User Reviews

This show was an unexpected surprise and the trailers and promotional material do it a great disservice. I was expecting something average, maybe a 6 out of 10 but I am glad to say this show is much more nuanced than I know most will give it credit for. And certainly more thought and effort into making it good than the atrocity that was Uprising.

But what was even more unique is that there isn't as much Kaiju fighting as I would've expected which is actually not a con against it as the story it chooses to tell is very much a character one. And I am glad the writers weren't lazy and took the extra mile to actually flesh out these characters properly to the point you really care if something bad happens to them.

Another aspect I really appreciate is that it doesn't ignore the existence of the previous entry Uprising. It demonstrates that Uprising had potential great concepts but this time they'll actually use it. While it doesn't mean Uprising is any better it at the very least justifies it's existence in the lore and expands upon it in many creative ways I did not see coming.

In a way it's kind of like what the Clone Wars show was to the prequels.

I almost didn't watch this because I have found most Netflix Anime disappointing. However, I am really glad that I did. This is what the second movie should have been! The anime is good, and obviously anime-ish with many of the standard tropes. Also, I grew up on Robotech in the eighties, watching the anime and reading all of the books. This reminds me of what I remember Robotech being (I went back and tried to re-watch it a few years ago and it disappointed). There is a good balance of mech vs monster, character development, and plot advancement. Well done and I am looking forward to season 2.

This show could have been a 9 or 10 but nope they had to have a stereotypical girl written into this.

Haileys character annoys me so much that often i forward some of her parts, her whining tantrum voice and her character personality is so annoying.

But onto the good things is that this anime gets to do things that the movies couldnt do in battle scenes or storylines. Wonderful Plot along with amazing visuals makes this a must see anime show.

It would be nice if their were more Jaegars in the show but sadly we dont get to see that. Theirs alot of room for improvement definitely like bringing variety of Jaegars for all to enjoy after all its a Pacific Rim show.

As a massive fan of Guillermo Del Toro's first Pacific Rim who was then let down by the disappointing sequel Pacific Rim Uprising, I quite enjoyed The Black. It is a solid step back into the world of Pacific Rim.

The Black is refreshingly told from a civilian's perspective. So far, we have only seen stories from the military's perspective. The writers do keep the stakes high and the characters consistently disadvantaged to keep the story interesting. Civilians simply do not have the same resources as the military and that naturally freshens things up story-wise. The situation feels less Top Gun and much more Mad Max with a touch of A Quiet Place. The dramatic moments the characters spent out of the Jaegar were equally enjoyable as when they were piloting the Jaegar brawling with the Kaiju.

Taylor and Hayley, the main characters, are teenagers and are angsty. Normally that would be annoying. However, the writers rightfully take advantage of this by having them convincingly make mistakes as any teenager would in these overwhelmingly epic situations, which have real consequences. Even though it is about giant robot fighting giant monsters, the overall approach in how the story deals with its character is realistic and grounded.

What's gone from Pacific Rim: The Black is the sensation of scale. What was fascinating and mindblowing about seeing the first Pacific Rim in theaters was Guillermo Del Toro's sheer commitment to selling how hulkingly huge the Jaegars and the Kaiju were in every frame. It was nail-biting how slow the Jaegars moved and you could feel every gear inside the Jaegar straining to make it through the fight. Every punch mattered. Every punch that landed felt like a World Cup championship victory.

This sense of scale was completely missing in the disappointing sequel Pacific Rim Uprising and it comes and goes throughout The Black, where the Jaegars occasionally move with the dexterity of Olympic gymnasts, but in other moments, that sense of scale and weight is there and that sense of awe comes back, even if it's half the time. I wish this was more consistent throughout the show. There's real cinematic magic when that works and it just raises all the hairs on my arms.

My quibbles aside, the fights are still pretty darn fun. They are well choreographed and rightfully build on details from the Pacific Rim films. There are some exhilarating action moments that will make fans cheer. I particularly enjoyed how the writers further explore the Drift and like the first Pacific Rim, uses it effectively as a story device to develop the relationships between the Jaegar pilots and intensifies the battles.

The first season for The Black does end abruptly, as if a producer came in andlopped off half of the show with a machete and deemed a mid-season cliffhanger as the new shortened season finale. When it happened, it had me doing a triple take going, "Wait, what? That was over?"

Regardless, I do intend to watch the second season to see what happens. The show was better than expected and it did win me over.

Overall, I'd recommend The Black to Pacific Rim fans. Fans who enjoyed the first film and was let down by the second and still have unfinished business in this universe are keen to enjoy this show.

Binged this series of one of my most favorite franchises. In my opinion, it surpasses both the movies. It is really complex yet fun to watch, and the characters are very memorable. I had a blast! Can't wait for season 2!

