Texhnolyze S1E1: “Stranger”

This review was commissioned by @WheelOfFortune.


The difficult to spell and impossible to pronounce Texhnolyze is an anime-original created in 2003. It was produced by a different studio, but it was written by Chiaki J. Konaka, the mind behind Serial Experiments Lain. From what little I've picked up through unavoidable osmosis, it's both less well known and more coherent than Lain. The latter at least is reassuring.

Episode one is called "Stranger." Well, actually, it's called "STRANGER." Very Lain-like naming scheme for the episodes, from what I'm seeing. Well, let's start.


No teaser. The OP isn't as memorable as Lain's either visually or aurally, but it's good. After a male English voiceover assuring someone that he will be their guardian angel, some Flamenco-ish guitar starts over strobing images of cyberpunk-ish dance parties and street goings-on. The imagery gets more violent, and the guitar gives way to high-intensity fight music techno. At several slower moments throughout, including at the very end, there are glimpses of an obelisk-shaped edifice rising over a dreary cityscape.

Looks a little bit like the Washington Monument. That may have been an inspiration, possibly, though I guess Japanese monumental architecture has some similar features. Anyway, the framing definitely makes this spire seem important.

The title drops as "Rogue #1: Stranger." Maybe "Rogue" is the name of the first season, or something? This is a two-cour anime, so that's possible. A muscular, half-naked man walks through a dark, grimy environment. I thought it was a boiler room at first, but then I noticed showerheads and mirrors, so maybe just a dark industrial themed gym shower room. There's some dissonantly antique-looking wooden furniture scattered around under the dripping tubes and piping; said furniture is intact, but old and weathered looking. Also, the guy must work at a bakery or something, because he's got cakes. Really rocking those briefs he's wearing.

When the camera comes in closer, we see that his hands are bandaged and he's bleeding from a number of cuts on his face. Cue surrealist black-and-white flashback, of him and another half-naked guy punching each other in the face. Looks like some kind of underground fight club or boxing tournament. A really, REALLY underground one, if this urban explorer's excuse for a bathroom is connected to it. For a long time, he stares at the filthy mirror and rusty sink, contemplating his recent victory in the surrealist monochrome arena and seemingly not being very happy about it. The flashback bits emphasize the violence and brutality of the ring, complete with a jet engine-like roaring sound evocative of blood rushing through your ears to make it seem extra stressful. However, I'm a little distracted during these sequences.

Regardless of how much I want that in my face right now, it seems like the guy attached to it might have seriously injured someone in this fight. Back in the present, he removes the wrappings around the fist he used to deliver a final, blood-splattering punch to wash it, and it appears that he actually blistered his knuckles with the force of the impact.

Damn. He might have actually killed his opponent, I think. Or at least inflicted permanent damage.

As he turns the showerhead on to wash his wounds and broods under the rain, a woman in a fur-lined coat comes in and walks up behind him with a smug smile. She starts to hand him a piece of paper, but then yanks it out of his reach before he can take it. And then just snuggles into his shoulder.

Hmm. Not sure how to interpret this interaction.

Another flashback. I think? It could also be a flashforward, but the visual effect makes me think this is another memory. Someone (could be the same guy, could be someone else; his face his hidden by a wide-brimmed hat, and his pants are too baggy to know him by his cheeks) is walking down a staircase in yet another crumbling, industrial environment. About halfway down the stairs, he sits down and starts setting up a camping stove.

Man, this warehouse or hangar or whatever he's in is fucking huge.

There's some confusing imagery mashed together now. First, a train arrives at a platform at the base of the staircase. Then, Cheeks is meeting an old guy in a Dr. Evil chair who looks like he's giving him a job interview for black ops or something.

Then a sex scene with Cheeks and the lady from the shower. Then...it looks like she and Dr. Evil might be associated somehow. Then the guy on the stairs eating some beans he warmed up on the stove; I don't think it's Cheeks; we only get a very minimal look at his face, but he looks different. Older too. Then back to the sex scene, only we see from her POV for a second and she has some crazy color-inverted HUD. Then, suddenly, she stops mid-coitus, leans back, and stares up at the ceiling while holding still.

Is she robbit?

She slowly looks back down, but has a blank look in her eyes that doesn't match the sensual smile she still wears. She clutches Cheeks' other set of cheeks, and when the camera shows her hands up close, well, she is definitely robbit.

