To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (2019)

[かつて神だった獣たちへ]

Director: Jun Shishido
Studio: MAPPA
Starring: Katsuyuki Konishi, Ai Kakuma, Yuichi Nakamura
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
The former commander of a unit of shapeshifting supersoldiers must hunt down his comrades while he is pursued by the daughter of one of the men he killed.

Impressions:
The premise of this series caught my interest, using the War of Northern AggressionAmerican Civil War as the backdrop for a monster-of-the-week story with a bit of a True Grit dynamic between leads Hank and Schaal. The setting had promise and the potential for creative use of the various Incarnates was enough to lure me in. However, the monster-of-the-week format feels a bit shallow and once we start to branch out of that, we're left with two rather unsympathetic factions and Hank looking like a bit of a schmuck for being caught in the middle. A lot of people complain about Schaal and her naivete. She does start to grow out of it, but it's slow going. Production values are decent, but at times you can feel the studio being pinched by the budget. I rather like the OP. In the final tally, I don't regret watching it, but there were a lot of better shows I saw this season. If you don't latch on to the characters, you aren't going to enjoy yourself. I say take it or leave it.

Rating:
50/50