If you like the genre and Pacific rim movies/ story then you'll most likely enjoy it. Its not a gem but its entertaining enough. I only wish it was a bit more to the story and perhaps a bit longer. The plot gives an impression it will be sort of like Firefly or Star Trek, what I mean is the kids have the big mech as their home/travel medium and as they travel around on their "mission" (parents) ,meet people,have experiences,help etc.. All the while the jaeger (big mech) would be their safe comfy home. I would much more prefer it like that, an episodic,every episode a short story while at the same time slowly pushing forward the main storyline. But as is, the plot is very shallow, the range of their experience is extremely limited with only a handful of characters and even less kaji. Too bad, because if they put a bit more effort into it and went the other route, with each ep having an individual either action/moral quandry/emotional/sad storyline while staying on the main road, this animation would've been A LOT better.

This anime was something. It felt like it wanted too add every monster movie idea into a six episodes. Like they took ideas from multiple franchisee of monster flicks or shows and said "we'll add this, a little bit of that, put this there" and then shoved it out the door. I was all for the idea of kids going on an adventure to find their parents but then they add so many other ideas that just felt like this was an amateur writer's first attempt at fanfiction.

Great and beautiful Anime. Cool Characters, Jäger and Kaiju's. A great Mix between Metal Gear Solid, Strike Suit Hero and possibly also the mysterious Project G.G. by Platinum Games. (^?^) Hopefully Season 2 comes out SOON, rather than a Year from now. I WANT MORE !!! ^^

I actually liked the show, for a 3d animated show, it was really done well, the action scenes felt fluid and real, overall quite good. characters wise not so much, that where I have a problem with this series, no really stood out to me, no character development at all, i might understand considering the show is 23 min long and just 7 episode but I think they could have made a character stand out tho. pacing was fast too, I do question most of the characters decision making. anyway the show is quite good to while away time

Sometime after what has become known as the Uprising War from the last movie, a third Precursor invasion happens in Australia decimating the continent and forcing the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) to abandon the continent and retreat. 5 years after the invasion, as Hayley and Taylor Travis (Gideon Adlon and Calum Worthy) await rescue from the PPDC in a hidden sanctuary with diminishing hope of rescue. After Hayley unearths a disused training Jaegar named Atlas Destroyer, the activation of the mechnisms inadvertantly alerts a Kaiju to the sanctuary's location destroying all but Hayley and Taylor. With their home destroyed and no rescue in sight, Hayley and Taylor must now venture through the ruins of Australia with their Jaegar venturing into the harsh wastes know to Survivors as The Black.

Back in 2013 Guillermo del Toro graced multiplexes with Pacific Rim, a fun take on Japanese monster films and super robot anime filtered through the lens of a big budget blockbuster. While the film garnered respectable box office numbers, it's digital footprint didn't translate to the level of success the studio was hoping for and most likely would've been written off as a disappointment had it not been for the film's massive success in Asian markets, particularly China, which eventually opened the door for the sequel, 2018's Pacific Rim: Uprising, with del Toro stepping back into a producing role and handing the reins to Spartacus and Daredevil director Steven S. DeKnight. Uprising is very flawed movie, it has some good elements in it and I like how it's tone is less apocalyptic (to a point) but without the gravitas del Toro added to the first one, Uprising came off in many ways like a big budget fan fiction including creating a previously unmentioned brother for Mako Mori with Jake Pentecost and not even addressing the previous protagonist Raleigh Beckett. Pacific Rim: The Black takes place some indeterminate amount of time after Uprising and while it does build upon elements from Uprising, it's not required viewing to understand or enjoy Pacific Rim: The Black. While the format may have changed for Pacific Rim: The Black, it still manages to deliver on the series' strengths while expanding the universe in new and interesting ways.

From the outset, The Black despite being animated is clearly taking its inspirations from the first film as many times the Jaeger/Kaiju battles are shot from street level views to give a sense of scale and weight to the battles and it's opening sequence where Australia is being invaded is very well done. The show also goes back to the first movie's themes of survivors guilt and carrying shared weight as it focuses on a brother and sister who've grown up in a world without their parents. Taylor is overly serious and no nonsense being a former Jaeger cadet prior to the fall of Australia, and takes a hardline stance when it comes to his sister's well being, while Hayley is more impulsive and brazen in her actions. It's a good dynamic that makes for rich familial drama but doesn't teeter over the edge into melodrama. The sequence where the Hayley inadvertantly activates the Jaeger and alerts a nearby Kaiju to the sanctuary has some absolutely haunting moments of terror as their friends and loved ones are massacred and the survivor's guilt felt by Hayley makes for compelling viewing especially in the friction it causes in their relationship.