Seemingly less convincing the further you get from her face. Wonder if he can feel the bare metal frames of her thighs pressing against the sides of that fleshlight duct-taped between them?

Cheeks has bigger worries than that though, because his glitched out partner brings a hand up over his face and holds a sharp fingernail just a millimeter or less above his eyeball.

This scene is done really well. The way the camera frames her trailing hair-strands when she starts glitching in a way that makes them look like claws or tentacles, turning her into a threatening, monstrous figure without actually deforming or art-shifting her. Very effective evocation of menace and something being suddenly Not Right with Cheeks' partner even before she moves her fingernail into position.

Fortunately, before she can skewer his eye, her body seizes up and she rolls over to the side, falling onto the floor while twitching and making weird choking noises. Gee. Hope you had a warranty on her, Cheeks.

Back to mystery man in the oversized postapocalyptic train station. He's finished his beans and is just standing on the staircase, waiting. He's also put on a gas mask since finishing his meal and stowing his stove again. Either there's something in the air, or it just fit the vibe of this environment too well. Then, Cheeks is fully dressed and surrounded by a flashing white void that slowly clears away to leave him standing in a smogy daylit street. The man from the station, recognizable by his clothes and pack, passes by him.

He has his gas mask off now, and we can see his face for a bit. He's older looking than I thought, probably late sixties or early seventies going by the wrinkles.

Wrinkles stalks on away. Cheeks watches him for just a moment before looking at the clock displayed on one of the building-sides. It's 7:15 or so. Probably AM rather than PM, going by the lighting.

Then there's a montage of desolate, decaying cityscape under the white morning sun, accompanied by intermittent guitar riffs. Then the camera finds its way into a half-flooded tunnel, where Cheeks is sitting against the side of the dry walkway and observing a grisly sight.

Maybe not quite as grisly as it first appears, though? We know there are human-shaped robots that can pass for living if you don't look at the joints, so maybe these are just broken robbit parts. And, yep, a closeup reveals metal and rubber under peeled pseudo-skin. Robbit scrapyard. Did Cheeks' wind-up gal pal from last night end up here after her dangerous breakdown? Unknown. As he stares at the wreckage, Cheeks produces a little envelope and pulls some paper money out of it. Is that the thing that robbit girl was teasing him with in the shower room? It looks like it might be, but I'm not sure.

Some time later, this canal tunnel is being searched by a team of men in trenchcoats and gas masks similar to Wrinkles'. Then we're...back in the giant-ass train station again. A little red-haired girl stands on the outskirts of the structure, and looks to be starting her long walk to the open atrium where the stairs lead down to.

Also, she's wearing a mask. Fox or tanuki-ish looking. Okay.

Next we see Dr. Evil laying on the couch, his head propped up on the lap of either the same fleshlight conveyance unit as we saw Cheeks not-quite-enjoying before, or a different one of the same model. He has a phone conversation that's totally incomprehensible due to our only hearing half of it, and then hangs up and lays back, looking smug.

He looks out the window at the tower from the OP, all evil smugness.

Thuggish looking people with semi-concealed weapons standing around in various places, perhaps having received orders by phone from a mystery employer. An engineer in a lab looking at skinless robbit parts. Some more rundown urban scenery, including a heavily trafficked bridge over a river so polluted with red effluent that it looks like Pharaoh just made his first of many very bad decisions. Then, Wrinkles returns to the station in the morning light and meets Tanuki.

Good for one or both of them? I guess? I think?

We see her mask closer up, and it looks more cat than canine. Tanuki is henceforth renamed Kitty.

Time passes. Day turns to night again. And, it looks like I was wrong earlier, Wrinkles isn't the guy who was waiting for Kitty at the station. We see this man take off his gas mask that evening as he and Kitty find a comfortable-ish corner of the ruins, and it's a younger guy with a distinctive mustache. Similar (or same) uniform, so I guess they're both working for the same agency or whatever.

Mustache and Kitty seem comfortable with each other, but they don't talk. No one talks except Dr. Evil into his phone.

Cut to Cheeks rolled up in a blanket and sleeping in an abandoned building. It looks like it might be the same mostly-empty train station place that Mustache and Kitty are hanging out in, the place is certainly big enough for multiple squatters to not run into each other for a while. As he lays curled up under his blanket, he pulls out a little glass trinket and waves it in front of his face.

Not sure what that thing is. Looks kind of like a mezuzah case. Maybe it is one. Maybe he's Jewish. Just in case he is, Cheeks is having his own name changed to Tachat.

