Texhnolyze – STRANGER
Texhnolyze is a 2003 dark cyberpunk sci-fi anime series directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki (director of Stein’s Gate and Shigurui Death Frenzy), written by Chiaki J. Konaka and character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe (their second collaboration after Serial Experiments Lain).
The series takes place in the underground city of Lux and follows a man named Ichise, who gets his arm and leg cut off by a fight promoter and gets them replaced by robotic prosthetics, meaning he’s been Texhnolyzed, like most of the people in Lux.
The first episode “STRANGER” shows off Hamasaki’s style of direction throughout the series, as well as elements of what he would do in his later directorial works. The series is known for its grim tone and slow pace and the first episode shows this off perfectly.
It starts off with long establishing shots of a dark and dingy environment and Ichise walking through them. He looks into a mirror, and it reverts to a flashback of the fight he was just in.
The way the scene is directed has the characters shown in either extreme closeups or medium shots and the scene has a noise filter over it. This along with the erratic editing gives the scene a disorientating effect and helps with the brutality of the fight. The fight scene was key animated by Takeshi Koike (director of Redline), who is known for his unique way of animating movement and anatomy, and his use of expression and action shows off how hard hitting each character’s attacks are.
The whole episode shows off the show’s slow pace through the use of long uninterrupted shots and lack of sound. Apart of the fight scene, the only sound we hear is the ambience of the location and the first lines of dialogue are said at the 11:02 mark.
Another element that adds to the show’s tone is the animation. In particular, the use of color is near monochromatic and adds to the sense of dread. The city of Lux shows dilapidated buildings everywhere and the sky during the day is pure overblown white like the LED light in a hospital, giving the setting a sense of constant unease. The series was animated by Madhouse (studio behind One Punch Man, Satoshi Kon’s filmography, etc.) and was animated digitally when it was just becoming the standard, so the visuals give off a hazy look with warm linework, which helps with the aesthetic with the show.