While the characters are certainly rich and have some great exchanges, it helps that the world The Black creates feels unique (at least in terms of the Pacific Rim universe). Being set in Australia, it should surprise absolutely no one that there's more than a few passing similarities to the world of Mad Max with roving gangs of scavengers and marauders which surprisingly mesh really well in a world of monsters, giant robots, and other sci-fi gadgets. The show does a good job of creating an ongoing mystery as Hayley and Taylor search for their missing parents and introducing elements such as a mute albino boy, what seems to be a Jaeger/Kaiju hybrid, and many other dangling plot threads that are given just enough intrigue and answer to keep you wanting more.

What issues I do have with Pacific Rim: The Black are fairly minor, but I'd be remiss if I didn't address them. The animation is really good at the Kaiju/Jaeger battles, but the show struggles with the human moments every so often. For the most part the human models are perfectly serviceable, but being a CG series with anime aesthetics sometimes facial features will seem unnaturally flat or feel somewhat doll like in how they interact. There's also some situations where they attempt to do more dynamic and complex camera movements with the humans such as an instance involving a 360 degree arc shot inside a damaged Jaeger that gave the appearance the character in the fore ground was floating. As many have pointed out the show is only 7 episodes long. To the writers' credit the story never feels rushed or anything, but some of the emotional crescendo and dramatic payoffs may have elicited greater impact had they been allowed more time to develop.

Pacific Rim : The Black is a good addition to the franchise. While the compressed storytelling and somewhat rough animation at certain points can be distracting, the show continues building upon the interesting world built in the first tow films and populating it with interesting characters and compelling narratives.

This series is an intriguing attempt to find the sublime in the ridiculous. What we have to remember is that Pacific Rim was, by design, frivolous and almost a self-parody. It was a knowing wink at the ludicrousness of kaiju and the fancruft that have grown around them, with "no alloys" and "50 diesel engines per muscle strand" as standout lines signalling that everyone involved was revelling in subverting and almost-but-not-quite mocking the source material.

The Black plays it all far more seriously, trying to show the consequences for squishy humanity of the "kaijufication" of earth - or more specifically, Australia, but best not to dwell on that detail, given that most of the voice talent are resolutely North American. There's loss and tragedy, there are merely elephantine kaiju-hounds to give a human sized threat, there's genetic experimentation, there are Jaegers that aren't quite Jaegers: all sorts of ideas that are well worn tropes in themselves, but fresh to this milieu.

The animation is entirely CGI, there's not a hand-drawn cell to be seen. It's very well done though, at least for the human characters. Surprisingly, it's not so great for the kaiju and Jaegers, which are fairly generic grey-and-blue vs grey-and-red over-shadowed blobs, with little sense of size or mass to them.

What really shines through is that the lead voice acting is outstanding, and for once they're given half decent lines to deliver and they're not phoning it in. Gideon Adlon does a compelling turn as Haley, bringing an appealing warmth, range, depth and emotion to the role. Erica Lindbeck also plays it pitch perfect as a passive-aggressivly sardonic training AI, introducing just the right amount of levity. Calum Worthy is the straight-man, and given a bit less to work with, but he takes a damn good swing at what he's given. This is highlighted by contrast with the cast extras, who turn in fairly generic anime performances.

The pacing is also a strong point, with decent story arcs and few flat spots. You won't find much Japanimation budget-stretching scenes here of composed of 2 minute still frames with trembling eyes and meaningless ejaculations of "Oh! Ah!". It's all dialogue here, lads. The score and foley are also well done, adding to rather than distracting from the animation and voice talent.

I'll be honest, I was ready to dislike this, but it won me over. It's a bold and well realized series with its own strong vision, and it delivers it competently and confidently. Definitely worth a try.

This is another decent anime series from Netflix. The graphics are well done, the voice acting is good and the story is decent. Fight sequences could have been a bit better. There is decent character development, especially for an anime series. Looking forward to another season.

Going in make sure you realize this is about as rough as Castlevania season 1 one of my major gripes with this show is the fact that Pacific Rim was an awesome live action Kaiju anime that was never supposed to become an anime itself. The only reason this show exists is to retcon Uprising (2018). Another major flaw is the fact has a lot of clichés such as AOT references, NGE references and other anime tropes. Then you have western tropes like the fact this is CGI and NOT traditional animation. The main characters make so many damn mistakes it's like watching me in front of my crush (Fs in the chat). The story writing is weak despite being penned by Craig Kyle, co-writer of Thor: Ragnarok, and Greg Johnson, head writer of the 2000 series X-Men: Evolution. The characterization is weak as well Mei is basically the edgy female empowerment character but she does have a cool relationship with Taylor (The brother guy). The main villain is also cringe the Australian bad guy who is literally the only man in the show that has an Australian accent, like seriously Netflix couldn't get Australian actors to voice characters living in Australia? I'll give them a pass on that one given Pacific Rim the movies did the same thing.

