The year is 2038, and AI has become increasingly integrated into society. Many activists and religious leaders are strongly against this development, but high school student Akira Himegami doesn’t share their concerns. This is because the girl he has a crush on is prominent AI researcher Towasa Oumagi. She’s not just any girl to him, though. When he lost his parents as a young boy, her father took him in. Even though he was never officially adopted, Towasa vowed to treat him like family. However, as the years have gone by, he seems to have developed feelings for her that go beyond the familial. Because of his commitment to her, he wants to support her career the best he can, which could end up costing him more than he’s anticipating at the moment.

Whenever I see a generic-looking male protagonist, my expectations drop dramatically. When that initial thought is immediately followed by the observation that he’s fantasizing about his (adoptive) sister in his sleep, I’m already more than happy to close the tab. However, I pressed on. Yet by the end of the episode, my pessimistic first impression proved to be warranted. While some (implied) racy content here and there could be enough reason for many to skip out on this anime, I was personally overwhelmed by how boring everything is, from the setting to the plot and characters. The questions raised about AI seem to be very basic and superficial, without really giving us any reason to think further. For the rest of the episode, we mostly followed their little love story, which made me stop and wonder whether the two aren’t androids themselves, given how one-dimensional they appear to be. This sweet love story is supposed to make us care about the drama to follow, which sets us up for the start of the real adventure. (This is episode 0 of the series, after all.) Unfortunately, I think I’ve already seen enough.

Dusk Beyond the End of the World is streaming on HiDIVE.