Back to Mustache and Kitty. She finally removes her own mask, long after he did. I was expecting a surprise, but her face is normal looking. Well...maybe? Her eyes are kind of wide and blank-looking, a bit like the robbit we met earlier. Redheaded Kitty girl is also a synth? Maybe? I'll see if there's a closeup of her hands at any point, that'll be a clearer tell. After unmasking, she turns and starts walking away, to Mustache's surprise. However, she doesn't get more than a few steps before turning and beckoning him after her.

More ruined industrial scenery, now accompanied by eerie guitar and clapping sounds. Tachat opens his suitcase-thingy, and notices that something appears to be missing. The money? The glass mezuzah case? Not sure.

More spooky music. Tachat starts wandering the place, presumably looking for who stole a thing from him. Mustache follows Kitty, until she leads him to a man with an eyepatch and a shotgun held at the ready. Someone with a male-sounding voice says the words "An uninvited guest...or an invited one?" But I don't know what any of them sound like yet and none of their mouths were shown moving so I don't know who said it about which situation. It could refer to the meeting with the gunman, or to Tachat having his campsite robbed.

Gunman slowly points his gun away from them and lets them pass. Kitty rushes on passed him, and motions for Mustache to follow. Mustache interprets her gesture to mean "Demon, come this way, the way my hand is waving." Erm..."demon?" Okay...

As they proceed, a tremor passes through the ground, shaking dirt and grime loose from the ceiling and pipe networks and scaring fish in the filthy ditch waters. Fish can actually survive in there? That must have taken some evolution. Paying no heed to this, Kitty leads Mustache deeper into the ruins, where he comes face to face withy Wrinkles. Okay, that guy actually is important I guess. Wrinkles looks much less miserable now, and Kitty runs over and stands at his side like she's a niece or granddaughter of his. Mustache bows respectfully.

Wrinkles and Mustache start talking. I was starting to forget that that was a thing people could do!

Wrinkles bids Mustache welcome, and congratulates him on managing to find him, even if he had help from Ran. Kitty is named Ran. That's one name, at least! It seems like they're about to talk business, or recruitment, or something, but then they feel another tremor, prompting Wrinkles to ask Mustache if he came here alone. He insists that he did, but then they hear a gunshot, and people panicking. Then, Ran abruptly has a...premonition? Something like that...of Wrinkles being shot to death, and starts hyperventilating over it. Wrinkles seems to understand what this means, and tells Mustache he picked a bad time to come visit and that he'd best run and hide with them.

We see Tachat take a bullet to the leg. Then, one of the attackers reaches Wrinkles, Ran, and Mustache and shrieks some sort of cultic mantra before opening fire.

Mustache draws a pistol and shoots him before he can hit anyone, fortunately. But meanwhile, elsewhere in the complex, the wounded Tachat has been found and grabbed. The attackers appear to be the same people who we saw standing around with weapons earlier in the episode/day. One of them brings a sword down on Tachat as others hold him in place, and there's a weird artsy bloody shot of him screaming. Dead? Maybe? Seems like it, but I suspect he'll have survived somehow. Anyway, that's the end.


Definitely experimental in a similar sort of way to SEL. I didn't find Tex's visual style to be nearly as evocative or unique as Lain's, but it certainly isn't bad either. It mostly just has a kind of hypnotic quality to it. Combined with the lack of dialogue until the final scene, it...actually made it hard to stay awake while watching this. Not because it was boring, but because it was hypnotic.

So far I guess it's...okay? The minimalist approach to storytelling makes it a little hard for me to get into the characters, since I don't understand much about what they're doing. It also feels like it's struggling to fill its 22 minute runtime without biting the bullet and having people talk. On the other hand, I do like the urban exploration sort of aesthetic, and while I only understand a few bits and pieces of the story it seems like it at least *could* be interesting.

Still, I hope the next episode doesn't lean quite as hard on the artsy zero-talking thing. I feel like this style works best when it gives the audience an occasional reprieve from itself. I think Samurai Jack is a good example of what I'm talking about. A lot of SJ episodes had virtually no talking, and many others had only a couple scenes with some terse dialogue in them, and this was stylistically important to the show...but it also had some talky episodes here and there, and I think those were important in making it work. So, hopefully Tex will do something similar.

Anyway, mostly positive impression so far. Just, not *strongly* positive yet.