Now, onto the positives; the show has a pretty good CGI team behind it (MAPPA) the same people that did Attack on Titan Season 4, of course there are noticeable sharp edges and unnatural character movement but for what is basically a 3 hour animated movie it's not half bad. I liked Haley's character a lot. Her voice actor does a good job and her milk jugs aren't half bad as well if you catch my drift. Taylor is an ok protagonist with the same voice as pretty much every Shonen male lead, he's depicted as half competent, sassy and pretty much the only intelligent man or woman in the show. The Yeager design for the protagonists is great; it reminds me of Gipsy Danger but with a weaker less impressive weapons arsenal. The ending saves the show for me. It brings about a plot twist (that I saw coming halfway through but I still thought they wouldn't do), this show has potential and if it gets a good amount of support and a sizable fanbase they can make longer more well throughout seasons but for now I'm just holding out hope.

Tldr; Worth watching if you've seen the movies or are even slightly curious (not a lot of spoilers about the movies although a couple deaths are mentioned). If you hate CGI anime and iffy cliché Shonen plot writing you should probably watch it anyways because season 2 is gonna be epic. 7/10 The ending saves the show.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the show is ok and might watch a season 2 if it ever get renewed but I don't like a lot of things in the show, the way they deal with grief and all that, I don't advice wallowing in self hate or whatever but after they saw what that monster did to their village and the way they went about it like OK it ain't out fault, moving on... when clearly it was, disturbed me. dude who I liked so far was the villain guy, the rest was just one dimensional... Lol, and the whole looking for parent thing felt stupid for it to be considered a motivation, I just needed something for me to cheer for the siblings, they make it so hard especially the girl. mei is OK tho

Really nice surprise; the story line is well written so are the characters and the post apocalyptic universe. The show doesn't just focus on the Kaijus VS Jaegers fights(and the fights are great too), and it makes an even better monster show. Some of the monster movies should take example.

I was deeply disappointed by the second Pacific Rim movie. It had so many issues that it's hard to describe. Not that one has huge expectations from a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters, but still. When compared to the first, it's miles behind.

The animation has some pretty low bar to cross and it does it well. It's a light tone mix with some rather very dark elements. It's not always best but it passes the smell test. The animation is okay mostly. Some character models could be better but that's nitpicking. The bigger issues is the supporting voice cast, their performances are pretty low tier sadly. With that said, direction is rock solid. Good camera choices and visual setup. For me, this was one of the worst parts of the second movie.

Still a very much enjoyable experience. I would have liked some more robot action and better voice casts but hey, it's more giant robots fighting giant monsters.

Ignore the bad reviews here. This is another great edition - Hope they do alot more too. Acting is good, animation is awesome, characters are great too. Im glad this was made. And I to see more.

Kinda good CGI, awesome drawings. Exciting, interesting, but sometimes predictable story. Poor soundtrack compared to the firsg movie's which is legendary. But I'm not supprised. The credits soundtrack is kinda cool but it last for 10 seconds or so. The op thought is good.

• This was written after E7 - (obviously the story isn't finished)

Absolutely recommend watching it if you liked the first movie even if just a little bit.

I am a fan of the first movie and hated the second one. I love seeing kaiju fighting mechas and as in the first movie, the series has a lot of amazing fights. However it also suffers the same problem as in the first movie, i.e. a relatively weak and an oddly paced story, admittedly better than the movie though. But lets face it, nobody watches Pacific Rim for the plot only and here a serviceable plot is all i needed to enjoy the amazing animation, the very good sound track, the good voice acting and above all Jägers punching Kaijus!

Looks beautiful, and has lots of cool action and heart! :-)

I'm a normy, I love anime and after seeing the movies and watching anime all of my life, I have to say I really liked this series, I'm really dissappointed that there were no more episodes. I'm also giving it a 10 out of 10 because I want to see more! The story is not generic, it doesn't copy other tales and it keeps you at the edge of your seat. I won't to know more about Boy and the siblings. Please please get us more seasons and more episodes. 7 episodes is too little. Watch it, you will like it if you are a fan of anime.

If you are either aged 10-14 or a big Pacific Rim fan then this is for you, otherwise it's not that great.

The animation is a bit all over the place, faces are good, mechs and kaijus are a bit weightless and floaty and characters are on the stiff side. This was definitely all done by hand, no motion capture. As for still visuals, it's quite good for a 3D animation. Shots look quit good even though there is a general lack of detail in surrounding areas such as city landscapes. The story feels a tad rushed, it's like they crammed the idea's for 12 or more episodes into 7. Probably because that's what actually happened. Our two protagonists are pretty standard run of the mill characters, but they're all right. Mei and Boy are far more interesting and they are in my opinion the best thing about this show.

Overall, it's not the best, but it's not the worst either. I hope if they get a second season they slow down the pacing and take their time to develop the characters and the plot properly.