Neo Yokio also does a poor job of mixing Japanese culture into a city that’s supposedly a fusion of New York and Tokyo. The Tokyo side rarely shows, and when it does, Neo Yokio awkwardly seems to shove at whatever Japanese thing they’ve got in the viewer’s face. At one point a couple brings out onigiri (rice balls), and the camera focuses just on them as if to say, “hey, Japanese food!” Then when a character uses a Japanese word to describe someone, it’s repeated incessantly, as though Neo Yokio’s team thought that’d help people unfamiliar with the term somehow get it. It feels exploitive.
And though it’s described as a magnificent place, Neo Yokio fails to depict the city as something grand. Scenes that could have been opulent are dull and lack texture. The basketball arena is full but eerily still and flat. A party with the city’s wealthiest is practically empty and the hall is terribly designed. The few action scenes are lacking, too. A lot of that comes from the stunted animation that comes with fewer frames in between key movements. There are a handful of scenes that look nice, but generally, the backgrounds thwart the sometimes fun character design.
While the story at large is all over the place, the characters themselves at least have some redeeming scenes. Kaz traveling to a graveyard to go lay in his own grave was one of my favorite moments early on, and encounters with his rival, Arcangelo, were done well. An episode that skews away from Kaz and his tiring personality was mostly better than the rest because it lets supporting characters steal part of the spotlight. It also focuses on paying homage to a great early 90's anime and gives Kaz a metaphorical slap on the hand for being disrespectful to women. Unfortunately, the sparse good moments in other episodes are often jumbled between boring scenes.
Character animation is on par with the rest of the Neo Yokio; characters are rarely expressive. That leaves Neo Yokio’s impressive cast left with not a lot to work with, but generally, performances are solid and make up for the lacking facial animations. Jude Law as Charles, Kaz’s mecha butler, is unsurprisingly a standout. Jaden Smith does an acceptable job playing the lethargic demon slayer, but when paired with Tavi Gevinson’s Helena St. Tessero, the scenes drag with their more mellow performances.
Neo Yokio goes on to end with an unimpressive twist and alludes to another season. The build-up in the last two episodes feels like actual progression that was needed earlier on. Important characters are introduced annoyingly late, and Kaz starts acting like an adult instead of an emo teen. Once the final set of credits roll, we’re left with what feels like a partially developed season that desperately needed the other half to justify the meandering of earlier episodes.