An Autist Reviews: Atom Eve (Invincible Special Episode)

*This review contains spoilers for Invincible Season One, but not Atom Eve*

*This is a bare-bones/lite review made after only a single viewing. (Hence there not being any replay rating)*

Atom Eve was made to be a weapon, but was spared that fate. Sadly, as her powers manifest and her imperfect life only seems to get messier, the people who made her want to take her back. And they will do anything to get to her, no matter who has to die.

Well this safely broke me. We already knew from season one that Atom Eve’s life hasn’t been great and that her family situation is rough but… look, I’m autistic. I’m different. Hearing her parents talk was like looking into a dark parallel reality of what my life could have been like if things were even a little different. Eve goes through every emotion and hardship possible in this special and it is so painfully and exquisitely shown that I am, still while writing this, on the verge of tears, and to say that something put ME on the verge of tears is a massive statement. The pacing is superb with only the occasional minor slipup, going smoothly through Eve’s life. The childhood friend storyline was kinda rough in how it began and ended, but aside from that and a few other very minor moments the dialogue is better than most of the dialogue in season one easily and some of the best written I've heard in a while. The post-credit scene is adorable but the whole focus on *name redacted* as he seemingly cycles through emotions is just weird and I can’t tell what it was trying to show. The end with Eve and her parents was also kind of weird, but it also hurt a lot, and that’s a running theme with this particular special… and Invincible in general but frankly no episode from season one hurt me the way this did. Not even episode 7 or 8. This wrecked me man. Eve deserves so much better than what she has been given and I am so glad that she’s in a somewhat better spot in the modern day. I’d rate this as an adaptation since I know there’s an Atom Eve comic which I presume this adapts but I’ve not read it and don’t intend to since I want to be animation only because frankly I doubt the comics could live up to this and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard a lot of comic fans say that themselves. Be prepared to be scarred and to go through a lot of emotions while watching this, but know that it is absolutely worth it.

The acting, carrying on from Invincible season one, isn’t perfect at all. Most of the time it’s amazing or perfect, but man there are exceptions. The main bad guy in particular is good but it feels like this is his first time doing voice over work, not sure if that’s the case though. The best friend also drags this rating down as well as some other occasional rough spots. What I can say is that this special really did improve from Invincible season one in that the acting is like 90% amazing or perfect, which is pretty nice to see. Also, the emotional agony these actors must have gone through to pull off these performances hurts to even think about.

So Invincible season one had some pretty damn good animation but I won’t lie, it definitely wasn’t perfect. It had some SERIOUS rough edges, especially in how CGI was utilized. This very much differs from that, especially since I literally don’t think they used CGI at all in this entire special. When I don’t see CG in something made by Mappa I assume it was there and it was so good I didn’t see it because it’s Mappa, but here I honestly think this is entirely 2D, but I could be wrong. If i’m wrong, consider the 3D animation a 10/10. As for the 2D animation, holy shit is this amazing. It is so fucking smooth compared to season one and the depictions of Eve’s powers were so fucking beautiful. You can tell that this was a labor of love and that every frame was painstakingly slaved over. The action is also just perfect. The choreography was fucking insane, featuring fights in so many cool locations and with such interesting uses of Eve’s powers, another major improvement from season one which basically made her a shit green lantern. There is a fight on a highway and it is one of the most tense and intense things I've ever watched. I swear I was wide eyed the entire time, waiting for something to go wrong and nearly screaming every time something nearly did. Also, Atom Eve’s logo is now pretty consistently rendered as an atom symbol over a female symbol rather than an x and no longer looks like it was shoddily slapped on a week before release. I hope this keeps it up and that like here we only see it as an x when it doesn’t really matter while it looks like an atom symbol whenever it does, because watching season one without knowing what the fuck her symbol was until I caught one of the 3 fucking scenes it was properly drawn in was not pleasant. Ranting over, the music made me want to cry almost as much as the damn story, the sounds were truly horrific at times (positive) and dear god I just… I cannot get over how beautiful this special was. If season 2 is even ¾ as good as this, it will blow season one so far out of the water it will look like modern RWBY versus season one RWBY. If you get what I mean, you will understand how big a statement that is.

All in all I don’t know what more to say about this. Most of this review has been me telling you that I almost cried and that my heart feels like it’s been shattered into a million pieces, but honestly what more can I even say. Please watch this beautiful, tense, awesome, and utterly painful and heartbreaking special. If you loved season one, do not miss this, do not pass it up, and if you didn’t see season one, watch it and then watch this, please, for the love of god, do yourself the favor.

Total - 10

Plot - 10

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Story - 10

Pacing - 10

Dialogue - 9

Narration - NR

Exposition - 10

Adaptation - NR

Enjoyment - 10

Twist/s - NR

Resolution/s - 9

Ending/s - 9

Acting - 9

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MC/s - 10

SC/s - 9

BG/s - 9

Narrator/s - NR

Animation/Effects - 10

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Music - 10

Voice Effects - NR

2D Animation - 10

3D Animation - NR

Set Pieces - 10

Designs - 10

Action - 10

Cinematography - 10

Sounds - 10

Replay - NR

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Re-Enjoyment - NR

New Details - NR

-=- If you want to see more of my reviews, some of my craziness, my thoughts on stories I've experienced but not reviewed, and the important libtard things I share around because I'm a filthy liberal snowflake, check out my Instagram page @maxtheautist -=-