about the places she’s going to and the people she’s meeting, but also see exactly what dilemmas she’s facing in the world. The way that being a Record Keeper is being described, I can see it being sort of like what a Traveler is shown to be in the lauded anime series “Kino’s Journey”, even though that’s not exactly a real occupation. And so part of that is seeing how Arizal interacts with the world around her and what lessons she, and by extension the audience, learns from that.

But we still have one more prelude chapter to go, and perhaps things will be a stark difference to show that there will be a whole lot more to look forward to in the main story. Hopefully. Maybe. I don’t exactly know what to expect here, which is both a blessing and a curse for this show. Still, it’s new blood in the animation pool and more chances to see new stories is always more of a gain than a loss.